Replacing my Sony with K3? - Page 3

Crowl · 01-14-2011, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poppaea

And I will never understand that "I wanna have wifi" thing as my reader holds up to 1200 books and in normal life you are at least twice a day next to a computer. Heck, there are computers everywhere: at home, workplace, there are even coffeeplaces that have computers ready... As long as you are not going on an expedition to Antarctica I don't see the need for wifi and even then you'd have the 1200 book on board. So, please, give me a break.

When I got my 505, the 3g feature wasn't important at all to me either, but after trying the kindle app out on my ipad and then my phone, the benefits of things like synching your position in your book automatically just became so useful to me that when I got an e-ink device with a pearl screen that the k3 was the easy choice.

As far as the way I use my ereaders, I was never one to try and load up all my books on there right away, I have some loaded besides the one I am reading and just load more on it as I need them either via Calibre or the Amazon store itself with some of the bargain priced stuff on the latter seeming to be very well suited to impulse purchases of books that I would not otherwise have come across.

One area that I wish the kindle would improve on would be the organisation of larger amounts of books on a device as the sony setup for this is just so much better for that.

HarryT · 01-14-2011, 06:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crowl

One area that I wish the kindle would improve on would be the organisation of larger amounts of books on a device as the sony setup for this is just so much better for that.

Better in what way? The Sony supports collections just as the Kindle does. They are virtually identical.

TheRealBillc · 01-14-2011, 01:53 PM

I managed to drop my Sony 700 enough times to brick it. Nothing I tried to reset it would work. However, I went to the Sony Style Store online and read about the $75 credit offer. They will take back units, working or not, and give you up to a $75 credit, so I answered the brief questions asked on the site and then printed out a shipping label and shipped my machine back to them. In a few days I had my $75 credit and bought a Sony 950. If price really is the determining factor for you, look into the $75 credit.

I could have gotten a 650 but with the discount I decided I wanted the larger screen. Dictionaries come with both the 650 and 950, so that was neutral to the decision. You can take typed or handwritten notes on the Sony, which is both fun and useful. The touch screen means you can turn a page by swiping the screen anywhere not just where the buttons are and no, you can't see smudges because the screen is not shiny like an iPhone.

My wife has the K3, but I'm not into best sellers and I'd rather browse booksellers on a real computer with a big screen. Also, I'd tried reading a pdf on her machine and unfortunately pdf's don't render as well as they do on the Sony, and at least the ones I tried, I couldn't change the font, whereas with the Sony text reflowed pdf's you can change font size. I don't care about wifi or 3G, for the reasons others have mentioned, but my wife loves it, because she doesn't have to fire up the pc to order more books, so consider that.
Hope this helps, whatever you decide, you've already made the best choice by chosing ereading over paper books or a tablet, or some dinky phone screen.

JSWolf · 01-14-2011, 02:00 PM

The problem with going from Sony to Amazon is that all your ePub will need to be converted. You will have to strip the DRM (if you do not already) and then convert. You won't have access to library ePub (if you do not strip DRM). So if you are one of those who do not strip DRM, the K3 is not a good choice. The 650 is the best choice for you given what you'd have for eBooks.

If you do strip DRM, then the K3 could be fine. But, given that you can turn in your 505 for a credit, that drops the price of the 650 down a bit.

ProfCrash · 01-14-2011, 02:02 PM

I buy 90% of my books using a PC. But I have loved it when I wanted to or needed to buy a book using the Kindle itself the 10% of the time that I have.

Sony is a better PDF reader. The Credit is a great idea.

Crowl · 01-14-2011, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Better in what way? The Sony supports collections just as the Kindle does. They are virtually identical.

It is just the way that the organisation of them seems messier on the Kindle, you can set them before sending the books to the device on the sony and then the way they are presented on the home screen means you don't have to mess around with various workarounds as seems to be the case with the kindle.

I guess thinking about it, there are definite benefits to the way the home screen is laid out on the sony once you get a lot more books on your device, but then again maybe the way amazon expects most people to use their device is by keeping the home page tidier by moving stuff back to the archive once you are done with it.

ProfCrash · 01-14-2011, 03:18 PM

I know that is how I used to use my Kindle. Now that I have collections I have all of my books on my Kindle. I just place them in the collections that make sense to me. So books I want to read go into the reading collection. Books that look interesting but not so interesting that I want to read them next go into the To Be Read Genre catagory. Books I have read go into the Read Genre catagory. It is clean and easy.

