I will address this more fully tomorrow when I have more time, but here are a couple of posts that lay out the two sides: - Meagan McArdle offers ten reasons why she loves her Kindle - James Joyner is......

When this or similar tech comes on the market the features will improve (weather proof, pdf support, more onboard memory etc) and the price will drop and I will get one.

For $400 you can get yourself an OLPC*, which is far more durable (rubberized case and "spillproof" keyboard), has more storage space, has WiFi connectivity, runs many applications, uses e-ink as well as a color LCD, and many more thinks I can't remember, and it doesn't seem to be much larger than the Kindle.

(*) During their "get-one, give-one" program, $400 got you a laptop, plus paid for the donation of another to a child in a 3rd world country. Nowadays your best option is to pick one up off of ebay for about the same price.

You've got to be kidding that this thing doesn't have .pdf support?!?!

From Wikipedia:

Although it supports unprotected Mobipocket books (.MOBI, .PRC), plain text files, and HTML and Word documents, Kindle also uses its own proprietary, DRM-restricted format (AZW). It does not fully support the widely accepted PDF format, but Amazon provides "experimental" conversion to the native AZW format.[14] Users may also convert PDF files to supported formats using third-party software.

and

Amazon offers an email-based service that will convert HTML, DOC (Microsoft Word), JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP documents to AZW.[9]

So by default it supports MOBI and plain text only, with an email-in conversion service for the others, and evidently the PDF isn't even working that well (it probably just rasterizes the PDF, which means you lose a lot of the benefit of the format).

My first two questions when this came out were: (i) what happens to it when you knock it off a table;

It will fall.

and (ii) what happens to it if you drop it in the bathtub.

It will sink.

Now, depending on your table height, and the quality of materials in the Kindle, it probably won't be that bad. The Kindle has no hard drive, which is usually what gets damaged when you drop a laptop. From what I've read, the e-ink seems more durable than a traditional LCD as well, though it may kill some pixels if something hits it's display.

The bathtub, however, is a completely different story. You probably don't want to submerge the Kindle. However, you can probably expect more versatile ebook readers in the future, with sealed cases to make them liquid resistant, and rubberized edges to make them drop resistant. New, flexible displays may also make things less breakable.

Still, no PDF support?

You've got to be kidding that this thing doesn't have .pdf support?!?!

The only reason I thought the kindle *might* be useful would be to load it full of a bunch of work-related .pdfs so that I didn't have to lug around a stack of photocopies when I'm on a flight.

Leaving off .pdf support seems like something microsoft would do--I would think Amazon might be smarter than that.

If this thing has a USB connection, or WiFi connectivity, then it might be worth the price. But watching a video demonstration, the user interface still seems terrible. There are better eBook readers available, the only think new about Kindle is that it comes with Amazon's wireless access to Amazon's store.