E-Reader Faves

[ProfCrash]

I have the K1 and the DXG and love them both.

1) The bookstore is amazing. There are a ton of books available and they are well priced.

2) Customer Service is amazong. My Mom lost her DX a while back. I was able to call CS and they bricked her DX after 10 minutes of discussion. My MIL had some problems with her K2, she called CS and they sent a replacement immediatly. If you buy a book you don't want, you have 7 days to return it. The 30 day return policy is a great way to test the K3 and see if you enjoy it.

3) The device itself is easy to use. Read through the manual and fiddle with it for a few minutes and you are good to go.

4) Highlighting and taking notes is insanely east. I also like that you can go to a web site and print out your notes. That makes it a handy tool for folks who are editting a document or who are in school or in a book club.

5) The dictionary is wonderful. It is easy to access and calls up a definition.

6) Collections is quite possibly the best feature on the device. I have over 400 books on my DX. Collections has allowed me to sort and catalog the books in a way that makes sense to me. They are easy to set up and move books around.

7) No touch screen. Outside of the fact that this helps to save the battery life, it means not having to see fingerprints on my screen. Some folks are not bothered by this but the finger prints on my phone drive me nuts, I don't want to see them on my book.

8) The DXG battery life is long, long, long. I have gone for two weeks without having to recharge and probably could have gone longer. The K3 is suppose to last a month. If you travel a lot, especially if you travel internationally and will be on planes for a long period of time, the battery life is a must. I read for 13 hours in airports and on the plane travelling to Australia and didn't have to worry about charging my K1. I arrived at the hotel and home with a charge left.

9) Memory space. 4 GB of memory means lots of books without having the extra weight on a SD memory card slot.

10) Wireless. I would not buy an e-reader without the wireless option. I have bought many a book in the airport and from my bed. Being able to download what I want, when I want, and not need a computer is great.

[soondai]

I really think it's tough to beat the Kindle 3 in "bang for the buck." The only real drawback is not being able to check out EPUB books from the library, but that is very easily overcome.

That said, I think that the jetbook, Sony, and Nook all seem fine as well (I'm happy with the Sony I got on clearance a few weeks back) and have their advantages.

Hang around the various sub forums here for a week or so and you should get a good idea of all the advantages and disadvantages of the major readers. Also, just in the last week or so the big 3 (Kindle, Nook, and Sony) are all available to play with in stores.

Happy hunting.

[ProfCrash]

The K3 is already in Target and starting to appear at Best Buy.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

To be honest, *today* the first question a would-be 6in reader buyer needs to answer is why *not* Kindle WiFi? They have the best screen, the best embedded store, and the lowest price.
If you really value a touchscreen interface and ePub file support then Sony or the larger Pocketbooks make some sense.

I can think of some other reasons not to go with the Kindle (or the Nook for that matter). The primary one is privacy; we know that Amazon has access to your device when the wifi or 3G is in use (as was demonstrated by the 1984 debacle). While I don't specifically believe that Amazon is going to remove books in the future, it is possible, however unlikely, that they or more likely a third party that hacks Amazon might use the WiFi and 3G to gather information about you... Hopefully only the novels you read for guilty pleasures, but who knows?

In addition, the lack of a user replaceable battery limits the life span of the reader (Sony has this issue as well, though the Nook does not). Now, I will grant that the battery life is long enough that for most of us, it won't be an issue. You will want to replace the unit with a newer better unit long before the device becomes unusable. But this might matter to some people.

Now mind you, I am not attacking the Kindle here. Amazon has done an amazing job of not only getting ebook readers into the minds of the American Public, but also the fact that some of us still like to read for fun . I just hope that they aren't so good that they drive all their competitors out of the business (real competitors, I don't currently see Apple as a real competitor -- I would say most iPad buyers are putting ebooks well down on their list of reasons for buying.

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Bill

[bill_mchale]

To answer the original poster's question. I really like my wife's PRS-505, though I am frustrated by Sony's unwillingness to upgrade firmware for their older devices (it was nothing short of a miracle that they upgraded the firmware on the 505).

