Why I'm keeping the Kindle and gave my wife the Reader

[KlondikeGeoff]

I've had the Reader for more than a year and really enjoyed it. However, I was given a Kindle as a gift, and for me, it is definitely better for my needs than the Sony. I can say right out that the Reader is better looking and has better ergonomics, but I favor function over form.

One big reason for my using an ebook is my poor vision, requiring large print to read comfortable. The Kindle lets the owner easily pick any one six type sizes, the largest being 20 pt which is excellent for me. I've bought a lot of books from Sony, and too many of them have the largest type in the landscape mode still much too small to read comfortable. Sony insists that is the fault of the publishers. Be that as it may, they could easily have done with other devices do and let the user pick the font and size of type. I'm not going to waste any more money buying their books when there is no way to ascertain in advance how large the type will be. Of course, if they did what Amazon does and let you sample the book free, there would be no problem, but they don't.

Also, for a company promoting the Reader as an aid to the visually handicapped, their eBook Library oftware is the absolute pits. Once it is open to look at the books or even worse, go to the Store, it is impossible to read due to the minuscule type size. Unlike Firebox or IE browsers, there is no way to enlarge the size of the pages, so to browse for books, I need a magnifying glass. And, navigation through the site is a laugh, compared to looking for books on Amazon.
And Amazon has many, many more user reviews.

Also, once the damned Library is open, it takes over and you can't see the Task Bar or do anything else unless you minimize it. Worst piece of software I've seen in 20 years of using computers.

Just buying content from Sony requires several steps, and once purchased, you have to go back to the Library and drag the books from the Library to the Reader. Pretty ridiculous compared with Amazon's 1-click system, where all you have to do when you find a book you want is click on "Buy" and it is in your device in less than a minute.

While I'd probably not buy it just because of the Wispernet, that really is a cool system for getting books. Oh, yeah, and also, unlike the Reader, magazines, newspapers and blogs. It is extremely easy to transfer my own documents, either via their email system or through the USB connection, where the Kindle show up as a separate folder.

Navigating through the various menus on the Kindle is very simple. Some may not like the scroll bar, but it works easily for me and is very intuitive.

As I've posed before, I had the old Rocket eBook for years, and they had numerous great features that Sony chose not to include, but Amazon wisely did. There is a really excellent Lookup-dictionary feature, one can search through documents, Wikipedia or elsewhere, it is possible to bookmark as easily as the Reader, but handling bookmarks is much easier. In any document, I can highlight text, save it to a Clipping feature to print out, and there are several other advantages, that while not essential, make the whole thing far better and easier to use.

Had Sony incorporated any of these things, that have been around on other devices, they would have a winner, but for some impossible to discern reason, they chose not to bother.

My wife is happy because she can now use the Reader to read many of the good books I have purchased as well as a whole bunch of the Gutenberg books. I am very please because I now have an ebook device that does far more things, easier, and quicker than the Reader.

So, I'll drop by this forum now and then to see what's happening with the Reader, but mostly I'll be reading the MobilRead Kindle forum.

[KlondikeGeoff]

Mod: Sorry, posted this in the wrong forum; comes from getting old. Can you delete it? Thanks.

[Nate the great]

Actually, they're both in the wrong forum, IMO. This kind of thread belongs in the "Which one should I buy" forum.


I deleted the other, and kept this one.

[wallcraft]

Here is a screenshot of the Kindle's largest font.

For all font sizes, see Font Sizes.

[JSWolf]

Can anyone with a Kindle and a 500 or 505 do a font size comparison? I'd like to know if the font sizes on the Kindle compare with the fonts sizes in Book Designer.

[KlondikeGeoff]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Actually, they're both in the wrong forum, IMO. This kind of thread belongs in the "Which one should I buy" forum.
I deleted the other, and kept this one.

Nate, I've been sick for a couple of days and just noticed this. I don't agree that this post is a review, not at all. Somebody posted some time ago a thread titled something to the effect of why he chose the 505 over the Kindle. That was posted there, and not moved to the Reviews forum.

I posted mine as a counterpoint to show why, for me, just the opposite was true. I don't understand why you are discriminating against me, except perhaps you did not actually read my post and misunderstood it. It seems I should be able to have equal time. In any case, as it is not a review, why not just delete the whole thing altogether.

When I first went to look for it, it was gone, so I thought perhaps when you moved the one in the Kindle forum where I mistakenly put it, both got deleted and that's why I posted again in the Sony forum, where I still feel it belongs.

Anyhow, Im too ill to pursue this, so I give up.

[Nate the great]

I just think it fits better in this forum. This thread talks about why you decided on one device instead of the other. It just sounded to me like it fit in here better than either device forum.