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Old 04-05-2009, 10:26 PM   #16
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If I had to give up one, I'd give up my iPod touch in a heartbeat over my Sony. I don't read at all on my iPod though.
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Old 04-05-2009, 11:23 PM   #17
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Originally Posted by montsnmags View Post
My answer is, at least to the latter premise, "Yes". I have almost never noticed a "haze" of fingerprints on my iPod Touch, and, when I have noticed similar (full sun perhaps), I've wiped it on my shirt/shorts/whatever to clean it. I am a frequent user of it, mostly with applications that require touching the screen continuously, but "fingerprints" have never been a problem worth noting to myself. I cannot empathise with the reactions of those who do find them bothersome.
I quite agree with this. The issue of fingerprints is a red herring.
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Old 04-06-2009, 01:01 AM   #18
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flip a coin...

Both.

iPhone/Touch = With you all / most of time = Convenience, small and
EXTREMELY capable as a dedicated reader! (battery life and 'finger
prints' is negligible), Conversion required from PDF and other formats...

PRS700 = Excellent for extended reading with multiple volumes and search
based research. Excellent PDF handling and ease of use.

Both, have their uses and advantages and that why I use BOTH!
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Old 04-06-2009, 03:15 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrgauth View Post

Does that get old. Me, with my poor eyesight will have the font so high that there will most likely not be more than 3 words per line and thus I will be turning pages every 5 seconds. Issues with that?



I found that having to change pages so frequently annoying. But I am also a very fast reader.
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Old 04-11-2009, 02:56 PM   #20
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I have an iPhone. It's an excellent general use device and I have used it to read ebooks. I like the device and would buy it again. However, I have had to hack it to get certain features I happen to need. The phone unhacked is almost worthless to me.

I've just ordered a Sony PRS 505. When that arrives I'll update the comment to include a comparison between the two. I expect I'll much prefer the Sony to my iPhone for reading, but then again the iPhone is with me at all times regardless of whether I plan to read. Unless I carry the 505 with me everywhere I go, the multifunction portability of the iPhone really adds to its convenience.
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Old 04-11-2009, 08:24 PM   #21
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If I could get an iphone, the decision would be over. I would get that. But for many reasons, I can't. So, it is either a Sony reader or an Ipod Touch. Still trying to decide which to get. Have not gotten either yet. I can't get both. By the time I decide there will be a new reader out and a new Touch out and the decision may be easier.

Still reading paper for now and have no pocket device.
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Old 04-12-2009, 03:57 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrgauth View Post
By the time I decide there will be a new reader out and a new Touch out and the decision may be easier.
Don't bank on it being easier decision - and to be honest, it's always going to have to be your decision, whatever our opinions.

I think the question really is what are you going to use it for most of all? I have an iPhone and a Cybook, my wife has an iPod Touch and a Cybook; the Cybooks are for reading, nothing else; I read occasionally on my iPhone if I find myself hanging around whilst out and about. My wife never reads on her IPT.

If you mostly want a device for reading, then get a reader. Most of them will also play MP3 files in one way or another, but that's about the extent of their versatility. If you want to be able to use it as a PDA, listen to music, pick up your email, access the internet and make Skype calls from wifi hotspots, watch the odd movie, play a few games, oh, and read a book occasionally, then go for the iPod Touch. Like others have posted here, I have no problem reading on the iPTs screen, and find the whole 'fingerprint and battery life' complaints absurd.

I'd also suggest you try out both devices before making the purchase - perhaps using the 'view a device in a cafe near you' list on these very boards.

Best of luck with your decision - let us know what you go for.

