The Amazon Kindle Reader

Macintouch Reviews explains it well:

Amazon introduced a new product, called the Kindle. Developed by Amazon itself, the Kindle sets out to change the way we read books, newspapers, weblogs, and more.

In a nutshell, the Kindle is a compact, electronic book with instant wireless access to 115,000 books sold by Amazon, an audiobook player, and a wireless Web browser.

Kindle uses a cellular data network to deliver books, newspapers, magazines and weblogs to you immediately. This network, which Amazon calls "Whispernet", costs nothing to use; Amazon provides data connectivity free of charge as part of Kindle's purchase.

But Kindle isn't limited to books that Amazon sells - it can read books in Mobipocket or text formats, and it also reads Audible.com's protected audiobooks, HTML and Word documents, and several image formats (through Amazon's email-based conversion service).

It includes very limited MP3 music support, as well.

"Today, The Kindle Store
has more than 285,000 books available, plus top newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

"This is just the beginning.

"Our vision is to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds on Kindle.

"We won't stop until we get there.

"Whether you prefer biographies, classics, investment guides, thrillers, or sci-fi, thousands of your favorite books are available, including 109 of 112 books currently found on the New York Times® Best Seller list.

"New York Times Best Sellers and most new releases are $9.99, and you'll find many books for less."

Again according to a Macintouch review:

Kindle is a device designed specifically for reading text.

In contrast to iPhone and iPod Touch, it lacks color or a backlight, has a simplistic Web browser, and, of course, lacks telephone service - but it does have free wireless and a very long battery life.

Kindle is nothing like a PC or Mac. The screen has only four shades of grey; it doesn't play videos; it doesn't run PowerPoint presentations; and it doesn't play games.

It is a reader mostly, and a very good one!

The best thing it doesn't do: It never leaves you with nothing to read! You've always got a good book with you!