Reinventing the...book? Really?

For those of you that weren't really doing the Internet thing during it's boom, Amazon.com started out as a bookseller. Obviously this turned out great for them, and they grew into “The World's Largest Marketplace.” But now, Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, is looking to reinvent those things he sold in the first place.The product is called the Kindle, and it's aim is to replace the book. While it's quite the ambitious endeavor, it's surprising the amount considerable thought has gone into how to create a reader gadget that doesn't lose complete sight of why people love books to begin with. One of the first roadblocks people throw up is that the screen resolution is lacking and their eyes get tired. The Kindle mimics a book page's clarity thanks to a technology created just a few years ago called E Ink. The battery lasts up to 30 hours and the device can charge in just two.Readers can also enlarge or decrease the font, to the cheers of the near-sighted everywhere. When the Kindle goes into “sleep” mode, it displays the book covers from classic novels like Jane Austen.The real innovation in Kindle lies in the service aspect it provides. Other digital readers have been created, but none of them created a whole streamlined service the way that Kindle is setting up to have with Amazon. With Kindle, you can get into the Amazon bookstore anywhere, no Wi-fi or hotspot required. Browse, read the famous recommendations on Amazon, and download directly from wherever you are when you see a book you like."The vision is that you should be able to get any book—not just any book in print, but any book that's ever been in print—on this device in less than a minute," says Bezos.For a really thorough run-down on the Kindle and it's full capabilities, check out the Newsweek spread.