Cheers, Pete.

p.s. I wouldn't want to be without either of my devices, but if push came to shove I can't imagine being without iPhone/iPT, so the Cybook'd be history - though for reasons other than reading...
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Old 04-12-2009, 06:04 AM   #23
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Given the choice between giving up the CyBook or the iPod, it would be the iPod without hesitation. The iPod is a useful "toy"; the CyBook is an essential part of my life .
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Old 04-12-2009, 06:11 PM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrgauth View Post
I am really struggling with a decision. I know most of the arguments comparing the two (size, eink vs backlit, price, etc etc), but what I would like to know is for those of you who are avid readers which of the two could you not part with if you could only have one?
I have an iphone and a Sony 505. If I had to make a choice, I'd take the iphone, and if it were a Touch rather than an iphone, I'd take the Touch, assuming that I'd have a separate phone - and even if I had no other programs on the Touch (not even iTunes) other than reading programs and Safari.

I use the 505 along with calibre to read internet articles, magazines and public domain books. I don't tend to read ebooks that I have to purchase, in part because I use a mac and do not have easy access to as many current ebooks as I would if I could access Amazon or the Sony bookstore, which does not work with a mac. But that's fine, because there's a lot of good public domain reading out there.

But on my iphone, I have discovered a quartet of apps which make it astonishingly useful as an ereader. The apps are Stanza, Kindle, Google Books and Instapaper Pro.

The Stanza app is my main iphone reader. I use in conjunction with Stanza Desktop. This app allows me to buy books directly from Fictionwise, plus sync with the Desktop to get nearly any public domain book I want. (edit: I have just learned how to use calibre to move books into Stanza, and it is a bit easier to do. http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/user_m...ghlight=iphone)

Kindle and Google Books are essentially emergency alternatives to Stanza. The Kindle app is the one I use least, simply because as I said, I don't tend to buy recent ebooks. Plus I don't like Amazon for reasons I've articulated on another thread, and try not to use it except as a last resort. But nevertheless, it affords the best access on the iphone to current ebooks, if I can't find them on Fictionwise. Google Books is a bit clumsy to use on the iphone, but once you locate a book you want to read it's easy enough to use. However, I don't know if it stores books on the iphone or accesses the file via the phone network, so it might not perform as needed on the Touch. I use it mainly for certain pdfs that won't translate to Stanza.

So far, what I have listed is essentially a combination of iphone apps which basically compete with my 505. Because of the Kindle app, I could get a little more by way of current ebooks on my iphone, but the Sony combined with calibre gives me magazines and newspapers not generally available on the iPhone. I might add that calibre can be used to get all kinds of internet articles & upload them to the Sony, but the same could be done via the Stanza Desktop, although not as neatly & easily.

The app that pushes the iphone over the top for me is Instapaper Pro. http://www.instapaper.com/ It works as a Firefox ad-on and as an iPhone app. The app comes in a free version and a 10 buck pro version.

First, you put Instapaper on your toolbar. Click on the button & it saves a copy of the web page you are viewing to a server somewhere. You wind up with a list of all the articles you have saved, in either web page or text format. You can read them in your browser if you want.

But on the iphone, once you've selected your articles via Firefox on your computer, you sync the app and all your downloads are on your iPhone. In the pro version, you can resize the text, email the article, touch any embedded links to invoke Safari, and exit/return to the same point in the article, as a kind of bookmark. Plus, you have something called "tiltscroll" which allows you to just tilt the iPhone back & forth to have the text/webpage slowly scroll while you read it - no need to touch or swipe.

So...with this combination I can get most of what I want to read on my iphone. I can get a bit less on my 505.

The 505 is easier on the eyes. The 505 can show more text per page, and is therefore a little easier to dive into & push the device out of your consciousness.

But the iphone goes wherever I go. On the whole, it requires less fiddling with to load it with reading material. I have found that it does disappear from consciousness as I read. The Stanza app page turning is by a tap (better than a swipe) and it uses a page-curl effect that has a psychological "flow" effect by dragging your attention from the bottom right of the page to the top left of the next one (better than the fadeout/fadein of the 505.)

And the cherry on the top of the sundae is that I also have access to iTunes, with the audiobooks, podcasts, music and even videos.

If all I read were ebooks, and if I always had a large pocket or briefcase with me, or did all my reading at home - I might chose the 505. But given that I always seem to be going somewhere, I'd take the Touch.

Funny thing is, I often find myself reading on my iphone at home, even though I have the exact same material on my 505 or on my computer.

