2) Blogs are based on links, to both blogly and non-blogly sites. Even if most blogs would display just the text from the feeds, the reader would HAVE to be able to display generic web pages. Essentially, you need a web browser, at least a bare-bones one. (I.e., you may not need separate bookmarks, extensions, etc.)

3) Blogs are driven by feedback from their readers. You need either a software or a hardware keyboard, so readers can leave comments.

4) Blogs are supported by advertising. It might be obnoxious to some readers, but blogs and periodicals will be more willing to give their subscriptions away for free if the reader can preserve their ads. Otherwise, you’re stuck with a pay-per-blog fee like the Kindle is.

5) You need an online marketplace that also allows you to purchase content, for periodicals that would prefer to sell to subscribers rather than go 100% ad-supported. Right now, The New Yorker reserves some web articles for its print subscribers; I could imagine that you could become a “subscriber” of both print and web editions through the store. The reader would also need a keychain/password manager to keep up with these subscriptions and other login information.

6) Twitter is a kind of blogging. You need a microblogging client — preferably one that’s separate from the regular RSS reader.

7) Why only do blogreading when so many of us are also blogwriters? You need either a generic blogging client similar to MarsEdit or the ability to download specific ones for WordPress, etc.

8) You need cut-and-paste, and the ability to move quickly back-and-forth between reading, navigating subscriptions, commenting, and writing.

9) Some of this functionality could be performed by add-on apps or plugins, rather than being built-in by default. Then, of course, you need an app marketplace, plus the ability to install add-ons at the user level.

10) I consider the following open questions, but I’d answer yes to all of them:
* Do you need color?
* Do you need images?
* Do you need video?
* Do you need audio?

Google Reader + enough local storage for offline reading.

Flexibile, open operating system to add browser-aids, multimedia as I see fit. A smartbook, as opposed to as smartphone.

No. No. No. And NO!

Don’t you see? If that happens mankind will never break free from the shackles of POWERPOINT!

The bleaching of one week will make enough contrast between what was taped and what was not for a message?? Will you post a link to a picture when you are done?

1) E-ink. Isn’t this still the true magic sauce of the Kindle? It’s simply much easier on the eyes, less energy-consumptive, no fan or heat block on your lap?

2) You queue up a bunch of stuff and then you want to crawl into bed, and you really just want to read,and you don’t want to have to shut down your computer thereafter, or be sucked into clicking on links. It’s self-contained.

What does a computer give you:
1) multi-purposeness makes it feel less like a one-off indulgence, especially for people who don’t live in the media gadget bubble.

2)You can comment really easily

3) You get color and the blog can link to all sorts of other things that you can then also explore on the same multi-purpose machine.

So a blog-tuned reading machine would keep the reflective ink and the low energy useage, be a little cheaper, get an ergonomic keyboard, color and a really good way of bookmarking things and syncing with your main computer so that you can note things and later go exploring with the full power of a PC . I think this latter point is key. I don’t see how any of these would hurt a reading machine that wanted you to read books. I do think there are ways it might hurt a reading machine that wanted you to buy books from only one particular source.

Robin, correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the intrinsic sense of low spending friction is the combination of a device on which accessing your product is really pleasant (boils down to the reflective ink and good software on top of that) and having a really well stocked store to go shopping in. Seeing lots of products being sold for relatively small prices makes it easier for you to convince yourself that you’re getting a bargain and getting the perfect product for yourself, that you could have been much more of a spendthrift but you actually restrained yourself.

Graphics get converted to very small icon/thumbnails that display when tapped. And to converted to black and white for now since color + affordability won’t be along for awhile.

In the very late 90s there I saw a prototype called the Go Tablet that had a lot of this functionality — not touch screen, but stylus. Annotations done by stylus too. No web functionality at that time, but it was clearly implicit in the device.

A lot of the above I assume, based on no information at all, to be some of the functionality that would show up in the Apple Tablet. Why? Because if I wanted to kill the Kindle, that’s one of the areas I’d design into it.