Pierre-Olivier · 01-15-2011, 09:46 AM

From my point of view, I would say "Buy a Kindle instead of a Sony Reader". But I'm a bit partial.

I hate Sony, since they have never improved the ugly firmware of PRS-600. I bought a Sony PRS-600 in November 2009. This device was (and is) completely unable to manage large libraries. I've stored around 1200 books in a 4 GB SD-card (tha was only 1 GB). You need to know that the PRS-600 had to be connected to the computer, in order to charge the battery. Each time you deconnect it (once charged),it spends 5 to 6 minutes to sort the library, even if you didn't modify it. Did you want to add one or two books, in your SOny, Ok, let's go, and another 5-6 minutes to sort after being unplugged. And this operation was very bad for the battery.

Another default of the product was that the battery life quickly lose autonomy.

AND SONY HAD NEVER UPGRADED THE FIRMWARE.

A lot of all this complaints are now solved in the new PRS-650, but the early adopters of the 600 have been forgotten, it's a shame. So I think I will never buy a sony device.

So, this year (well, last year, in 2010), always in November, I buy a Kindle 3 (after having taking advices of Kindle 3 Owners), and that's happiness. Sorting of Library is very quick, and done only when necessary. You can use the Kindle 3 when plugged to the computer when charging (you couldn't with Sony). Contrast is much better than the Sony. I convert all the ePub books and all is well.

speedlever · 01-15-2011, 10:03 AM

In all honesty, I think it would be wise to consider the current offering. I understand your reasons for the vendetta, but you might be shooting yourself in the foot by not considering the current Sony products. But if you already have the K3, it is a moot point.

The same issue applies to many manufacturers of different devices. Just look at the GPSr (portable GPS) market, for example. Rather than fix firmware issues with the current model, they come out with newer models... with their own set of issues... but hopefully fixing some of the old issues.

CommonReader · 01-15-2011, 11:41 AM

You could have easily bought an additional charger for the PRS-600 for less than 10 Euros, if you disliked the delay after charging it via USB so much. I do find these comparisons of previous generations of Sonys to the current Kindle quite bizarre. That's like hammering the Kindle for the poor display of the original Kindle as compared to the current PRS-350/650. I personally do find the portability of the PRS-350 remarkable as it is so extremely compact and I do like the aluminium surface of the Sonys.

rittsi · 01-15-2011, 12:07 PM

I went from a Sony 505 to a K3 and don't regret it at all. I just love the ease of being able to send all my books via wifi to my K3. As much as I love Sony, the lack of wifi on their smaller models is a real dealbreaker for me.

Being able to subscribe for wireless delivery of magazines and newspapers is also a feature I can't miss anymore. I cancelled a magazine subscription a couple of years ago mainly because I hated having to deal with the waste of paper. I decided that I would only resubscribe when I could read an e-version. It's one of the first things I got when I received my K3.

Bookworm_Girl · 01-15-2011, 12:24 PM

For the majority of users I think that collections are about equal for Sony and Kindle, especially now that you can create collections on the device on new Sony's and don't have to rely on calibre tags or the Sony software.

For my own uses, I give the edge to Sony. That's because I can use the Sony software to order my books in any way I want (that would appear random to anyone else!) and do not have to rely on default sorts like author, title, date. I can also rearrange my books and collections quickly on my computer and then sync using the Sony software. I think there are PC programs for collection management with the Kindle, but I haven't used them (I have a Mac).

I keep all my ebooks on my Sony sorted into loads of collections, including one called "Read". I keep only the books I am reading on my Kindle also sorted into several collections. When I am done reading a Kindle book, I move it into the archive.

As far as periodicals, Amazon has a wider selection. The ability to subscribe to my local paper and cancel the print edition was one of the main reasons why I bought the K3. I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal on my Sony, but all other periodicals I get from Amazon. Calibre's Fetch News and Instapaper ebooks will work with both models. However, I like that both calibre and instapaper can email the documents to my K3. On the other hand, it's not that much of an inconvenience to me to sideload.

allen.gotwald · 01-16-2011, 06:42 AM

I still have my 505 but recently bought a NC to get a little more capability. I love the SONY 505 layout and I have had it 3 1/2 years (since it came out). If I were shopping for a new e-ink reader I'd lay out the extra bucks for the Sony 950. I have become spoiled by the NC 7" screen and the 950 has the pearl screen for better contrast. Despite the press slobbering over Kindle, the Sony offers more open system options. I guess I'm a snob. The Sony just feels good in my hands; light, clear screen, excellent battery life and access to more market items without the need to convert.

