I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the device since I bought my first one about 9 months ago. As a frequent traveler and voracious reader, I’ve found the Kindle to be nearly ideal. I never have fewer than a dozen books in its memory, and they’re always things I want to read.

As someone who believes we should often interact with media instead of passively consuming it, however, I don’t think much of the Kindle for any purpose other than reading a narrative. And given what a disaster “digital rights management” (DRM) is becoming for scholarship, culture and ultimately freedom, the device’s restrictions on how I can use what I’ve purchased are deeply troubling.

Still, I’ve been using it with some degree of satisfaction (as have enough other people to have helped boost Amazon’s stock price, so as the holder of several hundred shares I’m slightly better off in that way, too). The second-generation model improved nicely on the first–among other things, fixing some user-interface quirks, letting me charge it via a USB cable, and boosting the battery life.

The books I load onto the device fall generally under the casual entertainment category. I buy a Kindle book the way I buy a movie ticket (or did before going to theaters became such a crappy experience).

These are books, like most movies, that I’ll read or watch once and forget about. A physical book is more like a DVD–something I want to own and enjoy again and again.

So the kinds of books I tend to buy for the Kindle are the sort I’d often pick up at an airport newsstand, namely mysteries, thrillers and semi-trashy novels that I’d sometimes leave in hotels or airplane seat-back pockets once I’d finished them. (I also subscribe to several magazines, and consider it a favor not to see the advertising.)

Once I got accustomed to reading e-books, I started doing something that had been out of character in the analog era: buying new books that, in print, were available in hardcover only. Why? The price, typically $10 (okay, one penny less), was right. In fact, my new-book purchases soared.

But not for long. In recent weeks, Amazon (AMZN) or the publishers (or both) have done their best to deter me from buying the latest releases. Prices have gone up, way up.

Now, I often find books for which I’d have gladly paid $10 listed at $14 or $15. I save these to a list I keep on the Amazon website, called “Too expensive for Kindle,” and periodically check to see if the price has dropped. So far, not yet on any of these.

Hiking prices this way creates a bad deal for the customer. Amazon’s price for a new hardcover is typically just a couple of dollars higher. This means I could buy the hardcover, read it and donate it to my local library, and–after the tax deduction–come out ahead. I’d do even better taking the book to my local used-book store and getting cash.

But I almost never buy new hardcovers of books I don’t expect to reread or use as a reference, because a) I’m kind of cheap; and b) I can stand waiting for the paperback. So if prices stay high, I stay away.

Now, sellers have every right to charge more for popular books, especially when they’re new. This is basic supply and demand. But when the price only makes sense for people who consider the ultra-portability of an e-book paramount, that’s a turnoff for other potential buyers.

As a customer I also understand supply and demand. My demand is extremely elastic, and in this case it’s snapped.

Last week’s introduction of the Kindle DX was framed in many ways by different constituencies, but I was taken aback by the praise heaped on the device by several newspaper people, including the CEO of the New York Times Co. (NYT) (in which I also own a small amount of stock). Newspapers aren’t going to fix their considerable woes with Kindles, and anyone who thinks so lives in a fantasy world.

The DX, with its bigger screen, strikes me as potentially useful in several ways, possibly including the textbook function that Amazon hopes to jumpstart with the help of several universities (including the one that employs me). But if textbook publishers don’t radically cut prices on the outrageously expensive books they sell, they will find themselves creating a strong incentive for precisely what they don’t want: unauthorized copying.

I suspect the DX will prove most useful in more prosaic ways. For example, it could be a nearly ideal container and viewer for technical documentation–thick manuals that need periodic updating, where the cost of printing is prohibitive and the bulk of the books is daunting for the user.

Will all of this be made moot by the widely anticipated Apple (AAPL) “NetPad” or whatever it’s going to be called? I refer to a device that looks like a larger version of the iPod Touch, which would be a wonderful mobile multimedia player, among other likely capabilities.

I doubt it. If you enjoy severe eye strain, reading books on a back-lit, glossy display is just the ticket. The passive displays on Kindles, the Sony (SNE) e-reader and other such devices are much better for this kind of reading.

One size does not fit all in the emerging world of devices. Then again, one carry-on bag doesn’t hold all devices. For now, however, the Kindle has a place in mine.

