The Amazon Kindle is an "e-reader" that was released about a year ago by Amazon.com. While there have been many eBook readers offered by various electronics companies in the past, none have caught on quite like the Kindle has. Since the day I learned about the Kindle I was intrigued. Now that it has been out for months and I have seen the number of sales and the read all of the positive reviews, I feel inclined to push forward with my plan for purchase justification.
The Kindle uses a relatively new display technology referred to as "e ink". The display is not backlit like an LCD so that it is much easier on the eyes. According to all of the reviews, its very cool technology and you can read for hours without getting eye strain like you do when looking at a computer monitor.
There are well over one hundred thousand titles for the Kindle and more being released daily. In addition to Kindle books you can get various newspaper, magazine, and blog subscriptions. You can also send PDFs or Word files to your Kindle - which get converted to display on the Kindle. It has enough built-in memory to store hundreds of books. Additionally, you can add an SD memory chip (up to 2 GB) to increase its capacity to thousands of books.
Perhaps the biggest upside of the Kindle is the free cellular internet access. You can connect anywhere that you would normally get a Sprint cell signal. This allows you to connect to the Amazon bookstore and order books for downloading to the Kindle anywhere, anytime. This service is built into the Kindle and there is no additional monthly fee or anything like that. You also have access to Wikipedia through the Kindle.
Another seemingly neat future of the Kindle is the built in dictionary. Anytime you see a work that you want to look up you simply scroll up to the line that the word is on and press a button and it shows you the definition.
The only two problems I have with it is 1. the price and 2. the availability. Its nearly $400 and its been on backorder since its release. The Kindle site says that it currently takes 11 to 13 weeks to receive your Kindle upon placing an order. Prices on eBay are going for nearly $600 due to the limited supply on Amazon (and presumably needing them before Christmas)
Oh yea, there is apparently a Kindle 2 coming out in the near future. It primarily addresses some of the ergonomic concerns that people had with the Kindle (accidentally pushing the 'turn page' buttons). I hear it will have more built-in memory, but no expansion slot for a memory card (hmmm...).
I guess it might make sense to wait and see what happens with the Kindle 2. Even if it's not substantially better than the Kindle, at a minimum there should be a significant price drop on the original Kindle.
Here's the link to the Kindle if you are interested in reading more (theres a short video too): http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA
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