[xristy]

I am an iLiad user and travel quite a bit and live much of the year in Nepal and the rest of the time in the US. I purchased an iLiad because it is relatively open, has support for PDF as well as mobi and has WiFi and tablet interface for note taking - taking notes in a book or journal article is a common thing for users of print technology to do. The size, resolution and clarity of display were also major considerations as is the fact that I can put a CF card holding 8GB of papers and books on it.

From the specs that have been published the Kindle doesn't approach any of these features and will apparently be pretty much in line with the current Sony offering technically and provide a massive DRM lock-in - this is my real gripe. Not only is the device and delivery technology of no use to me outside the US but the proprietary "it's mine; all mine" attitude of the DRM strategy and exclusionary practices by the 600 pound gorilla of book distribution means that ebooks will wither and die as a creative force and turn into lowest common denominator money making for Bezos.

Rather than taking an attitude of "how can our company offer a quality product and service that returns a profit" it would seem that the attitude is more like "how can we ensure that we make the most money possible while appearing to offer a service to the hapless consumer."

Most of the world isn't connected sufficiently to make EVDO work effectively and what is needed is a way to get libraries of books to people around the planet not just satisfy some Ameri-centric view of life.

The 90K or so books in the Amazon Kindle catalog should be of benefit to people beyond the borders of the US and on any device that a user may have.

So my gripes are many and I think based in actual experience with eBooks and usage scenarios that are thwarted - not just not supported - by Amazon's Kindle adventure.

I'd like to know why it is that people on this forum see the Kindle as interesting.