I admit I won't be able to help you with finding out the word, but the way he described newspapers is really annoying. It is not outdated, it is just that there are no affordable high-tech mediums available yet that can be bought by everyone from the poor to the rich and that you can safely read as you sip your coffee. Newspapers reach any kind of people and that s why it stays as a good source of the current state of the world
I had a pocket pc back when pocket pc's were cool. They had terrible battery lives, and too much casing for the size of the screens. Otherwise, the technology was fine for reading a few articles in the paper. It was a good proof of concept, and were at the point now where only a few bugs need to be worked out before its all gravy though.
I think survivability is the number one obstacle they've never even tried to overcome. A multimedia player should be at least partially waterproof, handle temperature swings, have a screen that can survive exposure to the sun, etc. Beyond that, its not too hard. Whatever you pay for it should in theory be made up by the new cheapness of the new media. So, for example, since newspapers wont have to print anymore, they can make buying a newspaper online cheaper. Magazines too.
I would rather trade down features for reliability, and would prefer that the os stays the same, so I can always read my magazines that I've already bought through the several media players I would own, like a real library.