The Kindle from Amazon becomes the website's most popular item

The Amazon Kindle is the top-selling item for the Internet retailer this holiday season. This electronic device downloads and stores books, magazines and newspapers in less than one minute, allowing its owners to have all their reading material in a small, portable gadget. It also includes a built-in PDF reader. There are two types among the latest generation, the Kindle and the Kindle DX. The difference between the two is their size and information holding capacity. The smaller of the two Kindles has a six-inch display screen and can store up to 1,500 books at once. It weighs just over 10 ounces, and is about as thin as a pencil. The Kindle sells for $259 on Amazon.com, but e-books can be downloaded at a much cheaper price than regular print books. New York Times best-sellers are available for $9.99 each. Kindle DX has a nearly 10-inch screen and can store 3,500 books. It costs $489 on Amazon. But the other features of Kindle DX are nearly the same as the smaller device. Kindle has wireless coverage available worldwide, while the wireless coverage for Kindle DX is limited to the United States. Amazon is beginning to target the college textbook market as well. There are over 360,000 books available on the Kindle, and about one-twelfth of these are educational textbooks, both at the secondary level and higher education level. Generally, books offered on the Kindle are not nearly as costly as print books. At the moment, college students are not likely to find their entire textbook list on the Kindle, but this may change with time and the Kindle still offers a savings over print textbooks. Books can also be delivered by Amazon to other e-book readers than the Kindle. Many books on Kindle sell for less than $10, and some even cost 99 cents. Another advantage of e-books over print is that one doesn't have to worry about torn pages or notes left by a previous owner. In fact, the Kindle allows users to make their own notes and highlight items. The Kindle includes wireless connectivity, which allows books to be downloaded directly to the device. E Ink is a trademarked feature which eliminates glare in sunlight and makes the material on the Kindle seem like it's actually in print. Some may not even require a Kindle to receive electronic books. Amazon has partnered with Apple to create an iPhone application for Kindle. Now, those with an iPhone or iPod Touch can download the app from the iPhone store and read e-books on their phones. For those who do own a Kindle, books can be transferred wirelessly from the device to an iPhone or iPod Touch for free. There are plans to also have Kindle books on BlackBerry and Macintosh computers in the near future. The Kindle program can be downloaded to a Windows PC for free. Text-to-speech allows users to let the Kindle read to them. Users can also adjust the size of the text; yet another advantage over print books. The Kindle comes with a one-year warranty, and an extended two-year warranty can be added for $65 within the first month of its being purchased. There are also a variety of covers for the Kindle, which range in price from less than $20 to over $100.