The new Kindle that Jeff Bezos unveiled today came more or less as advertised–it looks and acts the same as the Kindle 2, but flaunts a much bigger screen.

And a much bigger price tag. The $489 retail price Amazon rolled out today seemed to take some of the air out of the auditorium at Pace University, where Bezos showed off the device. But I’m not sure that anyone was overwhelmed with the DX to begin with. “It’s like the Kindle 2.5,” quipped a publishing executive sitting next to me.

I think the Kindle does have promise as a college textbook replacement, but that’s going to take a while. Amazon and six schools are testing out the gadget this fall, but just barely–an estimated 300 students will get their hands on one.

And if Amazon (AMZN) wants to position the DX as a device to help revive the dying newspaper business, it’s going to have to make sure that the newspapers are actually gung-ho about the idea. For now at least, they seem to have reservations–which is why the Washington Post and New York Times are only willing to subsidize the gadgets for people who live outside of delivery zones.

EARLIER:

Big questions at the newest Kindle unveiling at Pace University today:

• Will the Kindle 3.0 save newspapers?
• Will the Kindle 3.0 save students money on textbooks?
• Will the Kindle 3.0 help cement the gadget’s promise as the iPod of e-books?

I can answer some of this in advance:

• No.
• Maybe. But not in the near future: Academia moves very, very slowly. So even if the Kindle 3.0 is an instant hit on campuses, it will take a very, very long time for most students to use the gadgets for most of their coursework.
• Apple’s (AAPL) rumored tablet may have something to say about that.

I’m covering the event live. Please refresh for the newest info, which will appear at the top of my transcript, below.

11:08: Demo’s over. Air is let out of the room with that price.

11:06: Bezos himself has yet to mention price. Other details: 9.7-inch display. 3.3 GB of storage. Native PDF support. There’s the price: $489. Audience: “Ouch!”

11:05: Meanwhile, CNET’s Ina Fried points us to the Amazon.com preorder page, which says the machine will sell for a whopping $489.

11:03: To be clear: The problem was with the projection at Pace, not the Kindle itself.

11:01: “I’m going to choose to find this hilarious.” Screen fixed now. Now looking at a New York Times page. Now the screen is dead again. “You may just have to do your demos outside.” Bezos soldiering through. “I don’t think it makes sense to continue with the demo.” And now it’s fixed again!

10:59: Shows off document on rockets. “I know, I know.” Some tech difficulties with big-screen displays here at Pace. Image is backward. Bezos is game: “That’s not a feature that will be available….Think of yourself as looking through a mirror.”

10:57: Time for a demo. Showing off SEC filings, radar maps, analyst reports. Sheet music. And you know what? They look great.

10:54: New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. comes onstage. Our “embrace” of the Kindle DX demonstrates that we’re interested in using all platforms. But this is an “experiment.” “Thank you, Amazon.com, thank you Jeff, for helping to boost [reporters'] book sales.”

10:53: What about newspapers?

This summer, three newspapers have agreed to pilot Kindle DX. They’re going to offer the DX for reduced price in exchange for long-term subscriptions. The papers are the New York Times (NYT), Boston Globe and Washington Post (WPO).

10:50: “We’re going to get students with smaller backpacks. less load. easier access.” Schools testing the Kindle are, as previously advertised, except not Pace University itself. Now Case Western President Barbara Snyder is reading statement, a bit stiffly.

10:47: Most of the documents we read are 8.5-by-11 inches. The information is structured to be read that way. “Even with electronic paper, you need a big display.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Kindle DX.”

As advertised, it’s a large-format Kindle. Apologies for lag. Wi-Fi problems here at Pace.

“I’m very excited to announce today that we’ve reached agreement with three leading textbook publishers that represent 60 percent of the market: Pearson, Cengage Learning and Wiley.”

10:43: Now on to the problem with paper: “The paperless society never came. We print more paper now than we ever have before. Computers have proliferated. And so have their evil companion, the ink toner cartridge. We sell a lot of these….The reason we print so much is that computer displays are worse display devices than paper. Paper is just better. It’s worth the hassle of printing.”

10:41: Next, a sales pitch reiterating Kindle’s advantages. Some head-nodding in the audience.

