Amazon Kindle

[TinkTanker]

Barnes and Noble's stock fell about 9% on the news of this, Amazon up nearly five per cent.

[Eric]

Another correction:  The $79 version is not a touch screen.  It only uses the very simple set of buttons at the bottom.

Video: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-2011-impressions/

[Eric]

Looks like my parents are going to be getting another Kindle hand-me-down after I get my Ktouch.

Three downsides for a touch screen are finger-smudges, accidental page flips and a keyboard that can be challenging for fat fingers.

The only upsides to touch screens I can think of is for highlighting/looking up a word or making page-swipe motions. Others' mileage may vary.

[TinkTanker]

I don't know about the Nook Simple Touch, but Ann's Kindle has something of a matte finish and smudges aren't an issue. The physical keyboard on the Kindle is a nightmare, IMHO. On her Nook Color, she usually flips it to landscape mode for typing. Both have their pros and cons, but I'm a big fan of touchscreens.

[Spooky]

I agree with Tink on the smudges. The matte screen makes finger prints and smudges much less obvious, but I can only guess if the Ktouch has the same screen or not.

[TinkTanker]

Now fingerprints show up in the iPad like crazy, just as they do on my phone. I keep one of those eyeglass cloths on the iPad case to clean it up when it gets too bad.

I would imagine the $79 Kindle and $99/$149 KT would have the matte finish screens (being e-ink readers) and the Fire would have a glossy screen, being backlit LCD.

[Eric]

Yeah, the NookST has a matte screen too and is far better than a glossy screen.  If the smudges don't bother you, then you're golden.  I find myself cleaning mine every so often, but I could just be being anal. Most of the time I don't notice them. Or maybe I should cut back on the Cheetos while reading?

[TinkTanker]

Ann usually wears a hazmat suit while reading hers, so that might have something to do with it.

[Spooky]

Why, on the Kindle forums, are some many people asking how you would turn the page on a Kindle Touch or asking if it has buttons to turn the page?

[AdmiralDigby]

Why, on the Kindle forums, are some many people asking how you would turn the page on a Kindle Touch or asking if it has buttons to turn the page?

They're as dumb as me ?