Sony or Nook Touch

[jridley]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

That alone would stop me from buying the Nook. I create my own PDF's (don't like any implementation of an epub reader so far), and those tend to become somewhat larger than a pdf (for example, the book I'm now reading is 1.5Mb in Epub and 4.7Mb in PDF). I'm also one that loves to keep all her books on her reader as I never know what my fance wants me to read at any time. And all those PDF's amount to about 400Mb so far (and the collection is growing...)

So spend $10 and drop in a 4G card.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by taosaur

It does have generally more powerful and flexible hardware, which may mean more capability down the road.

What is more powerful and flexible about the hardware?

[jridley]

FWIW, I think the Nook Touch is a rotten PDF reader. If PDF reading is a priority, I think the Kobo Touch is a much better choice.

I think PDFs are an absolutely useless format for ebooks, and I delete them on sight. They have their uses as a document management format, but IMO they're pretty useless for ebooks, so I didn't consider them at all when making my choice.

That said, the Kobo Touch's PDF handling, at least in the enGadget video I saw, looked really nice, in fact it made the Sony's handling of PDFs look pathetic and horribly clunky in comparison.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

What is more powerful and flexible about the hardware?

I do believe the Nook STR uses a stronger processor.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by taosaur

That's all well and good, and based on your stated preference for PDFs (unfathomable, but whatevs) the PRS series is almost certainly a better fit for you. Just don't toss around red herrings about storage.

It's not a red herring. It's one drawback of my Mini: it's internal storage isn't enough. And something that is important to me, doesn't have to be important to you. I only know that if I were in the market today, and had the choice between a $150 Nook Touch or a $250 Sony, based on what I read about specs, advantages and disadvantages, I would go for the Sony. And one of those reasons to pick the Sony would be the internal storage.

Originally Posted by jridley

So spend $10 and drop in a 4G card.

What's a 4g card?

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

What's a 4g card?

Lets you telephone to the extraterrestrial with the Nook

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

What is more powerful and flexible about the hardware?

Primarily the processor and Wi-Fi radio; I don't know how it compares to a PRS on RAM. I believe it has also been confirmed that the STR will check for bootable media in the uSD slot when powering on, which makes experimentation much safer and opens up enormous possibilities for running alternate operating systems and utilities without so much as rooting.

Like the Nook Color, the STR software barely scratches the surface of the equipment's capability, and like the Color, that software is built on Android. B&N's previous products have attracted a sizable developer community that is already turning some of their attention to the Touch. What that could mean in terms of reading are alternate PDF readers, RSS newsreaders, more formats like txt, rtf, and office docs, alternatives for library management, or even alternative stores like Amazon and Google Books.

As with all the features we've been discussing, it's up to you whether that potential matters, and of course we won't know how much of it will be realized until the devs have had a chance to play a while longer.

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

What's a 4g card?

I'm thinking s/he meant a 4GB uSD.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

It's not a red herring. It's one drawback of my Mini: it's internal storage isn't enough. And something that is important to me, doesn't have to be important to you. I only know that if I were in the market today, and had the choice between a $150 Nook Touch or a $250 Sony, based on what I read about specs, advantages and disadvantages, I would go for the Sony. And one of those reasons to pick the Sony would be the internal storage.


What's a 4g card?

4 gig SD memory card.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by boswd

I do believe the Nook STR uses a stronger processor.

Originally Posted by taosaur

Primarily the processor and Wi-Fi radio; I don't know how it compares to a PRS on RAM. I believe it has also been confirmed that the STR will check for bootable media in the uSD slot when powering on, which makes experimentation much safer and opens up enormous possibilities for running alternate operating systems and utilities without so much as rooting.

Like the Nook Color, the STR software barely scratches the surface of the equipment's capability, and like the Color, that software is built on Android. B&N's previous products have attracted a sizable developer community that is already turning some of their attention to the Touch. What that could mean in terms of reading are alternate PDF readers, RSS newsreaders, more formats like txt, rtf, and office docs, alternatives for library management, or even alternative stores like Amazon and Google Books.

