You’re excused if, somewhere amid the hype from Kindle’s creator, Amazon (the device is “revolutionary”), and the knocks from tech media when Kindle came out last fall (it’s too ambitiously priced at $399, and why no touch screen?), you lost track of the details that make it an innovative step forward in digital reading.
Kindle is not the world’s first portable electronic reading device; its closest competitor, the Sony Reader Digital Book ($299, sony.com), came out in 2006. But by tying Kindle to an easy wireless content-purchasing system and a large content catalog, Amazon is a trailblazer.
The easiest way to fill a Kindle is through Whispernet, Amazon’s wireless delivery system. You choose from more than 110,000 titles in the online store (a new release or bestseller typically runs about ten bucks). Whispernet uses Sprint’s high-speed wireless data network, not Wi-Fi, for downloading your picks directly to the Kindle. That means you don’t have to be in a hotspot to download a book.
Sony’s Reader requires hookup to a PC for downloading. Its library is smaller (20,000-plus titles), and Reader holds about 160 titles to Kindle’s 200.
Reader’s big advantage over Kindle? It’s available. Kindle (amazon.com) has been sold out and slowly filling backlogged orders since the launch.
