The emotions about reading books in digital form and the Amazon Kindle are running high, already before the device was released. For me there are two features that sold me on the device: the networked content push and the content interaction. I have had many pda's, phones and tablets over the years that I setup to automatically pull in feeds such I could read them on the bus or plane. But none of these devices were designed for easy reading of longer articles, or if they were, like my tablet, they would be difficult to use outside and often awkward given their size. The Kindle is a very different kind of reading experience, much closer to a book than a pda. The pictures don’t do justice to its size and weight. I have had pda’s that were heavier. You do not need to connect, ever; your newspapers will show up no matter where you are. And you leave the charger at home when you travel, there is more than enough jiuce for a multi-day trip. The content interaction is interesting; dog-ears, bookmarks, annotations are easy and useful.

Technology-wise there is a nice quote in Jeff Bezos' Newsweek interview

This isn't a device, it's a service.