Kindle vs. the competition

So, I'm wanting to get a digital reader. I can't really explain why. It isn't like I'm carrying War & Peace around town and trying to read it at every waking moment or even every pause at a stop light, but for some reason I think this type of device will "make" me read more by being more readily accessible. To be fair, I do listen to more podcasts because of my iPod, so perhaps this seemingly irrational belief is actually founded in some sense. I dunno.

On a whim, I ordered a Kindle on December 18, 2008 even though I knew the backorder was a six to eight week wait. I have seen pictures and read countless articles about the Kindle and know that it is a clunky (and expensive) first version of the reader. I've been researching it off and on since this past Summer but keep feeling like I need one. I don't know why. My life will not suddenly become some amazing dreamland because of this fancy streamlined 1950's-esque appliance that can do everything from make the coffee and toast to getting little Jimmy off to school. Nope. It's just a piece of plastic that holds books. It doesn't even hold magazines (and that is my biggest clutter problem!). It's pictures are all grey-scale and not so nice for that particular avenue of media consumption.
Why then did I buy this, you ask?! Well, I'm a little freaked out about the rumor that the second generation doesn't have any storage aside from what it comes with. I'm a casebook definition packrat and I love to be one in the digital world, too. I have more podcasts than I could listen to in an entire year stored on my computer and yet it isn't visual clutter. I LOVE the idea of being able to come back to something to finish it later and to be able to store an entire library in the palm of my hand. I'd be happy to have these books on disk (CD/DVD/multimedia) and have a slimmer physical library along with the digital library but that isn't how the readers work. They are download only and years of working with computers have taught me to have at least one backup copy. I want to be able to put these downloaded books onto an SD drive for a backup copy just in case my Kindle goes down. The current version allows just that. You can store things on an SD that inserts behind the battery pack. Version 2 (what's been leaked anyway) doesn't show any sort of capability for saving or extra storage. (Photo credit: www.BoyGeniusReport.com)

Maybe I'm paranoid and I should just wait it out. However, I've just learned about this other digital reader that is due out third quarter of 2009 http://reader.txtr.com/specifications.html and am loving the special feature listed at the bottom of that page. Click the other pages to compare. I waited for the video capabilities for ipod and actually would have been fine with an original version, since I don't watch any video podcasts actually on the device. It is nice to have my pictures on there, however. What I really want out of the Kindle is the capability to switch seamlessly from the text format to the audiobook format. Why? Well, I love to listen to audiobooks on the way to work and if I'm really into it, I don't want to stop and wait until the next day to keep going. I think it would be wonderful to be able to switch back and forth - perhaps a parallel bookmarking feature will be good. I know this first version doesn't do that, so we'll see what the next one has in store for us.

What I really want is for someone to do a compare and contrast article on the different models. The ubiquitous pro/con list, if you will. However, I want none of it to be in speculation. I want FACTS. That is what is making me crazy about this whole thing! Comments are most welcome on this subject and I will be updating if my Kindle ever gets here...