Sony v Kindle

[cfrizz]

I haven't had any problems with my Sony 600 Touch reader. it is solidly built, and the software does what I need it to do.

This doesn't have to be an either or situation, choice is good.

Don't you boys ever get tired of the my *ick is bigger than yours foolishness?

That is what this has boiled down to. it grows tiresome.

[Salgueiros]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Don't you boys ever get tired of the my *ick is bigger than yours foolishness?

That is what this has boiled down to. it grows tiresome.

Relax, it's friday....

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by Ditchleyportrait

the kindle wifi + 3g is $139. end of story. the sony 650 costs either a lot more or a little more and has no networking capabilities.

besides the obvious, amazon offers free document conversion and free sending (over wifi) with your .kindle email address.

lastly, it costs twice as much for a batt replacement from sony than from amazon.

the sony may look better according to some, but if you're concerned about looks, then get the white kindle. i only say that because it may be a bit more uncommon than the graphite. the graphite color is handsome.

the iriver story hd is a better device imo than the 650 if only because it has native support for google books and a superior screen. oh, and wifi.

also, no ac adapter included for the sony

Kindle at $139... maybe in the US but that's only a bit of the world... way more expensive elsewhere, feels like rubbish and has a stupid keyboard... why should I need free doc conversion from Amazon when I can do it myself without sharing my data with a third party.

Battery replacements are usually more expensive direct from manufacturers but there's plenty of third party suppliers out there... can't remember the last time I wasted money with a manufacturer for their battery...

The iRiver is so good that the first 8, sold at a local store, were all returned as faulty and the store stopped stocking it...

Agree that no AC is a shame but I find that Sony make great, solidly built and reliable readers... still use a 505 as primary reader and the newer x50s are great, like the look of the new Elonex for multi-use eReader and media, the Opus looks good too... oh, and I don't have to deal with Amazon DRMd files that (without DRM removal) won't work on other readers... everything I've got works on everything else, not just readers but my computers, tablet and Smartphone...

Kindle may be fine for you and many people but equally it's not fine for all of us...

I'll say it again as it seems to be a lesson that doesn't sink in... Different strokes for different folks, stop preaching the one true way, you're WRONG, there isn't one true way, there's whatever works for individuals...

[Salgueiros]

I wonder if the lower price argument fundamentalists apply that philosophy to every aspect of their lives... i think they don't. Last time i was in the US i did not see the roads full of Yugo's, or people all dressed in Wal-Mart jeans or even endless qeues of people trying to eat a Big Mac for dinner... I wonder why?
So why would that apply to ebook readers? Reading and books are activities and objects that are very valuable to some people and for that reason some people are able and willing to pay more for a better product. I want good books. Since i don't buy paper books anymore, i want a good ebook reader that makes my experience of reading a book a pleasant, inviting and durable experience. Some of the reasons that justified my choice. The technical innovations the Sony readers provided last year made that choice even more logical.

[Salgueiros]

.... all this just to say that i am glad Sony designs and sells good products and does not focus obsessively in the lowest price attainable.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by Phogg

If Kindle had Epub support (or Sony had Topaz) would you still?

Personally, I would. I like having a few different readers, and I use them at different times. I prefer my Kindle at night, with it's built-in light, I use my Sony and my M90 during the day. If I need to take an ereader out of the house for reading during downtime, I take the Kindle or Sony since they are more portable. I have a different book going on each device pretty much all the time.

[Statch]

It's worthwhile talking about why we each made our individual decisions, if just to help someone else who's trying to decide what's important to them. You don't always know what's important to you until you actually have a chance to use the device. I had a Sony PRS-600 and switched to a Kindle 3 Wifi. The Sony was a well made, solid-feeling ereader, but I switched to the Kindle when I found out that Calibre could enable it to sync the page read with my other devices. That's a big deal to me, but of course it isn't to everyone...or even many.

Now that I have the Kindle, I find that I actually really prefer having a physical keyboard (even though I love my Android phone and Touch). The wifi access turns out to be a much bigger deal than I thought it was, since now I never have to connect my device to a computer. (I didn't think that mattered to me, but it turns out it does. Now I can be anywhere in the house, think of a book in Calibre that I want to read, and download it.)

I thought I would miss the Sony's ability to get tags from Calibre, but instead now I organize my books on the Kindle into two collections -- read and unread -- and I keep the books I'm currently reading unassigned to a collection, which leaves them on the home screen (because I have it set to view by collections so anything not assigned to a collection shows up). That leaves me a nice clean home screen and I can see at a glance what I'm reading. It works for me, and I find I'm finishing more books because I don't forget about them.

The Sony was a very nice device but the Kindle just works better for ME for those reasons.

[Pomtroll]

I love my Sony350 but the thought of being tied to the Sony Store does not thrill me. So wifi for my sony is not a must. I would actually prefer being tied to the Amazon store. So I like my Kindle for that. If Amazon comes out with a Kindle touch screen I will be tempted to get it.

Still I'm waiting to see what Amazon & Sony come out with this fall. And to be honest since both of my e-readers work fine I can't honestly say one is better than the other. The only thing that puts the Sony in the forefront for me is the touch screen, size & the ease of using the dictionary, oh & the bookmarking & the adding to collections (though I admit I prefer the collapsible collections on the Kindle & that they are not left on the home screen as well as in the collections). All these I prefer on my Sony.

