My impressions: 505 vs Kindle 2

[Kallel00]

The Sony 505 would be perfect if I could buy my books from the Amazon store instead of Sony's


I really like how I can hold it just like a book, with it being held with my left fingers, with my left thumb on the front left side where I can easily switch pages all while holding a beer or soda in my right hand

[igorsk]

You can use Calibre to get newspapers to your 505.

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by sealbeater

What's the point of buying a device that reads text out loud (why anyone would is beyond me) if you dont' have control over what you want to have be read out loud?

Thank you Amazon, for confirming my life choices.

I actually did buy a 505 and not a Kindle, but I strongly considered the Kindle. I was viewing it more as a service. Sort of like Netflix, iTunes movie rentals, or even my old World of Warcraft account that I haven't touched in eons.

I know that Kindle is saying that it's providing you with your own personal, digital e-Library.. And they do charge you a la carte and don't have expiration dates, but due to the tight DRM and accompanying uncertainty of my continued ownership of what I buy--and I'm sure their lower prices are probably part of that--I view it as a service.

I decided against it, because the a la carte prices are still a bit too high for me. The newspaper and blog prices were ok, but that's not enough content (plus, it's easy to get those for free through Caliber). Also, for a device that is essentially a wormhole between your money and Amazon's bank account (a one-way wormhole, I'm afraid), I thought it was a bit pricey. What ever happened to give away the razor, and sell the blades? I feel like with Kindle, I'd be paying for both.

And of course, I was also looking for a device I could just own and use as my own device, with my own content. The Kindle stayed in the running, because I figured I could always just convert everything to mobi, but that was a feeble way to paint it as advantageous.

Still, in terms of its comprehensiveness as a service, I think the Kindle is pretty impressive. Netflix is a better deal, though. I think. Until you watch everything, anyway :-)

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by sigma8

The newspaper and blog prices were ok, but that's not enough content (plus, it's easy to get those for free through Caliber).

Great... I am glad you found a device that works for you.

But, I just wanted to point out to folks here that calibre's fetch news features work for the Kindle just as well as they do for the Sony.

BOb

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by Kallel00

The Sony 505 would be perfect if I could buy my books from the Amazon store instead of Sony's

I know everyone is saying Amazon will be loathe to do this, because they want to sell Kindles...but I bet they'd rather sell a crapton of eBooks than Kindles. I think the Kindle is meant more to jumpstart the eBook industry than metamorphose Amazon into a hardware manufacturer ala Apple.

Speaking of Apple, let's use them as an example. They kept the iPod locked to the iTunes store--and vice verse--until they were the only viable game in town. Then they ditched DRM--enabling customers to use the iTMS with any device. This will only broaden their audience.

So I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon eventually starts selling books for other readers. But, yeah, that's a prediction and a hope. And the sooner the better

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Great... I am glad you found a device that works for you.

But, I just wanted to point out to folks here that calibre's fetch news features work for the Kindle just as well as they do for the Sony.

BOb

Sorry, I wasn't trying to sound negative on the Kindle. I was just trying to address Seal's comments about the Kindle, in what I thought was a more pro-Kindle way than I guess it turned out to be. I was just arguing that I think the Kindle is more of a service. But I think well-provided services are one of the highpoints of the internet, and I think the Kindle's service looks pretty great. Therefore I think the Kindle is a pretty awesome concept and product. I also really like Amazon as a company.

I would easily recommend the Kindle. And if I find I am getting a lot of use out of my Sony (a.k.a. "any eBook reader"), I will definitely buy a Kindle to accompany it.

For me, I still have to see if this fling with eBooks over paper turns into something more substantial.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by sigma8

Speaking of Apple, let's use them as an example. They kept the iPod locked to the iTunes store--and vice verse--until they were the only viable game in town. Then they ditched DRM--enabling customers to use the iTMS with any device. This will only broaden their audience.

I beg to differ! Apple hasn't been the one keeping the iPod "locked to the iTunes store" (although it may have worked out to their benefit).
<history lesson>
Back at the beginning of the iTunes store, Apple started out trying to get the big record labels to permit no-DRM distribution. The folks at the big labels wouldn't even consider it without DRM. You may recall the Steve Jobs letter on DRM from a year or two ago -- it contains some of this history. Apple did eventually manage to convince one of the four biggest labels to allow DRM-free music at a higher price (it was the smallest of the four, of course).

Later on, with the iTunes store in a relatively dominant position, the labels decided that they would try to change that (that is, build up a competitor) by letting everyone except Apple have DRM-free music. The labels didn't get what they wanted -- Amazon wound up #2 in digital music sales, but are still 10x smaller than the iTunes store. Apple didn't get what they wanted (no more DRM and higher quality... er... less-compressed music). So everyone went back to the negotiating table.

When the dust settled, Apple backed off a little bit on fixed pricing (making the labels happy) and the labels let Apple go DRM-free with higher-bitrate music.

And now lots of people are talking about how Amazon forced Apple to remove DRM...
</history lesson>

Xenophon

P.S. There has always been a trivial way to remove the iTunes DRM: Tell iTunes to transcode your music to AIFF format (or just burn a CD) -- that's plain old CD audio. Then, if desired, re-encode the MP3 (or whatever). Presto! No more DRM!

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

<history lesson>
</history lesson>

That is very possibly an accurate depiction of the various motivations of the involved parties. That doesn't change the big picture: DRM was used until people realized it wasn't necessary. It was needed in order to palliate the music industry, but once they realized that the lack of DRM didn't decrease music sales, they went with getting rid of it.

