On the one hand, looking at the features list, the device gets a lot of things right. Since I don’t own and haven’t even held a Kindle, I hesitate to express an opinion about it. (And here are two more that also bring intelligent perspectives.) Probably the two best, most reasoned opinions come from Andy Ihnatko at the Chicago Sun-Times, who likes the Kindle a lot, and John Gruber of Daring Fireball, who hopes and believes it will fail.

There has been a wide range of opinions expressed about the Kindle, from violent dislike to sighs of bliss. You can learn more about the device’s specific features at the Kindle Store.

The Amazon Kindle has a bunch of innovative features that are new in an ebook device, the two most important being an always-on wireless connection to the Internet, and the services provided by the (always connected) Amazon Kindle Store.

That is, an ebook reader can store hundreds of books in a form factor similar to (or smaller than) a single hardback book. An ebook reader is an electronic device that can display the text of books or magazines onscreen, more crisply than a standard computer, and with the benefit of being able to “fit” more books into one package. If you pay much attention to the technology industry or consumer electronics, you may be aware of a new “e-book” reader from, called the Amazon Kindle.

Do kindles play audiobooks