Christmas has come and gone again, and this time it has left me with an electronic reading device. You might’ve heard of Amazon’s Kindle, a nifty gadget that allows you to wirelessly download and read books. Another way to think of it is “an iPod for books,” which is a pretty accurate description. It can hold over a thousand books, but also has some other nifty features.

First off, it’s sleek and light. I was surprised and impressed when I took it out of the box and plugged it in for its first charge. It sort of reminded me of a data padd from Star Trek. For one glorious moment I was Geordi La Forge, reading the specifications on a Klingon attack cruiser to Captain Picard. Only I wasn’t La Forge at all, I was still Doug, and I was reading the user’s guide. (Which you have access to on the Kindle itself, not surprisingly.) It just has that new tech look to it that gadgetphiles love.

Speaking of that first charge, it took about 2 hours and the battery has yet to dip below half power in two weeks! I keep my wireless connectivity turned off unless I’m shopping for a book or looking something up on the internet, though, so you might see a different measure if you keep the wireless on. And yes, you read that right, you have wireless 3G access to the internet anywhere you go for the best price of all – free!

More >