Playaway — The digital book is the player

No more downloading and fussing.

You buy a Playaway and you're good to go.

From the website:

• Simple — Just open the package and insert the included battery. Plug in the included earphones.

• Preloaded — Every Playaway comes already loaded with your favorite content, from novels to biographies, languages to history lessons. No cassettes. No CDs. No downloads – just play.

• Digital — Playaway delivers sound that's crisp and flawless. The ability to bookmark or speed read. And a simple keypad to control it all.

• Portable — Compact enough to fit in your hand or pocket. Light enough to fit comfortably around your neck. Flexible enough to plug into your earphones, your car or your home speakers.

Too bad the company's website is an absolute nightmare.

Loaded with Flash so it's slow; and not just Flash, but bad, annoying, silly, irritating Flash.

How can such things happen?

Easy: they never bothered to ask me first.

Hey, it's not my money, what do I care?

But I do.

That's just the way I am.

Let me offer my take on Flash: it should be used sparingly, like CPR.

Never unless absolutely called for.

But I digress.

Oh, hey, right, one more thing about the Playaway: you can't buy one just yet.

Or anytime in the near future.

They hope to have them out this year.

Or as the more cynical among us like to say, "real soon now."

[via AW]