ebook?

Most ebooks use E-Ink or similar for the display because it does not require power to maintain a static image. It's also somewhat slow at updating compared to an LCD as used on computer displays, so unless there's some new wizardry about to be unveiled, it's hard to have a single screen that does both jobs at a sensible cost.

Form factor != function

To state the bleedin' obvious. The distinguishing attribute of eBooks to date is the use of an e-ink display. This gets the device battery lifetimes measured in days to weeks. This rumour is about LCD touchscreens, which gets the device a battery lifetime measured in hours. (Not to mention little things like colour versus black and white, and display update rate.) It might have a eBook like form factor, but it most certainly isn't an eBook, and clearly is not, and is not intended to be, a "Kindle killer"

The clear and obvious answer is that it is son of Newton. Something that had an "ebook form factor" long before ebooks were around. Indeed it might be more correct to say that ebooks have a Newton form factor.

MegiPhone

They could just make the iPhone a lot bigger (the size of a trade paperback or hardback book at half the thickness) and have a killer product.

@Dave and proponents of e-books.

its not just a power consideration (though I concede its a big factor). The //Ink// in the kindle is present as a double sided sphere, rather than a diode, so view angle ceases to be an issue, unlike the alternative OLED/LED/LCD displays.

Until The Powers That Be™ can form one with a built in Delicious fresh page scent, I'll have to refer y'all to penny arcade :

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/3/9/

(why are we trying to replace books? I want to own papery goodness, not rent access to some DRM-format file.)

This is perfectly true

I am posting anonymously, but I have inside knowledge of this device. The way it works is, it is linked to the iTunes store. You sign up to iTunes, then you buy your iBooks. They are all DRM'd of course. You manage the books on the thing through your Mac or Windows machine, and there is a special hook to detect if you are using Linux, which will delete all your books if you are.

There are also wonderful parental controls. What happens is, you can only load books onto the machine through the iBooks store, and no material with any sexual content whatever is going to be alliowed. The iBook will be a sex free zone. There will be no screening whatsoever for violent racist scatalogical or otherwise abusive material, the only thing that is a top priority for Apple is the elimination of all references to sexual activity.

Oh, and the works of Mark Twain are also banned, because they are considered subversive.

There are a number of things you cannot do with the device. One is, you cannot go to sleep with it on. It detects if you have it open but are not actually reading, and it emits a piercing alarm. It also detects any bouncing movements and does the same. This is in case you have suddenly decided to have sex with it open on the bed. Apple is strongly opposed to anyone having sex with their iReader open at the same time, in the same room, or even in the same house for that matter. They feel with St Paul that it is better to marry than burn, but not all that much better.

Criticism of the government of the day may also not be voiced with the iReader turned on. Well, there is more, but this is all I have time for. Oh, and it will have a direct line to the Authors Guild, and also to the RIAA. Apple does not approve of either of these, but is being compelled to its policies by them, Its not Apple's fault in any way, it is all theirs.

This is why you will not be able to move your books to Windows machines. The government has forbidden it.

The profit margin on the machine is said to be 600%. It is lovely, a classic of industrial design, and so integrated with the rest of the Apple product line that one can clearly see that it implements in new and striking form all of their long held values.

killer?

The only "Kindle Killer" in my books would be something that combines the illiad iRex touch screen and annotation functions (but not tied to Microsoft), the Mac Air form factor, and a device independent library of books that could be used. Amazon is just using the Kindle as a loss leader for their overpriced, DRM-infested online book selection. Something that gives me more choice would be the killer for me. As in, I'd be more likely to buy it. I've been waiting for a decent book reader for years.

re: ebook?

Didn't the XO from the OLPC folks have a dual-use screen that was either a standard LCD or a low-power monochrome display depending on how you were using the device?

If the OLPC people could do this a couple of years ago at a very low cost then I'm sure an improved, touchscreen version in ebook form-factor is possible.