Some of the people I read have love for the (Amazon) Kindle , whilst others bring the hate or at least skepticism . After skimming this rather comprehensive review via arstechnica , I'm having a hard time justifying as more than a solution in search of a problem.
I don't read enough to justify the purchase of one and prefer to get my RSS and web content on LoFi less-is-more devices such as my phone (a quite battered Nokia 3650 ), PDA (Dell Axim x50v ), or via Google Reader (either in the full application, via iGoogle, or the mobile version). At the very least, $399 gets you a cheap (in both senses of the word) laptop, or an OLPC for you and someone else (or an ASUS EEEPC) . The core advantage here is the free (but limited) EVDO wireless service for book and content delivery which is included in the purchase price. An EVDO wireless plan is typically worth ~$20-100 per month if bundled with your cell phone service, for comparison sake.
I don't know if it's part of Amazon's plan (and if it isn't, it should be), but I wonder if they have contemplated using Kindle for academic textbook delivery? It seems like a good complement.