Amazon may be in a similar boat: they are going to have to deal with publishers who are not going to want to risk the loss of sales to piracy, but they may eventually find that DRM has minimal impact on sales, and may in fact restrict sales more than help them. And, IMO, no DRM may increase sales because it broadens your customer base. I suppose this technically remains to be seen, since iTMS is only recently un-DRM'ed.

[ddavtian]

Originally Posted by sigma8

I would definitely have one or two newspapers or magazines "delivered" to the device. This seems somewhat possible on the Sony reader. I'm using Caliber to grab some web feeds, but so far it is not ideal. RSS is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't really deliver a proper reading experience. In practice, I find RSS strangely disappointing. It's possible to syndicate well, but most sites don't. CNN only provides like half a sentence per headline while Engadget spams you with a giant picture and the whole article--almost completely unformatted. I can't even think of any sites that strike a pleasant balance. It might not really be possible given the limits of the RSS spec.

As others already mentioned, you can do this with Calibre. It does get full articles for CNN, try again. In terms of newspapers, there are already lots of recipes and the list grows very fast. My computer gets few newspapers (NYTimes, WSJournal, San Francisco Chronicles, few Russian ones) every morning at 6am, it takes only few minutes to get them to the reader. If you can connect Sony to computer few minutes a day, you can get your newspapers (with full articles, many of them with pictures).

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by ddavtian

As others already mentioned, you can do this with Calibre. It does get full articles for CNN, try again.

Sorry, I'm having a bad time getting myself across in this thread >.<

Yes, Caliber is great like that, I was referring more strictly to just the RSS feed itself--like when I use Google Reader or Apple Safari. Caliber is actually quite a bit nicer in this regard, due to the full-article fetching.

I was complaining about RSS specifically, because I think if RSS feeds were designed for more comprehensive news delivery (instead of just headlines + arbitrarily sized blurb), it'd probably have saved Caliber some work (it could just fetch the RSS) and it would also look more consistent between devices/readers.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by sigma8

I was complaining about RSS specifically, because I think if RSS feeds were designed for more comprehensive news delivery (instead of just headlines + arbitrarily sized blurb), it'd probably have saved Caliber some work (it could just fetch the RSS) and it would also look more consistent between devices/readers.

I agree with you. I HATE RSS feeds that just contain a summary and not the full article text. I just don't subscribe to them.

BOb

[BobLenx]

I agree with Harry that if the user cannot replace the battery themselves then the correct term is "non-replaceable" which is why I carefully chose that term over "not user replaceable".

We all purchase our cell phones and MP3 players and eReaders and laptops to enhance our lives. To have to live without one of them for a week or longer and pay an arm and a leg for a replacement is unacceptable - let alone the outlandish cost of paying someone to replace the battery with shipping costs.

I assume that making the batteries non-replaceable (by users to make everyone happy LOL) is due to an issue regarding proper disposing of the battery. Is that correct?

Bob

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

I beg to differ! Apple hasn't been the one keeping the iPod "locked to the iTunes store" (although it may have worked out to their benefit).
<history lesson>
Back at the beginning of the iTunes store, Apple started out trying to get the big record labels to permit no-DRM distribution. The folks at the big labels wouldn't even consider it without DRM. You may recall the Steve Jobs letter on DRM from a year or two ago -- it contains some of this history. Apple did eventually manage to convince one of the four biggest labels to allow DRM-free music at a higher price (it was the smallest of the four, of course).

Jobs' letter sounds very nice, but before it there were reports from several indie labels who asked to sell their music without DRM and were refused. So it's not all the labels' fault.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by igorsk

Jobs' letter sounds very nice, but before it there were reports from several indie labels who asked to sell their music without DRM and were refused. So it's not all the labels' fault.

The issue there was that Apple refused to do anything special for smaller labels. Their announcement of the iTunes music store basically went (paraphrasing here): "For the independent labels... we can't afford to negotiate separately with each of you, so we're offering you a simple deal -- take it or leave it. You get exactly the same terms as the major labels. Period."

I took the trouble to send in a query to Apple on this very issue back then. Apple responded -- to some random software developer (me), not even someone in the music business! -- saying basically that they weren't prepared to deal with labels individually so the little guys would have the same DRM as the big guys. They claimed to understand that many independent labels might want their music to be DRM free, but their deal with the big labels actually required that they put everyone in under identical terms.

By the time of the Jobs letter on DRM, Apple had enough clout in the music business to be able to allow DRM-free offerings. But that wasn't in the cards at the beginning.

Xenophon

[spec2]

Originally Posted by HarryT

And the difference between the two is....?

Sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, if the user can't replace it, then it's not a "replaceable" battery. Having to send it back to the manufacturer really does not count.

There is a notable distinction between the two. A "non-replaceable" battery is one that is permanently sealed into a product and cannot be replaced period., i.e., when the battery goes so does the item. There are common in the cheap blinky lights you see on Halloween and New Years.

On the other hand, a "non user-replaceable" battery is one that the manufacturer does not make replacement batteries available to consumers but can replace the battery for the consumer. That, however, does not mean the consumer can't replace it. Usually they can as long as they can use a screwdriver, something even many user-replaceable devices require.

The most famous gadget to have a "non user-replaceable" battery is, of course, the iPod. Despite it having a "non user-replaceable" battery 3rd party replacement kits are widely available, and at a fraction of what Apple charges.

The only time a device with a "non user-replaceable" battery is really a pain is when the battery is soldered to the logic board. Then, unless you are a skilled solderer, you really do have to send the item in for battery replacement.

As I mention in an earlier post, non user-replaceable battery devices are the future. It's a natural result of consumer demand for thinner devices and government regulations requiring for more environmentally friendly ones.