The first and second weeks of January, nerds, geeks and techno-zealots flock to the largest tech shows in the nation—the Consumer Electronics Show and Macworld—to get the first look at just-released, soon-to-be-released and never-to-be-released electronic products.

While they may seem like mere excuses for companies to show off how great the video game Guitar Hero looks on a big-screen TV, trade shows actually provide a great information-sharing opportunity for both the companies and the consumers who attend.

The Consumer Electronics Show, held in three conference centers in Las Vegas, is the world’s largest trade show for consumer electronics. While CES showcases all the big names, it also features many smaller companies’ booths. As expected, the CES show floor is packed to the brim with flat-panel TVs and top-of-the-line stereos. Conversely, it also includes products and services such as Taser International’s C2 personal defense device in a stylish leopard print.

While some companies use CES to show off new products, others take the opportunity to push technology boundaries (and their standings among competitors).

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From the moment I got my hands on a Kindle, I was impressed. Amazon.com’s electronic book reader is smaller than it looks in the Web site photos, but it is very light and fits comfortably in either hand. And it holds 200 books.

But it wasn’t easy getting one to test for CBT.

Amazon released the Kindle just before Christmas. However, people interested in buying them as gifts or for themselves found the Kindle supply sold out less than six hours after going on sale. It’s still backordered on Amazon’s Web site, and right now the only place to score a Kindle is on eBay—for almost double the retail price of $400. But through a friend of a friend, I managed to borrow a Kindle for a weekend to see whether it lived up to the grandeur.

I picked up the Kindle on a Friday night with the promise I would not flee the country. The first step was going online and deactivating the Kindle from its owner’s Amazon account and linking it to my own Amazon account (the same account I use to purchase “regular” books). Within five minutes and without having to connect the Kindle to a computer, the device was linked to my Amazon account.

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