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The concept of renting books (like the travel guide) reminds me of the early Sony reader that sold books that expired aftrer a period of time. (As I remember reading it was a total flop.) The conept of securing only a chapter of a book (akin to the iTunes function of downloading only a track from an album) seems a little silly for a book -- "I'd like chapter 14 of 'Dr. No' please."
On the other front as I see it, to make the service usable on the Sony Reader for example they would have to follow one of three paths: (1) strike a deal with Sony to utilize their DRM system, (2) find a way to add their own DRM system to the Reader, or (3) offer DRM free books.
I dismiss the concept of downloaded graphical images transmitted to the device on a page-by-page basis. This is too restrictive to become a mass market on the scale that Google is seeking. To even be halfway effective it would have to be implemented over cell circuits rather than WiFi circuits.
Anyway it plays outt it should be interesting.
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