I find it pretty funny how much emphasis people put on the look of these devices. Mine is in my gym bag most of the time, in the case all of the time, and when I'm using it I'm staring at the screen. I suppose if it was screaming hot pink it might be distracting but otherwise I don't care much how it looks.
As to the announcement I have no clue. Somebody on the Amazon boards just posted something about Amazon no longer selling certain formats (MS reader and Adobe
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6631991.html) that doesn't seem to bode well for adding Adobe support to the Kindle but who knows. I'm going to guess that the annoucement is something nobody is expecting but I'm just guessing ;-) If it is a new Kindle I'm fully prepared to be underwhelmed by the update. Really what could they possibly change that would be all the different?