10:37: Bezos onstage. Kindle book sales now account for 35 percent of all book sales for titles available in both e-book and physical forms. This is up from 13 percent. A spike occurred when the Kindle 2.0 launched.

BoomTown posted from various spots in Europe this week, yet managed to follow the geek-tastic goodness of Silicon Valley’s own contender, Apple (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak, who competed while injured this week on “Dancing With the Stars”–and escaped elimination via the love of viewers in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Another founder made the headlines this week–BoomTown noted that Steve Case appeared at a huge pep rally at Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL. Case and former AOL exec Ted Leonsis gave their support (and a lucky green tie) to new CEO Tim Armstrong. Elsewhere, Pure Digital, the maker of BoomTown’s favorite gadget–the ever-present Flip digital video camera–sold itself to Cisco (CSCO) for $590 million in stock, and BoomTown urged Silicon Valley to remember it’s not immune to the recession, to put its nose to the grindstone and to avoid party-hearty inanity.

Guess no one’s taking heed of the warning, though: MediaMemo reports that no one’s getting anything done at work–CBS (CBS) says its March Madness Web traffic is up 57 percent compared to last year. On top of that, television viewership rose various percentages throughout the week. MM wasn’t watching much basketball this week, though–there was plenty to blog about: The New York Times (NYT) cracked down on unauthorized use of its photos; Discovery Communications (DISCA) announced a patent infringement suit against Amazon and its Kindle Reader; Palm (PALM) delivered dismal third quarter results, putting even greater pressure on the success of the Pre; and in a Q&A with BusinessWeek editor Stephen Adler, Steve Ballmer said he’s open to a phone call from Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz whenever she’s ready to talk. Oh, and in case you were wondering what happened at SXSW, MediaMemo got a Google (GOOG) guy to explain it.

Digital Daily’s March Madness started with a liveblog of Apple’s St. Patrick’s Day press event to unveil version 3.0 of its iPhone OS, a chronicle of the myriad features displayed onstage and a live photoblog to back it up. DD noted that sales of the iPod touch and iPhone have outstripped RIM’s (RIMM) combined BlackBerry sales by a factor of… well, by a LOT. Kind of supports the data that say mobile Web use doubled over the last year. Which is good, because Mac sales were no good in February.

In Personal Technology, Walt Mossberg reviewed the latest release of Microsoft IE8 (MSFT), its most comprehensive release in many years. His verdict? Mixed, of course. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt talked to readers about the many models of BlackBerry phones and how they differ from one another, the new iPod shuffle and its earphone compatibility and upgrading Vista to Windows 7. In the Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret reviewed the Ee Top, Asus’s first foray into the all-in-one PC market.

More next week. Go Woz!

After its official unveiling on Feb. 9, the e-book reader started shipping on Monday, and actually managed to grab much–but not all–of the hype that’s surrounded Twitter of late. The device has been met with much acclaim, though it’s by no means unanimous. Jeff Bezos made an appearance on “The Daily Show” Monday night to make his pitch to an as-yet unimpressed Jon Stewart. His main sell? “We’d make it cheaper if we could.” Roy Blount Jr., President of the Authors Guild, isn’t thrilled about the Kindle either, but his objection isn’t price–it’s that he believes the text-to-speech feature on the device threatens the audio book market. Rather than engaging in battle with the Guild, Amazon (AMZN) decided to modify the Kindle’s software to make text-to-speech optional. Meanwhile, the Hearst Corporation announced development of its own “Kindle Kopy” aimed at capturing the newspaper and magazine market. The Kindle 2 itself has been shipping for just a week and it’s already gotten some print media looking over its shoulder. It remains to be seen, though, whether it’ll earn the moniker of “iPod for books.” Walt Mossberg’s comprehensive review of the device this week provided a glimpse into its actual pros and cons and some insight into the Kindle hubbub from a hands-on perspective.

