Hi Franz, PB readers are available for preorder from the
german shop, the 902 will ship on Nov 1, the 903 on nov 15.
I have similar needs (except taking notes) and I've recently made my little research. Here are some noob-notes (whatever they're worth):
Kindle DX - no wifi, only Amazon's 3G: you are limited to Amazon and Wikipedia (actually some people in EU claim to be able to surf anywhere for free, but surely Amazon will take care of it soon); I'd suggest you to read carefully the terms of service and the pricing policy (i. e. if you ever need to download one of your 100MB files via 'cloud' it will cost you 99$). Another least advertised feature is
DELETED But hey, it has a gorgeous Pearl screen!
If you decide to buy it anyway, I suggest you to
pay it in $: you'll save about 25-30€ (depends on the exchange rate of your credit card, but it's generally lower than Amazon's) you can check it yourself placing the order in € - without confirming, eh eh - then in $.
Pocketbook 902/903: as you can see in my stats, it's been my choice (among many hesitations), the only con i can see for you is the absence of a physical keyboard. I have no idea (yet) how the virtual keyboard works.
Tablet: an alternative to the iPad is the upcoming (?) Notion Ink Adam. The PixelQi screen will cost an extra 100$ and it eliminates the backlighting, not the flickering. Not an eyestrain killer, but more open than the iPad.
My 2¢...
Greets