pikelet,
alas, the man purse has not had it's full day in the sun, and I fear I won't be trendy enough to carry one if it ever does.
I will agree, it's harder to get a comfortable grip on a smaller device. It wouldn't surprise me its one of the limiting factors on pbook dimensions.
Harmon,
My pockets aren't as big as yours, but I didn't need a jacket to get to work this morning -- nothin' personal, but you can keep your winter
On timing, I'd note that Ga Tech published a behavioral study about what people were willing to do to accommodate a device they liked -- specifically the Roomba. They found people would go to extremes to accommodate the little robot -- some to the point of pre-vacuuming for it.
While I'm not trying to say the 300's timing is soooo bad you're delusional if you live with it, I would point out what you and others have mentioned -- you've had to train yourself to pre-press the button to accommodate the processor lag.
My day job is software maintainance for a user interface of an embedded system. Response time is something we measure in 10's of ms if we can, and low 100's of ms if we can't. At work, a 1/3 second delay(333ms) is uncomfortably long and a 1/2 second delay (500 ms) simply wouldn't be acceptable -- however, you won't pick up one of my boxes for less than 6 figures . . . I can afford to be picky how efficiently I manage my applications.
I do agree that larger screens are accommodating to non-fiction as opposed to fiction, but I doubt you've never tried it on something bigger than 6" -- after all, I look at technical documents all the time on an 19" screen. I have regular access to 22", 24" and dual 19" screens. Guess which one I pick if I'm reading just one document? On goes the workstation with the 24" screen. Yes, monitors do present some different challenges than E-ink displays, but they're not incomparable. I think that beautifully reinforces what you're saying. Will large E-ink screens become the tech manual platform of choice . . . well, maybe if we can get around ill-formatted PDFs . . .
In the end, I'd love a smaller-faster-cheaper device for personal use, and someday, someone will make one. However, today, I still own a 600 and I'm pleased with the device. Faults-and-all, it's the best intersection of what I require and what I'll tolerate.
Dan <><