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Something like a Smart Devices Q7 may be useful down the road ... I wasn't able to find a Canadian supplier.
Basic b&w clear text and 2 week battery life for actual reading -- not surfing, watching TV, answering Facebook queries, booking restaurant reservations -- is what I want an e-reader for.
I'm new in town, having acquired a Kindle 2 only in late November. However, I've actually read more books in 6 or 7 weeks than I can recall in years. I really love the single-mindedness of the Kindle 2, along with some of the perks like Oxford Dictionary lookups, Wiki-access from the beach in Mexico, credible text-to-speech and the ability to graze over one or more books and pick up where I left off. And it's all delivered in an easy-on-the-eyes e-ink screen, in a familiar form factor (abt the size of a trade paperbook, but thinner). Did I mention the 2 week battery life? I tested that over the holidays: it's true.
I get there are more advanced users: academic note takers, and readers of heavily illustrated texts. But that's not where I live ... and I am perfectly happy to consider a more advanced device, and more advanced price point, if I want my quasi-paperback to morph into a netbook / tablet / pda.
However, I believe there is a wide audience of book readers for whom a relatively inexpensive single-purpose device is a better choice. It's not unlike the market for cell phones: you can buy a device that makes local phone calls and occasional LD and texts ... or you can triple your spend for a fully fledged Smartphone and do a lot more than merely make voice calls (and probably a lot fewer voice calls at that). Simplicity sometimes provides the more eloquent solution.
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