What is a Kindle?
A Whole New Era of Reading Books

What is a Kindle? The Amazon Kindle refers to a combined software and hardware platform designed to display digital books and other kinds of digital media. The Kindle was created by Amazon.com’s subsidiary Lab126 and is sold on Amazon.com.

The platform is currently used in three devices, the Kindle, the Kindle 2, and the Kindle DX, with the original Kindle device first introduced back in 2007 and the latest device introduced in the second quarter of 2009.

Preceded by a long wait and much hype, and met with a warm welcome similar to the phenomenal success of the iPod MP3 players, the Kindle ebook readers from Amazon certainly turned the book reading world around. Up to some degree, the name “Kindle” has already become practically synonymous to the term “ebook readers.” There’s Kindle, and then there are other e book readers.

But why all the hype anyway? What’s so special about this unique product from Amazon? And ultimately, the question is, what is a Kindle?

E-Ink Book-Like Reading Display

The special and highly innovative book-like display of the Kindle was one of the many factors that determined what is a Kindle. The E-ink display technology makes you feel like you are reading from an actual book. Aside from the ink-like text, you also get a screen that does not cause eye glare and protects your eyes from strain.

The original Kindle versions feature a 6-inch screen for a handy but comfortable reading device, but the Kindle DX recently came out with its larger screen size. The increase in screen size was to cater to the needs of Kindle fans who want to display newspapers and textbooks on their Kindle devices.

Whispernet Wireless Ebook Shopping

Another unique and exclusive factor that determines what is a Kindle is the 3G Whispernet wireless technology installed in every unit of the Kindle, regardless of what model you’re using. The Whispernet service uses Sprint EVDO for the United States and AT&T for international use, so that Kindle users worldwide can access the Kindle store using their devices and download books directly from the Internet into their Kindle devices.

The direct download became successful primarily because of Amazon’s extensive collection of titles, which go beyond 360,000, to offer users all the ebooks they can possibly need. The wireless access is available anywhere with no additional fees necessary since Amazon shoulders all the costs.

Other Ways to Enjoy Kindle

The Kindle does not just refer to the device that you buy from Amazon. It refers more specifically to the program that powers that device. Currently, it is now also made available in a form supported by iPhone. This means iPhone users can also have Kindle on their Apple phones.

The Kindle for iPhone app is now available in the App Store for iPhone. Aside from that, Amazon has also introduced a Kindle for PC software so you can also enjoy Kindle-format books on your PC.

More from Kindle

But what is a Kindle if you can’t enjoy the books you like on your device? Kindle offers a seamless digital book reading solution for the entire market. It supports various file formats, primarily MOBI, Amazon’s AZW proprietary format, and PDF files.

On top of all these, more upgrades and updates are still expected from Kindle, the way it came out with annotation features and Text to Speech feature to make the answer to “what’s a Kindle” an even extensive description.

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