Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal
Ditch the kindle, switch to the SONY and roll your own magazines using libprs500  |
I looked at Sony Reader when it first came out and drooled over it. I decided in the end that I didn't want it because the Sony CONNECT store had a paltry supply of books and Sony has a track record of cool gadgets with poor follow through on the software side. It's cool, but I think the Kindle better matches my needs and personality. I also looked at the iLiad, but it's not in my price range.
I chose the Kindle because of whispernet and amazon. For me reading is something that seems to get harder and harder to do with my busy schedule. The ability to find a book online, sample it, and download it without having to run back to a computer is a major feature for me. It's a major convenience that simplifies my life, and that's what I want out of an ebook reader.
The second point is wireless delivery of blogs/newspapers/magazines. A yearly subscription to Le Monde delivered to America daily is about $1300. On the Kindle, it is about $300. If you look at the difference as money saved, the reader pays for itself in only a few months. Of course, I could never subscribe before due to the cost so it isn't money saved per se, but it is worth it to me. For a French Minor and avid political reader like myself, there is tremendous value in the wireless subscriptions. As soon as I get my Kindle, I definitely plan on signing up for Slate. I'm not hot on the idea of subscribing to a lot of blogs, but there are a few I wouldn't mind parting with 99c a month to receive. Springwise and Cool Tools stick out in my mind. If PsyBlog (
www.spring.org.uk) ever becomes available, I'd probably pay for that.
The third point is that it is Amazon. Sony is an electronics company with a cool track record for design but a not so hot record in the service industry. I don't get the feeling that the CONNECT store is something they're putting a lot of effort into. Amazon is a bookseller. Amazon already has five times as many books as Sony, and since it's Amazon I feel confident that the store is more than just a selling point for the device. I know that thousands of books are being added to the store every day. Just in the last couple of days I've noticed series I was interested in being filled in very rapidly. That's just older series of books. I expect that Amazon will do everything in their power to ensure that they eventually get all books released in electronic format right away.