[Bookworm_Girl]

SeaBookGuy, I have been thinking about this question a lot since I bought a Kindle 3 recently. For most, I think that wireless is not a necessity but a convenience. Probably only a small percentage require it. I gifted a Kindle to someone who is an avid reader but does not have a reliable computer. A friend is traveling for 5 weeks to Australia without a computer and looking forward to having wireless access on his Kindle. And, some older people just aren't that comfortable with computers.

I have the PRS-900 with 3G and surprisingly find that I never buy books direct from the Sony Store with it. In fact I keep the wireless turned off to save the battery life. I think that Sony users have a different mindset. We know that we are not tied to the Sony Store. Price comparison websites like inkmesh make it easy to search various ebookstores for the best deal. I also keep more books on my ereader than I could possibly read (if only there were more minutes in a day....). Because I have so many books, it is important to me to stay well-organized. I am one of those rare people who like the collections management and syncing features of the Sony Reader Library. I don't find it a hassle to use software like Reader Library (or calibre) to manage my library just like I want it and then transfer by USB to my ereader. To me this task is just like using iTunes to manage my music library and then transferring songs and playlists to my iPod via USB.

However, I use the wireless all the time with my Kindle. Amazon's reading ecosystem has really shifted my way of thinking! Most Kindle users only buy books from Amazon so it's convenient to have that access wirelessly. With the web browser you can download public domain books direct to your Kindle from websites like feedbooks or even mobileread. You can look at the information page for an Amazon-purchased book and be instantly connected to the Amazon store to read the book description and reviews or see recommendations. You can download book samples to your Kindle and with a simple click on the information page buy the full version. If you want to do a word lookup, it gives the option to search your items, the dictionary, wikipedia or google.

I really like that my Kindle has an email address. I am a big fan of the Fetch News feature in calibre which auto-emails the news to my Kindle and it just magically appears in my booklist. I also like Instapaper which compiles my Read Later list into an ebook and also emails it to my Kindle. Very cool! I can email personal docs to my Kindle and have them auto-converted to the correct format without having to go through calibre first.

Amazon encourages you to think of your book library as residing "in the cloud" on their server. Your Kindle has an "Archived" folder where it shows you what books are stored in your Kindle memory and what's still in the cloud. Many people keep their books in the cloud and only download a few at a time to their device. That's why many didn't miss the ability to create collections (Kindle has only recently added this feature). You can store your notes and annotations on Amazon to be accessed from anywhere. You can make an annotation and upload it to facebook or twitter.

I still plan to use my Sony as my primary ereader, but I definitely have a different perspective than I did a few weeks ago. I am looking forward to upgrading to the 950 and seeing if the faster Wi-fi access and web browser change how I interact with my Sony too.