If you love books then the latest gadget unveiled today by Amazon could be the perfect Christmas gift for you. With wireless connectivity, Amazon Whispernet and weighing 10.3 ounces, Kindle can be used to store 200 titles and hundreds more with an optional SD memory card. Amazon pays for the wireless connectivity for Kindle so there are no monthly wireless bills, data plan, so you can just read your book peacefully.

According to Amazon, Kindle is based on the high-resolution display technology called electronic paper, developed by E-Ink, which means that its sharp black and white screen that is as easy to read as printed paper. The screen works using ink, just like books and newspapers, but displays the ink particles electronically. It reflects light like ordinary paper and uses no backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays such as computer monitors or PDA screens.

With Kindle, Amazon tried to go beyond electronic books and the device has built-in access to The New Oxford American Dictionary and to the world’s most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia, Wikipedia.org, and its collection of over 2,000,000 articles.

The device is priced at $399 and you can buy it online, of course, from Amazon.

The Kindle Store will “feed” your device with more than 90,000 books and Amazon included in its offer newspapers and blogs. Monthly Kindle newspaper subscriptions are $5.99 to $14.99 per month, and Kindle magazines are $1.25 to $3.49 per month.

Kindle includes other useful features. For example if you like taking notes during reading, then you can use the Kindle’s keyboard. Additionally, Kindle automatically bookmarks the last page a customer reads of any content on their Kindle. Kindle has six adjustable font sizes to suit customers’ varying reading preferences.

Amazon claims its device’s battery can last as long as 30 hours and Kindle fully recharges in two hours.

Also Kindle can be used for carrying your personal documents and it supports wireless delivery of unprotected Microsoft Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP files.

Although it seems to be quite a revolutionary device, Kindle was received with skepticism by the media and analysts.
The reasons are the limited success of Sony Reader, a similar device unveiled not so long ago, and the ubiquitous presence of iPhone, a device that it’s believed it will have pretty the ability to download and display e-books.

Because of its price and business model (you must pay for every downloaded book), Kindle seems to be rather an experiment than a mainstream device. 

During the launch, Amazon didn’t comment anything about how many units the company hopes to sell or other financial aspects.