Our review of the Kindle, Amazon's eBook reader, noted a wide variety of quirks and limitations that the device suffers from. Although these problems didn't prevent the Kindle from performing its primary function—accessing and reading books—they certainly didn't make it a completely satisfying experience. Despite these quirks and a relatively high price, Amazon has frequently sold out its entire stock of the device, though the significance of this feat is unclear, given Amazon's unwillingness to share actual sales figures.

A new batch of Kindles recently reappeared at Amazon, just in time for the company's quarterly results announcement tomorrow, and the company claims same-day shipping for the devices. Although that's too late to help the quarterly bottom line, it is timed nicely to feed into any product announcements that Amazon might make to coincide with its financial conference call. Ars has heard that Amazon may be on the verge of announcing a Kindle 2.0, described by a source aware of the launch plans as "the device they wanted to release in the first place." Let's take a look at what that might entail.

A key question is whether the update will be software, hardware, or both. Given that Amazon has gone through extended periods without any Kindles available, a major revamp of the hardware seems unlikely. If new hardware were in the works for the short term, it makes little sense to make a new batch of the current version available today. The new stock is almost certainly not new hardware, as shipping times will put it in the hands of consumers prior to any announcement Amazon makes tomorrow.

So while there is a small chance that Amazon may have fixed some of the minor hardware annoyances, such as the flaky charge indicator, the general hardware configuration appears to be here for a while. The fact that they're still selling the current version also suggests that they have committed to this design in all its white-plastic glory. In the long term, there's still the option of moving some of the awkwardly-placed controls and of improving the E Ink screen (color and improved contrast or faster response times, seem inevitable). But Amazon isn't the only one using these screens so, unless they've managed an Apple-style control over their supplier's product announcements, we'll know when this upgrade is coming well in advance.

All of this leaves changes to the software as the most likely candidates for 2.0 improvements. Realistically, we could only infer what Amazon considered to an acceptable interface based on what was released as 1.0. If this doesn't reflect what they "wanted to release in the first place," then all bets on what may change are off.

Still, it's not too difficult to go through the list of complaints we voiced in our review and figure out what's likely to be easiest to fix. We didn't give blog and newspaper content high marks because of the awkward way in which the left-to-right reading model of the Kindle meshed with constantly refreshed news material. Since Amazon controls the whole widget here—they format the content on their servers and control its display on the Kindle—improvements should be relatively painless. Plus, Amazon has a number of good RSS readers to act as their models for managing this content. They also may have the incentive of competition; a European cell phone network has started testing a dedicated 3G newsreading device.

The stripped-down music player that appeared in the experimental software would be simple to improve and move into the production category; again, decent music software provides Amazon with plenty of ideas on what to do. Expect the experimental browser to stay where it is, though. With Amazon footing the bill for Kindle users' Internet browsing and dynamic web content not playing nice with the E Ink screen refreshes, the Kindle seems destined to be a web device of last resort indefinitely.

What the Kindle needs most, however, is a coherent vision for its user interface. The progress for user-driven activities is displayed in different locations, sometimes using different graphics, and is frequently absent entirely. The scrolling LCD to the right of the E Ink screen allows simple dynamic displays, but it's used inconsistently. A top-to-bottom rethinking of how the device keeps its users engaged and informed would require a lot of work, but such a usability reboot is probably the most significant thing that Amazon could bring to a Kindle 2.0.