Sorry, but the information in this post below is completely wrong - I personally own all the various flavors of Kindle. None requires "an internet subscription." One can CHOOSE to email an item to Amazon in order to have them "Whispernet" it back to you, and there might be a fee for such usage, but, one need not use this "service" for any reason, I have never done so, and I have never been charged a penny, and I have never felt the need to email some book to Amazon so that they can charge me to "cellphone it back to me." Internet access to PG is free from Kindle as it always has been, and one can download books free DIRECTLY from PG to your Kindle - and one has been able to do this on Kindle from day one of the very first version! Just use the included free "Experimental" Internet Browser. And all recent versions of Kindle have Text-to-Speech. 1. the DX includes Whispernet at no additional cost, other Kindle versions require an internet subscription of some sort. Of course one does need to be within the range of the wireless network, a map of which one can find at amazon. Amazon will also send your items - but this is at a fee to your Amazon account, which might be easier if you want to send something to a device you control but do not have at hand. 2. the DX (only model of Kindle - I think) has Text to Speech. A very useful feature if you like to listen while doing other vision required tasks. It is still a bit *unfinished* and is listed as an unsupported feature. Some books have this ability, as listed on the book/magazine/newspaper details.