The big drawback, IMHO, is that you have to pay to put your own ebooks onto the device and you can't buy from any other source except Amazon.com without pain. This is like sneaking in a very restrictive DRM.

Me? I'm a Boomer. I like my real books. The Kindle is supposedly named after kindling wood, which is what they are going to use to burn all the real books once e-books take over the world. Not for me.

(Book paper burns at Fahrenheit 451)

My point, however, was that there is no conversion charge unless you send it wirelessly, using Sprint's network, to the Kindle.

You're basically given 2 options.

Option A(Free Option): You send it to an email address like free@kindle.com, and it will send it back to your email in the proper format for free. Also, so you don't have to add loads of files to an email at once you can send a zip of many files. Then you must manually move said file onto the Kindle through the USB.

Option B(Charge Option): You send it to an email address like sendittomykindle@kindle.com and it will convert it and send it directly to the Kindle using the EVDO for a 10 cent charge.

Huh, the ZDNet review said PDFs can be converted. I'd been looking at the Kindle to replace my Reader so this was something I was trying to find out considering I have quite a few Public Domain books from feedbooks.com

"...You can convert files in one of two ways: you can either send attachments wirelessly to the device's personal e-mail address, which will cost you $.10 per attachment. Or you can send them to a "free" Kindle e-mail address that you access via your Windows or Mac OS computer and then transfer the converted files to your Kindle manually via USB (it appears as a drive). According to Amazon, to reduce wireless charges, your best bet is to zip up a bunch of files in an attachment, then send the ZIP file wirelessly to the Kindle's personal e-mail address, where the ZIP file will automatically be unzipped and the files converted.

PDF files can also be converted and viewed, but like with Sony's Reader, they won't necessarily display properly because the PDF is scaled to fit the screen. You can increase the font size of Word documents but you can't zoom in on PDF files, which can makes them hard to read because they're being reduced to fit on the screen. PDF's take several seconds to load (as they often do on a computer). Also, one image-based PDF we tried (an architectural floor plan) wasn't viewable at all."

Perhaps these paragraph sections are separate, I just assumed the PDFs were converted by the email. Maybe the Kindle converts the file on the fly, dunno. I'll have to look into it some more. I didn't even think to try the email address, I assumed it wouldn't do it unless your email account was connected to a Kindle.

If you buy a Kindle, be sure to save all the original boxes and packaging. Mine quit receiving downloads after two weeks (although I had connectivity and it happily would allow me to order more books, etc. from the "Kindle Store"). Amazon would be happy to take it back... if I had the original packaging, which I foolishly discarded, thinking a $400 item would actually work. I compute my bargain books so far cost me close to $70 each... Don't expect any support from Kindle "Support"...I gave up after almost 2 hours on hold on the phone. Email replies are perfunctory "Gee, we dunno, we'll get back to you later." I regard this is a massive marketing rip-off and system failure. Something is very wrong with the vaunted Amazon system. I am chalking this up to a hard lesson learned. Mine is now an expensive piece of junk!

I think my Kindle is the most beautiful product I have ever seen. I judge it on the basis of what it does for me, not for what it looks like -- that's a very shallow viewpoint. And I truly love mhy Kindle -- it goes with me everywhere -- to the join, to the restaurant, to bed with me where I found it is the only book I can read in bed (try turning the page of a regular book with one hand like I used to read my Kindle). I keep my charger by my bed and regharge it every night like Kindle recommends. That way I can keep th wireless switch on at all times, unless I am on an airplane, which I just turn it off, but keep the Kindle on with no problem. While I buy a reasonable number of books from the Kindle store, most books I get are free from the out-of-copyright free ebooks available on the internet. These are the true classics of the world, and the books I learned to love reading in my youth before there was even radio much less TV or computers to distract me like there is today