Steve Jones tells me that the biggest advantage that the Kindle offers is the ability to browse and buy a book now. That seemingly small change moved it from a cool gadget to a useful gadget (and well, still cool I guess!) for him. I still think it's over priced, but I see the point and if they drop to $99, maybe I'll try one.

I saw a note about this on CNET originally, but this ad for an Acer Notebook for $99 reminded me of his remarks about the Kindle - its $99 with a 2 year ATT air card agreement of at least $60/month. So this is part Kindle - what good is a really portable computer without Internet access, and part cell phone selling - reduce the price on the phone to get the recurring monthly revenue (which may well continue past 2 years). Think of it as buying an aircard that comes with a monitor and keyboard!

I've already got an aircard contract, don't really want another one at $60/month, and it's not worth the $499 cost you pay without the contract. Dell has a cheaper one that I think runs Ubuntu for $299 (last sale I saw). Even at $299...worth it?

I always travel with a laptop, and it gets old - weight plus having to secure it all the time. I can see this size device being nice for travel, taking to the coffee shop to write, even good enough for canned presentations, but not enough power (maybe?) to get enough performance for live SQL demos on XP home.