[FragFrog]

Personally I can see the point here though: I have a Sony Touch, which is an awesome device because it so seamlessly blends in with my normal activities. I can use it to sit on the couch and study, take it to lectures to annotate and finish the day off with a few chapters of a good novel in bed.

It does this so well because it is thin and light enough to fit snugly in my hand, yet at the same time big enough to use as scratchpad and reader. On the other hand, those of you who have browsed the internet using a mobile phone probably know just how tiny those screens really are - most of the time you're zooming in and out across a page to get to the spot you need, and when you're not using it they're often a thick brick in your pocket - not to mention most smartphones run out of juice after a day or two tops with average use.

I would very much welcome a hybrid with the adventages of both: a device that is light & thin (like the Touch), with a 6" ~ 7" (color) ePaper touchscreen, no big frame (like an iPod), a way to wirelessly connect to the internet (I'll be happy with just WiFi - in fact, I kind'a prefer big companies like Amazon not knowing where I am every minute of the day) and an open operating system (like Android, so I'm not stuck with the whims of a single company deciding what exactly I can do with my own property). In essence, a mix of eReader, tablet PC and smartphone.

Of course, it's not so far fetched - we'll probably see color eInkt within a year, there already are devices out there with internet and a touchscreen, as well as devices that are small and light enough to be comfortably held in one hand. An open operating system is still wishfull thinking as far as I know, but in due time I'm sure we'll see a rise of those. Allow some time to make the price drop and the end result is that in a year or two we might just see devices doing what I want.

Of course, this is coming from a guy who around '99 bought a 2x16Mb MP3 player, specially imported from Japan since Fujitsu did not even sell them here - and almost nobody had even heared about them. A decade later everyone uses them and for a fraction of the price I spend then I can now walk into any electronics store and come out with a 4Gb or more "digital audio multimedia output device" or whatever they're calling MP3 players these days. And still, I do not regret getting that first MP3 player for a second - just as I do not regret buying an eReader now, even though the technology is perhaps not fully matured yet. There will always be a better product some day, waiting for that will get you nowhere.

And yes, I do prefer reading a novel over TV, movies, cookbooks and glossy magazines all together, with perhaps the exception that I also enjoy watching a (digital) TV series or a good movie sometimes - but I spend far more time reading.