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Old 10-19-2010, 09:02 AM   #2
ChrisChillin
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Posts: 334
Karma: 1766384
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: USA
Device: Kindle Touch
Welcome, Lobosan!

You won't be able to find a reader that will do all things well, especially looking at your list. The three options you mention will do most things well, with some key differences.

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Originally Posted by Lobosan View Post
Ease of navigation. I don't want to have a big hassle every time I want to jump to a different page or chapter.
Others will have to speak from their actual experience. But, from what I've read of the different readers, there isn't much difference between them in this regard.

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-WiFi only. I don't need 3G for anything, WiFi is everywhere these days.
The Sony readers do not have any WiFi at all. That limits you to Nook and Kindle.

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-Access to most popular titles. This is important, as I really don't care so much about free, non-mainstream independent titles. I tend to go for mainstream fantasy/scifi, like Tolkien, or anything in Blizzard's titles (WoW/Diablo/SC books).
The best thing you can do is browse Amazon, B&N.com, Fictionwise, etc, and see for yourself what is available that you enjoy in either the .azw/.mobi/.prc (Kindle) formats or ePub (everyone else).

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-PDF support. This is a biggie-I have a large PDF library and want to make sure my eReader can either read PDF's or has a method for simple conversion.
Sony is the winner on PDF support because it reflows the text. Kindle has native PDF support but no reflow so the text will be small, even in landscape mode, unless you zoom in, and then it's a bit more awkward to navigate. You can convert your PDFs with the free Calibre program or by emailing them to Amazon.

I'm not sure if Nook supports PDF or if you'll always need to convert it.

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-Price. I'm not really looking to spend over 200-though if the Sony has compelling reasons for being more pricey, I might consider the 650.
So far, the one major factor I see is PDF.

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-Music/web browsing. These are a plus, and the easier they work, the better.
Both Nook and Kindle have basic mp3 players, and I think it's the case with both that you cannot organize the mp3s. They are just in alphabetical order. Kind of like having an iPod Shuffle without the "shuffle" part. Both also have web browsing, which the Sony, sans WiFi, does not. Browsing will not be the best with either one, but not terrible if you just want to read largely text-based web sites. Kindle has a nice feature with its browser in which you can render a site in "article mode" and strip away extraneous pictures, graphics, banners, ads, links, etc - leaving just the content of the page as if it were an eBook.

Also, there are a number of programs for converting web pages you read regularly into a kind of eBook or ePeriodical format. Calibre can "fetch" your web news. There are also web-based programs like Kindlefeeder and Instapaper. These can email you formatted web feeds through your Amazon Kindle email. I'm not sure if Nook has anything like this. Nook users can chime in here and say if they have a similar ability with an email address at B&N.com or not. If not, getting your formatted news from the web through Calibre would require sideloading from your computer, as I understand it. Others correct me if I'm wrong. But if this is an accurate assessment, that gives an ease-of-use edge to the Kindle here, I think.

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-Durability. I'm a military guy so it matters, though I don't plan on throwing the thing around, heh.
That may be a vote again for the Sony readers since Sony prizes good hardware construction and they're made of aluminum rather than plastic.

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-Aesthetics. This is the least among my priorities-at day's end, the looks don't matter so much. But if it proves to be a tiebreaker, include it.
Hmm, that I can't judge for you. You'll just have to look at each one and decide which is the purtiest.
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