Pros and Cons of Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle?

[fugazied]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

I'm lazy and really want a machine that has a good store attached to it. Hence why I lean toward the Kindle since it's cheaper than the Sony store and all the others I've found.

Yeah that kind of sold me too.

I only briefly considered the Sony, it's a pretty cool piece of technology, but the cheap Amazon books and integration of the Kindle got me.

[thibaulthalpern]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

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.

I guess within the realm of digital readers, PDFs may go bye-bye, but I don't think it'll leave for the larger electronic world. PDFs is a page description format and is invaluable in reproducing exactly the way a document was intended to look on the screen and on paper. This kind of stability is needed in many real world applications.

[Dinsule]

How do the reading features hold up between the Sony, the Kindle, and the Bebook/associated products? Specifically with regard to format availability, dictionary usage, and text searching.

It sounds like the main advantages of the kindle are the store, and as XKCD put so wonderfully, the mobile Wikipedia. But short of those advantages, style and functionality points seem to go to Sony and various other competitors.

That said, those are quite large advantages to a lot of ebook fans. I still love my paper books too much to hop in yet, but if I see a good price I might just treat myself when I graduate high school. That or I buy a tele-zoom lens for my Olympus E-510. Or maybe an I-pod.

Of course, for $300 I could also buy ... a good 10 to 20 hardbacks, or 20 to 50 paperbacks. But the point is not so much to spend a certain sum as to acquire a nifty device for my going abroad. With the cost of a good ereader and then some books to read on it, things are not looking particularly good down that road. Yet. Maybe when I have a job.

[Renaldo]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

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).

How is this possible? Amazon was out of the K1's in January, and to the best of my knowledge the only Kindle shipped in 2009 so far has been the K2, and that wasn't until a couple of weeks ago.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Renaldo

How is this possible? Amazon was out of the K1's in January, and to the best of my knowledge the only Kindle shipped in 2009 so far has been the K2, and that wasn't until a couple of weeks ago.

Used K1.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by Renaldo

How is this possible? Amazon was out of the K1's in January, and to the best of my knowledge the only Kindle shipped in 2009 so far has been the K2, and that wasn't until a couple of weeks ago.

It was used. I think the person got it as a late xmas gift--was backordered and arrived in early January.

I didn't end up getting that one in any case, the one I got on Craigslist was purchased in October.

[PhishStyx]

Originally Posted by Dinsule

It sounds like the main advantages of the kindle are the store, and as XKCD put so wonderfully, the mobile Wikipedia. But short of those advantages, style and functionality points seem to go to Sony and various other competitors.

Yeah, I've been wanting a cover for my Kindle that says DON'T PANIC in large friendly letters for awhile now.

[pboss]

The contrast issue that lately surfaced is a little bit disappointing.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Dinsule

How do the reading features hold up between the Sony, the Kindle, and the Bebook/associated products? Specifically with regard to format availability, dictionary usage, and text searching.

It sounds like the main advantages of the kindle are the store, and as XKCD put so wonderfully, the mobile Wikipedia. But short of those advantages, style and functionality points seem to go to Sony and various other competitors.

The Sony readers don't support dictionary lookup but the 700 supports search. The 505 doesn't. The Cybook has dictionary lookup but not search. It does have user-loadable fonts, though, and better dictionary support than the Kindle as it lets you have multiple dictionaries searchable at once. The iLiad has dictionary but only search in PDF if I recall correctly. I actually got the Kindle because it was the only one that would let me do search and dictionary lookup in all my books, plus it had annotation and Wikipedia. I bought if for functionality primarily. The store is a great bonus convenience and I love the free samples but at the time I made my decision, those didn't weigh very heavily.

I've heard talk that dictionary might be coming to some of the other current readers and some of the things shown at CBIT definitely had search. I don't know the BeBooks and Netronix variants all that well. Maybe some of them already have search.

[dschill]

its good for its price thats what i think.

[frabjous]

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?

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

I never said I'd mostly use it for Academic PDFs. It would just be a huge plus as it would save me printing so many out since I can't stand reading on a monitor/laptop. But it seems like no device does conversions well for academic PDFs since they're based on 8.5 x 11 pages with lots of tables and figures so it's moot for now.

I can't think of any academic journals that use 8.5x11 pages. Indeed, the printed part is rarely over (or much over) half that. They may provide their PDFs formatted for printing using 8.5x11 paper, but usually this means they have large oversized margins, which can be stripped away using Acrobat, or any of number of other .PDF editing tools, many available here at MobileRead.

