~ WHAT IS A KINDLE AND WHY DID I WANT ONE? ~
A Kindle is a small device by Amazon that can store hundreds of books which makes reading more convenient and easier. The kindle is slim, which means it fits perfectly into a pocket and you can access different books by downloading them and adding them to your kindle. The kindle will always remember where you left off, so you can start reading your chosen book easily again. There are lots of different versions of these types of readers; some are called e-book readers and other different names. Most of the basic one's do the same thing which is to store books in which you can read in your own time. My mum recently purchased one of these from WhSmith (their own version) and it comes in various different colours with cases to protect the product. Kindle are the most popular, well-known brand and they now have a total of 4 different kindles, each is slightly different. These of course all vary in price with the most expensive one costing £149. I have to get the train to and from work every-day and although the train journey is only 10-15mins I like to read a book for the journey. I also like to read books when I have spare time at home and when I'm on holiday as well. I normally buy books, but I find that some of these can be expensive and then I end up with a lot of books that I'll never read again, which I do normally take to the charity shop eventually. I have seen a lot of people on my train with kindles, and they look a lot more convenient than a book, plus they look very light-weight and you don't have to worry about turning pages and folding the corner of pages over to remember where you left off. The thought of being able to download books to my own kindle and having all the books in one place seemed a lot more organised to me and I won't have read books sitting round the house for months. I liked the fact that the kindle is also very slim, a lot slimmer than most books and is also very light-weight as well. I recently had my birthday at the end of May and my intention was to put my birthday money towards a kindle or new digital camera. My parents decided to buy me the Kindle touch for my birthday which I was really pleased about, and I couldn't wait to try it out.

~ THE KINDLE TOUCH ~
The Kindle touch is the 2nd kindle that has been released from Amazon. Unlike the standard Kindle which retails for approximately £89, the kindle touch has a touch screen and a longer battery life of 2 months. The kindle touch holds up to 3,000 books or 4GB and comes in 7 different languages including French, Spanish, German, English, Italian, Brazilian and Portuguese. The kindle touch has a multi touch, touch screen which makes reading easier with just one hand. The kindle has an E ink pearl screen which means you can read the kindle even in bright sunlight. With the kindle touch you can look up characters, or words using the dictionary or you can look up interesting phrases by using the touch screen. The kindle touch weighs 213grams, and is slightly heavier than the kindle, how-ever it's still slim and it doesn't require a computer to download books. The Kindle touch only comes in one colour which is a dark silver colour, I don't think they will release the kindle touch is any other colours as you can buy cases and covers for the Kindle products. With the Kindle touch you get over one million free books and lower book prices than what they would be if buying a book. The Kindle has built in Wi-Fi which enables you to download books within approximately 60 seconds. With the Kindle there is no need to swipe to turn the pages, you just need to tap the Kindle and the pages will turn. The Kindle is easy to use straight from the box and requires no setup, no software to install and no computer required to download content. As well as a touch-screen it also has audio, which is perfect for downloading audiobooks.

Technical Details:
* Display - 6" diagonal electronic paper display, optimised with proprietary waveform and font technology, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16 level grey scale.
* Size - 172mm x 120mm x 10.1mm
* Weight - 213 grams
* Storage - Up to 3,000 books or 4GB internal (approximately 3GB available for user content).
* System Requirements - None, because it's wireless.
* Cloud Storage - Free cloud storage for all Amazon content
* Battery Life - A single charge lasts up to 2 months with wireless off based upon half hour of daily reading time. If you keep wireless on it will last up to 3 weeks. Battery life is based on wireless usage.
* Charge Time - Fully charges in approximately 4.5 hours via the USB cable provided. (UK power adaptor sold separately)
* Wi-Fi Connectivity - Supports public and private Wi-Fi networks or hotspots that use the 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n standard with support for WEP, WPA and WPA2 security using password authentication or Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS); Supports WPA and WPA2 secured networks using 802.1X authentication methods using password authentication; does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks.
* USB Port - USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)
* Content Formats Supported - Kindle (AZW), Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), TXT, PDF, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.
* Documentation - Quick Start Guide (included in box) [PDF]; Kindle User's Guide (pre-installed on device) [PDF].
* Warranty & Service - Kindle is sold with a worldwide limited warranty of one year provided by the manufacturer. If you are a consumer, the limited warranty is in addition to your consumer rights, and does not jeopardise these rights in any way. This means you may still have additional rights at law even after the limited warranty has expired (for further information on your consumer rights, click here). Optional 3-year Extended Warranty available for UK customers sold separately. Use of Kindle is subject to the Kindle License Agreement and Terms of Use.
* Included In The Box -Kindle wireless reader, USB 2.0 cable & Quick start guide.

