$279
Kindle International Edition
If you love books and are tired of waiting for them to land in your bookshop, Kindle is your friend
arindam arindam 21 Oct, 2009
If you love books and are tired of waiting for them to land in your bookshop, Kindle is your friend
Some of the early adopters got their Kindles through their relatives abroad or picked one up on a trip abroad, but its wireless would not work in India. The only way to get the ebooks was to synchronise it with your PC. As Kindle became the hottest selling ebook reader last year, people started complaining about it not being available outside the US. Others complained that its black-and-white screen was a turn off. But its screen is very much like paper, and its e-ink screen or e-paper is much more comfortable to read as compared to coloured LCD screens. And, with over 350,000 books, access to online newspapers, blogs and magazines, this is a device that’ll keep up with your reading—however, no Indian newspaper is currently available on Kindle. An international edition was finally launched, with a GSM Sim card and a bundled data package so you won’t need to pay extra for mobile connectivity. Yes, even in India (as its site claims). Though it has 3G built in, the Indian version currently works only on GPRS, thus book downloads may take a long time. I am waiting for my piece to tell you the truth about it. At just over 1/3rd of an inch thickness and 300 gram, it has the feel of a book. The Kindle 2 can hold up to 1,500 books, and has a battery life of two to ten days. It also has a ‘read to me’ feature. The international version is 8 x5.3 x 0.36 inch in size.
More Columns
India in Today's World Krishnan Srinivasan
The Doubting Believer Madhulika Liddle
Failing History Shaan Kashyap