[talaivan]

When the Kindle came out, I ordered it thinking I would sell my Sony Reader 505 on eBay. After spending about 2 weeks with both machines, I'm returning the Kindle instead. The reasons are:

1. Kindle formatting is static. With Libprs500 or Bookdesigner 4.0, I can create lrf files that have the formatting I want. This means I can put more text on a page and have a much clearer font.

2. Esthetics. The ungainly wings on the Kindle and its plasticky feel -- and its overall ugliness -- detract from the experience.

3. The Amazon people say the aim of the Kindle is for the device to disappear so you can be unaware you're reading on an electronic device. This never happened for me with the Kindle, though it does work with the Sony.

4. General awkwardness. To put the Kindle to sleep, you have to push the two buttons at the bottom, and in the process I almost always inadvertently pushed another button. The Sony goes to sleep by just pulling the on/off switch once. If I was reading the Kindle and wanted to put it down, I would always push some button or another. This usually means that the page display changes and you have to take the time to get back to where you were.

5. Intangible. The Sony just seems far better designed. Obviously it doesn't have wireless access to books, but it's scarcely a big deal to download books to my computer and transfer them. I used Kovid's program to download some magazines and papers to the Sony and found it works quite well -- though it's not as simple as the Kindle.

I'm not entirely sure which of these things is the most important. I downloaded the same public domain books to both and found I gritted my teeth every time I went to read one on the Kindle, while I looked forward to using the Sony. I certainly hope the Kindle doesn't cause Sony to neglect its own far superior (in my view) ebook reader.