Amazon Kindle

Have you seen the "IDEA" Cellular advertisement propagating use of mobile phones instead of papers to save trees? Use the word electronic device instead of mobile phones and that exactly is what is offered by Amazon Kindle. Kindle is both a software and hardware platform developed by Amazon.com. Kindle as a software is available for iphone users and for Windows PC users. It is reported that Blackberry and Mac OS is under development. I don't see much utility for this particular application for PC users. When used in smartphones, it should be amazing. Now, let me come to the hardware part of Kindle. Kindle DX, the present hardware is a piece of electronic device (see picture). There were two earlier models of Kindle known as Kindle, Kindle 2 (had separate version for International users). These versions are no longer avaiable.

The functionalities of the Kindle are nothing but exciting. It is primarily an e-book which u can carry. The kindle supports mobile network standards such as 3G, EDGE and GPRS and hence can be used while roaming in more than 100 countries. This is callled international version. Earlier, there was the US only version, which used network standard called EVDO, available only in the US. Now, there is no US only version also. So roaming is seamless in most countries.

The books that you can read using Kindle are called titles which are offered by Amazon.com and also few other third parties. The contents are offered in Amazons proprietary format for Kindle called AZW. Kindle also supports PDF, .MOBI, .tpz and .txt formats. You can also use to play audio in .mp3 format. Kindle offers conversion softwares to convert to .AZW format for better reading. Presently, there are more than 4,00,000 titles offered by Kindle.

Users can bookmark, highlight and look up contents. Once downloaded, the titles are for exclusive usage. Kindle also offers newspapers, magazines and RSS feeds. This makes more interesting. Absolutely paper-abandoned state. Everything in electronic format. Reading in Kindle does not cause the irritation that we generate while working on PCs, laptops and mobile. It is not flashy. It actually gives an impression of reading a book. It can be used as a personal diary too. Really, What an idea sirji.

Just a look at the kindle being used by a co-passenger at the aircraft has caught my imagination. Looking forward to have one. But, cannot have it in the near future though. The cost is USD 259. Not sure about availability in the Indian markets. Or, let me say it this way. Its worth the wait to have a better technology in hand than the present one. Always, technology and marriage lead to one realisation - could have waited little longer before going for it.