Kindle or Sony PRS-505

[EnginerdLisa]

I am trying to decide between the Kindle and the Sony PRS-505. I have been trying to figure out which one has a better book selection and what the book prices are for each. It of course seems that Sony wants you to belive that you can only use thier store, and Kindle wants you to believe you can only use theirs. I am wondering how true this is. I have looked through some of the posts on here and being new to this I didn't understand all of the acronyms and abreviations. Basically what I am wondering is are books easier to find for one vs the other, and what are some websites where I can find ebooks. I mostly read newer fiction, so sites that have current books and best sellers would be awesome.

Thanks,
Lisa

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by EnginerdLisa

I am trying to decide between the Kindle and the Sony PRS-505. I have been trying to figure out which one has a better book selection and what the book prices are for each. It of course seems that Sony wants you to belive that you can only use thier store, and Kindle wants you to believe you can only use theirs. I am wondering how true this is. I have looked through some of the posts on here and being new to this I didn't understand all of the acronyms and abreviations. Basically what I am wondering is are books easier to find for one vs the other, and what are some websites where I can find ebooks. I mostly read newer fiction, so sites that have current books and best sellers would be awesome.

Thanks,
Lisa

Currently, I think the Kindle has the biggest selection available. That being said, the Kindle has not embraced the ePub standard in any way. It seems that perhaps that is the way the publishers are moving. So in the long run, the Sony might end up having more book support.

Of course personally, I am still more than a little annoyed at Amazon for purchasing a perfectly good standard (Mobi... though I am a little annoyed that it isn't supported for Mac or Linux) and then rather than produce their device for that standard, they tweak the standard so that in theory if you want to buy Kindle Books, you have to own a Kindle.

--
Bill

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by EnginerdLisa

I am trying to decide between the Kindle and the Sony PRS-505. I have been trying to figure out which one has a better book selection and what the book prices are for each. It of course seems that Sony wants you to belive that you can only use thier store, and Kindle wants you to believe you can only use theirs. I am wondering how true this is. I have looked through some of the posts on here and being new to this I didn't understand all of the acronyms and abreviations. Basically what I am wondering is are books easier to find for one vs the other, and what are some websites where I can find ebooks. I mostly read newer fiction, so sites that have current books and best sellers would be awesome.

Thanks,
Lisa

I like to suggest that you purchase the Kindle for the 30 day trial and during that time, visit any of the stores selling the Sony (SonyStyle, Target, Borders...) and play with it (if you can) or look through the forums here for any Sony owners in your area willing to show their's to you.

I have a Kindle, so I admit I'm prejudiced in that direction. I too, prefer new releases and I love the $9.99 cost and the ability to download without having to do any kind of conversion. So far, I've not found a need to look elsewhere for new release books. The one purchase I made outside of Amazon was to get a short story in a magazine that wasn't available on the Kindle.

As with most of the current ebook readers there are other sites available for book downloads but they may require you to convert them for use.

The Kindle can be used with it's built-in Whispernet wireless network (in most parts of the country) or with a computer. It will be recognized as an external drive on Windows, Mac and Linux machines.

Let me ask you a few questions:

Are you a big re-reader of books?
How comfortable are you with having to convert books for use?
What acronyms do you need definitions for?

Welcome to MobileRead!

[Elsi]

I have both. If I only had one, I could be happy with either one. But if I had to choose which one to keep, it would be the Kindle. That's primarily because of the Amazon store. I also like having the ability to highlight passages and to type notes "in the margin". The Whispernet is nice, but only essential for downloading the sample chapters. I can download any of my purchases to my PC and then transfer to the Kindle with the USB connection, and that's not inconvenient at all.

Sony's device is fine. It's sleeker and sexier and if that appeals to you, you'd be happier with it. I find the controls on the Sony a little bit harder to use than the ones on the Kindle. And there are others who don't like the controls on the Kindle.

I'd recommend that you take yourself into a Borders or Target store -- or a Sony store if there's one near you -- and pick up the Sony Reader. Try it out and see how it feels in your hands. Then either find a Kindle owner near you who will let you handle theirs or order one from Amazon. You can return it for a full refund within the first 30 days.

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

if you want to buy Kindle Books, you have to own a Kindle.

That's true. But you can buy books from elsewhere and read them on the Kindle. I've bought too many from Baen and plenty from Fictionwise.

[Seabound]

Hi EnginerdLisa. There are many online stores where you can buy eBooks. Check out mobileread's wiki page on ebook stores: https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_stores . My favorites would be Fictionwise and Diesel eBooks because of the selection and price. Using the Calibre software, you can reformat ebooks into the Sony format (LRF). I can only speak about Sony since I don't own a Kindle.

[Ervserver]

I ended up buying both, I got the Sony dirt cheap with their credit card deal. I've been getting library books that I can read on the Sony. The Kindle has the nifty wireless feature. I like em both

[lisreed]

Amazon customer service is great. If you order the kindle and return it in 30 days you will get the full price plus the shipping cost to send the device to you back.

