I was sceptical but given the price and decent reviews I may get one for my mums birthday.
How easy is it to download and buy books from the kindle? My mum can get the hang of things on computers but is often slow at doing so. Also newspapers are mentioned, are all the daily nationals available?
Downloading books is very easy, paid ones that is anyway. You press the menu button, select shop in kindle store, then either search or browse. If you have Amazon 1 touch ordering on, then you then press buy and it appears on your Kindle in seconds (depending on whether you're using 3G or wifi). The whole process takes about 3 clicks and a minute or so.
The other impressive thing is you email [account name]@free.kindle.com with the subject line convert (obviously from a computer), then within a minute you have a document converted to native format and on the Kindle. If you leave the subject line blank it transfers it as is. Again, both wifi permitting. If you have no wifi the same thing can be done (with the 3G version), but the email is [account name]@kindle.com and you get charged 10p or something.
With regard to newspapers and magazines there's quite a few, but as I don't read them I can only go by the ads I've noticed and most seem £9.99 a month and some are £1 for first 30 days and some are free for 14 days and the like.
One thing I would say though, is although it supports pdfs, using pdfs directly is a pain and it's simpler and less painless to convert using the amazon service or Calibre.
I bought the 3G one, but given the higher price I now think it's not really required unless you truly want stuff NOW and you have no wifi.
After living with it for but a few days, I absolutely love it though. I've got about 20 books on it and love going between them and the way it always resumes from where you were. I also like the way you move the cursor next to any word (apart from short simple words) and it gives you a dictionary definition automatically in a subtle pop-up. If you also start typing somewhere on screen you can leave the quivilent of margin notes and even browse these like contents or something.
It's by no means the most technologically advanced piece of equipment out there, but god it does simplicity and function well. I also still find myself impressed by the screen even after hours of use!
