Online Observations

Finally, the rest of the world can access the awesome Kindle

The Amazon Kindle book reader has always been in my sights as a must have gadgets. I buy over 50 novels or books each year, and that alone will easily pay off the price of the device in less than a year. Not only that, it will help me because I will reduce the use of paper further in my life (which is being environmentally conscious).

The one thing that has kept me from buying it so far is the fact that it works only inside the United States… or it used to. But that is no longer true. Amazon has now launched an international version of the Kindle – here’s the product page for Kindle International. This is perfect for me. It guarantees connectivity in almost all the places I visit in the world, although the only thing that is free (when it comes to downloading content over the air) is the download of purchased books. That suits me just fine.

I can use the USB connection for translating documents and other reading material by hooking it up to my laptop. I am definitely buying this baby within the next couple of months. This is going to be such a lot of fun.

The only downside is that I will have to give up my love of the physical form of the books. I love books as much for their content as for their feel. For example, I prefer to buy hard cover copies because they are usually printed in better font and on better paper. It makes a noticeable difference in the comfort of reading if you have a nicely printed book. Still, I can’t wait to get my hands on the Kindle.