I have a kindle and a cybook. I still have a sony 505 but I am going to sell it. It was a recent purchase , I especially bought it for my husband but he really prefers the cybook. We thought adobe DE on SONY would be a good thing but it looks a bit funny and we have had so many problems with adobe de even working on our computer and actually causing a major crash that its just not worth it.

Also have you considered a Cybook? It supports mobipocket DRM so it opens the door to buy from various bookstores and also mobi library books which is really why I have one. You can get mobi library books on the kindle but it involves some python scripts. I want ebook reading to be as easy as reading a paperbook. I am not insterested in spending time reformating books. Turning a PDF to a mobipocket ebook is about all I do as far as formating.

I like the buttons on the kindle for the most part. I like there placement. They could be a little smaller and the device could be more colorful but hopefully that will change with the next one. When it comes to purchasing books I like the convience of the kindle. And the prices are cheaper for new releases. If dictionary lookup is important then I would say kindle. It is a feature I love. Sony doesn't have that feature. Cybook also allows dictionary lookup.

Good luck.

[wallcraft]

In the case of the Kindle, you probably can just shop at the Kindle Store. They have a huge selection and are rarely undersold. The downside of this is that you are tied to the Kindle and its successors, although the encryption of most Kindle ebooks can be broken (so they could be moved to a non-Amazon device later on).

If you don't want your ebooks tied to a single vendor, then the Sony or the Kindle can be used with MS LIT ebooks. Buy them from many sources (e.g. FictionWise), break their DRM (i.e. their encryption) with ConvertLIT and convert them using Calibre for Sony or any one of several programs (e.g. Windows MobiPocket Reader) for Kindle.

[HarryT]

Why are you only considering those two devices? Why not consider, say, the CyBook Gen3 which not only supports the extremely popular "MobiPocket" eBook format, and has numerous stores from which one can buy books, but also has many benefits (IMHO) over both the Sony and the Kindle, such as the ability to load your own fonts to the machine, availability of many hundreds of different Mobi dictionaries, etc?

[EnginerdLisa]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Are you a big re-reader of books?
How comfortable are you with having to convert books for use?
What acronyms do you need definitions for?

I do not generally re-read books.

As long as I can find and understand how to use the conversion tools I am fine with it. I convert video files all the time for my zune.

Some of the ones I have come across so far ar DRM, DRM-free, DRM5, LRF, GUI and many many more.

[EnginerdLisa]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why are you only considering those two devices? Why not consider, say, the CyBook Gen3

To be honest it is because i have only heard of those and one other book, and the other had horrid reviews and isn't made any more. I will definately do some research on that CyBook Gen 3.

[gwynevans]

Checkout the wiki this site for info & comparisons.

[GatorDeb]

I have both and prefer the Kindle. Can't explain why, it just feels better in my hands. I've bought 4 Kindle books and 10 Fictionwise Mobipocket (PRC) books. I think the Kindle attracts less dust than the Sony (which is great in Vegas). I LOVE the convenience of being able to use the Amazon store. I'll NEVER be without anything to read (for $10).

Something really cool is MobileReference (enter that as a search term on Amazon and browse their products). Expensive but I plan to get most of them over time (and by expensive I mean a couple at $30 and most of them at $10, but there's hundreds of them).

I use Mobipocket Reader to view RSS feeds - they have the COMPLETE article and I'm up to 1568 feeds (I can give you the file if you want, you can delete the feeds you don't like). It has Time, Newsweek, U.S. World And News Report, The New York Times, USA Today, BusinessWeek, CNN, Slate, Boingo Boingo, Engadget, etc. You click a button (and wait a while, so do this overnight with the Kindle plugged in to the PC and the wall) and it updates all feeds and sends them to the Kindle. With one button. Never be without FREE reading material (and I already did all the hard work for you ). I've gotten pretty much every newspaper and magazine that Amazon.com offers as a subscription and now I'm working on the blogs.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by EnginerdLisa

I do not generally re-read books.

As long as I can find and understand how to use the conversion tools I am fine with it. I convert video files all the time for my zune.

Some of the ones I have come across so far ar DRM, DRM-free, DRM5, LRF, GUI and many many more.

It seems your reading style is similar to mine as I tend not to re-read a lot of books. If there is a book I think I will want to re-read in the future, I also purchase it in a format that can be easily converted (LIT). Now that the Aamazon DRM has been cracked that may not be necessary anymore.

On the whole, Amazon has a very large eBook catalog which grows daily. It's very easy (too easy ) to just download and read. No muss, no fuss, no conversions.

As for the definitions (as usual I hope someone will come along and add to or correct anything that follows):

DRM = Digital Rights Management - book encryption
DRM-free - no encryption
DRM5 = ? That's a new one on me. Maybe someone else can jump in with a definition for that.
LRF = a format used by the Sony Reader
GUI = Graphical User Interface - Like Windows or OSX or Linux. It's a basically a way to tell the computer to do stuff in shell that's easy for the user. Some of the conversion tools will use the command line (a DOS box in Windows) or a GUI (a nice little program with check boxes and menus and such).

[GatorDeb]

The Amazon DRM has been cracked?? Does that mean you can remove DRM from Amazon books, or just that you can add the PID to the book to make Amazon open it?