Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
More important, I think, is the expected reading experience. For me -- and I'm not suggesting that my preferences dominate and I recognize that happy Kindlers feel otherwise -- I prefer the Sony to the Kindle experience. The Sony is more like reading a pbook whereas the Kindle is more like reading off my laptop. And, yes, I have tried the Kindle. It's not that the reading screens are so different; it is that ergonomics and design, especially the keyboard.
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Not to start a long debate since esthetics cannot be quantified. I own both a Kindle and a Sony reader. I prefer using the Kindle, but I enjoy my Sony reader, particularly when reading in the car at night because I have the cover with the built-in light-wedge.
The Kindle's keyboard doesn't remind me at all of a laptop experience. And one reason why I like the Kindle so much is the ability to set highlights and key in notes. The Sony 505 which I have doesn't have that ability, and I find myself wanting to mark a passage or add a note when I'm reading on it. The Sony 700's capability for highlighting and annotations is based on a touch screen. I am terribly uncomfortable with touch -- screens or whatever. The first thing I do when I get a new laptop is to disable the touchpad thingy because I find the cursor jumping all over the place when I'm trying to type but accidentally touch the pad. I can't use my husband's Mac at all because of the "one finger, two fingers, three fingers" touch controls.
So -- there's no one perfect design. Users place different values on features and capabilities. I *do* wish there was only one content format and DRM scheme so that each of us would have the ability to move books from today's device to the one we might choose to own in the future. And, of course, we could purchase from any store based on price or loyalty rather than being compelled to use a single channel.
Books purchased from the Sony store in the USA are in .lrx format which is still a tightly closed (i.e. uncracked) DRM scheme. Yes, Sony users *can* purchase books from Books-on-Board in ePub format, or they can buy DRM-ed content in another format and unlock/shift for use on the Sony reader, but I wouldn't call that the least bit "user friendly".
I do 90% of the purchasing for my Kindle through my browser. I do enjoy just turning on the antenna once in a while -- with the power adapter connected to the house current -- and letting my purchases download directly to the device. It's rare if I purchase through the Whispernet connection -- mainly when I'm showing off to someone.