You KNOW there is something beyond the next NIT that is on your mind. What is it?

For me? I am waiting for the next gen Kindle or Kindle like device. I think this year near the holiday season we will see some interesting new e-ink devices with much improved ergonomics in terms of reading. Might even see a side lighted display for reading at night in bed (one of the biggest drawbacks to e-ink devices...not backlight = no use in the dark). Plus we might see some seriously improved web browsing ability included. A well known "secret" is you can browse the web on the Kindle, it's a 'secret' beta function that everyone knows.

I like the Cybook from Bookeen and the guys over on the Baen Forums banded together to become a US reseller for them...so far pretty nice results.

I liked the iLiad devices too...but they are French and there is that whole Jerry Lewis thing...so....ummm, no...hehehehe...really it is a slick device that also is open and runs on a Linux core...just pretty spendy for a 16-shades of grey device. Of all dedicated e-ink readers it's the most tricked out.

Still, the feature set of the Kindle is hard to beat in terms of reading. Mostly I mean online EVDO access to Wikipedia and, well, of course the Kindle store...then again the latter might be a short coming. hehehehe.

Most of my reading content comes from Baen, Fictionwise, Project Gutenberg (if I can find clean copied of books), FeedBooks or over on MobiReader.com (forum dedicated to ebook devices of all sort). All of those sources offer an amazing array of free ebook content. Real novels too, lots of classics some of which are out of print permanently. I also get content from Mobipocket too...now Tor seems to have a new plan of attack in this arena. Tor has dropped some subtle (ok not so subtle) hints of a new super wiz-bang Web 2.0 site due this spring or early this summer. So something is stirring the industry up a bit. To be honest between the Sony readers and the Kindle it might have tipped the scales enough that we'll see a big change in ebook versions of everything. At least of modern day content.

I would love to carry around my whole reference shelf with my on a SDHC card. Even on the NIT's and their smaller display's I would probably use it extensively as a reader for technical references. I also have an antiques business and would love to have those books on the device.

Over all for me, the Kindle seems to be the closest to what I would want from a dedicated book reading device. I am amazed what a difference the ability to look up people, places & things on the Wikipedia helps reading on my Clie...but the process is a bit distracting and could be better...still it works. But the Kindle move in the direction where having such access seems like it simply belongs there and feels transparent to the reader. The Whispernet service is far cooler then I had imagined. I only had a few days to play with one as she bought it for her hubby for his BD last month and asked if I could setup everything. Now if there ever was a case of "...HECK YEAH, I'll fix your computer..." that was it!

Still has issues like it's small compared to many books I would want, such as tech references & manuals. I don't like the buttons and it needs something like the kickstand on our NIT's.

Something ya gotta check out is on the Kindle page over on at Amazon. They have somewhere down the page with a "drop test video"...holy schnikes!! They dropped it on it's corner 30" and it never missed a beat. Right then and there I was hooked...not ready to plunk down my $400 on a gen one device but I was sorely tempted...but the N800 won me over.

I am also waiting because I am hoping the next gen will read more formats, drm & non-drm. And I want to see if they are willing to improve how it works in your hands.

Yeah, it's $$$$ and there is a risk of Amazon just dropping the program. But so could Sony or any of the others.

Anyway, that is my next thing this year...finally buy an e-ink device. So, I think most of this year is gonna be spent learning Linux, Maemo and remembering what the heck the syntax in C/C++ is...or maybe I'll just play with Python and use Java too...in December my last support agreement with my last client on a MS platform expired and I let them know I was not going to be working in that area any longer. So I am technically no longer bound to MS & their tools (which actually are not awful). I am gonna spend the whole year detoxing the MS poisons from my being and see what shakes out...

OK, my year is set...what's your tech plans? Come on you know there is some device you cannot wait to git-yer-hands on!!