~ PRICE/AVALIABILITY ~
This is available to buy from Amazon and Argos for £109.

~ USING THE KINDLE FOR THE FIRST TIME ~
The kindle came in very basic cardboard packaging. I opened the box and inside was another box in which the lid opened. The kindle was sitting nicely in the middle of the box with 2 leaflets tucked into a slot in the lid. The kindle is a very dark silver colour and had a plastic screen protector on the screen. When I took the kindle out underneath was a long white USB cable, which is sued to charge your Kindle. The cable is quite long which is convenient. The had a really smooth texture and was light to hold, on the front at the top it has kindle on and at the bottom just underneath the screen is a button which consists of 4 thin black lines. Underneath the kindle you can see where the USB cables plugs in and there is space for plugging in headphones and there is also a button with a small light next to it. The 2 small leaflets which are included just tell you how to charge the Kindle and it also states that it comes with 1 year warranty. The cable slots nicely into the bottom of the Kindle and then I plugged the other end into my laptop. There is an amber light on the bottom of the kindle which tells you that it's charging. There is a small amount on information which appeared on the screen to tell me that I could still use the Kindle when it's on charge. I left the Kindle for a few hours to charge up fully. When I came back to it the light was green, which meant that the Kindle was now fully charged. I pressed the button on the bottom to switch it on and it came to life. When you switch this on for the first time there is lots to read through, I read through some of it but skipped most of it by tapping the Kindle screen to turn the page.

On the main menu you can click on the shopping trolley to look for books, this will then prompt you to choose a Wi-Fi connection and enter a password if necessary. Once this has been done, there will be no need to re-enter the password again. As soon as you have connected you are ready to browse the store for books. As well as books you can also look for magazines, audiobooks and newspapers. You can browse all these things by category and you can use the search at the top of the screen to type in the name or author of a book that you are looking for. The touch screen does take some getting used to and if you tap the screen really quickly it doesn't seem to pick it up so you need to tap the screen slowly. If you want to search for a book a keypad will appear at the bottom of the screen, where you can then type in a book or author. The keys on the keypad are quite small, how-ever you can use your finger or nail to input the letter or numbers. The Kindle is very quick to find books that you have searched for and once it has found it, it will tell you how much it is to buy on the kindle and how much you save, rather than buying it in a paperback format. I haven't yet purchased a book using wireless, so I can't comment any further on this. To turn the Kindle off simply hold the button on the bottom of the Kindle for a second and the green light will disappear and a picture will appear on the screen, the picture varies and can include pens, lettered wooden blocks and other things. Please note that the pictures always appear in Black & White. To switch on the Kindle again, simply press and hold the button for another second until the green light comes back on.

~ REGISTERING MY KINDLE/PURCHASING BOOKS ~
I already have an amazon account, as I have purchased things from here in the past. I actually read on amazon how to register the product and it was so much easier than I thought. When you switch on your Kindle, it will come to the main screen on the right there is a button which says menu, if you press this it will come up with some other options, simply choose register where you will need to enter your e-mail address and password for your amazon account. If you don't have one you can create one. (Obviously you need wireless on to be able to do this). It takes just a few seconds for your kindle to register with the details you have provided. As I had the computer on anyway and there was a book I wanted to purchase I decided to see how quick books were transferred onto the kindle after buying it on a computer. I found the book Amazon using my laptop and ensured I clicked the Kindle version rather than the paperback. I went through my payment details and within just a few seconds the book had appeared on the main screen on my kindle. I was amazed at how quick it was I was very impressed. The book I purchased only came out a few days ago and cost me just £6.99 which saved me 53% than if I had purchased it in a book format. You can store so many books on your Kindle and they all appear on the main screen on your Kindle. You can chose to edit the books at a later stage or choose which order you would like the books to be shown in.