Why did I buy the NC? I travel a lot and wanted a new reader that also provided a little extra (videos, photos, magazines) with a smaller screen and without the need to spend $700 for a proprietary baseline.

Phebe · 01-21-2011, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crowl

When I got my 505, the 3g feature wasn't important at all to me either, but after trying the kindle app out on my ipad and then my phone, the benefits of things like synching your position in your book automatically just became so useful to me that when I got an e-ink device with a pearl screen that the k3 was the easy choice.

As far as the way I use my ereaders, I was never one to try and load up all my books on there right away, I have some loaded besides the one I am reading and just load more on it as I need them either via Calibre or the Amazon store itself with some of the bargain priced stuff on the latter seeming to be very well suited to impulse purchases of books that I would not otherwise have come across.

One area that I wish the kindle would improve on would be the organisation of larger amounts of books on a device as the sony setup for this is just so much better for that.

Total agreement, I have loaded not only all my Kindle books onto my iPad but also went back and loaded all my SAMPLES on the iPad Kindle app. I think Amazon's sample downloads are the best thing to happen to booklovers: because you don't have to buy books so you won't forget about them, which is why I currently have three (3) bookcases full of unread books. Now I just download the samples and get to them if and when I get to them, problem solved. And so quick! Catalogs for books constantly come to the house (I can't think why) and I go thru them and download samples from Amazon onto my iPad instantly. This is so wrong!!! And deeply satisfying.

But you are right, I also wish Amazon's app had several more ways to organize books: the Sony Reader IS better for organizing. They have these groupings you can make, and I would love to do that on the iPad app: World War I, novels, novel samples, etc. Can't organize groups with the native iPad Books from Apple, either.

I hate, really hate, the Sony upload via computer method. It constantly crashes and all my books vanish (I have a PRS-500, first out, never do that). I have to get them back from the hard drive. I can't live like this, so I am repeatedly looking up when a Sony app for the iPad will be available ---- but if they are looking to sell the devices rather than the books like Amazon emphasizes, why should Sony ever make an app for iPad? So I'm reading up the seven or so books left on it so I can retire it.

cognym · 01-28-2011, 10:01 PM

I ended up trade in my broken PRS-505 for $34 credit after much argument with the rep in Sony Style store. They only trade in working units. And I missed the $75 credit promotion which had ended before my PRS-505 broke.

The PRS350 was on sale for $129 last week, and with $34 credit, I ended up paying $95 for PRS-350, which I'm pretty happy with.

Initially, I was willing to shell out $229 for the PRS-650, but SonyStyle store did not have one in stock, so I waited, and I'm glad I did. The PRS350 is very light, very dainty, thus I would have to purchase the cover to protect it. Another $50! I thought that I wouldn't like the 5-inch screen since I'm used to the 6". But really, I didn't mind it too much and I quickly adapted to the smaller screen. I could hold the PRS350 with one hand comfortably and my wrist wasn't even straining. I read a lot at night while lying on my bed so this is a huge plus.

I did try out the Kindle, and I liked it okay. The sound of the button clicking was 'louder' on the Kindle, especially late at night, and somehow that irritated me. I really disliked the keyboard because I wouldn't have any use for it. I don't mind converting books into whatever format because that hardly take up any time. I don't load hundreds of book on the device anyway so I don't care about features like organizations or collections, etc. I know exactly what book(s) I'm reading and I'm reloading every week.

I think the Sony appeals to me because it's classy and I prefer the brushed steel look than plastic. In the end, it's the appearance that counts for me. ;-)

Thank you for all your feedback. I learn a lot from all.

01-14-2011, 01:53 PM	#33
TheRealBillc evangelist Posts: 42 Karma: 48 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Jersey City, NJ Device: PRS-700 deceased now 950	What about the 75 dollar credit? I managed to drop my Sony 700 enough times to brick it. Nothing I tried to reset it would work. However, I went to the Sony Style Store online and read about the $75 credit offer. They will take back units, working or not, and give you up to a $75 credit, so I answered the brief questions asked on the site and then printed out a shipping label and shipped my machine back to them. In a few days I had my $75 credit and bought a Sony 950. If price really is the determining factor for you, look into the $75 credit. I could have gotten a 650 but with the discount I decided I wanted the larger screen. Dictionaries come with both the 650 and 950, so that was neutral to the decision. You can take typed or handwritten notes on the Sony, which is both fun and useful. The touch screen means you can turn a page by swiping the screen anywhere not just where the buttons are and no, you can't see smudges because the screen is not shiny like an iPhone. My wife has the K3, but I'm not into best sellers and I'd rather browse booksellers on a real computer with a big screen. Also, I'd tried reading a pdf on her machine and unfortunately pdf's don't render as well as they do on the Sony, and at least the ones I tried, I couldn't change the font, whereas with the Sony text reflowed pdf's you can change font size. I don't care about wifi or 3G, for the reasons others have mentioned, but my wife loves it, because she doesn't have to fire up the pc to order more books, so consider that. Hope this helps, whatever you decide, you've already made the best choice by chosing ereading over paper books or a tablet, or some dinky phone screen.