Elsewhere, much of the news this week was about reorganizations in the digital space. BoomTown covered the much-anticipated Yahoo (YHOO) reorg, which was sketched out by CEO Carol Bartz for employees first in a post to the company blog, then elaborated upon in not one, but two, internal memos. Even BoomTown’s attention began to wander there toward the end. Must’ve been something in the water this week, because Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL kicked in a little reorganization of its own–CEO Randy Falco announced that Maneesh Dhir, head of AOL International, would be leaving the company and returning to his entrepreneurial roots, and ad head Greg Coleman announced a reshuffling of his own group. Over at News Corp. (NWS), upon official announcement of President and COO Peter Chernin’s departure, CEO Rupert Murdoch alluded to a reorg sometime in the future, and an immediate commitment to “streamlining” the business.

In Mossberg’s Mailbox this week, Walt answered questions about transferring data to an iPhone, giving Vista a dedicated graphics card, and using TrueSwitch to transfer email accounts when switching ISPs. And in the Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret took a look at the ways different mobile companies back up your data and give you access to it.

More next week.

Oprah is already on record as a Kindle fan. Jon Stewart–not so much.

“The Daily Show” host let Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on his show last night to pitch the Kindle 2.0, which started shipping yesterday. And while Bezos is an enthusiastic salesman, I think the clip below is pretty indicative of the Kindle’s strengths and weaknesses as a mass-market device.

That is: For some folks, the ability to download books over the air, store a gazillion titles on a single device and have a “freaky” voice read them aloud to you are compelling reasons to shell out $359 for the gadget. For skeptics like Stewart, it’s hard to see how Amazon (AMZN) has improved upon the ink-and-paper book, which uses technology that has worked pretty well for several hundred years.

But if you’ve got five minutes, this is a pretty entertaining back-and-forth.

One aside: I particularly enjoyed Stewart’s befuddled reaction when Bezos mentions “DRM,” the digital lock-and-key system that supposedly enrages consumers.

And since we’re talking about Seattle-based tech CEOs visiting “The Daily Show,” let’s take a couple seconds to recall Bill Gates’s 2007 interview, when he was pitching Vista. Best way to describe that one: Buggy.

CEO Jeff Bezos did, however, reiterate an interesting tweak that Amazon (AMZN) has in the works: At some point, it’s going let you read Kindle material on devices other than a Kindle. Bezos just mentioned this briefly, noting that you can now sync material between your old Kindle and your new Kindle, and “in the future, other mobile devices.”

That Bezos and his team took time to point this out on a slide during a brief launch presentation means that they’re definitely signaling at… something. But Amazon being Amazon, the company didn’t say anything else.

Last week, an Amazon spokesperson allowed that the company is “excited” about the idea. Today, I tried to get Amazon exec Ian Freed to elaborate, but he deflected my clever queries. See video below for evidence of my futility–it kicks in around a minute into the clip.

If he thinks customers don’t really feel that way, then perhaps he’s trying to build up as large an installed base as he can before e-books really do go mainstream so that he’ll have a lock-in like the one Apple ended up achieving with its iPod/iTunes system. But if that were the case, you’d figure he’d cut gadget prices dramatically to grab share.

Alternate theory: Bezos truly believes the Kindle is a unique platform and that anyone who reads on anything else is doing so and hating the experience. If that’s the case, then perhaps he starts providing Kindle titles in the near future–so that people can see just how unpleasant it is to read a book on any other device.

Anyone else want to weigh in?

Meantime, here’s Amazon’s own video. Much more polished, but very long. Six minutes!

BoomTown provided continuing coverage of the Yahoo (YHOO) merry-go-round. This time, PR head Jill Nash announced her departure. As the company’s chief communications officer, she’s had a challenging two-year run. New CEO Carol Bartz definitely has some PR ideas of her own, including offering cash prizes to employees who provide info on their colleagues who leak information to the press. Not a huge deterrent yet, apparently–it didn’t take long for BoomTown to get info on both Nash’s farewell memo and Bartz’s bounty system. Next, New Networks, the publisher behind BarelyPolitical and its hugely viral Obama Girl videos, has widened its purview to include the tech sector with BarelyDigital, which the online network has envisioned to include regular shows, tech news remixes and the like. It’s rumored that Obama Girl will be making a cameo appearance or two. If the first two features are any indication, the future looks pretty funny. In another round of executive musical chairs, Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL ad head Lynda Clarizio will be leaving the online service, to be replaced by former Yahoo ad exec Greg Coleman. Microsoft (MSFT) is launching a slick new celebrity site on MSN called Wonderwall, created, designed and produced by BermanBraun Interactive, a Hollywood company run by former Yahoo media chief Lloyd Braun. And speaking of musical chairs, MSN is clearly upping its content ante–earlier this week, it hired Yahoo’s recent media head Scott Moore, who used to work at Microsoft.

