The Amazon Kindle is a user-friendly and portable ebook reader. This gadget is able to download blogs, books, newspapers, and magazines. It used to be that heavy-duty reading meant turning thick pages of paper but nowadays, electronic reading is very different. It is not only portable but can also carry your entire library of books and is connected constantly to your bookshop through wireless network.

The Kindle does not require a personal computer to download its media. Furthermore, syncing is smart and automatic. This electronic book reader is equipped with internet capability through 3G technology on which the Amazon Whispernet service is rendered. This feature comes with the purchase of the reader so users don’t have to concern themselves with the wireless service plan, contract, or bills thereafter.

The Amazon Whispernet wireless service is a one-of-a-kind delivery system which enables users to obtain any e-book on its library within a minute. This facility is currently not available outside the US but those who have had a taste of the electronic book reader would know that it’s a matter of time that it becomes so. Users from US can download and sample the beginning pages of books for free before deciding whether to purchase the book or not.

In terms of appearance, this portable reader is as impressive as its capabilities. The crisp black-and-white screen could easily be mistaken for some fine-grade printed paper. The high-tech virtual ink is designed to be just like real ink-on-paper in terms of appearance and readability so much so that there is no backlighting either. This makes it easy to read in bright sunlight and the screen never heats up so you don’t have to limit how long you should be reading on that account.

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There are several brands of handheld ebook reader to choose from in the market. Having that said, don’t bother to look beyond the top of the pack as many of the rest are still in beta. By far the two most proven brands are the Amazon Kindle and Sony PRS. Both have generated running series and are already into their latter models. The consensus though, is Amazon with its Kindle 2 is fast drawing away from competition with Sony’s flagship PRS – 700 a distant second.

The Kindle ebook reader is in great demand. Availability of stock at Amazon is at best intermittent. Waiting time fluctuates and they are not accepting overseas orders although some 3rd-party distributers and retailers do ship abroad with due shipping charges and mark-up. They are also sporadically spotted on eBay and when they are, are surely to be accompanied by price premium.

Electronic book readers are not just a boon to people but they are also environmentally friendly. Imagine the number of trees a top brand like Kindle can be credited with saving from the paper mill for books let alone the total effect of all e book reader brands combined.

Kindle ebooks save money too. Savvy readers would realize that Amazon subsidizes its Kindle book sales and provides free sampling of e-books so you are never mistaken about buying a book. That may be string attached to sell its electronic book reader but the bottom line makes sense at the end of the day. Even for those who do not read often, it is a given. That’s on top of all the other good stuff it brings.

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As for button placement and all this other hoop-la, there is likely a good reason it is the way it and I believe they have tested it alot. I agree, you would think they could put design somthing that is more pleasing such as Apple?). However, this eboom reader is a simple device with a simple purpose. You may not be able to have a touch screen with electronic ink with current technology, you need real estate to hold on to the device without smudging the screen. By the way, they likely want wireless phone connection so folks are more likely to make spur of the moment buying decisions (gotta have it now society). It is not easy for the manufacturers to cram all these features into one small device. Just look at mobile phones, even the iphone and Blackberry aren’t any where near perfect and they have been building those things for sometime. iphone has lousy calendaring and Blackberry has lousy internet interface (both these things have been refined over the years). This will make the competitors busy churning out good products and all this is good for us.

I have a first-generation Kindle and I absolutely love the shit out of it. I will probably not do any upgrade for now since the upgraded feature do not warrant the $400 difference. The improved screen refresh and 16 shades of gray is extremely tempting, though. Maybe if I can pawn my old one off on a friend for $100 or something… we’ll see.

Kindle 1G is more than enough if you just wish to read books with it. Physically ugly, probably. But adequate for most of the time.

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Once we have cheap and affordable ebooks, the medium by which we read will also be the medium by which can write and respond. Reading will eventually become a social act eventually. This is already happening with the blogs and the online likes.

So, I have been assuming that the ebook reader will mimic the form factor of books: display a page, and maybe make a rustling sound as the page is turned slowly. But it is taking so long for ebooks to arrive for the market that they may skip book emulation entirely and become general purpose browsers/composers. In which case, they are more effective for blogs than for books.

In my opinion, format matters a whole bunch more than medium. In this world, format (e.g. hardcover, small-print soft-cover, and magazine, etc.) gives a whole bunch of cues about the type and depth of the content. Photos placed at the right spots will certainly attract attention. The formats also reveal a huge deal about age appropriateness. I personally do not see ebooks catching on until they really have a format to them. Maybe that makes a bunch of different ebook reader niches rather than an e-book monolith.  Who knows.

I feel that for an ebook to be ubiquitous, the content prices must be at an acceptable level. RCA ebook readers have been around for years, but I still do not see people using them on the trains, buses and airplanes. On the other hand, every one of my friend of mine has one or two of those. Why? And that is because we all read Russian. And Russian ebooks are dirt cheap in the first place (if not free).

So, yes, I do hope ebooks jump directly to supporting blog-like content, otherwise we might wait another twenty years before the perfect ebook hardware emerges and gain mass adoption.

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