The first photos of the next generation of Amazon's Kindle digital reader were confirmed yesterday--including that October photo from Boy Genius Report.

According to that site, Kindle 2 will be charged with a USB cable, rather than the current generation's special charger. Experts speculate that the new machines will be available "early next quarter," along with a student version which will arrive next year as well. (Via.)

In related Kindle news, the Nieman Journalism Lab reports that the NY Times has 10,000 subscribers paying almost 14 bucks a month to read the paper on the Kindle--estimating these subscriptions gross $1.68 million a year. In the end, they don't believe the current incarnation of the Kindle can succeed. What do you think?

"I think for the Kindle to reach mainstream success, it'll have to shift its focus from being an ebook reader with a junky mobile web browser to being a great mobile web browser with an ebook reader attached. It'll have to become something more like the iPhone with a bigger screen and better battery life," wrote the Journalism Lab. (Via.)