Reasons I'm not getting a Kindle but the Sony 505 instead.

[azog]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Windows is needed to run mobipocket creator, the conversion software.

So what OS do you run? WINE for Linux has been fairly mature for some time (people have run World of Warcraft under WINE). For people looking to jump off the MS bandwagon, it's one of the biggest helps. I think they've even ported it to Mac OS-X, but I know other Mac software exists as well.

[kovidgoyal]

Yeah I can work around it, but it's annoying that I have to, and a work around simply isn't as convenient to use. Hell, I could write a cross-platform replacement for mobipocket creator in a couple of weeks, the point is that Amazon doesn't seem to care about making the Kindle an open platform for books. They seem to care only about making as much money off it, in the short term, as they can. Now I get that most corporations think alike, indeed SONY is as bad, but going back to my original point, thanks to the fact that the SONY readers have been around for a while, it's now possible to make full use of the potential of the SONY reader.

[azog]

Well, I can't argue about the Sony, not having one. I do mildly agree with the AZW issue, but I might be looking at things with rose-colored glasses, but I'm willing to bet a dozen donuts that Amazon will change their position. As has been pointed out, this is just a test market, and Kindle version 2 will probably address the big things like this, and many of the other smaller niggling issues (like the buttons).

I suspect Amazon has a pretty big investment in Mobipocket, and at the moment, it's a direct competitor to Amazon's own product. Unless their ROI on the Kindle is significant enough to warrant spinning off Mobi (or even just cutting them off at the knees), my feeling is that they're going to address that at a later date. I'm no tech. predictor, and I'm just looking at historical cases where companies have had internal competition. I'd hope that Amazon has the foresight to analyze things (which I also suspect they do, they survived the big dot-com debacle). Course I could just be blowing rainbows, cause I bet on Atari making a comeback based on the Jag :-/

[JohnClif]

...and that is you can't read any DRM .MOBI files you already own.

If you're a new ereader owner, pretty much everything that's out there on the Mobipocket website is available through the Amazon Kindle store... and then some. So, there is no disadvantage to new readers.

If you're an existing ereader owner with a big collection of .MOBI DRM ebooks, the Kindle is probably not the device for you. The Sony would be a better choice... or even the iRex iLiad (my pref).

I have had no problems copying over unprotected .PRC files to my Kindle and reading them, including files off of mobileread.com. I have had no problems converting text, MS Word, and HTML files using the Mobipocket Creator, and then viewing them on my Kindle. Adobe PDFs are iffy... if they're full of images, different fonts, etc., then they don't convert as well. If they're plain-jane text files, they do convert pretty well. This is a limitation caused by taking a scalable vector graphic format and trying to convert it into text; there's obviously OCR going on and it's not perfect.

I'm pretty happy with my Kindle. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't mind having another ereader... like the iLiad.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by JohnClif

...and that is you can't read any DRM .MOBI files you already own.

If you're a new ereader owner, pretty much everything that's out there on the Mobipocket website is available through the Amazon Kindle store... and then some. So, there is no disadvantage to new readers.

If you're an existing ereader owner with a big collection of .MOBI DRM ebooks, the Kindle is probably not the device for you. The Sony would be a better choice... or even the iRex iLiad (my pref).

If I had an existing library of .mobi DRMed files, I'd be way more attracted to the Cybook than the Sony. I'd be in the same pickle with the Sony that I would be with the Kindle.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by rflashman

I just took a look at a sample for "Sign Language for Everyone: A Basic Course in Communication with the Deaf" and it has a different (beautiful) font. Quite readable. So there is *some* way for books to send a different font.

I can't tell which font is being used for this book. It does not seem to be Caecilia or Neue Helvetica. It is a nice font, with a distinctive "e". In this case, removing justification also seems to help readability.

The general approach to using a different font is to use "font face" in every <p> or <div>, for example from the User's Guide:

<p width="0em"><font face="serif">
You navigate Kindle using the select wheel, 
the cursor bar, the page turn buttons, 
the back button, and the keyboard:
</font></p>

There might be a way to use style sheets for this, but mobigen.exe will produce code like the above because the Reader does not have a global view of the file when rendering a page.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The general approach to using a different font is to use "font face" in every <p> or <div>, for example from the User's Guide:

<p width="0em"><font face="serif">
You navigate Kindle using the select wheel, 
the cursor bar, the page turn buttons, 
the back button, and the keyboard:
</font></p>

There might be a way to use style sheets for this, but mobigen.exe will produce code like the above because the Reader does not have a global view of the file when rendering a page.