MediaMemo asked: What happens when one of the world’s richest men lets loose a swarm (a small swarm) of mosquitoes at a high-end conference? Nothing too exciting, really, but when you consider that the stunt was the publicity-generating part of Bill Gates’s talk at TED, which was a discussion of malaria and some of the problems the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is facing head-on, it gets pretty compelling. Kindle 2.0, the new generation of the device dubbed the “iPod of the book world” will be unveiled Monday at a New York press event, but how many of the devices have been sold thus far? Amazon’s (AMZN) not telling, but Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney estimates the number at 500,000–and believes that the Kindle will be a $1.2 billion business next year. Obviously, a lot will depend on Monday and the new device’s reception. MediaMemo also took some time out this week to wish Facebook a happy fifth birthday, and to stack its track record next to Google’s at the same age, with interesting results. Even the pros are getting hit hard these days–in its quarterly earnings report this week, News Corp. (NWS) missed its estimates, recorded an $8.4 billion write-off and lowered its guidance. CEO Rupert Murdoch admitted that the downturn is worse than he thought. He also admitted that he spent $2.8 billion too much for Dow Jones. (News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones and this Web site.)

Digital Daily followed the trial of four Google executives this week on criminal charges of defamation and breach of privacy after a much-publicized two-year investigation. Google (GOOG) insists the charges are unwarranted and “akin to prosecuting mail service employees for hate speech letters sent in the post.” Clearly, the ultimate outcome will have a huge impact on the future of a free, open Internet. MySpace said this week that it has identified and ousted 90,000 registered sex offenders–and those are just the ones brilliant enough to use their real names. There’s no way of knowing how many are actually using the service or how to prevent them from re-registering once they’re deleted. A free an open Internet, indeed. DD also pondered the future (or lack thereof) of the Motorola (MOT) handset division. Co-CEO Sanjay Jha says the company is committed to making the business work, but its products are looking boring and outdated, and a turnaround would be prohibitively expensive to execute. In the words of one analyst, the company’s problems are “gruesome.” On the other end of the spectrum, Microsoft continues to vehemently deny reports that it’ll be producing its own smartphone. In a report this week, analysts from Broadpoint.AmTech speculated that the device could be uncrated later this month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Meanwhile, it’s been up in the air for two years whether or not iPhones will ever be uncrated in historic Georgetown. Apple (AAPL) has been around the table a few times now with preservationists wary of the architectural impact of an Apple store, no matter how much the business traffic is needed in the neighborhood. Looks like perseverance may have finally paid off, though–Georgetown’s Apple store could open later this year.

In Personal Technology this week, Walt Mossberg took a look at a program called Foxmarks, which sets out to synchronize bookmarks among all of your browsers and all of your machines. Sound a little too handy to actually work well? Walt found it does a pretty good job, with a few caveats. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt responds to readers who want to know more about doing “techie” maintenance on their PCs to keep them running well, whether or not to buy a 15-inch MacBook Pro, and options for email within Windows 7, which won’t ship with a built-in email program. In the Mossberg Solution, Katherine Boehret tests Google Latitude, an opt-in program that lets users track one another’s movements on their smartphones using GPS, Wi-Fi, and cell towers. Kind of like Gawker Stalker, only with permission and without Lindsay Lohan (unless you happen to be Lindsay Lohan).

Last but not least, Silicon Valley lost one of its own this week. The widely admired and much loved Mike Homer, whose rare, severe illness was a rallying point for many over the past months, passed away last weekend and was laid to rest on Thursday.

More next week.

Amazon notes on its Web site that “due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is sold out.” Amazon advises ordering now, though, “to reserve a place in line,” noting that orders will be filled on a first come, first served basis. The site says that the Kindle usually ships “in 11-13 weeks.” Silicon Alley Insider notes that the long wait suggests that those who order now could actually end up with Kindle 2.0, which is expected to launch in Q1.

Maybe Oprah bought them all.

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