What about reading e-books on a 10 inch screen? It seems a better deal than a Kindle if content is available.
I don’t think any of them have that ‘e-ink’ technology that makes the ebook readers more attractive.
The readers are way too expensive at the moment, but a friend of mine showed me one and it is NICE...when they hit the $100 price point, I’ll pick one up in a second.
Most Asus laptops that use the Xandros Linux OS include FBReader which accepts most non-DRM e-book content, which means you can read content from a lot of providers, but not all of them.
I have set up a SDHC card as a ‘device’ on Mobipocket, and every time I pop the card into the slot on the desktop, it copies over the reading material I want for the day, and using FBReader, I turn the screen and hold the netbook by the spine, and it’s quite comfortable. Biggest downfall is battery life compared to the Kindle - with the wireless turned off, I get about 3 hours on a standard battery while reading on an Asus 900, but the 1000 series can go about 8 hours with e-book reading. I have an extended battery I got from DealExtreme which makes it more comfortable to hold, actually, with the netbook turned and reading it like a page.
Most netbooks are about the size of a thin hardbound book, so the format’s familiar to most people, and I just use the mouse buttons to turn the page, though you could assign whatever key is most comfortable for you, depending on which software you’re using.
If you’re a member of Sam’s Club, they have the faster Dells running for $250 right now, and 8gb of ram on them stores a HUGE library of e-books.
try going to Project Gutenberg and also The Classic Reader Library.
All books there are free. Using a nice free piece of software called Ybook Reader, you can download the books use your Netbook as an eBook...just like I do. Or just read them online. Tons of free book titles.
Wait until ASUS T91 arrives - a $500 net tablet. You buy a Book reader and get GPS, TV and Windows apps thrown in for free.