There are people who would buy the JRC for its language translation capabilities alone. I can see how this device would be useful to the military. The pictures of the screen resolution in one of the early posts what disappointing, but I noticed that the not only was the background dark, but the letters themselves were blurred. That seems like it's probably an artifact of the camera and not a property of the device. Also, it's sort of a myth that your eyes need extreme contrast or lots of light. My concern is whether or not it will be "adequate," meaning about the same as my Kindle 2. The ability to display color is actually pretty critical for their customer base, and it's an information rather than an aesthetic function. A graph rendered in gray scale can't convey the same information as one in color, even if the color is pretty washed out or drab.

There are lots of very useful apps for academics and students. The language capabilities alone are very nearly worth the price. I haven't priced Rosetta Stone in awhile, but I spent a lot on learning Arabic sitting in front of a computer screen. And these are even more valuable to education, the military, and some forms of civil service.

One of my big disappointments is to watch the book market head off in the direction of videos, even to the point of creating a 16x9 aspect ratio, practically useless for reading papers or journal articles. I *would* however love to see a screen with a whiter background. But it wouldn't necessarily be easier on my eyes.

I'm really glad to see that *someone* is targeting this market, finally. The displays will have to get better but I wouldn't hold my breath about it happening any time soon.