Last edited by Harmon; 04-13-2009 at 08:00 PM.
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Old 04-13-2009, 12:15 PM   #25
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Wow, this is a tough question. I'd probably give up the sony before I'd give up my iphone. But I never read books on my iphone. I tried that with an old Dell Axim and it was just not friendly on the eyes. If I gave up the sony I'd be reading paperbacks again.
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Old 04-14-2009, 12:23 AM   #26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
Given the choice between giving up the CyBook or the iPod, it would be the iPod without hesitation. The iPod is a useful "toy"; the CyBook is an essential part of my life .
I can't criticize your take on your CyBook, and its relation to your life, but I'll guarantee you that the iPod is no toy.

It's a portable music library. I'm pretty serious about music. Particularly serious music. I've done the Ring Cycle twice, & will do it again. Seen Copland conduct the Chicago Symphony, not to mention Solti & Muti. And the best preparation for any concert or performance is to download whatever is being performed to my ipod, and couple it with lectures from outfits like The Teaching Company.

It's a portable college. I've listened to hours upon hours of lectures from the Teaching Company, on my ipod - music, religion, theatre, history - you name it.

It's a portable storyteller. I have audiobooks galore. If you have merely read Harry Potter, and not listened to Jim Dale's audiobook reading, you have not really enjoyed yourself as much as you might think. And if you have read Angela's Ashes, but not heard McCourt reading it, there's more you've missed.

It's a portable encyclopedia. Any time I want to know something, I have all this knowledge right in my pocket, waiting to be learned.

And it's a portable library. I'm speaking as a bookworm from the time I was, well, I dunno. I can't remember not being able to read. Probably since I was three or four. I've read in tents and in trees and under the blankets with a flashlight. I'm one of those guys who reads several books at a time, stashed strategically around the house, in my briefcase, & at work. In fact, the hardest part of using my 505 is that I have to remember to haul it around with me. It tends to stay by my easy chair. But my ipod, in it's iphone incarnation, spends more & more time following me around...

Do don't dis the iPod. It is a very versatile tool for educated living.

Last edited by Harmon; 04-14-2009 at 12:25 AM.
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Old 04-14-2009, 12:44 AM   #27
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I would give up my Kindle before my iPhone, but if I just had my iPhone I'd never read on it (except the occasional reference or absolutely having nothing else to do). I don't think the two can even compare...

I just can't stare at that tiny screen (backlit) especially.
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Old 04-14-2009, 07:41 AM   #28
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Well, what it comes down to is most, not all, with Iphones, would take them over their readers. Unfortunately, I am not getting much feedback from Touch users since that is the only 'I' device I can consider. I was afraid that might happen. Not being a phone I think most think of the Touch as a fancy mp3 player and not a 'serious' device.

Plus, I have been thinking about the price. I would never be happy with anything less than a 32g and the real price of that with tax, extended warranty, protective case, and a smattering of apps would be clost to $600. And that is way way to much for a little pocket entertainment device. Period. On the other hand paying over $300 to read books I can continue to read at no additional cost on paper is a tough call as well considering the device does nothing else.

Thanks for the input all and I see your arguments both ways. Bottom line I will never be content with just one of these, so, I better skip them both for now. Just keep saving til I can afford both. Thanks.
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Old 04-14-2009, 09:20 AM   #29
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Mrgauth, the iPod touch is basically an iPhone without the phone and camera. If you want a 32 gig and the price is too high, just go with an eink device. Personally, I'm still happy paying $300 for one, considering the easy access to so many free books, plus the discounts and no shelf space. I'm a huge reader though, so it really pays off for me. If you aren't, then the iPod is a better choice, since you can do multiple things on it.
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Old 04-14-2009, 03:02 PM   #30
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I have a Sony 505 and an iPhone with Stanza. I used to do all my reading on my Sony but lately I've been reading more and more on the iPhone. After a couple of minutes I stop noticing the small screen and just focus on the story. With the added advantage that I always have the phone with me.

That said whichever the original poster chooses I think he'll be pleased.
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