CNET News reports that today Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled Amazon Kindle, the online-retail giant's new electronic book reader, at New York's W Hotel in Union Square.

He asked the crowd why books are the last bastion of analog. "Books have stubbornly resisted digitization," he elaborated. "I think there's a very good reason for that, and that is, the book is so highly evolved and so suited to its task that it's very hard to displace."

The new reader weighs 10.3 ounces and lists for $399. It lasts up to a week on a two-hour charge and uses "electronic ink" to mimic actual paper, instead of the usual backlit computer screen. Bezos said that it already works with over 90,000 books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs.

(Note: For some reason, the above Amazon link already shows an average review of 2.5 stars from 130 users at the time of this post, even though no one has tried the Kindle yet. Do eBooks have that bad a reputation?)

Amazon debuts Kindle e-book reader [CNET News]