<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stood before me this morning at a relatively low-key event to announce the pretty humble-looking device behind a surely revolutionary technology: the long-anticipated Kindle ebook.  Now remember, Amazon is hardly the first company to pee on this tree. A string of lukewarm receptions and outright failed attempts at creating a bankable, user-friendly electronic book stretches back to the late 1990s, when startup companies such as NuvoMedia launched products such as the Rocket eBook that were too heavy and lacked sufficient battery life to function as anything other than novelties. Sony has made a more recent attempt with its current Reader ebook already in its second generation, but at $300 plus expensive and awkward book downloads, it&amp;#039;s failed to catch fire with much of anyone beyond early adopters (though a new Borders partnership might get a war brewing). So why would Amazon expect to succeed where so many others have foundered? The advance enthusiasm was partly based upon the belief that Amazon simply knows both books and technology, and should naturally know how to bring the two together seamlessly. The Web giant already lets readers electronically peruse the first few pages of many of its books as teasers, and has one of the most established Internet content distribution networks in the world. And while the company has never before attempted a piece of hardware, the Kindle does have some groundbreaking innovations built in. The device, although homely and, frankly, quite pricy at $399, is thin and light at 10.3 ounces. It has a full QWERTY keypad, and can hold 200 books. Its controls look quite logical, with large page-turn buttons and a scroll wheel. It has a black-and-white 6-in. screen with technology from E Ink that is high-resolution and requires no backlighting, which allows for long battery life.  Most revolutionary, however, is the way Kindle gets its books: Rather than a complicated WiFi scenario, which would require finding and connecting to access points to upload books, the Kindle has a built-in EVDO antenna offering high-speed wireless access (the company calls it Amazon Whispernet) over Sprint&amp;#039;s nationwide network. The real jaw-dropper? Unlike conventional cellular data networks, Whispernet requires no monthly fee or contract; the cost is simply built into the device and sales model.  So that must mean higher book costs, right? Nope. Unlike Sony&amp;#039;s sales model, bestseller downloads run at just $9.99. You can store books on the device, and even if you erase them, you still own them over the data cloud, and can redownload them at any time. You can surf the store through the device, and buy directly--book downloads take about a minute. The sales model is a big step forward as one of the first major instances of &amp;quot;data cloud&amp;quot; sales, wherein you own the content but don&amp;#039;t have to store it. Plus, the Kindle can tap into lots of other content, such as magazines (Time, Forbes, Fortune, etc.), newspapers (The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal) and blogs (Instapundit, BoingBoing, Slashdot). Even your own content is readable, as each device comes with an e-mail address for sending documents and PDFs. Plus, every Kindle includes the entire Oxford English Dictionary and has access to Wikipedia, so you can look stuff up on the fly. There are still plenty of questions in my mind about the device that remain unanswered. For instance, the Kindle needs no computer, yet has a USB jack on the bottom. Is it for updates? Memory expansion? Hacking the EVDO modem for free unlimited access? Also, there&amp;#039;s an earphone jack and volume control. Audiobooks? The Kindle&amp;#039;s price is high, but its possibilities are unlimited. Did Amazon just break the electronic periodical market wide open? Possibly, though a lot will have to do with the product&amp;#039;s user-friendliness. And ours is charging up right now, so we&amp;#039;ll have plenty of feedback on that shortly. Stay tuned.  RELATED STORIES \u2022 PHOTOS: Amazon Kindle Unboxed  \u2022 SHOWDOWN: Amazon Kindle vs. Sony Reader  \u2022 EARLIER: Why Print Will Die Slowly   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a2301/4232326/>