In the past 4 years, I have gifted 4 Amazon Kindle e-readers to loved ones and have used 2 versions myself (Oasis and Paperwhite). If you ask me what my favorite e-reader or gadget is, straight up, my answer would be the Amazon Kindle e-reader. The Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store.
The Kindle eReader has really enhanced my reading speed and urge to read more books. I can now read in the dark before I sleep (one of my favorite things to do); the kindle device also supports dictionary and Wikipedia look-up functions when highlighting a word in an e-book. other cool features of the Kindle includes:
In his 2007 letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos writes the following on the launch and making of the Amazon Kindle:
NOVEMBER 19, 2007, was a special day. After three years of work, we introduced Amazon Kindle to our customers.
Many of you may already know something of Kindle—we’re fortunate (and grateful) that it has been broadly written and talked about. Briefly, Kindle is a purpose-built reading device with wireless access to more than 110,000 books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers. The wireless connectivity isn’t Wi-Fi—instead it uses the same wireless network as advanced cell phones, which means it works when you’re at home in bed or out and moving around. You can buy a book directly from the device, and the whole book will be downloaded wirelessly, ready for reading, in less than sixty seconds.
There is no “wireless plan,” no yearlong contract you must commit to, and no monthly service fee. It has a paper-like electronic-ink display that’s easy to read even in bright daylight. Folks who see the display for the first time do a double take. It’s thinner and lighter than a paperback and can hold two hundred books. Take a look at the Kindle detail page on Amazon.com to see what customers think—Kindle has already been reviewed more than two thousand times.
I’ll highlight a few of the useful features we built into Kindle that go beyond what you could ever do with a physical book. If you come across a word you don’t recognize, you can look it up easily. You can search your books. Your margin notes and underlinings are stored on the server-side in the “cloud,” where they can’t be lost. Kindle keeps your place in each of the books you’re reading, automatically. If your eyes are tired, you can change the font size. Most important is the seamless, simple ability to find a book and have it in sixty seconds.
Our vision for Kindle is every book ever printed in any language, all available in less than sixty seconds.
Features of the Amazon Kindle eReader.
- Customizable font type, size and margins.
- Users needing accessibility due to impaired vision can use the Kindle Audio adapter for reading ebooks aloud via a text-to-speech system.
- Those with difficulty in reading text may use the Amazon Ember Bold Font for darker text and other fonts may also have bold font versions.
Send-to-Kindle service
Amazon offers an email-based service called “Send-to-Kindle” that allows the user to send HTML pages, Microsoft Word documents, GIF, PNG, and BMP graphics directly to the user’s Kindle library at Amazon.
Format support by device
The fourth and later generation Kindles, Touch, Paperwhite (all generations), Voyage and Oasis (all generations) can display AZW, AZW3, TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, and PRC files natively. HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP are usable through Amazon’s conversion service.
Audio adapter
In May 2016, Amazon released the official Kindle Audio Adapter for reading e-books aloud via a text-to-speech (TTS) system for the blind and visually impaired. This accessibility accessory, initially supported only for the Paperwhite 3 and Oasis, plugs in the USB port and connects to headphones or speakers. Once connected, the reader uses the Voiceview for Kindle feature to navigate the interface and listen to e-books via TTS. This feature only supports e-books, not audiobooks or music.
Kindle service designed to ensure that everywhere you go, no matter what devices you have with you, you can access your reading library and all of your highlights, notes, and bookmarks, all in sync across your Kindle devices and mobile apps.
Whispersync for Voice allows customers to switch seamlessly back and forth between reading a book on their Kindle and listening to the corresponding Audible book on their smart phone.
Kindle Owners’ Lending Library
Kindle owners with Amazon Prime memberships can choose from thousands of books to read for free once a month from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL). KOLL is available for readers on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, and Amazon.co.jp. KOLL is different from the Lending for Kindle feature, which allows readers to lend digital books to their friends and family after buying them on the Amazon.com Kindle Store.
epub
Kindles cannot natively display EPUB files. However, at least two methods allow viewing the content of EPUB formatted content on Kindles:
- specialized software like calibre allows EPUB or some other unsupported files to be converted to one of the supported file formats.
- Kindles can be jailbroken to allow third-party software, such as KOReader which does support EPUB, to be installed.
In my experience of using the Amazon Kindle e-reader, it is one of the best e-readers out there with its seamless integration to the Amazon Bookstore which is the bar far the largest bookstore online.
If you are interested in interested in getting an Amazon Kindle eReader, you get one below:
All the best in your quest to get better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.
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