I think I'm getting long winded. But as for the way I use my readers, I can't say one is superior to the other. I don't understand the hardware claims, nor the software claims. I just use what I have & it works for me. But then I'm not into tinkering with any of my gadgets.

[jbcohen]

Stach makes an interesting point, although I will be happy for Sony owners to prove me wrong on this topic:

I like low cost books and free ones so I took a look at some of the classics and the prices associated with them. My guinea pig was Jules Vern's 20,000 leagues under the sea. Sony offered it for $2 and Amazon under cut the price at $0. I saw a lot of low cost books that I liked in my library for low cost, under $7 in Amazon and Sony did not seem to have a great selection under my limit.

Also Amazon offered a reader for $115, I have the Kindle Special Offers, and the best Sony was willing to do was $180 or the pocket edition. Amazon under cut Sony's price so I chose my poison.

[NNolan]

Sony was simply not willing to sell at the price point that I want.

You seem to be making the assumption that the Sony bookstore is the only place to get ebooks for a Sony Reader. I've only rarely used the Sony bookstore, mostly I've used Kobo, Borders (for the brief period that it was live), ebooks.com and 3 different libraries. When I'm looking for an ebook I start with the libraries first, and if it's available at one of them I don't mind going on a waitlist. Then I check ebooks and Kobo. Since the Agency pricing model went into effect over a year ago there hasn't been any difference in price between Amazon and other ebook stores for ebooks from big publishers anyway.

[elcreative]

jbcohen, that makes a great deal of sense for your usage but, as I don't use the Sony shop or Amazon, has no relevance to the eReader choice I made... my choice was based purely on the eReader - ease of use, physical quality, feel in my hands, display etc... book sourcing is irrelevant for me as their are many sources available... free books from here, PG and others and plenty of outlets for my enjoyment such as Baen, Smashwords, Angry Robot, PS Publishing etc... just proves the point, doesn't it - to each their own and whilst it's useful seeing what others say about different readers, the defining factors are those we each find important... and they differ...

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Stach makes an interesting point, although I will be happy for Sony owners to prove me wrong on this topic:

I like low cost books and free ones so I took a look at some of the classics and the prices associated with them. My guinea pig was Jules Vern's 20,000 leagues under the sea. Sony offered it for $2 and Amazon under cut the price at $0. I saw a lot of low cost books that I liked in my library for low cost, under $7 in Amazon and Sony did not seem to have a great selection under my limit.

Also Amazon offered a reader for $115, I have the Kindle Special Offers, and the best Sony was willing to do was $180 or the pocket edition. Amazon under cut Sony's price so I chose my poison.

The Sony ebookstore is linked to Google Books. Therefore, any of the free books on Google are available directly in the Sony store. You just didn't search properly. To avoid cluttering their store, they group them in a separate search category called "Google Books". There appear to be at least 3 versions of "20,000 Leagues..." available for free. The cheapest one in the regular Sony store appears to be $0.95 and not $2 by the way. Besides, if you didn't want to use Google Books through the Sony ebookstore, then you could just as easily download that book for free directly from Google or from here on MR or numerous other options.

Sony's philosophy has always been to keep the MSRP high and offer numerous sales. Many people paid $109 - 129 for their Pocket Editions. I paid $129 for mine in February during the Valentine's Day sale. When the new X50 models came out they had an ereader trade-in program through New Year's. For the UK customers, they had a "get back the VAT" rebate. That is a common marketing strategy too. I bought my 505 by trading in my 500 for $100 credit years ago.

[cfrizz]

As it has been pointed out, just because you have a Sony that doesn't mean that you have to use their store.

I have never used their store, but one of the key selling points for me when I got my reader, is that I can shop at any store I want (except B&N) for epubs.

Choice is good!

[Ditchleyportrait]

sideloading is an affront to reading. if you're paying more guap than for a kindle, then you have to sideload. that is just sad.

it doesn't even have wifi. sideloading is an affront to reading.

Originally Posted by elcreative

Kindle at $139... maybe in the US but that's only a bit of the world... way more expensive elsewhere, feels like rubbish and has a stupid keyboard... why should I need free doc conversion from Amazon when I can do it myself without sharing my data with a third party.

Battery replacements are usually more expensive direct from manufacturers but there's plenty of third party suppliers out there... can't remember the last time I wasted money with a manufacturer for their battery...

The iRiver is so good that the first 8, sold at a local store, were all returned as faulty and the store stopped stocking it...

Agree that no AC is a shame but I find that Sony make great, solidly built and reliable readers... still use a 505 as primary reader and the newer x50s are great, like the look of the new Elonex for multi-use eReader and media, the Opus looks good too... oh, and I don't have to deal with Amazon DRMd files that (without DRM removal) won't work on other readers... everything I've got works on everything else, not just readers but my computers, tablet and Smartphone...

Kindle may be fine for you and many people but equally it's not fine for all of us...

I'll say it again as it seems to be a lesson that doesn't sink in... Different strokes for different folks, stop preaching the one true way, you're WRONG, there isn't one true way, there's whatever works for individuals...

[Ditchleyportrait]

i don't care what ppl buy but saying a reader that doesn't have networking capabilities and costs more is better is a bald faced lie.

if anything the nook has social features the kindle lacks. there may have been an argument in favor of nook if the display didn't have issues (from what i've read on here)