Kindle - what's a kindle?
The Kindle
This is the Kindle
The Kindle is a new kind of gadget - What's known as a "portable e-book reader" .
The Kindle has been developed by Amazon.com, and it is a technological marvel that uses the same kind of wireless technology that your mobile phone uses in order to let you browse, buy, download and read not just books, but all kinds text based stuff such as newspapers, blogs, plays, manuals etc.
So what's the big deal? - I can do this on my laptop!
Yes, but does your laptop give you the "Feel" and experience of reading a "Real" paper and ink book? - The Kindle does. Is your laptop as slim as a pencil, allowing you to slip it into a large pocket and take it anywhere with you? - The Kindle is. Can you hold it in one hand whilst holding a Pina Colada in the other? - Could you read it on the beach whilst sunbathing in the brightest sunlight? - No? Thought not. - You can with a Kindle!
The Kindle however allows you to do all this and more. The screen is nothing like a laptop or iphone screen. It's as close to the look of real paper that you can get without looking at real paper. It's not shiny, and it's not backlit. Just like real paper you have to have illumination to read it - You can no more read a kindle in the dark than you could read a book.
Oh and speaking of books, you will find around half a million (and counting) books available for downloading to your Kindle at Amazon.com. You can purchase, download and be reading your book in less than a minute. What's more, your Kindle can store an amazing 3500 books about it's person, all available for you to peruse at a second's notice - All this in a little device that barely weighs more than one thin paperback!
You might like to know that any books that you purchase for your Kindle online, are automatically backed up to your personal library at Amazon.com, and you can re-download any book you have purchased for free, any time you like.
Oh and just in case that isn't enough for you, your Kindle can also store and play mp3 music files, and so can serenade you with soothing music as you read the latest pot-boiler giving you the full relaxing reading experience.
The Kindle is Easy - Peasy to set up.
In fact, there is no setting up to do - How easy is that? That's right No operating system to install, no software to load - No messing about at all. If any bit of kit deserves the title "Plug and play", then it's the Kindle. Take it out of the box, switch it on and away you go! (Oh, don't forget to charge it). Your Amazon.com account will be already set up and running.
The Kindle is Eager to please
Dammit! You've just arrived at your Hotel, you've unpacked and you were just settling down to read the latest "Harry Potter" on your Kindle and you discover that you have left your reading glasses at home - No problem! - Unlike normal books the Kindle allows you to change the font size to whatever you want, so just bump up the text size and get reading!
Hell, if you're too tired to even read, just use Kindle's text-to-speech function and let your Kindle read you to sleep. Aaahhh!
So, what are the downsides?
Not that many to be honest. At the moment, there is no way that you can share books you have bought for your Kindle with anyone else, or sell them on when you have finished with them.
(Having said that, Amazon.com allow up to six Kindles to be registered to the same account. This means that all the kindles in this account can read any of the books purchased by that account, no matter who actually bought them)
No touch screen - But hey, I can live with this.
Check out Kindles Below
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