23 Jan 10 The Amazon Kindle – A High Performance Specialist

The "in thing" right now, at least as far as mobile electronic devices are concerned, is gadgets which perform a number of different tasks. A good example of these "fusion" gadgets would be mobile phones - over and above their primary function they can take photos, surf the internet, play mp3 music files and even help you to get to your destination using sat nav.

The iPod may very well be the best example of one of these multi-tasking devices. It's a phone, it plays music, it can be used to surf the net, send e-mails etc. It has a large variety of "Apps" which let users do virtually anything from playing games to working out their share of the bill in a restaurant. There's even a Kindle App now, which allows users to read Kindle books on their iPod.

The Kindle reader could also be categorised as a multi-tasking device. After all, in addition to it's main role as an e-book reader, it can be used as a web browser. When it comes to surfing the net, the Kindle is admittedly a little limited - mainly as a result of its display, which is monochrome and has a relatively slow refresh rate - which makes it unsuitable for video playback.

On the other hand, it is the Kindle's e-ink technology display which makes it so much more pleasant to read on than either the iPod or a computer screen. Due to the fact that it is not back-lit, it produces much less eye strain in use than using a standard LCD type of monitor.

An additional bonus of e-ink displays is the fact that they only need power when the screen is being refreshed (or when the page is being rewritten if you prefer). What this means is that an e-book reader can operate for a long time on a single battery charge. It's perfect for a battery operated mobile device. E-book readers can, quite typically, perform several thousand "page turns" between charges. For most users, that will represent something between four and six weeks of reading.

The very thing that makes e-book readers perfect for reading on - the e-ink technology - is, somewhat ironically, currently limiting their usability in other areas. Most likely, color e-ink displays with suitable refresh rates to allow both web browsing and video playback will be with us in future. At that point, readers like the Kindle will probably become considerably more suitable for multi-tasking activities.

At the moment, e-book readers are very much the smoking hot "must have gadget" - so it seems that there is very definitely a strong demand for gadgets which perform one main task. The caveat to that is, of course, that they need to perform that main task very well.

Discover the Amazon Kindle reader and see how you can save money by downloading cheap - or even free Kindle books - straight from the Amazon website.

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