If you are planning to give kindle as a holiday gift, make sure you designate Kindle as a gift at checkout. That way, when the purchase is complete, the device will not be registered to your Amazon account. This means that you will not be charged for subsequent content purchases made by the gift recipient.

Now when the gift recipient opens the Kindle package and turn it on for the first time, he or she will simply need to “waltz” on over to Amazon.com and register Kindle to an active Amazon account. From then on, purchase made for that particular Kindle will be charge to that account for which he or she will be responsible.

What if you did not designate Kindle as a gift during checkout and still want to pass it on as a gift? In this case, you will need to de-register that particular Kindle from your account and instruct the gift recipient to re-register it to an active account upon receipt. From then on, he or she will be responsible for subsequent charges.

Can you give content as a gift to someone who already Own a Kindle? The answer…Since any content that you purchase for a particular Kindle is registered to your Kindle Account and stored in your own personal media library, you will not be able to pass it on as a gift to friend who owns another Kindle. At present, Amazon is not set up for that kind of transaction. One way around it is to give your friend an Amazon gift card and tell him or her specifically that it is for purchasing content for his or her Kindle. Or, you can sit with your friend at the computer online Kindle store, have him or her log in to their account, make a purchase with your credit, remove your credit card information from their account, then the can download read and enjoy.

As you can see, transferring content from Kindle to Kindle is an issue. Its synonymous with buying a book and after reading it loaning it to a friend. And since the book is yours, you should be able to do whatever you want to do with it. Right? Not quite…The question is, will Amazon allow you to do this? The answer…yes and no. Yes, If they can charge you a fee that is somewhat equivalent or close to the cost of the book for the transfer. And no…if they have to do it for free… just think about it. If they allow free Kindle to Kindle transfer, It will just be like giving away free books to the public. If that’s the case, then I would not need to buy any books from my Kindle store, All I would need to do is just get a Kindle and have my friend transfer all his books to my Kindle – for free. That is simply not going to happen.

More later.

If you’ve tried to purchase a kindle within the last few weeks, you may have seen this notice:

” Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is sold out. Because orders are prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis, please ORDER NOW to reserve your place in line. Your Kindle will not arrive by December 24th. Note that Kindles cannot currently be sold or shipped to customers living outside of the U.S. Giving Kindle or Kindle Books as gifts? Click here for a printable Kindle gift card.”

Update: Kindle in now in stock and is being shipped immediately!

But is Kindle sold out because because of a genuine “heavy customer demand?” or is it sold out because of “greed?”

While there are many genuine Kindle buyers out there waiting in line for the arrival of their “beloved” Kindle, there seem to be others simply looking to capitalize on this “strange” Kindle shortage. Just take a moment and hop over to Ebay.com and you will see what I mean. Ebay Kindle sellers are popping up everywhere. They seem to have found their way to the front of the line, bought quite a few Kindles, and is re-selling them at exorbitant prices.

But, are they responsible for the shortage? And why would anyone in their “right mind” want to buy kindle at such inflated prices when they can simple order via Amazon.com for $399, wait a short while, and have it delivered at there doorsteps? The answer… Kindle makes the perfect holiday gift…and with Amazon out of stock, Ebay sellers get to name their prices.

But, is there a backlash on the horizon? Will we see a lot or returns after the holiday season? The answer will depend on how quickly Amazon get enough Kindle back in stock. I suspect that if they do it fast enough, we will see a lot of Ebay Kindle returns in January… Stay tuned.

Whatever happens, Ebay sellers look to make a “killing.” The longer, Amazon takes to get Kindle in stock, the longer the Kindle line will be get, and the more Ebay sellers stands to profit.

That said, if you cannot wait, and don’t mind spending a little extra, you might as well just hop on over to Ebay.com and get your copy. This way you won’t be at a disadvantage should Amazon decide to “drag its feet.” Just remember that you can always return it after the holidays if you think that you paid too much.

Having listened to and read many of the kindle discussion, I have identified six issues that I think Kindle will need to address if it is going to live up to its much “hyped” expectations.

1. “Next page” and “Previous Page” buttons constantly gets in the way and cause inadvertent turning of the book pages. This is very annoying and must be addressed quickly. If Kindle is going to do for books what Ipod did for music, this is a must fix.

2. Wireless Access only in Whispernet “hot” areas. If not in one of these areas, you must
download books, magazines, and Newspapers via computer. Not good at all. The number of”hot” areas must quickly increase to make it worth the price. International wireless
accessibility must be addressed as well.

3. Kindle Books may be a bit pricey compared to a lot of paperback versions. If you are willing to wait, you may be able to march down to the local book store and find the same books being offered at the Kindle store at the “So called” discount price, for less. Of course, these are the paper back versions. But then again, the difference may be justifiable by the fact that Kindle offers the convenience of accessing these books anywhere and at anytime. Plus,the ability to have 200 titles at your fingertips in one small package. Now that’s cool.

4. Because the books you buy at the Kindle store are account specific, you cannot loan a book you’ve already read to a friend. Certainly, it would be nice to be able to do the opposite, since, it is your book that you bought with your money. You should be able to do whatever you want with it.

5. Limited ability to sort or arrange the books you already read in the library. Once you read a book, you may have to remove it to make place for another if you need space. However, you are not able to archive the titles of the book for future reference. Once deleted, it is all gone. I think that you should at least be able to archive the titles of each book, since the titles themselves does not use up that much space.

6. Very limited ability to display PDF files. In experimental phase. Not sure how long this will be, but is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed very quickly while the Kindle concept is “hot.” You really don’t want people to forget about Kindle when dealing with PDF formatted documents since most documents are in PDF format. Not sure why this issue was not address prior to the Kindle release.

so there you have it. Six very important, among other, that immediately hops to mind when assessing Kindle. Issues that must be address if Kindle is going to become the electronic reading device that it is expected to become.