Amazon Kindle

The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media.The Kindle hardware devices use an E Ink electronic paper display that shows up to 16 shades of gray, minimizes power use and simulates reading on paper.

Several hardware devices support this platform, including a main "Kindle" line and a parallel "Kindle DX" line. The most recent Kindle device is the third incarnation of the main line, officially named "Kindle", but usually referred to as "Kindle ". Kindle 3 was released on August 27, 2010. User reports indicate that the new display on the Kindle 3, with E Ink Pearl technology, is noticeably superior to that of prior generations.

The Kindle DX line features larger screens than the main Kindle line and is marketed as more suitable for displaying newspaper and textbook content. Amazon has also introduced Kindle software for use on various devices and platforms, including Microsoft Windows, iOS, BlackBerry, Mac OS X (10.5 or later, intel processor only), Android and Windows Phone 7.

Content for the Kindle can be purchased online and downloaded wirelessly in some countries, using either standard Wi-Fi or Amazon's 3G "Whispernet" network.Whispernet is accessible without any monthly fee or wireless subscription,although fees can be incurred for the delivery of periodicals and other content when roaming internationally beyond the customer's home country. Through a service called "Whispersync", customers can synchronize reading progress, bookmarks and other information across Kindle hardware devices and other mobile devices.

In the last three months of 2010, Amazon announced that in the United States, their e-book sales had surpassed sales of paperback books for the first time.



Overview

Content from Amazon and some other content providers is primarily encoded in Amazon's proprietary Kindle format (AZW). It is also possible to load content in various formats from a computer by simply transferring it to the Kindle via USB (for free) or by emailing it to a registered email address provided by Amazon (for a fee via 3G, or free via Wi-Fi); the email service can convert a number of document formats to Amazon's AZW format and then transmit the result to the associated Kindle over Whispernet. In addition to published content such as books and periodicals, Kindle users can also access Wikipedia, free of charge, via either Wi-Fi or 3G.
The New Yorker subscribed on a Kindle 3

The Kindle's terms of use forbid transferring Amazon e-books to another user or a different type of device. However, Amazon announced on December 30, 2010 that lending books on Kindles was allowed. Users can select reading material using the Kindle itself or through a computer at the Amazon Kindle store and can download content through the Kindle Store, which upon the initial launch of the Kindle had more than 88,000 digital titles available for download. This number continued steadily increasing to more than 275,000 by late 2008, and exceeded 500,000 in the spring of 2010. As of July 4, 2011, there were more than 765,000 books available for download, about 36,000 of them in German language.In late 2007, new releases and New York Times best sellers were being offered for approximately US$11, with first chapters of many books offered as free samples. Many titles, including some classics, are offered free of charge or at a low price, which has been stated to relate to the cost of adapting the book to the Kindle format. Magazines, newspapers and blogs via RSS are provided by Amazon per a monthly subscription fee or a free trial period. Newspaper subscriptions cost from US$1.99 to $27.99 per month; magazines charge between $1.25 and $10.99 per month, and blogs charge from $0.99 to $1.99 per month.

International users of Kindle pay different prices for books depending on their registered country. For U.S. customers traveling abroad, Amazon originally charged a $1.99 fee to download books over 3G while overseas. That charge was quietly dropped in May 2010.[citation needed] Fees remain for wireless delivery of periodical subscriptions and personal documents.

In addition to the Kindle store, paid content for the Kindle can be purchased from various independent sources such as Fictionwise, Mobipocket and Webscriptions. Public domain titles are also obtainable for the Kindle via content providers such as Project Gutenberg and World Public Library. A survey has revealed that the Kindle store has more than twice as much paid content as its nearest competitor, Barnes and Noble.[66]

The device is sold with electronic editions of its owner's manual and the New Oxford American Dictionary (UK version includes the Oxford Dictionary of English). Users are able to purchase different dictionaries from the Kindle store as specified in the included manual.The Kindle also contains several free experimental features including a basic web browser.Users can also play music from MP3 files in the background in the order they were added to the Kindle. Operating system updates are designed to be received wirelessly and installed automatically during a period in sleep mode in which wireless is turned on

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