I keep thinking about the Kindle. The $400 price is the main drawback, but reviews like this one might put me over the line:
If possible, I love my Kindle even more than I did when I reviewed it a few weeks ago. I've got about 50 books on it, and I love always having something with me to read. I also love the ease of using it one handed, and checking my email from anywhere. As far as I'm concerned, it's better than a book. The biggest downsides are that not everything I want to read is on it yet, and conversely, that it's awful easy to spend a hell of a lot of money browsing. But there's so much cheap content from the public domain that this is not a huge issue.
But I'm also waiting for that one device that will do it all -- online, phone, computer, media player, pda, etc., etc. Maybe Kindle 2.0 or 3.0 will be it, and I should wait.
Comments
Isn't that called a laptop?
Well, sure, if you add a cell phone, decrease the size so the camera can be used for anything but sitting in front of, and a few other things.
I think I would wait a little on buying something right now - it won't be too much longer before phones will do all this well (we're pretty close to that now with some of the new, smart phones on the market)
Supposedly, Apple is working on a gizmo that will compete with the Kindle.
Of course, if you buy their's, you'll pay $3,000 for it, it will come with batteries that cannot be replaced when they wear out in 9 months, and by carrying it around, people will think you are Jim Varney, and pester you for autographs. You'll have to buy from iTunes, half the boxes that come from the factory will be useless as bricks within 48 hours of turning them on, and it'll have a hopelessly unusable DRM scheme.
Six months after Apple comes out with their version, Samsung will come out with one that does 50% more than Apple's and sells for $12.99. It won't be as stylish as Apple's, it'll just work better. That's the one *I* am waiting for.
50 books stored? Whats the point? Are you going to reread chapter 3 of "A Time to Kill" while waiting for a plane? Unless you are going to share this device with friends and neighbors, why worry about storing old books you've already read. It just can't replace the look and feel of overcrowed bookshelves in the den.