Pros and Cons of Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle?

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Some general questions to help on this decision:

Is there a difference in the amount of free books you can get across the two?

Is it true that PDFs with lots of figures and tables and in 8.5x11 page design (again scholarly journal articles) are a lost cause on both and will probably always bee on small ereaders?

I think if you're dealing with free eBooks, it doesn't make much of a difference. Free eBooks aren't going to be DRM'ed (generally), and can be converted from one format to another.

For your pros and cons, you might want to also remember that Kindle has free wikipedia, non-DRM mobi support, and "read to me". The Sony 505 is physically smaller (with same size screen), and has the best PDF support among 6" readers, as well as epub support.

As for PDF readability, IMO any normal-sized PDF is readable. Reading A4 in portrait may not be fun, but it's actually possible. Reading it landscape is reasonably easy. If you can read the fine print on the side of a cereal box, it's easier than that. If the PDF plays nicely with the reflow feature, then it's very readable.

I wouldn't want to read a whole book in PDF form, but if I wanted to bring along PDFs of technical papers for reference, I wouldn't hesitate to put them on the 505.

Also, while mobi is currently the predominant format in books stores, epub is an emerging standard. IMO, it's a nicer standard than mobi, from a technical standpoint. epubs are xml-based and I'm still researching the format, but it looks very flexible and easy to produce. It seems like it would be very easy to convert any other xml-formatted file to epub, using basic xml transformations. I've read that publishers like it, and are adopting it quickly, so hopefully it'll enjoy an increasing selection size.

[Alisa]

Personally, I found the Sony unsuitable since it does not support dictionary lookup or content search. The Kindle also lets you annotate books which is a nifty feature. I wasn't overly thrilled about whispernet when I first heard about it until I actually started using my Kindle. Aside from fun things like wikipedia search, it changes the buying process in a significant way. I do believe it saves me money. You can get free sample chapters of the books in the Amazon store. Once you finish reading the sample, you can just click a link at the end to buy it. You've got your book and are continuing to read in less than a minute. This keeps me from buying books in advance without knowing if I'll really like them. I've read a lot of sample chapters and NOT bought the book. However, I won't tend to read much of the excerpts on the website (or standing around in the bookstore). This lead to a lot of wasted money in my past. I've had no regrettable purchases from the Kindle store.

I haven't been keeping tabs on the PDF DRM front so much these days? Which other readers have support for it besides Sony?

[sigma8]

Originally Posted by Alisa

I haven't been keeping tabs on the PDF DRM front so much these days? Which other readers have support for it besides Sony?

At the moment, Sony is the only one. I wouldn't recommend reading PDF's for fun, though. Actually, that'd probably be fine on the larger iRex devices, but on a 6" screen print can get quite small. I like the idea of being able to carry reference books with me, but I wouldn't read a novel like that.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by sigma8

At the moment, Sony is the only one. I wouldn't recommend reading PDF's for fun, though. Actually, that'd probably be fine on the larger iRex devices, but on a 6" screen print can get quite small. I like the idea of being able to carry reference books with me, but I wouldn't read a novel like that.

My local library has many more DRMed PDF ebooks than Mobipocket. My understanding is they do fine on a 6" screen. I don't bother with most PDFs. Anyway, I hope Adobe gets more devices on their compatibility list.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Barcey

Think 3 years ahead when you're replacing the device. If you buy 2 books a month at $10 a piece you'll have invested approximately $720 in your ebook library. If you think of that as disposable like your monthly cell phone bill then the Kindle is probably your best choice as Amazon has been selling the books cheaper. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that (IMHO).

Great point. And honestly I seldom re-read books. Most I've bought are in boxes in closets at my parents (or have long since been donated) as I got sick of dealing with them during movies, finding room for them in apartments/condos etc.

So DRM issues really don't bother me much, anything I would want to reread I'd just by a hardcover rather than ebook.

So it's looking like the Kindle's probably the way to go for me. But I'll wait till summer as maybe there will be a price drop and I'll have more money with starting a new job, getting paid moving expenses etc.

[dmaul1114]

Currently thinking of getting a Kindle 1 (or possibly 505) if I can get a good deal on Ebay/Craigslist.

Probably the best bet for me as $200 is about the most I'm willing to pay for an ereader since I wouldn't use it nearly as much as most around here. And it will be a long time before the Kindle 2 is available at that price.

Bidding on a Kindle 1 now that was bought in Jan 2009 (so still has warranty) with 2GB SD guard. If I can get it for under $200 I'll bite (below that now with 14 hours left).

[Dinsule]

Forgive me for piggy-backing, but I had a few questions about purchasing an Ebook.

My girlfriend just bought a kindle 2, and aside from the DRM in Amazon's books (a sore point for me), and the bizarre joystick for highlighting and navigation, I was very impressed with the quality of the design and the abundance of features. My worries with Amazon are that it seems to be geared more towards selling books than selling readers and as such is not as likely to drop the price or be as friendly toward non-proprietary formating and mucking about as, say, the Hanlin series of readers. I don't know much about the Sony, but I have a grudge against the company for some reason. I'm not sure why.

