I'm trying to figure out what I would do with wi-fi on my 505 and I haven't got a clue how it would be advantageous to me. I'm not worrying about being able to buy books while on the run. I have 147 unread books loaded onto my 505, with room for 50 to 100 more. How many books can I actually read even on a 6-week trip?
I'm sure there must be some advantage to having wi-fi, perhaps with daily newspapers or magazines, but at least for me, until the screen becomes a color screen, it makes no sense to read magazines on my 505. As for newspapers, maybe it's because of my age and a lifelong habit, but I like to read the print version of the newspaper; I think the 505 is simply too small a screen to enjoy the NY Times.
Would the wi-fi prevent me from buying another Sony Reader -- not at all. I really like my 505 and spend several hours a day reading books on it. I definitely would buy another Reader (unless they completely butcher the design to accomodate the wi-fi such as by adding a Kindle-style keyboard
).
And although I can see some value to a touchscreen, especially in being able to keep the overall dimensions but increase the screen size, I'm not sure how much I would actually like it. As it is, it annoys me when I get fingerprints on the reading screen accidentally; I can't imagine how annoyed I'll be with fingerprints because of the touchscreen.