Our favorite feature is that which we thought the most ludicrous upon first glance—that bulky case. But there's a method to the madness. The case is constructed of flexible silicon, an attempt to re-create the soft feel of a book and offer some tactile enjoyment to the sterile feel of e-books.

Also of note, the concept calls for multitouch page flicking. Of course, it's a cheap idea to throw into the design since, trust us, if e-paper/e-ink technology had anywhere near the response time to make touch controls feasible, Amazon and Sony would be on the trend in a heartbeat. [LIVRE via engadget]

The W61H will have a 2.8-inch internal WQVGA display (240 x 400), 1.97MP camera and an onboard 2GB micro SD (non-expandable.) The E-Ink phone goodness will last 250 minutes of call time on a single charge, and will most likely never get the chance to live the American dream (it's a Japan only release). [AVING]

Coming with a pink "Cross Your Heart" Reader skin and a coupon for 14 Harlequin Special Releases...let's just say that we'd never date anyone who accepted this gift in earnest. For those interested in what a real lady (my wife) thinks about the Sony Reader, hit up her impressions here. For the record, she's still reading with it nonstop.

The result is a device that allows users to share ideas with greater ease. The napkins are also modular, so large-scale layouts can be formed by connecting them together. If all of that wasn't improbable enough, the Napkin PC uses so little power that it has no need for a battery—instead, it features a single-layer flexible circuit board that utilizes inductive power. It sounds like a really awesome idea, if you can get past the fact that it would cost a fortune to produce one device that probably wouldn't work. [Yanko Design]

It's not just the smell, the texture, the page turning or the better contrast ratios of a real hardcover that you'd expect. She feels disoriented without the constant, tactile feedback of the book's thickness—that unconscious reminder of just how much of the story is left to go (are there really enough pages remaining for Mr. Darcy and Lizzie to work things out??). Sure, there are page numbers on the screen, but it's not the same.

I found her reaction simple and somewhat profound. While this small detail is far from a deal breaker for the Reader (or any other similar device), it's not the sort of issue E Ink will ever be able to address. Of course, if/when our generations make way for children who never know paper, the industry will have solved its problem of a homesick readership.

The Price: $250

The Experience: The watch has a simple, retro design that can easily dress up to a collar or down to jeans and a nice tee. The stitched leather band is hefty—and it needs to be—because the watch itself reminds me of my thick, inherited pocket watch that once belonged to my grandfather.

While the watch has analog hour and minute hands, the face is an E-Ink display. This display can swap between a white background with black numbers and a black background with white numbers. The black version is pretty slick, though the large, permanent "E-Ink" writing on top ruins the effect a bit.

To swap between the styles, you just hit a button and wait for a moment as the watch refreshes. It's so easy, we then wondered why the watch didn't come with more preprogrammed face designs. Because while you can choose to eliminate all of the analog-style hours and hashes, you're really only tweaking their generic base option. Why not include some more intricate designs, or just more designs period?

Also, while the watch automatically refreshes the E-Ink to update the digital display, the second hand never lined up with the display. It's a small point, but for watch enthusiasts, it's an important one.

The Verdict: For $250, the PHOSPHOR E-Ink Watch isn't a bad purchase for those who enjoy their geek gear. But given the missed opportunities—not just technically, but stylistically—we'd wait for the next version. [phosphor]

Still flexible, the display can recognize "optical" writing, though probably not quickly. An eyes-on report mentions that the refresh rate is under a second, which while probably fast enough for quick marks, is not what you want to be handwriting a letter on. But we just had our boobie doodles in mind anyway. [techon]

I understand the Kindle. Book reading is always a one-on-one activity, and there is more or less only one way to experience a book—from a rectangular object in your hand. An e-book reader that's PC-free, connected directly to the book source, is even smarter than an MP3 player or phone that's connected to a music store, because music ends up all over the place, while books will always stay in your lap.

People bitch about a lack of Wi-Fi, but as a fan of wide-area wireless, I think Sprint's EV-DO was a good way to go, because it's available in more places. And as far as the lack of backlight, I am inclined to believe the messaging from both Amazon and Sony, that E-Ink is easier on the eyes than anything backlit, and that long battery life is more important. I used the Kindle regularly without charging for four days straight before it completely crapped out just this morning.

As for the criticism about document and e-book format compatibility, I suspect these problems will work themselves out over time, as the Kindle's Linux platform is surely easy to enhance through software. At any rate, you already know many of the issues, so there's no point rehashing them here, especially when much of it is a matter of personal preference.

No, none of these theoretical concerns were in my mind as I read using the Kindle this week, but that's not to say I didn't uncover some issues. Here's what I discovered this week while reading a book on Kindle—Heat by Bill Buford— that I was already halfway through in its old-world hardcover paper form:

In Bed:
• Next Page buttons on both sides mean tremendous comfort in bed. No matter which hand you are holding the Kindle in, you can easily turn the page, and if you have it sitting on the bed next to you, you can even tap the large button on the right with a finger or your elbow.

