All I have to say is wow. Pure, unadulterated WOW.

I have been waiting for the iPod of books to reach us, and I truly thought it would be either Sony's Librie, or more likely Apple.

But it turns out to come from who now seems to be the most obvious supplier, but the one you would least suspect, and that's Amazon, the book people. This has seriously given me a level of excitement that I haven't known since I first got an iPod. Only I bet this will be much more valuable to me.

In case you haven't heard, the Kindle (a great name, btw, far superior to Sony's), is a digital and portable book reader.

I thought the form factor was pretty ugly until I saw it in use on their video. I am a convert.

So let's look at the features that have me drooling so far:

1. E-ink/e-paper display:
   Sony first debuted this technology back in '04, and I've been waiting for someone to truly utilize it. It's as crisp as real ink on paper, and there's no glare in sunlight. It also doesn't get hot like normal displays.
2. Hundreds/thousands of books on one machine:
   This will save me not only space in my house, but open up a whole new world to me, as I can take this anywhere and read books that I may be behind on, or ones I've forgotten.
3. Free-ish Wireless access anywhere!
   By using EVDO, Amazon is allowing us users to access the Amazon store from anywhere, and download books at any time. But not only that, it allows us to keep up to date on blogs and RSS from anywhere.
   And all for free. I don't think we can surf the entire web, but for free we can keep up to date on our feeds, shop for new books, access Wikipedia (!!), and download books in under a minute. All with no fees, no charges or plans or any hassle. Thank you Amazon.
4. Define a word from your book:
   Not sure what antidisestablishmentarianism is? Look it up from there.
5. Search your book:
   Okay seriously, this is awesome. How many times have I just known there was a quote, a phrase, or some text in the book, but didn't remember quite where it was.
6. Remember my place:
   This is just hot. You can also bookmark pages as well. You can highlight, clip a a page, or add a note.
   They store the books you buy online, so you always have a free backup in case the Kindle is lost or stolen.
7. Books are cheap:
   $9.95 for new books and best sellers? This will save me hundreds of dollars a year. Unf! Most of them have samples, so you can read a bit before you buy them.

I absolutely have to have one.

There are a few downsides I can percieve, but none I can think that will discourage me from getting one.
Here they are:

1. No color:
   E-ink, at least for now, doesn't have color, but I'm sure that's somewhere down the line. Most of the books I read don't have color anyways, so I'm not stressed about it.
2. A bit pricey:
   At $400 bucks, it's a bit on the pricey side, but no more so than an iPod, on average.
   And so much more versatile. This gives me access to knowledge. I'll take that over access to music any day.
3. No elitism:
   This is a good thing all around, as I see it. People will buy books because they want to read them, not so they can say to the people around them "Aren't I intelligent because I can read Umberto Eco?".
   Also, you can read your Danielle Steele novels without people laughing at you.
4. No nightime reading:
   From what I could see, it doesn't appear that you can read in the dark with the Kindle. It does however adjust to light, so the contrast will vary for whatever is easier on the eyes.

Overall, this looks incredible.

Check out the video on the product page here.