Kindle - Book Choices.

Kindle, for the most part, was an innovation to all avid readers. With a range of over 500,000 books available from the Kindle Store, as well as newspapers and magazines. You can also access more than 7,000 blog posts and news feeds. The Kindle Store currently offers 105 out of the 112 books on the New York Times Best Seller List at a significantly reduced cost from the print version. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle. You can also select from a wide range of free classic books including titles such as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, and Treasure Island.

Another huge advantage of getting your books through Kindle is that you no longer need to judge a book by the blurb on the jacket. Kindle allows you to download and read the beginning of books for free. Sample lengths vary from book to book, but it still beats the old way of buying a book. Until now, you had to read the back cover blurb of only about 200 words and decide whether it was worth paying $30.00 or more for the full product. Now you can read the first few pages, most times a complete first chapter, of the actual book before choosing whether or not to pay around $10.00 for the full version. You can be so much more comfortable in your choices and have access immediately through a free, wireless, delivery method.

You could also download and enjoy more than 60,000 audio titles, although these are accessed slightly differently. You need to download them to your PC via your existing internet connection and then transfer them to your kindle using a USB 2.0 cable. You can then listen to them via the speaker in your Kindle, or simply plug in a set of headphones for a more personal and private listening experience. The audio titles include best selling audio books, radio programs, audio newspapers and magazines.

Kindle 2 holds around 1,500 books and also has a text-to-speech feature, so it can effectively read your books, magazines and blogs to you, unless the rights holder of a particular book disable that function.

One important note is that, for Non-US residents, choices and prices do vary a little.

Kindle 2 Versus Kindle DX.

Kindle 2.

Kindle 2 has a 6" diagonal E Ink electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level gray scale. The total size of the unit itself is 8" x 5.3" and is about as thick as a magazine. It weighs in at a little over 10 ounces and, with a storage capacity of approximately 1,500 books on it's 1.4 GB of usable storage, is an excellent way to carry your library with you anywhere you go.

Books are downloadable in under 60 seconds through the 3G Wireless Network, which has global coverage. It has native PDF support and also has a text-to-speech function as standard.

Connectivity is via a HSDPA modem (3G) with a fallback to EDGE/GPRS. It uses Amazon Whispernet to provide wireless coverage via AT&T's 3G high-speed data network in the U.S. and partner networks worldwide.

Charging time is only 4 hours through the included U.S. power adaptor, or you can charge it from your home PC or Macintosh computer via the included USB 2.0 cable. A full charge will allow you to read for a full week with the wireless turned on, or you could turn off the wireless network and read for almost 2 weeks without need for a recharge. This is one of the many improvements from the first version of Kindle, which only gave about 4 days of battery life.

Battery life will vary depending your wireless usage, and low-coverage areas will consume battery power power more quickly.

Kindle DX.

Kindle DX, on the other hand, has all of these features as well as the capacity to store 3,500 books and view them on a 9.7" diagonal E Ink® electronic paper display, 1200 x 824 pixel resolution at 150 ppi. The unit measures 10.4" x 7.2" and is only a whisker thicker than the base version. The DX weighs in a little heavier at just under 19 ounces. Storage has been increased to approximately 3.3GB of usable space.

With the larger display area, Kindle DX is ideal for graphic-rich books, magazines, newspapers and blogs. Kindle DX also includes free built-in access to the world's most exhaustive and up-to-date encyclopedia - Wikipedia.org.

While the rotation mode of the Kindle 2 is manual, Kindle DX has an auto-rotation function, so it will change from portrait to landscape as you turn the device making it easier to view full width maps, graphs, tables, etc.

Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes your last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights and is standard on both versions. This will allow you to read from your iPhone on the ride home, bookmark it, and then pick up where you left off on your Kindle.

Both units come with a quick start guide, included in the box, and a Kindle User's Guide installed on the device.

Both products come with a 1 year limited warranty, but a 2 year extended warranty is available to U.S. customers ( sold separately ).