[jibril]

I tried the Sony E-Reader and Kindle 2. My biggest complaint is the current state of e-ink. While I liked the idea of ultra-long battery life of the technology - the contrast sucks. Read dark gray on light grayish beige isn't nice, for my eyes at least. I returned both devices although I bought both with great hope.

Whispernet of Amazon is a great idea, but the wikipedia pages took forever to load in reality and the rest of the internet rendering was poor (on the 6"). It wasn't the purpose of this machine, but the extra capability would have been nice.

Now, I wasn't in the mood to look for another e-book device, but my father has been pressing me to teach him the computer. His previous experience is limited to ATM machines and several failed attempts (minutes) of computer time. He still dictates email to my mom and she reads them off the screen. Any research is done the same way.

Christmas last month, my older brother wanted a computer. We got him something at Costco - his experience with computers is as extensive as my dad's. Every step is painful, got him a gmail address - he forgets it so often that everybody in the extended family, including his divorced ex-wife and kids, now knows his password because he can't grasp the meaning of security. He literally runs to me every 5 minutes to relearn something that I taught him already. Baby steps, baby steps. He still has trouble with the basics - but you have to learn it over time and just absorb what a computer is by experience, not read about it or take lessons.

They're not stupid people, computers just have tons of quirks and idiosyncrasies we computer literate put up with unconsciously and its hard to get back into the mind of a beginner.

I'm the computer geek in the family, and that unfortunately means spending hours with relatives' broken beige boxes :-( Now my dad wants me to teach him the "computer" since he saw I "taught" my brother (I won't brag successfully yet, it may take years).

Anyway, I hope the iPad is good. Rather than put up with another notebook I'll have to babysit, this is what I'm getting my old man. All he wants to do is surf, research, and email anyway. I want less devices and people to handhold.

Once it's out, will update how it is as an e-reader. If it's any good, maybe I'll buy one for myself too.