The original Kindle was introduced to the world in 2007. In the past six years, it has come a long way. The First Kindle was white, with a six inch screen. You could download books through its SD card and enjoy more than one book without having to actually use more than one device. It was sold for four hundred dollars and went out of stock quickly. It was revolutionary in the book industry, but compared to the newer generations it was child's play. The next Kindle brought to the attention of book lovers was the Kindle 2. It was not a major upgrade from the first one. They made it more appealing to the eyes by making it look more sleek. They also changed the keyboard from a diagonal keyboard that split in the middle to a regular qwerty keyboard without the split. It also added a text to speech option, which could have used some improvement. It sold for three hundred and sixty dollars. The next edition was the Kindle DX. This Kindle came with a 9.7 inch screen. The Kindle DX could support Pdf's on the device, and came with an inclinometer so that it could be tilted and looked at from different angles. It originally went on sale for four hundred and ninety dollars, which was very high compared to other Kindles and tablets that were being sold. Because of this, the Amazon Kindle DX struggled. The Kindle 3 came out very strong. It was originally priced at one hundred and forty dollars for the wifi only, and one hundred and ninety for the 3G. With these prices, there was almost no reason to not own one if you were an avid book reader. It also came with very appealing upgrades. It had fifty percent better contrast than the Kindle 2. Both the Kindle 3G and the wifi only are lighter than the Kindle 2, and smaller. Even with the Kindle 3 being smaller, it kept the same screen size as the previous models, six inches. It was also much faster and could hold more books. The 3G and wifi also brought a web browser. The Kindle 3 also had a dictionary look up built in. The Kindle 4 was the next release by Amazon. This was lighter and thinner than previous devices, while still keeping a 6 inch screen. The next generation Kindle also ditched the qwerty keyboard and could be bought with button navigation or as a touch screen device. The fifth generation then came with a more clear display, and was faster than previous generations. The Kindle Paperweight came out, and was another amazing step. It took after its name, and had a white screen that made it more like reading on paper, and was more appealing to the eyes. From the first generation Paperweight to the second there were technological upgrades. The newest edition to Amazon’s e-readers was the Amazon Kindle Fire. This was a game changer for Amazon, going from a simple book reader to a full on tablet. It went on sale originally for two hundred dollars, and was a hit. You could read many books and also watch tv shows and movies. It also had access to Amazon’s appstore, which contains thousands of apps. This made it a contender with the Apple Ipad, a one of a kind device at the time. This is an artifact of the 21st century. Technology plays a huge role in our society today, and books were one of the few things that were not technology based. Our world today is slowly becoming more and more technological, and it was only a matter of time until books had taken the leap as well. This can be looked at as a positive or negative influence to our society depending on what your stance is on technology. It has revolutionized the way people read books, and how they are produced. This could eventually turn all books to technology, which would kill the printing industry. It is turning our society into an even more technology based place than it already is, and we have become more efficient because of that. People can now carry hundreds of their favorite books wherever they go, without having to carry something even as thick as a book. This type of technology will be around for a long time in the future. One hundred years from now, I believe there will be a technological system to read books that is far more advanced than the system we have today, but with roots stemming from e-readers like the Amazon Kindle.