» Ebook Reader…Sony or Kindle? Kindle 2: KINDLE GADGET

Published in February 28th, 2009

I’m looking to buy an ebook reader but I have a few questions first. I’m leaning toward purchasing the Sony PRS-505 because I read that it supports pdf files which the majority of the ebooks I currently own are in that format. But my questions are: 1) Are the ebooks sold at amazon.com just compatible with the Kindle and no other ebook reader? 2.) With the Kindle can you only purchase ebooks from amazon?
And correct me if I’m wrong in my assumption that the Sony PRS-505 is compatible with ebooks brought from other sites than their own. If anyone has either one of these please also include some of the pro’s and con’s of the device you own.

1 user responded in " Ebook Reader…Sony or Kindle? "

Juan B said, in February 28th, 2009 at 4:52 pm

I have a Kindle, so my comments are entirely biased. I don’t know much about the newest Sony e-reader. I’m pretty sure Amazon.com’s e-books are in their own, proprietary format (AZW), so unless the sony reader can open that format, you probably won’t be able to purchase books from them. However, there are websites that sell hundreds-of-thousands of books that are in the public domain, and in HTML, .MOBI and other formats that the Kindle can read as well.

Things I love:

1. Downloading free samples. It’s just like going to the book store and spending time thumbing thru the paper edition. About 1/3 of the things I’ve downloaded have been in this format. When I get to them, if they interest me, I’ll buy the whole thing.
2. The Kindle takes up much less space on my shelf! I love reading, and I tend to buy 2 new books while I’m still reading one. This gets on my wife’s nerves. So now we don’t need as much storage space.
3. The Whispernet. It downloads books in mere seconds.
4. The built-in dictionary. I’ve found that I use it much more than I thought I would.
5. It makes me feel like I’m an officer on the starship Enterprise when I’m using it!
6. There are tons of free or very cheap books available, not just the bestsellers. You don’t have to get them at Amazon.com,either.
7. I’ve read some complaints about the lack of backlighting. I guess a lot of people want to be able to read at the bottom of Mammoth Cave. Personally, I don’t care about this. I already need light to read books, so it’s no biggie.
8. Changing the text size is way cool!
9. I leave my Whispernet turned off while I’m reading, so the battery life is excellent. I charge it up about once a week, but even then, the batter is not fully discharged.

Things I don’t like:
1. Still not enough titles. The Kindle is too new. Hopefully with time, more and more authors and publishers will get on board.
2. It doesn’t render pictures very well at all. Amazon will have to continue to improve this technology if they really want to replace the printed word (which I don’t think will ever really happen-books are here to stay). I can see college kids one day having all their textbooks on a Kindle, though. But not yet.
3. Amazon.com advertises “over 190,000 books”. However, I have found that alot of these books are actually repeats. I think I found 5 or 6 different versions of Ben Franklin’s Autobiography, all of them being offered at different prices. Don’t really understand that logic. I guess some of them may have different comments from modern editors.
4. They do need to design a better cover. As long as I hold it tight, it’s fine, but it does tend to slip out quite a bit.
5. The right hand “next page” button is placed at the very edge of the Kindle. Occasionally I’ll shift my grip, and accidentally turn the page.