I seem to be thinking of jumping in to the Ebook market at the wrong time--a year before everything I need in an Ebook reader is on the product of just about every competing company ... and color E-ink comes out.

I was wondering if there was a product that allowed for free internet, much like the Kindle 2, but in a broader sense, such as through real Wi-fi? Or will I need to wait for the Readius or the Boox for a feature like that?

Are prices going to sit up above $300 dollars for much longer, or are there some readers with most of the "modern" features for closer to $200?

[dmaul1114]

Dang, flurry of bids in the last 90 seconds drove the Kindle 1 was looking at up to $230 (with $10 shipping) which was too much.

Watching a few other auctions on eBay and e-mailed 3 people in my area that have Kindle 1s listed for $200 on Craigslist. Would do that if it has 6 months or more warranty left, older than that $175 is tops I'll pay. So I may still be waiting a while!

Edit: May have some look with Craigslist, got a response on one that's less than 6 months old for $200. Going to check it out around 3pm.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Dinsule

I seem to be thinking of jumping in to the Ebook market at the wrong time--a year before everything I need in an Ebook reader is on the product of just about every competing company ... and color E-ink comes out.

That is the problem with early adopting. Color E-ink won't be out for consumers until 2010 though, and it will probably be several more years until it's cheap (i.e. around $200)

I was wondering if there was a product that allowed for free internet, much like the Kindle 2, but in a broader sense, such as through real Wi-fi? Or will I need to wait for the Readius or the Boox for a feature like that?

Nothing currently. Kindle has wikipedia and I think some other sites work ok on the rudimentary browser. But full internet will really need color e-ink so an ideal one on that front is a ways off.

Well of course there are things like the iPhone (and it's new Kindle app) and Palm Pilots etc. that are an option if you don't need e-Ink screens.

Are prices going to sit up above $300 dollars for much longer, or are there some readers with most of the "modern" features for closer to $200?

Well you can watch for deals. The Sony PRS-505 is $269 on Amazon, and was like $205 or so on SonyStyle.com a month or so ago. Kindle 1's used are going for $200-230 on Craigslist (in the DC area) and Ebay respectively, so that's another option and the one I'm pursuing as per above.

Otherwise prices will come down by late this year, but probably not to the $200 area (maybe the PRS-505). I could see the Kindle 2 dropping to $300 by mid to late summer and maybe having a sale/price drop for the holidays in the $250 range.

I don't know much about the Cybook's and other readers people mention here in terms of what they go for as I didn't research them very much.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really have to ask why you're only considering those two machines? The CyBook Gen3 is superior to both, IMHO, because:

- You can load any font you wish onto the machine and view any font in any of 12 different text sizes.
- Dictionary lookup in any of hundreds of different Mobi dictionaries.
- A user-replaceable battery.
- Mobipocket support - very much the de facto industry standard, with the best-implemented Mobi support of any eInk device.
- Available world-wide, with a world-wide warranty.

Actually, with the 505 and 700 if you use ePub, you can load any font you want and specify the size you want in the CSS. And it does work. One of the ePub books I am reading is using a font of my choice and the size of my choice as well. All I had to to once the font was in the proper place was edit the CSS and voila, done. Oh and it's a full font family with proper italics and proper bold as well.

[HarryT]

But how do you load the font onto the machine, Jon? The Sony doesn't support "user loadable fonts", to the best of my knowledge.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

another pro in favor of the sony is that it supports epub, the industry standard format. more and more publishers are choosing epub for their digital editions and it's an excellent archive format as well. support for an open, standard format is a huge plus in my opinion, particularly since epub is a very powerful format which is already worlds better than any other format currently available and will continue to improve, as will the epub viewers.

having said that, ceBit is coming up at the beginning of march, so you may want to wait a couple of weeks to see if there are any new devices that could fit your requirements.

also, since budget is a concern, check our flea-market forum and ebay for used devices. you might be able to get a deal.

What ePub is really good for is replacing PDF for technical document with a proper reflow for small screens. You can have complex layouts that will reflow and look good. Som once publisher relize this, I'm thinking PDF will go bye-bye.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

But how do you load the font onto the machine, Jon? The Sony doesn't support "user loadable fonts", to the best of my knowledge.

I just created a font directory off of the root of the mounted drive and pointed the CSS to it and it worked fine. if you are actually distributing the ePub, you can embed the font files with the ePub. And you can specify what font you want to be used where in the ePub. So you actually have even more font control then you do with any other format.

[dmaul1114]

The kindle was in great condition so I jumped on it for $200. Also has a couple books on it that I was intending to buy so that will save me some money as I'll read those before registering it.

Thanks for the info throughout the thread and forum!

[Madam Broshkina]

I have the K2 and the 505. All in all I like the 505 better because it is much easier to navigate and find books in. I do like the Kindle because of the extra text sizes. I quit buying books from Sony because too many times the text at even the largest size was hard for me to read. Some were good, others were not. Without the ability to download samples I could never be sure. For all new books I will buy from the Kindle Store. If I could only have one I guess it would be the Kindle only for the reason of the extra text sizes, for me the ability to actually read what you have purchased is more important. I have a lot of books on the 505 that I have not read yet and am happy that I have both readers.