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01-14-2011, 02:00 PM	#34
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,943 Karma: 128903250 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	The problem with going from Sony to Amazon is that all your ePub will need to be converted. You will have to strip the DRM (if you do not already) and then convert. You won't have access to library ePub (if you do not strip DRM). So if you are one of those who do not strip DRM, the K3 is not a good choice. The 650 is the best choice for you given what you'd have for eBooks. If you do strip DRM, then the K3 could be fine. But, given that you can turn in your 505 for a credit, that drops the price of the 650 down a bit.

01-14-2011, 02:02 PM	#35
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	I buy 90% of my books using a PC. But I have loved it when I wanted to or needed to buy a book using the Kindle itself the 10% of the time that I have. Sony is a better PDF reader. The Credit is a great idea.

01-14-2011, 03:18 PM	#37
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	I know that is how I used to use my Kindle. Now that I have collections I have all of my books on my Kindle. I just place them in the collections that make sense to me. So books I want to read go into the reading collection. Books that look interesting but not so interesting that I want to read them next go into the To Be Read Genre catagory. Books I have read go into the Read Genre catagory. It is clean and easy.

01-15-2011, 09:46 AM	#38
Pierre-Olivier Enthusiast Posts: 47 Karma: 30 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Dans les Landes ... Device: PocketBook Touch Lux 3	From my point of view, I would say "Buy a Kindle instead of a Sony Reader". But I'm a bit partial. I hate Sony, since they have never improved the ugly firmware of PRS-600. I bought a Sony PRS-600 in November 2009. This device was (and is) completely unable to manage large libraries. I've stored around 1200 books in a 4 GB SD-card (tha was only 1 GB). You need to know that the PRS-600 had to be connected to the computer, in order to charge the battery. Each time you deconnect it (once charged),it spends 5 to 6 minutes to sort the library, even if you didn't modify it. Did you want to add one or two books, in your SOny, Ok, let's go, and another 5-6 minutes to sort after being unplugged. And this operation was very bad for the battery. Another default of the product was that the battery life quickly lose autonomy. AND SONY HAD NEVER UPGRADED THE FIRMWARE. A lot of all this complaints are now solved in the new PRS-650, but the early adopters of the 600 have been forgotten, it's a shame. So I think I will never buy a sony device. So, this year (well, last year, in 2010), always in November, I buy a Kindle 3 (after having taking advices of Kindle 3 Owners), and that's happiness. Sorting of Library is very quick, and done only when necessary. You can use the Kindle 3 when plugged to the computer when charging (you couldn't with Sony). Contrast is much better than the Sony. I convert all the ePub books and all is well.

01-15-2011, 10:03 AM	#39
speedlever Fanatic Posts: 592 Karma: 138200 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: NC, USA Device: PW2014, PW2012, iPad Pro	In all honesty, I think it would be wise to consider the current offering. I understand your reasons for the vendetta, but you might be shooting yourself in the foot by not considering the current Sony products. But if you already have the K3, it is a moot point. The same issue applies to many manufacturers of different devices. Just look at the GPSr (portable GPS) market, for example. Rather than fix firmware issues with the current model, they come out with newer models... with their own set of issues... but hopefully fixing some of the old issues.

01-15-2011, 11:41 AM	#40
CommonReader Fanatic Posts: 528 Karma: 2530000 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Sony PRS-T3, PRS-650, Vaio Tap 11, iPad Mini	You could have easily bought an additional charger for the PRS-600 for less than 10 Euros, if you disliked the delay after charging it via USB so much. I do find these comparisons of previous generations of Sonys to the current Kindle quite bizarre. That's like hammering the Kindle for the poor display of the original Kindle as compared to the current PRS-350/650. I personally do find the portability of the PRS-350 remarkable as it is so extremely compact and I do like the aluminium surface of the Sonys.

