The Newest Digital Book Reader: Amazon Gives Us the Kindle

I caught Jeff Bezos on Charlie Rose the other day, and I was so glad I did! He had in his hot little hand the new Kindle book reader, finally being released to the public. I had been looking forward to this for awhile now, and so far, it seems like it's delivering on it's promises. Amazon wanted to give us something new, the future of book reading, without trying to change the book itself. We have been given a true digital book reader allows the reader the ability to get lost within it, just as readers do in a paper book.

The price at release time is around $399.00. That is on the high side, however, as with most technological advances, give it time and the price will lower. For those of us willing to give it a go early in the game, it comes packed with incredible features and usability for the price. For the die hard book fans, the Kindle was created with you in mind. The seemingly impossible task of reinventing the book is a little closer to success in that the Kindle was designed to be very "book like."

The Kindles best feature is that it feels and reads just like a book. When Jeff Bezos was being interviewed by Charlie Rose, he stressed heavily that the Kindle must have an easy to read screen set up as a book page and also have the textural feel of a book. The Kindle is the size of an average hardback book, with design that feels like a book when held in the readers' hands. The screen features a unique technology, E Ink, that is extremely easy to read and resembles a true printed page.

Two other great features are the ability to change font size instantly, and search through the book or venture to the web to search. The Kindle works like your cell phone, and does not require Wi Fi hot spots to connect. This is useful if you want to look up a word or location from the book you are reading. Purchasing a book on the Kindle is a breeze! The Kindle takes you to the Amazon site, where you perform a search for your book. When you find it, click to purchase and it's instantly downloaded. Read any book, anywhere, anytime! Not only can a book be purchased, but a reader can subscribe to newspapers and more. Subscriptions will automatically download anytime there is an update or new issue. You'll get your morning paper delivered, not have to go out in the cold to get it, and it goes anywhere you do! The Kindle works completely independent of your computer, unlike other readers that you connect via USB to download your books.

As an avid reader myself, I love the future possibilities for authors to interact with the readers on a more intimate level. This can be possible using the Kindle. Authors will be able to serialize their work more easily, adding new chapters or novels to a series with the reader getting the automatic updates. Authors could exchange information with readers and edit passages or chapters, allowing the readers to be part of the book writing process. That's exciting!

Of course, there are some problems with the Kindle. Not every book you may want is available, however, according to Jeff Bezos, this problem is being taking of by a massive scanning project already underway. He soon hopes to have every book ever written available on digital format! No small undertaking and a huge vision!

Personally, I cannot wait to get mine!