~ READING A BOOK FOR THE FIRST TIME ~
I switched the Kindle on by holding the button on the bottom for a second. The main menu came up which is where my book was. I simply clicked on this to start reading it. The print is very easy to read and is the same size as in a book. You can alter the font size if you wish to make is slightly bigger, but for me the font size was perfect. The Kindle is easy to hold in one hand and to turn the page I just gave the Kindle a light tap and the next page came up really quickly. If you scroll down this moves you onto the next chapter. At the bottom of each page it will give you a number which is if you happen to lose your place. It also tells you how far you are through the book for example I am just 4% through the current book I am reading. If you press the button at the bottom of the Kindle which looks like lines this will take you to the home page, where you can buy books. You can also see the battery charge here which appears in the top right hand corner. After finishing reading the book, simply switch the Kindle off and when you switch it back on it will start on the page that you finished on. This is great as there's no need to try and find or remember where you got up to in reading the book. The anti-glare screen ensures you can still read a book in bright sun-light.

~ AVALIABLE ACCESSORIES ~
You can buy accessories for your Kindle touch, this includes leather cases/covers and plastic screen protectors. I would recommend buying a plastic screen cover for your Kindle touch which stops the screen form getting marked or scratched. You can buy these from Amazon for approximately £3-£5.00. I have also purchased a case for my kindle, which cost me approximately £10 from Amazon. The kindle cases come in a various colours and you can buy real leather cases or synthetic leather cases. I purchased a synthetic one as I didn't want to spend £30-£40 on a leather case for it. The cases are really good as it protects the Kindle and stops it from getting damaged. I have also purchased a mains charger which cost me approximately £6.99 from Argos. This makes it more convenient for me sometimes when the Kindle needs re-charging. The choices of cases are very limited but I expect more choice will be available within a few months.

~ OVERALL OPINION ~
I love my Kindle and now I've got one I don't think I could go back to purchasing or reading paper format books. Although the Kindle Touch was expensive, and I didn't have to pay for it I would have purchased one anyway even if I hadn't received one for my birthday. The Kindle is convenient as it's a lot slimmer than a book and you can pick up from where you left off each time you switch the Kindle on. The battery life on the Kindle is also long, which is another bonus as there's no need to charge it all the time. There are a few down-sides to the Kindle touch; how-ever I think the advantages out-weigh the disadvantages. I have to give this product at least 4 out of 5 stars as it's been reliable and very easy to use as it doesn't require any set-up. Even my mum can use one of these and she's not up to date with using the latest technology products. The reason I only give this product 4 out of 5 stars is that the keyboard which appears on the bottom half of the Kindle is very small and quite often you may go to put in a letter but a different letter gets selected instead. You also have to hold your finger on the letters rather than just tapping in order to get a response from it. If you like reading books I would definitely recommend this to others especially as you get lots of free books with it, which includes classics such as Pride & Prejudice.

~ ADVANTAGES ~
* Slim and lighter than the majority of books
* Can hold with one hand and turn pages
* Kindle remembers where you stopped reading
* Thousands of free books
* Books are cheaper to buy in Kindle format rather than an actual book
* Long battery life means no need to charge weekly
* Screen protectors and cases available for your Kindle

~ DISADVANTAGES ~
* Small buttons on the touch keyboard
* You need to hold buttons rather than just pressing on the touch-screen
* Item will get more damaged if it's dropped, whereas if you drop a book it doesn't really matter
* Limited choice of accessories for this item such as cases



(review will also appear on ciao)