From a technical perspective, there's no reason to have a global view. Once the CSS code in a stylesheet is loaded into memory, all the software has to do is apply the rules to each element as it encounters it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JohnClif

If you're an existing ereader owner with a big collection of .MOBI DRM ebooks, the Kindle is probably not the device for you. The Sony would be a better choice... or even the iRex iLiad (my pref).

You've slightly lost me there. If you had a big collection of Mobi DRM books, surely you'd want a reader which could read them, like the CyBook Gen3, wouldn't you? Why on Earth would you buy a Sony?

[talaivan]

I have the PRS 505 and the Kindle (arrived 2 days ago). I've tried very hard to get used to the Kindle, but am just not happy with the way it formats text and the way you have to hold it. It's possible to import books into the Sony so they look however you want them -- you can't do that on the Kindle. I tried the same book on both, and found the Sony was 1. easier to read, 2. seemed brighter, 3. the font seemed clearer (it seems to use higher res in imaging text), 4. the Sony gets about 60% more text on the page with better readability. The ability of the Kindle to download things wirelessly is amazing, but in other respects it seems far inferior to the Sony.

Other quibbles: The Sony is esthetically satisfying, the Kindle isn't. When I lose a page on the Sony, I can recover where I was using the history selection. I can't on the Kindle -- and I lose my place a lot more often because of its "wings" which keep getting pressed when I don't want to. The covers for the Sony are much better.

On the other hand, the experience buying books or newspapers on the Kindle is infinitely smoother than on the Sony. But for me this doesn't compensate for the negative points of the reader. Mossberg's review in the WSJ was right on, I think.

[Alisa]

I'm guessing the Sony seems brighter because of the white color of the Kindle enclosure. It reflects too much light back. Such a bad choice on their part.

[ginolee]

I'm also a techie (programmer), but I also want things to work without fuss.

For comparison, I used to use the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD as my DVR. Now I use the HD version of Tivo.

If you look at a function matrix of the two, they look to be about the same in terms of basic functionality, but in actuality the Tivo is so much easier to use, it's a no-brainer.

With the Tivo, the translation from will (my) to action is extremely transparent. With the SA 8300HD, I just found myself getting annoyed and frustrated trying to get it work in an intelligent and reasonable manner.

I think when a product is easy to use on a daily basis, that's a strong indication that the developers behind it have transformed the underlying complexities successfully into a simplicity that belies the underlying sophistication needed to support it.

With the SA8300HD it was obvious that a bunch of technogeeks had developed a functional, yet barely usable product, because although they had solved many of the major issues with providing 2 tuner DVR functionality, they had not solved many of the critical usability issues, passing on this complexity on to the end user.

To me the Kindle seems closer to the Tivo than to the SA8300HD in terms of the thought and care behind it.

Gino.

[NatCh]

I've only ever dealt with a Tivo DVR, and I have a general question about non-Tivo DVRs: Do they generally have a "Season Pass" type function that records all the new episodes of a series, and follows them around if they change times or days?

That's possibly the most useful feature to my me, personally. Though I do love the optional 30 second skip ahead feature. I actually do watch commercials if they're new and something I'm reasonably interested in (or just a company that makes good commercials, I love the Capitol One "pillager" and the Geico "Caveman" commercials, for example).

What I don't usually do is watch commercials if I don't care about the product, or keep watching them once they get stale, or watch the same commercial 2 or 3 times in a single commercial break, but that's a pet peeve of mine.

[Alisa]

I've had a ReplayTV, Snapstream and MythTV and they've all had "season pass" functionality.

[NatCh]

Cool, thanks for the info, Alisa.

[TallMomof2]

My Verizon FIOS DVR has a season pass function, too. You also have the option of recording only new epis or all. I don't think that it follows the program if it changes days and/or times. It might but I'm not positive.