01-15-2011, 12:07 PM	#41
rittsi Enthusiast Posts: 31 Karma: 698 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Antwerp, Belgium Device: Sony 505, iphone 3GS, Kindle 3	I went from a Sony 505 to a K3 and don't regret it at all. I just love the ease of being able to send all my books via wifi to my K3. As much as I love Sony, the lack of wifi on their smaller models is a real dealbreaker for me. Being able to subscribe for wireless delivery of magazines and newspapers is also a feature I can't miss anymore. I cancelled a magazine subscription a couple of years ago mainly because I hated having to deal with the waste of paper. I decided that I would only resubscribe when I could read an e-version. It's one of the first things I got when I received my K3.

01-15-2011, 12:24 PM	#42
Bookworm_Girl E-reader Enthusiast Posts: 4,871 Karma: 36507503 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Southwest, USA Device: Kindle Oasis 3; Kobo Aura One; iPad Mini 5	For the majority of users I think that collections are about equal for Sony and Kindle, especially now that you can create collections on the device on new Sony's and don't have to rely on calibre tags or the Sony software. For my own uses, I give the edge to Sony. That's because I can use the Sony software to order my books in any way I want (that would appear random to anyone else!) and do not have to rely on default sorts like author, title, date. I can also rearrange my books and collections quickly on my computer and then sync using the Sony software. I think there are PC programs for collection management with the Kindle, but I haven't used them (I have a Mac). I keep all my ebooks on my Sony sorted into loads of collections, including one called "Read". I keep only the books I am reading on my Kindle also sorted into several collections. When I am done reading a Kindle book, I move it into the archive. As far as periodicals, Amazon has a wider selection. The ability to subscribe to my local paper and cancel the print edition was one of the main reasons why I bought the K3. I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal on my Sony, but all other periodicals I get from Amazon. Calibre's Fetch News and Instapaper ebooks will work with both models. However, I like that both calibre and instapaper can email the documents to my K3. On the other hand, it's not that much of an inconvenience to me to sideload.

01-16-2011, 06:42 AM	#43
allen.gotwald Advocate Posts: 44 Karma: 34094 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: ohio Device: SONY PRS-505 and Nook Color	I still have my 505 but recently bought a NC to get a little more capability. I love the SONY 505 layout and I have had it 3 1/2 years (since it came out). If I were shopping for a new e-ink reader I'd lay out the extra bucks for the Sony 950. I have become spoiled by the NC 7" screen and the 950 has the pearl screen for better contrast. Despite the press slobbering over Kindle, the Sony offers more open system options. I guess I'm a snob. The Sony just feels good in my hands; light, clear screen, excellent battery life and access to more market items without the need to convert. Why did I buy the NC? I travel a lot and wanted a new reader that also provided a little extra (videos, photos, magazines) with a smaller screen and without the need to spend $700 for a proprietary baseline.

01-28-2011, 10:01 PM	#45
cognym Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Sony prs-505	I ended up trade in my broken PRS-505 for $34 credit after much argument with the rep in Sony Style store. They only trade in working units. And I missed the $75 credit promotion which had ended before my PRS-505 broke. The PRS350 was on sale for $129 last week, and with $34 credit, I ended up paying $95 for PRS-350, which I'm pretty happy with. Initially, I was willing to shell out $229 for the PRS-650, but SonyStyle store did not have one in stock, so I waited, and I'm glad I did. The PRS350 is very light, very dainty, thus I would have to purchase the cover to protect it. Another $50! I thought that I wouldn't like the 5-inch screen since I'm used to the 6". But really, I didn't mind it too much and I quickly adapted to the smaller screen. I could hold the PRS350 with one hand comfortably and my wrist wasn't even straining. I read a lot at night while lying on my bed so this is a huge plus. I did try out the Kindle, and I liked it okay. The sound of the button clicking was 'louder' on the Kindle, especially late at night, and somehow that irritated me. I really disliked the keyboard because I wouldn't have any use for it. I don't mind converting books into whatever format because that hardly take up any time. I don't load hundreds of book on the device anyway so I don't care about features like organizations or collections, etc. I know exactly what book(s) I'm reading and I'm reloading every week. I think the Sony appeals to me because it's classy and I prefer the brushed steel look than plastic. In the end, it's the appearance that counts for me. ;-) Thank you for all your feedback. I learn a lot from all.

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