Amazon's slim Kindle goes on sale early

Despite heavy orders and delays, Amazon is shipping its first batch of third-generation slim Kindle books today, two days ahead of the pre-order date.

Amazon also announced a record number of pre-orders for the new Kindle, but did not provide any actual numbers.

The book features a light and lightweight display with 50% better contrast, 20% faster page turning, double the storage capacity, further improved battery life, and a new WiFi version.

The third generation of e-books is available in WiFi and WiFi+3G versions for $139 and $189, respectively.