[Argel]

Hi all. I'm sitting here in the UK waiting for Kindle.

Been using ebooks for quite a while - eReader, Mobipocket and MS Reader on laptop and hand-held; mobi on a Blackberry.

I'm waiting for Kindle partly because I vowed never to buy another Sony device because of their contemptuous attitude to customers over DRM but mostly because I suspect Bezos means it when he says that the aim is every book in every language.

For myself, I've found that once the initial magic wears off, the most important factor is whether the stuff I want is available in ebook format. More than half the time it isn't. I suspect that Amazon has the market position and the determination to change that.

I love ebooks. I love the concept, I love the practicality. I love the fact that I can carry hundreds of classics around in my pocket. But I am also sure that ebooks will never take off until there is a standard (at least de facto) which allows them to be used cross-platform and on successive devices down the years. I suspect Kindle is one contribution to that - the other is that otherwise law-abiding individuals like myself break the chains of DRM by whatever means necessary - not so as to cheat authors and publishers but simply to make an ebook as flexible in use over the years as its paper ancestor.

Happy reading all. When, Amazon?

Argel