Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Geek of the Week*: Kindle

After I get my fabulous new career going, and my husband is finally, "living the life to which he would like to become accustomed," I would love one of these:


It's the new Amazon Kindle, and boy is it pretty snazzy. It's also pricey.

Essentially, it's a portable reading device, with a Blackberry-like interface, a fancy new screen that reads just like paper (i.e. you can read in direct sunlight), and cellular wireless connectivity.

You purchase virtual books (about $9.99 for NY Times bestsellers) from Amazon, and they are sent to you wire-lessly in about one minute. Amazon also stores your purchases, protecting you from loss should your Kindle die.

Not enough? You also receive instant RSS feeds of top blogs, newspapers, and can subscribe to magazines via Kindle.

Amazon, are you listening? I have a cool idea! Partner with public libraries to make available all Kindle titles for rent ($1.00?) from your local public library. When the designated rental period is up, the file is removed from your Kindle file. Amazon gets a tax write-off, and libraries get a bit of needed revenue.

You can thank me later, Amazon. Or you can thank me now by sending me one of those fancy devices!

*Geek of the Week is an hommage to my high school days. I'll be featuring a new cool techie thing every week, now that Guy Kawasaki is my new BFF (second to you Heather!).

3 comments:

Mumsy said...

Ugh. I'm totally in the last century when it comes to technology. I only just recently found out what a blackberry is exactly. (Don't laugh!)

At least I can e-mail and blog. :)

femputer said...

This would be great for recreational reading. For anything else I need to write extensive commentaries in all the margins. lol

Mrs.Kwitty said...

You are a flippin' genius Lauren! Really.

Aren't those Kindle's cool...I was over at Amazon checking them out last week too, and thinking it's too bad they cost so much.

Smiles, Karen