Those that come even close to 8.5x11 would use multiple columns -- with the right app, you can convert multiple column PDFs to view as single columns without too much trouble. Indeed, once this is done, these are often easier to read a mobile device than journals that don't use multiple columns.

I use my Sony 505 on, e.g., journal articles from JSTOR all the time. I don't find them difficult to read at all.Indeed, I use my Sony to read academic .PDFs at least as often as I use it for anything else. (I'm a professor.)

It's true that you do usually need to do some things to make them readable, at least if you want tables, mathematical formulae, etc., to be preserved. Between Acrobat, and free programs available here like PDFLRF, Rasterfarian, PDFread, SoPDF, and PaperCrop, I can't pretty much always get it in readable form. There's a learning curve here, but after you get a little more experienced with what works best where, it's not so bad.

The only ones I have any significant trouble with are papers sent to me by colleagues prior to their being professionally type-set or published, and then they are often single-column on 8.5x11 paper. But even those, once you strip the margins and view in landscape mode, are readable by and large, unless they used a smaller-than-average font. (And if not, I usually just ask them for the original word processor or .tex file.)

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by frabjous

I can't think of any academic journals that use 8.5x11 pages. Indeed, the printed part is rarely over (or much over) half that. They may provide their PDFs formatted for printing using 8.5x11 paper, but usually this means they have large oversized margins, which can be stripped away using Acrobat, or any of number of other .PDF editing tools, many available here at MobileRead.

Those that come even close to 8.5x11 would use multiple columns -- with the right app, you can convert multiple column PDFs to view as single columns without too much trouble. Indeed, once this is done, these are often easier to read a mobile device than journals that don't use multiple columns.

Maybe it is possible. Most PDFs for journals in my field are indeed provided in 8.5x11 format--some are multiple columns, some aren't--depends on the journal.


But hey, if it can be converted that's another options for people so inclined.

I wouldn't go through the hassle myself as I've said repeatedly that I just prefer a double sided paper print out for journal articles as it's just quicker and easier for me to mark up and be able to grab and flip through readily, compare side by side with other articles etc. etc. So given I already prefer it that way, I'm definitely not spending any time converting documents when I could already be reading them. So I don't see myself taking the electronic plunge for those type of documents anytime soon.

[frabjous]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Maybe it is possible. Most PDFs for journals in my field are indeed provided in 8.5x11 format--some are multiple columns, some aren't--depends on the journal.

What field is that? Without multiple columns, I find that just impossible to believe, for any field: professional typesetters know better than that. Unless you just mean that they come prepared to print on 8.5x11 in their PDFs, but again, that can be stripped.

Obviously, it you prefer paper, this is a non-issue, but when it comes to chosing readers, with just a little effort, for someone who wants to read academic articles on a Sony, it's do-able.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by frabjous

What field is that? Without multiple columns, I find that just impossible to believe, for any field: professional typesetters know better than that. Unless you just mean that they come prepared to print on 8.5x11 in their PDFs, but again, that can be stripped.

Obviously, it you prefer paper, this is a non-issue, but when it comes to chosing readers, with just a little effort, for someone who wants to read academic articles on a Sony, it's do-able.

Criminology. I'm sure they can still be converted, but some journals have no columns in the actual Journal (including Criminology the top journal in the field) and then the PDFs they provide for the ejournals sites are just 8.5x11 with no columns.

But like I said, there's probably a work around for them (maybe not for the tables and figures on an 8.5 page with no columns--and the ones that are in landscape on a whole 8.5x11 page) for people so inclined.

Moot for me as I'll always prefer paper for those as it's just easier to highlight, write in the margins, pull out and flip through, compare several finding tables by putting papers side by side etc. We're a long ways off from being able to do that as quickly and easily with electronic gadgets.

I can see it for things that just need to be read--but I don't waste time on those kind of articles. If it's not something directly related to my research that I need to read closely and critically and mark up a ton and write a lot of notes on it's not worth my limited time to read.

[frabjous]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Criminology. I'm sure they can still be converted, but some journals have no columns in the actual Journal (including Criminology the top journal in the field) and then the PDFs they provide for the ejournals sites are just 8.5x11 with no columns.

I went to the Wiley Interscience homepage, downloaded a sample article from Criminonology. I don't know what you mean. The printed part is 4.5x8... nowhere near 8.5x11. Strip the margins and it looks fine. With SoPDF, it takes about 2 seconds to do this.