I had fiddled with the Sony ereader a year or so ago and thought that it looked pretty cool and all, but an officemate brought in her Kindle 3 and, honestly, I thought that there was a large sticker covering the screen because, damn, it looks like paper. I think I'm going to get one of these for reading journal articles (PDFs, mostly) and maybe some fun reading. I tend to hate doing any close reading on my computers (though LCDs have made it better in recent years) and really don't feel like running through reams of paper to print out articles. I'm pretty jazzed for my next pay check.

Come on... I'm sorry, but this device has an e-paper screen. It has some rudimentary web browsing facilities but marking it down for problems with web browsing is like marking down a netbook because it can't play Crysis. Stupid. This is similar to the fools who keep trying to compare it to the iPad and other tablet devices. They just aren't the same type of device! Get over it!

As an e-reader it is utterly fabulous and a must have device for those who tend to churn through print material.

Most of my uni material also comes in PDF format which means it is a godsend.

Jeff Bezos: I think you misread the article. What the author said was that while touch screen technology has been around for a while, this kindle doesn't use it. For me that's just fine. The last thing you need on a book reader is finger prints. I'm going to get one of these to read books on.

Great looking product Amazon says will be delivered mid month, can't wait
http://getth.at/aayrt

It would improve the quality of your research if you actually tried to use the Kindle. This generation hasn't the a touch sensitive screen.