MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Europe: Sony T1 vs Kobo or something else?

bevdeforges · 12-29-2011, 09:18 AM

Like you, I have been living in Europe for nearly 20 years now and I got an e-reader specifically to have "easy access" to English language books, recent titles and to be able to download English language newspapers and magazines (using Calibre).

I've got two Sonys (not the T-1 - yet, but a PRS600 and a PRS350) and I love them both. I went with the Sonys largely because I wanted to go with the epub format. Of the criteria you list, I think only the exporting of notes might be an issue. (I have used the note taking function, but have yet to need or want to export the notes.)

I'm a big Amazon customer - through their *.com, *.co.uk, *.fr and now and then through *.de - but as far as I can tell, they go by your shipping address rather than an IP address, so I'm not sure that getting one of those IP spoofer accounts would really help. And there are reports that if you change your shipping address too often, they get upset and ask you for "proof" of your address.

Not sure how they are doing it now, but when I got my PRS600, I simply registered it as being a "US" reader (by installing the US dictionary). That lets me into the Sony Store in the US. I ran into problems when trying to use my US based credit card (with a French billing address) so I make all my purchases using the Sony bookstore gift cards. A friend in the US gets them for me and just e-mails me the code you need to credit them to your account. When they asked me for my address, I just gave them hers. Oddly enough, I use my European e-mail address which is clearly NOT a .com domain.

Otherwise, for English language books, I use Kobo, though they're getting difficult to use now that they're working with FNAC here in France. My account is set to "English" but I get a mix of French and English screens, and often have to click around on the site to get the latest releases in English rather than in French. But surprisingly enough, they sometimes have better prices than the Sony store (when you convert from euros to $), at least if you can apply one of their discount codes.

12-29-2011, 09:18 AM	#10
bevdeforges Addict Posts: 288 Karma: 1094000 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Essonne, France Device: Kobo Forma; Sony PRS600B; Sony 350; Sony T-2	Like you, I have been living in Europe for nearly 20 years now and I got an e-reader specifically to have "easy access" to English language books, recent titles and to be able to download English language newspapers and magazines (using Calibre). I've got two Sonys (not the T-1 - yet, but a PRS600 and a PRS350) and I love them both. I went with the Sonys largely because I wanted to go with the epub format. Of the criteria you list, I think only the exporting of notes might be an issue. (I have used the note taking function, but have yet to need or want to export the notes.) I'm a big Amazon customer - through their .com, .co.uk, .fr and now and then through .de - but as far as I can tell, they go by your shipping address rather than an IP address, so I'm not sure that getting one of those IP spoofer accounts would really help. And there are reports that if you change your shipping address too often, they get upset and ask you for "proof" of your address. Not sure how they are doing it now, but when I got my PRS600, I simply registered it as being a "US" reader (by installing the US dictionary). That lets me into the Sony Store in the US. I ran into problems when trying to use my US based credit card (with a French billing address) so I make all my purchases using the Sony bookstore gift cards. A friend in the US gets them for me and just e-mails me the code you need to credit them to your account. When they asked me for my address, I just gave them hers. Oddly enough, I use my European e-mail address which is clearly NOT a .com domain. Otherwise, for English language books, I use Kobo, though they're getting difficult to use now that they're working with FNAC here in France. My account is set to "English" but I get a mix of French and English screens, and often have to click around on the site to get the latest releases in English rather than in French. But surprisingly enough, they sometimes have better prices than the Sony store (when you convert from euros to $), at least if you can apply one of their discount codes.