• Since it's much larger than a hardcover or even a trade paperback, you can hold it without tiring out your arm, or needing to use your leg to prop it up.

• Normally when reading in bed, you have to shift positions when you turn the page, especially when at the beginning or end of a large book. Since the Kindle only displays one page at a time, and doesn't have a shifting weight of pages from one side to the other, you can pick a position and stick to it.

• I have a lamp next to my bed for reading old-school printed books; it works just as well with Kindle.

In the Air:
• EV-DO isn't available everywhere, or even at all airports. The one I flew out of only provided a paltry 1X signal, and it took me about five minutes to download the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly.• Speaking of The Atlantic, text-heavy weeklies and monthlies really are the target. Newspapers are a problem, because the editions that appear on Kindle are already outdated by their own websites, so newshounds would get frustrated. The lineup of magazines needs to grow, though. I won't be happy until The Economist and The New Yorker appear on the menu. (I may come from the Great Red State of Indiana, but I prefer my current events smart and a little left-leaning. But while we're at it, Amazon, a Guns N' Ammo Kindle Edition might be nice too.)

• Once aboard, FAA regulation required that I not use the Kindle at takeoff and landing. Though obvious, this pissed me off because that's when I always read on planes, before iPod time kicks in and I have the option of a movie.

• There's a handy switch to shut off the cellular data modem, and prove to the flight attendants you're no rule-breaker.

• The onboard Oxford New American Dictionary is good but not great with proper nouns. It picked up "Romanesque" but did not get "Florentine," for instance. And Wikipedia, which would have more elaborate data on both, is of no use when you're airborne.• Private reading lights have been part of the airplane experience since time immemorial. No backlighting on e-book readers means this glorious tradition will continue.

On the Toilet:
• Friction rubber grip makes it okay to set down on the side of your sink or back of toilet without it slipping. We have a porcelain pedestal sink in one bathroom that anything without a grip would slide off of—and smash on the floor.• Buttons on both sides of the Kindle mean that it's sometimes hard to grip it securely and not press a button. I were to hypothetically make a mad dash to the toilet, Kindle in hand, I would risk flipping a bunch of pages on the way and losing my place.

Other usage discoveries:
• As I mentioned, the battery lasted four full days of regular use, mostly with the EV-DO switch turned on. (It probably would have run much longer if I had left it off.) When your battery gets low, you get the error message below, but shutting down EV-DO that late in the game does nothing to conserve battery life, which died 5 minutes after I saw this. Charging is quick though—juice it for 15 or 20 minutes and it's good to go for a while.• I never turned the thing off, either: when you leave it alone for a few minutes, it turns to a keylock screen with a pretty picture or a promotional tip (see gallery below—I've shot 8 so far, but there are tons of 'em). You click and hold the Alt and font-size buttons to release it.
• I will never understand the magical technology behind the shiny LCD bar on the right. It is sooo pretty I sometimes do stuff just to watch it jump around. Very unique in this copycat-heavy CE universe.• The leather case is good for protecting and carrying around without hitting buttons (see "On the Toilet"), but it is totally lame when you are trying to read. Slip it out and hide the case until you are ready to move again.

• The Highlight clipping tool is too primitive to be cool. You can only highlight a line at a time, so your clippings, particularly when viewed by themselves, look ugly and confusing. Anything you highlight is automatically saved in My Clippings, where all of your Clippings, from all publications, are lumped together.• In natural settings, I never used the web browser. I surf the web a-plenty in my daily life, and while I'm reading, I'm just not thinking about dot coms.

• The keyboard does have a bit of a lag, as we reported, but that's not too problematic. My biggest problem is the spacebar, hidden on the left side. Little known trivia: As it turns out, I SPACE with my right hand.• Footnotes are weird. I was reading a David Foster Wallace piece that, like most of his work, was riddled with footnotes, and each time I had to click it to see the note, which could get annoying. Same goes for Colbert's book I Am America.

• My wife likes it. OK, so you weren't curious about that, maybe, but she's a voracious reader and she generally turns her nose up at most of the gadgets that arrives at our doorstep. With the Kindle, though, she got excited. She picked it up and started reading the Atlantic Monthly, saying how "amazing" it was that Amazon got the magazine's formatting right, and how pleasant the E-Ink was to read.

• In the end, looks mattered least of all. Even though my wife thinks it looks like a "medical device," it was not a turn off. I think people underestimate its wedgey coolness, while overestimating the impact that would have. Bezos said you don't look at the thing, you look at the book within—maybe he was anticipating a hazing from the Style Police, but I think he's right. I just read my damn book.

