Amazon says new Kindle to be slimmer, out Feb. 24

NEW YORK -- Amazon.com Inc. is releasing a new, slimmer version of the Kindle, its electronic reading device.

The online retailer's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos told a New York news conference today that the highly anticipated new Kindle will cost $359, same as the previous version.

The new Kindle is about one-third of an inch thick and weighs 10 ounces. It includes a screen with 16 shades of gray, compared with the previous Kindle's four shades. It will be able to read books aloud. And it promises two weeks of reading on one charge of the battery. The Kindle can also charge its battery using a USB connection.

"Today, more than 10% of units we sell are Kindle books," Bezos said. "That's an astonishing act when you consider we've been working on physical book sales for 14 years and Kindle book sales for only 14 months."

Amazon says it will begin shipping the new Kindle Feb. 24. Stephen King has written a book that will be exclusively available on the device.