I don't have much experience with them, but from the looks of it, I like the form factor of the Pocketbook 302, but I can't justify spending the extra money on it just to get a touch screen and wifi).

The Nook, is pretty sweet as well, but its battery life bothers me.

To be honest, I like a reader that will allow the user to hold a book with either their left or their right hand and turn pages... without having to flip the book over (Though I admit the Pocketbook 360, Cybook Opus and the Jetbook Mini are excellent approaches if you want to make the smallest reader possible).

So, here is what I want... Something that looks a lot like the Pocketbook 302, no wifi, no touch screen, supports both ADE and B&N eReader DRM and priced at under $200.

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Bill

[ProfCrash]

Amazon has access to the books in your archive that you purchased from Amazon. Amazon does not have access to everything on your Kindle. Books you sideload are not accessible by Amazon.

Any party who can hack Amazon will get your user info even if you do not have a Kindle since they might be able to access your Amazon account. The same hacker could hack Sony or B&N or Borders and get your information from their data base. Even if a hacker somehow could hack Amazon and get your info from your Kindle, the same person would be able to get info from the Nook or Sony 950 because they have 3G or WiFI connection.

The replaceable battery is going to be a personal thing. I have one on my K1 and have not needed to use it. I have a feeling that my DXG battery will outlast my use of the device. One of the reasons that the Kindle is smaller and lighter then the Nook is the lack of a replaceable battery and memory card holder.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Amazon has access to the books in your archive that you purchased from Amazon. Amazon does not have access to everything on your Kindle. Books you sideload are not accessible by Amazon.

Ummm.. Maybe Amazon has not designed the Kindle to directly allow that, but it would be all but impossible to protect just part of the file space on the device. Particularly since the side loaded books are less likely to be encrypted in any meaningful fashion.

Do I believe it is likely? No. Do I believe it is possible? Yes.

Any party who can hack Amazon will get your user info even if you do not have a Kindle since they might be able to access your Amazon account. The same hacker could hack Sony or B&N or Borders and get your information from their data base. Even if a hacker somehow could hack Amazon and get your info from your Kindle, the same person would be able to get info from the Nook or Sony 950 because they have 3G or WiFI connection.

I agree, any online transaction, where records are kept, is vulnerable to hackers eventually. I also agree that the Nook and the Sony 950 would also be similarly vulnerable (Which is why I included the Nook in my original post --- the Sony 900 and 950, I suspect to be rare enough not to be a major contender for most people).

My point is, you connect your device to wifi, and it becomes more vulnerable. From the vendor or even potentially to people connecting to it when you are using public wifi hotspots.

The only way to make sure a device is secure is to never connect it to the internet.

Mind you, I am not here to bash the Kindle. For some, indeed, for many people, the Kindle's many great features will outweigh the rather small risks that are present. Its kind of like going under anesthesia while your wisdom teeth get cut out -- there is a small chance that it will kill you, but the risk of that happening is so small, that most believe the benefits outweigh the risk. That being said, it is better to go in with your eyes open.

The replaceable battery is going to be a personal thing. I have one on my K1 and have not needed to use it. I have a feeling that my DXG battery will outlast my use of the device. One of the reasons that the Kindle is smaller and lighter then the Nook is the lack of a replaceable battery and memory card holder.

Again, I pointed out that for most people, this is really a non issue. But for some people, it is important. That being said, memory card readers are so light, that I suspect it had little or nothing to do with it -- more like they realized that it was cheaper to expand the resident memory to the point where the vast majority of people would never see a read for the SD card reader.

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Bill

[dyvaris]

Wow....so great to hear all the diverse answers. I guess the only way to know which one I want is to start shopping. Thanks for all the tips. I want to see if I can find a Kindle at the BB or Target, the off to BN to get my hands on a Nook.

Thanks, guys!

[Quake1028]

I have owned 3: Kindle 2, Kindle 3 Wi-Fi and nook Wi-Fi. Still own the last two. mY favorite is the K3, by a good margin. Ease of use, speed, form factor, it has it all over the other two.