8 Eneloop AAs at 2.1Ahrs and a typical 1.3V = 22Whrs, which ain't bad. NiMH energy per volume is not that much less than Li+, however energy per weight is quite a bit less, but 8 Eneloop cells cost about $20, and that's a LOT less than Li+. For a cheap netbook, this seems like a very reasonable idea.

Can you really recover anything useful from braking? I hardly ever use the brakes on my bike. This really looks like extra pounds for no benefit. However, if you can decide to pedal a bit more to store up energy prior to an upcoming hill, that might be useful, but from the supplied information it looks like only braking puts energy into the wheel.

@dstafford72 - It's because if you drive less than 15 miles in a trip (like I do), you may NEVER have to put gas in it.

@sitruc - The Volt won't last long enough to be even a blip on the EV timeline. GM has no real interest in EVs. Everything they've done, including the EV1, had been in response to government pressure, AND while lobbying heavily to get that pressure removed. Toyota OTOH, is making the Prius and plug-ins for true market reasons, and their sales numbers have proven them right. I'd love it to be otherwise, but GM doesn't have it's heart in it.

@microlith - Well the image HAS to be fake, because the person holding the camera has his finger right over the spot where the lens is. Actually, I don't see how anyone can use the Nano's camera given where the lens is (right under where you need to place your finger).

The concerns here seem utterly without merit. In 30 years of credit card use, I have NEVER had to pay on a fraudulent transaction. On top of that, I have never purchased any form of CC protection or insurance. That's not to say my card or number haven't been used fraudulently several times, but each time I have not had to pay the charge. Usually the CC company uncovered the problem before I did.

On a side note, I find it fraudulent that Paypal blithers some BS about their "protection" while nagging you to draw from your bank rather than a CC on purchases. Paypal's protection is so inferior to what your credit card provides, their claim should draw FTC scrutiny.

@Argent99 - At the very least, it would make more sense for them to price the eBook at whatever number they feel equates the equivalent HC profit and release it in sync with the HC. Every book buyer knows that prices decline with time, but many still will not wait and happily pay a few more $ to get it today. That's no different than the market they already know.

One other thought is that Amazon is at a point now where they could throw their weight around, Apple-style, and refuse to carry the paper versions of books that are not made immediately available as ebooks. But I supposed Jeff Bezos doesn't have to be the heavy, he can simply wait until this bad idea dies on its own.

This Simon & Schuster decision proves how cheap hardbound books must be to produce and distribute. The $27 they get must contain a lot of profit, otherwise they wouldn't mind giving up the paper, production, and delivery cost of hardbound books for the $10 ebook sale, which should be nearly 100% profit.

Of course as others have mentioned, this strategy is quite dumb, as it will lose sales. Someone with a Kindle or Nook in hand will not want to wait, and won't buy the hardback, so they will take the only course available - illicit free files. What's worse for the publisher is that once these initially honest people get comfortable finding shared files, they may not return when the policy changes and ebooks are no longer delayed.

I also find the social networking aspects of Boxee to be undesirable. I prefer less noise and SPAM in my video management software.