The Amazon Kindle DOES charge over USB, originally uploaded by Josh Bancroft.
Just in case you were wondering, the Amazon Kindle can charge over USB. I know I wondered, before I bought mine, and lots of people have asked me since I got it. So here’s the proof - that little orange LED next to the USB cable is the charge indicator light. It’s plugged in to my MacBook Pro. It’s probably slower than charging from the brick, but at least it works.
I really like this because it means when I travel, I can go with one less proprietary power brick/charger cable, since a lot of my gadgets can charge from a USB power brick (and many also share the same standard mini USB cable, like the one the Kindle uses).
Posting for posterity, Google, and future reference.
TinyScreenfuls Feed (this blog)
Kudos to Amazon - in my opinion, any electronic device capable of being charged this way should be.
I beg to differ. One business trip I forgot my power cord and tried charging by USB and all it did is SLIGHTLY slow down the battery drain. Before the trip was over my Kindle was flat out of battery.
Michael
Ummmm… it even tells you this in the manual (that it charges via USB).
The User’s Guide states, “USB port — plug in the included USB cable to transfer content between your computer and your Kindle. Your Kindle will also accept a small trickle charge over USB that may extend your battery life if your computer’s USB port or powered USB hub provides power.”
It is much slower to get a full charge (10-12+ hours vs under 2 on the power block). However, it IS necessary that the USB port you plug it into provide charging power - not all of them do, especially on notebooks (since it drains the notebook’s battery to charge another device, some don’t provide power via USB and require that peripherals provide their own power). You can tell by whether or not the light turns on if you are getting charging power when plugged in.
Michael, was the charge light on? Not all laptop USB ports provide enough power to charge, or charge very well, because it drains the laptop battery to do so. You’d probably get better results if you used a USB hub plugged into wall power, or a direct USB charging brick, like those that come with BlackBerries and iPods/iPhones.
Karen, I know it says in the manual, but some people (see above
) don’t seem to believe it, and I get asked that question all the time, so I just wanted to post some photographic proof. 
Gotta be careful here. I just got my Kindle yesterday. Went to bed and it was 1/2 charged. Plugged it into a USB port on the PC (note that this was NOT a port on the motherboard but a quick access port which usually are low power ports) and got the charge light. Woke up this morning and had 1/4 charge.
So, just because you get a charge light does not indicate that you are actually getting a charge. It is really just telling you that there is some form of external power applied.
Going to try my experiment again tonight on a different port on the computer and see what happens.
It works on your MacBook Pro? Doesn’t seem to on my MacBook. I’ve lost my charger, and I’m trying to charge it via USB. The really weird thing is, when I first turned on my computer and plugged my Kindle in, the orange light turned on, but it turned back off not very much later, and it hasn’t come back since. I honestly don’t understand.
The USB charge on a Kindle is a trickle charge. It’s designed to maintain the current charge, but based on the power consumption of your Kindle (i.e. whether it’s indexing books, wireless status, etc.), you may notice that the battery drains when plugged in via USB.
If you want to charge via USB, there is a better way. See this:
http://www.decodingthekindle.com/2008/08/28/charge-your-kindle-over-usb/
Jim Cheshire
DecodingtheKindle.com
Just wanted to say that I just had to turn it on for it to charge via USB. *facepalm*
And Jim, it does charge. It was completely drained (I couldn’t turn it on), and I left it plugged for a while and now it’s charged. I’m sure it takes longer than with the power outlet, but it does work.