Amazon’s Kindle

We bought the new Amazon Kindle. I was really searching for a great idea for a Mother’s Day gift for my dear, sweet wife. Rachel, as many of you know, is a very avid reader. She loves books! Her favorites include James Patterson and LDS author, Anita Stansfield. Instead of going the very risky route of surprising her with this $400 gift, I opted to include her in the selection and decision process. She was thrilled and the sticker price didn’t really shock her too much.

This device has a lot of great features. One that I find most fascinating is the e-ink screen. This is not a regular LCD display found in iPods or Palm devices. It is an electronically controlled ink-based display. It claims to read just like paper. No glare, no backlight, no heat problems. It would even require a reading light to read in the dark, but is entirely visible in direct sunlight! It can hold up to 200 entire books in the built-in memory. It also has an SD memory card slot for expansion. Plus, your online account can also archive your books. It receives the content through Sprint’s EVDO wireless data network (Whispernet), which is free. This is better than wi-fi since it’s available in most places that cellphones work. You can also subscribe to blogs and national and international newspapers. It can, for a small fee, process and store your own documents.

I can’t wait to get this thing and check it all out. I will provide an update with our thoughts and opinions. It should be here in the next day or so as Amazon.com is currently providing free Two-Day shipping (normally $12). Yes, it’s a bit costly. Yes, it’s a little risky to plunge into something new like this. There are a lot of what-ifs and I am frankly quite proud of Rachel for jumping into this technology with me.

-Timmy