Kindle - Wireless ebook reader from Amazon

Posted on November 19, 2007 at 3:38 pm

Amazon has introduced it’s much awaited electronic book reader, called the Amazon Kindle, today for a hefty $399! That much money may not sound like it’s worth it until you read the specifications for this little gadget.

Firstly, it’s the first and only ebook reader on the market today that is designed to be used without ever having to connect to a computer! Yes that’s right, you can browse and download books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs directly from Amazon’s online store. You can download a book to the Kindle in less than a minute!

It’s kind of like the iTunes store on iPhones, you can directly access the Amazon online store and browse over 90,000 titles for sale, including books from every major publisher. On top of that, the books are selling for cheaper than buying the physical hard cover or paperback versions. For example, a hardcover best-seller will cost anywhere from $13 to $20 on Amazon, but the e-book version will only cost $9.99.

The Kindle has a 6-inch 800×600 display which is black and white and uses the new e-ink technology, 256 MB of memory, scroll wheel, mini USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack, SD slot, and of course EV-DO data. That’s a pretty packed ebook reader! Of course, I can’t wait for a full color one to come out, but I really don’t read very many books today with colorful images in them anyway.

For newspapers and magazines, Amazon is also charging fees. For example, if you want to get the New York Times on your ebook reader, it’ll cost you $13.99 a month, or $9.99 a month for the Wall Street Journal. However, for having the convenience of being able to carry around an entire newspaper (more than one) in such a small device, it will definitely be well worth it for a lot of people.

The unit only weighs about 10.3 ounces and the new e-ink technology makes it almost as readable as text on a piece of paper. It was designed to be comfortable to hold even for long periods of time.

The device can hold up to 200 books plus a lot more if you buy an additional SD memory card. You can also re-download books from Amazon if you buy them and delete them from your Kindle. You cannot share ebooks between Kindles unless everyone is under the same Amazon account.

Also, the device can play MP3 files, so you can listen to music or read a book! Neat! Each device also gets it’s own email address whereby you can send documents to it by just sending an email to your unique Kindle address.

Finally, it does have a web browser on it, but it’s very rudimentary and only displays text. I’m guessing the next versions will have a more full-fledged browser with color display!

Technorati Tags: Amazon kindle, ebook, ebook reader, kindle, read ebooks, ebook device

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5 Responses to “Kindle - Wireless ebook reader from Amazon”

ram said on : November 19th, 2007 at 4:20 pm

Seems to be interesting gadget. Techmeme is full of stories about this

Shashank said on : November 20th, 2007 at 7:51 am

too pricey i would prefer to buy another mobile at that price

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November 25th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
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