All the Buzz About a Kindle

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 3:14 pm

kindle For book lovers, it’s easy to read books for long hours at a time and at any point of the day. It’s a great activity especially if you’re waiting for the plane, for someone, or just plain bored. When you are not in your house, reading a book is hard because you have to bring a heavy and bulky book with you.

Because of this, a genius invented something every bookworm would love: a Kindle. This is a portable device that’s linked with Amazon so that you can buy books online and read it anywhere. The size and weight of this is perfect for travel. It’s only one-third of an inch thick and the size is similar to a magazine. At about 10.2 ounces, the Kindle is really amazing to hold and use, even better than buying your own paperback book.

With Kindle, you can subscribe to books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs. You can even listen to music along the way since it’s also capable of audio files. Now, you can read your favorite books along with your favorite songs in one device. This is everything you need to have, since it has an instant Internet access so you can go directly to Amazon.com. What they have there is a collection of more than 115,000 e-books which you can easily buy and read. The wireless internet is free, but the books you want have to be bought online, unless it’s in a public domain.

The Kindle works easily, even children can use one. You can read a page of a book with the gray screen that displays it. There are buttons on both sides so you can turn the page forward or backwards. It has small keyboards so you can type in the titles of books you want to download into it. Unlike some files, the Kindle allows you to transfer files directly from Amazon into the device. What’s more is that you can also access Wikipedia and some dictionaries since we all know those are also important tools when reading books.

The features of this device are really useful though limited at the same time. It doesn’t simply allow you to read books, but also has the tools to bookmark a page, highlight words, and look up the dictionary. You don’t even have to worry about losing the last page you read because you were in a hurry last time and forgot about it. The Kindle automatically remembers this small detail for you. It also has a USB connection so in case you need to transfer a file to your computer, it’s easily possible.
There are limitations with the Kindle’s features too. Unlike regular PCs and iPhones, you can’t chat with other people, play games, use social networks, etc. It mainly concentrates on being an e-book to users. Since it’s hassle-free, people buy and continue to love it.

Probably the worst downside of a Kindle is its price. There is a new version of Kindle called Kindle 2 with upgrades. It has a longer battery life, bigger memory, and turns the page faster. But the tag price: $359. This is a huge sum for many people, especially when they know that the only use of a Kindle is for reading books. Add to that the fact that you aren’t exempt from having to pay for a book. An e-book listed on the NY bestseller costs around $10, although some less popular books can reach below $2. This is cheaper than buying a paperback, but don’t forget about the $359 you used to buy the Kindle.

That is the price a bookworm has to pay in order to read anywhere. If you continue to buy e-books here instead of buying it in paperback, you will soon save money. Plus, you saved a lot of effort on your part. You can read in broad daylight and in the dark of night. You can read in any position you like because your arms won’t easily get tired, and you will save much space in your house. Hundreds of books are available in one magazine-sized device, instead of having a library full of books that will just collect dust.

Newer and newer technologies are coming up each year. They all have the same objective, which is to alleviate problems of people, both simple and complex. The Kindle is yet another example of a great invention that focuses on those not usually noticed: bookworms.

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