Are the early 90's designs coming back, or are these companies hiring the same 70 year-old industrial designer?

And WTF with those keys? YIKES!
Looks like someone tried to de-magnetize the botton buttons.

I really really love the idea behind ebook readers, but so far every one of them have had huge flaws that prevent me from buying one. The most notable one is a lack of good content at a reasonable price. I hope Amazon fares better in that respect. And hopefully that picture was just taken in the worst lighting on Earth...

good God in heaven, what the hell is that? wow. just wow.

lol, yup, what everyone else is saying. That thing is fugly. I'm going to have to buy a book cover to wrap it in, hide my shame.

Just what I needed. I was tired of having to carry a book and my iPhone into the crapper so I can read a book and check my e-mail. Until today, there was no hope of being able to read a book on small screened smart phones or being able to check e-mail on the latest Oprah's Book Club selection. Now I've got that all-in-one device that I've been hoping for.

Hmm. I feel like I'm in their potential market, but I just don't know if this works. I'll probably have to handle one to know for sure. Will these be available for holding at Best Buy, or do I have to take a change on ordering one and returning it?

But regardless, the lack of a backlight is a bummer. I am not a fan of those arm lights. And do we have dimensions?

Of all the things to complain about, backlight is not one of them. Does your latest paperback come with a backlight?

Hmmm... probably tie their audiobooks to their mp3 downloader...

And I, too, wonder if no backlight is a plus or minus. But then again, my old-fashioned paper books don't have a backlight. Wish this was out before my upcoming asia trip in two weeks.

Backlight is kind of a biggish deal I think. No, my latest paperback doesn't come with a backlight, but it sure would be convenient if it did.

I'd like to see someone make one of these with Adobe. A a graphic designer, I'd love to see an ebook reader that could natively support PDF files as well as plain text files.

@fallenturtle: Word. And as a college student I say... if it came with a function for highlighting, marking up, and bookmarking those PDFs (Acrobat Pro UberLite?), I might actually buy digital textbooks.

I'd prefer a rock solid contrast ratio (which will go a long way in terms of being able to read it in less than optimal lighting conditions) and long battery usage over backlight.

So the writer said they suspected EVDO, but CNET says Sprint. isn't Sprint EV-DO just like Verizon??? If I'm right, what a hell of an easy miss. If I'm not, then I'm an idiot.

"We've suspected EVDO, but CNet suspects Sprint."

EVDO != Verizon
Sprint's data network is also EVDO. TFA states as much.

@HINTEN

good logic. while you are at it, why not add "does your latest paperback come with a giant, dirty white, hideous looking piece of crap?"

Jeeeesus, who designed this thing? Bezos' kid? This thing is beyond fugly. Looks almost like its from the set of the 1978 Battlestar Galatica...

sony reader may have its faults, but at least it's easy on the eyes. why is this thing so hideously eighties retro?

They will sell as well as a Zune.

I don't know much about the Kindle, so heres my view. Personally, to me it looks like it'll fit as comfortably in your hands as a lumpy sack of potatoes. I'll agree with everyone that this thing looks like it got beaten by a pissed off ugly stick.
Just a personal view, but for $399 I'd like a bit more than 256MBs of storage that was speculated on. Can someone explain to the ignorant me why these have so little memory? Is built in memory expensive?

If it's an E-Ink display, or something similar, then a back light is not technically possible.

@fallenturtle: ...Backlit Paperbacks... Guy, I think your on to something.

@hinten: Just turn off the backlight, then you'll have long battery life. ;)

I saw this thing in a banner on some website last night, and I seriously thought it was a joke (I didn't click on it). And yup, it looks just as ugly now as it did then.

Who the hell designs this shit?

Look, here's what would actually work as a "reader" - an iPhone-like device with a paperback book-sized display and Apple's multi-touch interface (imagine "flipping" pages with your finger). And books, magazine and newspapers available through iTunes. As I suggested back in January at [www.greghinzmann.com]

*coughing a little cough of acknowledgement but without even a hint of the smugness that a lesser soul might inflect*

And for the record it was Senorbelly what that went and compared it to a Snowspeeder.

Me want if it's under $150.

Hahaha. Try $399.

I just asked a friend if she wanted one of these for Christmas instead of the Sony Reader I was planning on getting her. I explained that it had email and WiFi and you could buy books anywhere. She still said "no thanks."

And I don't blame her in the slightest. This thing is fugly. Sorry, Amazon, but...you're a web retailer. Let's leave product design to the professionals, mkay?

But yeah, I'd love to see an Apple reader. It could be their second revolution in nine-inch monochrome. ;)

I don't get why anyone who knows ebooks would trust Amazon. A good hardcover source, but ebooks? They bailed in 2005, deleting years of customer bookshelves without notice. And then two months ago, when allegedly re-committed to ebooks, their Mobipocket servers (Amazon owns Mobipocket) went down for ten days, they said nothing to their customers and kept them guessing. No one could download their Mobipocket ebooks. And Amazon reimbursed no one, gave no refunds. If the Kindle ends up being less profitable than they want, Amazon will do it again. Wonder if any of these outfits will ever put the customer first when it comes to ebooks.

I like the lines from a purely aesthetic, movie-prop-style, point of view. In practical fact, it probbaly need a little refinement.