Regarding Consumer Reports, I'm not so sure they're as unbiased as they may once have been. Rather, as unbiased as they could claim to be with plausable deniability.
I heard somewhere....I think in a wikipedia entry that they lost a lawsuit that attempted to prevent an automaker from using their review in an ad. Thus, their idea of "we never allow our reviews in ads, so you know that ours is a critical critique and not tit for tat" is shattered.
Secondly, in a "How To" buy article regarding big TV's, they advocated exploiting physical stores. "Check out the toy at Mediocre Purchase or Circus Village to see if you like it, then buy it online from a cheaper supplier." I consider that quite disingenuous. I can hear people complaining when the stores they refused to patronise are defunct...
Back to topic, I hope that for all the awards & rave reviews, the Reader stays around. The greatest thing at CES 2005, and winner of many industry awards, splashpower,
http://www.splashpower.com/, has yet to become a reality. Now if they can get it together like the e-ink boys & girls did, that'll be something.