Quote:
Originally Posted by amybobamy
8) I want kids to be able to LISTEN to their books
|
Sony (the 650 and 950 models) and Kindle can play mp3s and Sony can also play some sort of AAC format, so both can play audio books (I've never used this people on my Sony, so I can't comment on it any further). Sony doesn't have the text to speech feature, Kindle does. If this is a must have for you, then go with the Kindle. The Kindle is priced very nicely and is well-loved by its users. It is easy to buy books for via the web-browser, has a great bookstore, and a great screen, text-to-speech, and from what I've seem it seems easy to use. I'd love to pick up a Kindle DX, and certainly wouldn't say no to having a Kindle 3 as well as my Sony. Its downsides are that it is a bit less portable than the Sony, doesn't have a touch screen, has plastic casing, is not as good with PDFs, and can't read epub. Epub is the format used most in Overdrive library services. If you plan on using the library to help supply your students with books, this might be a big problem.
Sony is more pricey, but seems a bit more sturdy to me, and is more portable than the Kindle. It has more dictionaries (this is an important feature for me) than the Kindle, can take hand-written notes (the Kindle can only use it's keyboard for notes) as well as notes using the touch-screen keyboard. It handles PDFs better than the Kindle (pretty much the deciding feature for me when I was buying my first e-book reader; for you, though, it might not be important). It can also be used to download and read library books for free using Overdrive (or another similar system).
It's downsides are it's higher price, the lack of internet access in the less expensive models, and the fact that it can't read books from the Amazon store without breaking DRM and converting formats. Also, the lack of Text-to-speech (as mentioned).
It's not an easy decision, but both products have received great reviews and are well-loved by many users the world over. I with you luck with your project, and I love that you are spending so much time and energy to help your students. The world needs more teachers like that!
Here are links sites that have great video reviews of e-book readers:
http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/
You might find some other features mentioned that I've neglected, so I suggest you take a look if you have the time.