I'm surprised the length of calls has gone down. Texting has replaced a lot of my short phone calls. I make fewer calls now but they're much longer.

@Slightly1138: Maybe once or twice a year for me. My regular clothes doesn't need it. My husband doesn't care if his shirts are a bit rumpled. If it's a special occasion, I'll send the shirts to be done professionally. At $1-$2 per shirt, it's hard to justify $100 for an iron and my free time.

@isights: You need a case anyway and the light is powered off the Kindle itself through the case clips. Once again, the Kindle 3 has a new generation of screen with massively improved contrast. I'm not saying you have to like it but the flashlight strawman is really rather absurd.

@snitch: Or you could just buy both. It's not like you have to choose only one.

@redfalcon: Yep. They even make a case with one built right in. It's tiny and so convenient. It really came in hand when I was camping this weekend.

@zross312: I don't think they need to choose at all. Pointing out that the Kindle is better for reading in some situations doesn't necessarily eliminate the desire for a multitasker like the iPad. It's not an either/or proposition. With a $140 price tag and a smaller, lighter form factor, and Whispersync it's very…

@isights: Actually the new Pearl screen is very readable in low light. You do still need some light of course, but you don't need the bright light you did before. And they make things like lamps and book lights. Much more convenient than flashlights. The book light built into the Kindle case is tiny and does a great…

@adt1015: Mine used to have a working one but the screen got cracked. I'm sure that happened pretty often.

@lemariachi: I think what epublishing does is open the door for the equivalent of indie labels for books. You will have places like fastpencil which are the equivalent of vanity press. If I see them listed as publisher, I know that. But a good indie house that actually sorted the slush pile and brought out interesting…

@CarbonatedFalcon: The last figure I read is that ebook reading has moved to a whopping 9% of the market. It's significant and growing (while print is shrinking) but the vast majority of books sold are still sold on wood pulp as you say.

@phrequency: If they're ending up with a backlog it's because they're still buying like they did with print. Back when I read printed books, I would go to the book store and buy enough books to get me through the next few weeks. I didn't really have time to read much of the books before I bought. I was just guessing…

@ikaiyoo: Awesome. I'm going to be needing that.

@air2ground: Sometime after 2004 because mine doesn't unless I'm stopped.

@OCEntertainment: Yep. Even having it read back to you is a good thing and doable now. At least then people could be reassured it wasn't something that had to be answered right away rather than wondering if that beep was going to mean your boss yelling at you when you get into work.

@OCEntertainment: Sorry. Didn't mean to sounds so critical. I realize now, rereading, that it came off a bit harsh. The whole topic just gets me all riled since I see so many erratic drivers every day talking and texting.

@thehouserules: Your friend shuts up when things get hairy on the road because they can see what's going on. Also the sound quality is better live so your brain doesn't have to fill in as much data.

@Nick: Fear of lawsuits.

@hengehog: I generally just stop. Or wait until I get where I'm going. I'm pretty sure the world isn't going to spin off it's axis because it took me 5 minutes to LOL.

@OCEntertainment: Has it ever been such an emergency that even taking 5 or 10 minutes to respond would be impossible? There are very few times where that's true unless you're an on-call surgeon or something. Also, usually when something is a crashing emergency, someone calls me rather than texting or emailing.

@rafflesia: Have you tried waving your cane at them? That generally helps.