Kindle 3 for the end of summer?

Although Bezos said don't expect color any time soon, according to Bloomberg Newsweek we could be getting a new Kindle as early as August. The report report states that the Kindle will have:

 - faster page turn responses
 - better page clarity, making it even more like reading a paperbook
 - an even thinner profile

Thinner? Does it need to be thinner? It's already very slender and a good deal lighter than the iPad (K2 is 10 ounces, DX is 19 ounces, iPad is 24 ounces)

I like to keep my Kindle in a cover (see previous post). Not only does it look good, it has saved my Kindle a few times when I have nearly sat on it, dropped it or crushed it down the size of the sofa!  My son has an iPod.... it's so darn small I feel that if I touch it then I'll snap the thing.  I hope the new Kindle isn't so thin that we're scared to take it out of the house. The brilliant thing about Kindle's lightness and versatility is being able to read in line at the supermarket, sitting on a beach or tucked up in bed. A smaller one might make me feel it was just too vulnerable.

I am guessing there will be even more to the new Kindle, unless it's just going to be an interim device.... a version 2.7 or something.  Frankly, I am still super excited about the upcoming 2.5 (come on, already!) and I am thrilled that Amazon are letting up have this update for free!  Nearly every other hardware I have requires payment for software feature updates, or even to buy a new piece of hardware altogether. My GPS system, for example, charges a small fortune whenever I want to buy updated maps showing new roads and towns.

Amazon giving it to us for free might simply be to quash restlessness: for the price of it, there are some features that we should have had all along (like better organization methods), and to reduce defection to the iPad. Great customer service can be a priceless quality.

One thing that a new Kindle might mean, whether it is a version 2.7 or an even better version 3, is a lowering price for v2 (if Kindle 2 isn't discontinued). Come October, I will probably be buyng a Kindle for my daughter and will decide whether to buy a new one for her, or a new one for me and let her have my old one.