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Robertb:
As to the touch screen. Sounds great but not if it is only in the larger versions. And also only if the technology used is well established for being reliable. Early touch screen technology was notoriously prone to failure over time. It all really comes down to the UI. If it stinks then touch, buttons, accelerometer or psi-control will not matter.
I am a fan of touch screen devices if they are to be hand held. Yet, I just love my old Clie that has the jog wheel on the side. I use the wheel more then the stylus. That wheel is the single greatest feature on the device and I will use the thing until smoke emits from the memory slots. Thing is that wheel can be used to navigate the entire UI as well as for reading it works to change pages. It also functions as a selection tool. But as great as it is, without the UI to exploit the versatility and convenience, the thing would be worthless. Same could be said for touch. A bad UI and it will not matter in the least.
FYI, I for one am also on the fence over wifi vs. mobile wireless. Problem with wanting to visit the web, the devices simply do not have the clock-cycles to support modem web sites so browsing would likely be relegated to online stores and sites with mobile versions, the mobile version of Wiki, and the online bookstores that also offer a lower overhead version for mobile devices. Given the two I really am not sure which is better wifi as a means to simply transfer files (a networking problem for probably the majority of people), though connecting to a wifi node either on your home network or public is a trivial issue or true mobile broadband service.
For mobile wifi you will need the device to have an actual web browser as many public wifi hot spots use ID techniques which require browse based access to sign into the service. At home or work just configuring having a connection manager on the device to access your network is a trivial matter. But what then if there is no browser? Do you include some sort of VNC client and require adding a VNC server on the host system?
I lean toward mobile wireless as I already have a plan which would allow me to add the device to my account without an extra charge. I would prefer the feature be an extra I could either buy originally or add later. But not sure how practical that is production wise. The reason I see people like the Kindles so much is the simplicity of putting books on the device over Whispernet. Without mobile wireless that becomes a much more problematic issue because wifi has inherent access issues. For the most part mobile broadband is everywhere you will be. Yeah there are dead spots and such but there is something over 90% market penetration by the technology. We can even get service in National Parks. Still I would have no problem with both wifi and mobile broadband.
Still, unless someone has my luck in the service provider I use being so open to not only unlimited MBB w/o a cap as well as adding something like a book reader on top of the primary device, there is a whole other set of hurtles.
So, yeah, I like the touch screen option, to a point. I think we all need to pay closer attention to the UI's these devices are using over the hardware.
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