My verdict is that a connected e-book reader was what the world needed, and as long as Amazon's library expands to encompass every book I want to read, I see no reason why I should be upset that I have to buy it from them. Yes, $399 is expensive, but that's likely to drop, and the more market-resistant $9.99 book price hits a Jobsian sweet spot.

Having lived with the Kindle, I can say that it serves most of my immediate reading needs. As a guy who enjoys amassing a vast library of books and displaying them in bookcases, I am a little frightened of the future, but inevitability is the name of the game, and fear of change isn't a good enough excuse. Will I continue to buy books or will I jump into Amazon book buying mode? That remains to be seen, but you, o early adopter, should not share my fears. The Kindle is a quality invention, and I can see why the first batch sold out so fast. [More Kindle Coverage from Giz; Amazon.com]

* Terminal measures 180x120mm (B6 size) * Thickness: 3mm * Weight: 57g * Contrast ratio: 8:1 * Reflectivity: 43% * Redrawing time: 0.7s * Battery: one CR1220 button cell battery (1'400 screen redraws)

E-paper works slightly differently than Sony Reader's e-ink, which has black and white balls of opposite charges, floating in a clear liquid, which change position when polarity changes. Here, the particles are just white, and are suspended in a colored liquid, floating up when needed. Engineers have come up with five e-paper colors—blue, red, green, yellow and black—and the prototype plastic bodies are meant to correspond with those colors. It takes about one second for the display character to change.
There doesn't appear to be any kind of a backlight, so you may have to carry your own Itty Bitty Book Light around to see what buttons you are pushing, which sort of defeats the purpose of having hard keys. There doesn't appear to be a halitosis monitor either, but surely that will come in time. [Nikkei]

Besides the tactile feedback you'll get from individual keys, the major advantage is the way e-ink barely sips battery power, only requiring juice when it changes the display, because it doesn't use constantly shining backlights or LEDs at all. So even if battery technology stays the same in the next few years, cellphones can last a lot longer with this tech on board. [Xumdeo, via Uber Gizmo]

The Sony Reader is one of those quirky products that attracted reviewers originally because it was unique. The E-Ink screen was very easy to read, in spite of a lack of back lighting. And the idea of an iPod/iTunes system for books made sense. Or did it? Books from the Connect store were terribly expensive, and there was too much pressure to own digital titles, rather than rent them out, like a for-pay library model. How does doubling the book capacity help with that?

I'd hate to pronounce the new Reader DOA. (Heck, it might never arrive, since the listing and photos were pulled from the retailer's site after the post went up.) But while it's nice to know Sony is trying to tweak the formula, I'm just not sure the formula itself is worth the chalk. [Wowio via Gadget Lab]

If what the company is saying is true, expect to see ebook displays refreshing twice as quickly, with 20% better contrast, too. The company's also planning to roll out a wider variety of screen sizes other than the single 6-inch size it currently offers, from 1.9 inches aimed at cellphones and MP3 players, up to 9.7 inches for bigger ebooks. We might be seeing the results of this latest technology as early as this summer. – Charlie White

E Ink displays upgraded imaging film technology [EE Times]

The notebook is meant to be worn like a messenger bag and has an external e-ink display that gives you quick access to email and calendar info. Inside sits a hefty Core 2 Duo CPU along with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and WiMax radios. Now if only they could get all ultraportables this slim. – Louis Ramirez

Intel Restyles Laptop as Wireless Fashion Accessory [Reg Hardware via GearFuse]

The inventor points out that at just 5mm thick, the blueChute is thinner than a Nano, while still making room for a MicroSD slot and Bluetooth. So not only is the design very portable, but its functions can include email/weather/news streaming (say from your phone) on top of the traditional Daniel Steel eBook stereotypes.

More pictures after the jump.

– Mark Wilson

blueChute [via engadget]

There is some unfortunate news that was learned from this Q&A: the Sony Reader will only be available in the U.S., and no, there still isn't a release date. Hit the link to learn everything and more about this highly anticipated device. – Travis Hudson

Sony Reader questions answered by Sony Reader Team [Mobileread]

Sony Reader Video Review [PC Mag]

Product Page [Sony via Zatz]

[Thanks Anthony!]

The books will be available through the Connect Store, and there is some Connect software for managing your books (so far this is the only drawback). Random House, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin-Putnam, Simon & Schuster and Time Warner Book Group are all on board with titles, along with Manga publisher Tokyopop. Sony is promising to deliver this reader by Spring.

The E-Ink kits are available on a first come first serve basis, and begin shipping November 1. The price: $3,000. A bargain considering the multitude of cool and strange devices you can make with this kit. Post ideas about what you would build in comments. And don't forget to send us photos of the finished product.

Update:Don't miss the 400x300 full color display.

Product Page [E-Ink]