kindle : Computer Hardware Buyers’ Glossary

Kindle already makes up a whopping 12% of the book sale market of titles also available in Kindle form.

Advantages

• Kindle books cost about $10.00 USD or less each, including airtime. You can also get magazines and newspapers.
• The screen is specially designed to work even in bright sunlight.
• You don’t need a computer. The device is self-contained, much like a cell-phone.
• It would be great for travel. You could pack the equivalent of 200 books in a compact package.
• There are more than 145,000 books, blogs, newspapers and magazines available in kindle format.

Disadvantages

• The Kindle hand-held device itself is about $359.00 USD

  	recommend Amazon⇒kindle
  	asin: B000FI73MA
  Wireless device for reading e-books.
  amazon.co.uk amazon.ca amazon.de amazon.com amazon.fr

• Black & White only
• Kindles are for Americans only.
• Time magazine subscription is text only, no photos, no graphs, to save bandwidth.
• You can also download audiobooks, but not via the air due to their large size. You must download them to a computer over the Internet, then download them to the kindle via a USB cable.
• You can also download your own documents to it for $10.00 USD each.
• It is just a book reader. It has no Blackberry or calculator functions, or user-written software.

Kindle Coverage

The green areas in the above map show where the Kindle works. It needs access to the EVDO high-speed data network, the same one that advanced cell-phones use. They call the service Whispernet. You will note, from the map that Kindles only work in urban USA, not Canada, Europe or anywhere else. You can download 200 books into your Kindle in the USA and take them to read anywhere on the planet. It is just you can’t download more until you get back to the USA in one of the green zones. Unfortunately, this means Kindles are for Americans only!

Outstanding Questions

• Are all photos and illustrations stripped from Kindle books?
• Can the Kindle deliver full motion video?
• Can the Kindle display images?
• What types of user documents can the Kindle display?