548: Kindle
| Kindle |
 Title text: I'm happy with my Kindle 2 so far, but if they cut off the free Wikipedia browsing, I plan to show up drunk on Jeff Bezos's lawn and refuse to leave. |
Explanation
The Amazon Kindle is a device that allows people to read books via ebook format. The comic was published three weeks after Amazon released the Kindle 2, which included the ability to read Wikipedia articles via the 3G connection that was included with the device.
Cueball remarks that "ebooks are for chumps", but goes on to explain the real reason for purchasing a Kindle. Since it has free cellular web access, he could navigate through any city (presumably with 3G access), assisted by Wikipedia and Wikitravel.
Megan scratches off the Amazon Kindle logo to reveal that the device is actually The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This fictional electronic encyclopedia is described in the real-life franchise of the same name. Those works recount the tale of a travel editor who works for and owns a copy of the Guide, which provides travel tips throughout the galaxy, including an entry for Earth. Readers may interpret the reveal to indicate that Cueball really is using the actual (fictional) Hitchhiker's Guide, but either way the dialogue describing real life use of the Kindle on Earth is strongly analogous to the Guide's role in its own story.
The title-text refers to the great utility of having the ability to access Wikipedia for free on an easy-to-carry device. The speaker states that should this utility ever become disabled, he would stage a drunk protest on the lawn of Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com.
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