Speaking of Gutenberg, I downloaded a version of Gutenbrowse from the Maemo programs yesterday. It works, which is more than I can say for other versions of Gutenbrowse I've downloaded for Linux proper.

I'm refreshing my C knowledge too, but I'm tempted to chuck it all and study D.

When the newer, bigger EEE PC comes out, if it's not too expensive I might make it my next techno-gadget.

A Pandora.

Pandora's looking cool, but I don't game enough to afford it.
Kindle is nifty, maybe the next-gen will get me, but it'd better beat the N900 in DPI and total pixel count, or I'm out. (OK, maybe if it had BT so I could use it as a modem I'd get both )

Cloudbook developer's version, or one of the other badgings of that hardware, is probably it.

Unless someone comes out with a head-less laptop-server sometime before I buy it... Think of it, modern laptop computing power, without the diagonal size accompanying a laptop. Keep it in your backpack and VNC with the N900, or use it (with full-size keyboard and touchpad) on your lap with the N900 sitting on top, in front of the keyboard. But noone will make such a thing, I'm sure.

Edit: Looks like Karel beat me to mentioning Pandora, but I still can't justify a dedicated gaming device.

Buy a Linutop and rig up a battery for it. The version 1 draws about 5 watts at 9 volts from its wall-wart. Of course, there's the slight disadvantage of no internal storage, but I've now seen 8GB USB sticks go for about 40 Euro, and those are not known for drawing huge amounts of gogo-juice. You'll also need a WiFi stick, as the Linutop comes with Ethernet only. Build it all into a tupperware box and you've got a "breadbox computer"...

Re the Pandora: It is indeed mainly sold (or will be) as a gaming device, but it's essentially a small clamshell Linux computer and as such, the announced price of 286 euro (incl. VAT) ain't half bad. And I can re-use the SD cards from my Itablet...

Possibly an Eee PC for my wife and a Blu-Ray player when they drop down in price a bit.

I'm still waiting for things that don't exist (in consumer goods):
high-color Eink
long lasting olcd screens
a rollable display using either of the above
micro projectors (picop)
decent looking highly functional wearable display
devices with >= 64Gig solid state hard drives
fast cheap and ubiquitous internet access

Really I'm looking for small form factor devices with big capabilities. I've had laptops and table PCs and they just aren't convenient. I've also had an assortment of hand held computers but they lack too many capabilities. Now though there is a growing convergence between large highly capable mobile computers and small highly portable computers (umpc and so).

My biggest complaints about the new generations of computers are displays (no matter how much resolution you pack in it doesn't make a 2" square screen any easier to read), capacity (Its great to have a > 1Ghz. proc on the go but what good is it with 128M of ram and 8Gig of flash?), and battery life (you are mobile, but only for a few hours until your full sized backlit lcd and 12000 rpm harddrive drain all your power!).

It seems like technology is coming together to solve these problems, but it hasn't coalesced into a purchasable product yet. Even once these technologies mature there remains one prohibiting factor that will keep them from forming a compelling device - the price. Unfortunately my dream device probably wont be affordable (justifiable) for several years at least. I think user input methods are a continuing and unresolved problem with these devices too, but I haven't found a workable solution yet.

In the mean time I think the N800 and its relatives are the best fit between price-point, capability, and portability.

Yes I'm looking at the Pandora too.

Another cool gadget that I might get when it comes out is the Zeemote, a small handheld bluetooth anaolog joystick that will work with cellphones and possibly *ahem* Nokia tablets.

I'm waiting for the Pandora, as well. Some of the Pandora team gave a presentation at a TI sponsored expo in Texas, so there should be some pics/video from the event, soon.

Karel Jansens is absolutely right. While it is certainly going to be marketed as a gaming device, it's capable of far more.

I want to see the 5th Gen Nokia tablets. I finally got a cell phone (Samsung U740) and have been hacking around on that. Pissed off at the limitations my provider puts on it but mobile data (even when it sucks) is grand.