Amazon Kindle Does It All -- Almost

Gary Krakow

Source: Amazon.com

Amazon's (AMZN Quote - Cramer on AMZN - Stock Picks) Kindle electronic book reader is in great demand. At least that's what it says on Amazon.com. It's been "temporarily out of stock" almost from the moment it was released.

Amazon won't tell me exactly how many it has sold to date.

The Kindle ($400) is the second electronic-paper display book reader to hit the market. Sony's(SNE Quote - Cramer on SNE - Stock Picks) Reader ($300) was introduced in 2006.

The big difference between the two, aside from the Kindle including a protective cover, is connectivity. On the Sony, you download electronic books to a computer and then transfer them to the Reader.

Kindle Buyers Should Wait for the Sequel

The Kindle is completely wireless. You connect to the Amazon's Kindle Store free via Kindle's built-in Whispernet EVDO wireless data network receiver. EVDO is the medium-speed data service usually linked to GSM cellphone systems (T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom(DT Quote - Cramer on DT - Stock Picks), or AT&T(T Quote - Cramer on T - Stock Picks) in the U.S.). It's available nearly everywhere on the planet. If you're out of wireless coverage you can download books to your PC and transfer via USB cable to your Kindle.

The device is lighter and thinner than a typical paperback. It weighs only 10.3 ounces. It can hold more than 200 titles (even more with an optional SD memory card). The internal battery takes two hours to fully recharge -- and each charge should suffice for two days of reading.

Buying a book for the Kindle is simple: Choose the title -- your Amazon.com-registered credit card is billed ($10 for most books) and it is automatically delivered to your device, wirelessly, in less than one minute.

More than 90,000 books are available for downloading, including a huge number of the current New York Times best-sellers. Amazon lets you download a book's first chapter for a trial before you buy.

You can also subscribe to newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Le Monde and top magazines including Time, Atlantic Monthly, Fortune and Forbes -- all auto-delivered wirelessly. Prices range from $13.95 per month, or 75 cents per day, for The New York Times to $1.49 per month, or 49 cents an issue, for Time.

More than 250 top blogs are also available from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, The Onion and Huffington Post -- all updated wirelessly throughout the day.

Wireless access to Wikipedia is free. You can also email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, BMP, .PNG) to the Kindle for viewing.

During my testing, I was very impressed with what was included inside a Kindle -- and what it can do.

I downloaded a few book samples to see what it was like to read a book on an electronic device. The screen is pretty good in both subdued light and also bright sunlight. All in all the words were easy to see on the screen. Reading each page was pretty straightforward.

It was moving from page to page that annoyed me. Kindle has a scroll wheel that lets you navigate up and down each page. But, when you get to the end of that page you can't scroll to the next page. You need to press the "Next Page" button on either side of the screen to keep reading. I know that's how you read a regular book -- but because this is an electronic device you should be able to just keep reading by scrolling.

I also missed having an actual book in my hands. There's something to be said for holding a large hunk of paper. I know it's old-fashioned, but maybe I'm an old-fashioned kinda guy.

But, here's my big question for Amazon: How many people will be willing to plunk down $400 for an electronic book reader? For that matter, how many people are willing to plunk down $400 for books in any format?

I'm guessing that in these days of iPod-based entertainment, reading books will continue to have limited appeal.

But, if I'm wrong, Amazon's Kindle will be a big success and continue to sell out quickly. Personally, I'll wait for a Kindle device that will be able to stream my favorite HDTV shows in full high-fidelity surround sound -- as well as allow me to read a book electronically.

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