So none of you knows which processor is used in the Sony PRS-650, but you believe it is not as good as the Nooks?

Aha. I know it. I mean which processor is in the Sony. I don't know anything about them so I can't tell if it is inferior, superior or on par. But to say something because you guess... interesting concept that is.

The Sony is able to read txt and rft. No hacking needed.

Wifi, hm, to download books is a totally foreign concept for me. I do browse the bookstore with the laptop to make use of the bigger screen as I like to read excerpts or reviews about the books I am interested in. So it would be totally awkward to go for the reader, switch it on and search for the book on the little display just to download it via wifi, because that's just the thing to do to be a cool techno geek

You hope for a hacker to develop a PDF reader for your Nook. Well, I bought a functioning PDF reader right from the start. It is in the Sony.

Google books. Its in the SonyStore.

Better? Looks like better is a new term for wishful thinking on your part.

[Latinandgreek]

Sony: 12 onboard dictionaries. Also, it doesn't have the ghosting problem reported for the new Nook.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Sony: 12 onboard dictionaries. Also, it doesn't have the ghosting problem reported for the new Nook.

Oh, I am quite sure there is a hacker out there, eagerly waiting to do a dictionary hack in Klingonian. This is one of the miraculous new features to wait for the Nook to have

[boswd]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

Oh, I am quite sure there is a hacker out there, eagerly waiting to do a dictionary hack in Klingonian. This is one of the miraculous new features to wait for the Nook to have

12 built in dictionaries? Ohh OK now I see that is soooo worth the extra $100+ dollars for the Sony

I'll take wirelessly downloading your books, superior bookstore, more font choices and you can keep your 12 dictionaries.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by boswd

12 built in dictionaries? Ohh OK now I see that is soooo worth the extra $100+ dollars for the Sony

I'll take wirelessly downloading your books, superior bookstore, more font choices and you can keep your 12 dictionaries.

This is because you read one language. Latinandgreek seems to read five or six, if I am not mistaken, Sweetpea at least two, I read three, sometimes in a fourth... The dictonaries are invaluable for me even if they are all xxxtoEnglish.

Wifi is only for downloading books, I download every once in a while, but I read all the time. Go figure.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

Better? Looks like better is a new term for wishful thinking on your part.

I think I've stated about six different ways by now that there are legitimate reasons for preferring either product based on your priorities. You asked how the STR's hardware is more powerful and flexible, and I told you. It is more powerful and flexible by any measure. Whether that fact is important to you is a matter of preference. I was not arguing against your preference, simply answering your question.

Originally Posted by Poppaea

Aha. I know it. I mean which processor is in the Sony. I don't know anything about them so I can't tell if it is inferior, superior or on par. But to say something because you guess... interesting concept that is.

0_o The Nook Touch has an 800Mhz CPU, probably the same ARM7 found in the Nook Color (we'll know after a teardown). No previously released e-ink reader had such a processor.

According to this thread, the PRS 650 is running a Freescale CPU with maximum clock speed of 532Mhz.

Originally Posted by Poppaea

The Sony is able to read txt and rft. No hacking needed.

Wifi, hm, to download books is a totally foreign concept for me. I do browse the bookstore with the laptop to make use of the bigger screen as I like to read excerpts or reviews about the books I am interested in. So it would be totally awkward to go for the reader, switch it on and search for the book on the little display just to download it via wifi, because that's just the thing to do to be a cool techno geek

And again, 0_o Having direct access to a store on your reader is about as far from being a "cool techno geek" as you can get. It skips all steps involving an actual computer and reduces the process to poke, poke, read. If you see no use for Wi-Fi in your reading, congratulations; some others feel the same way. That fact does not make other peoples' preference for wireless connectivity bad and wrong.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by boswd

12 built in dictionaries? Ohh OK now I see that is soooo worth the extra $100+ dollars for the Sony

I'll take wirelessly downloading your books, superior bookstore, more font choices and you can keep your 12 dictionaries.

I wouldn't mind wireless downloading, but it is definitely not high on my list of priorities. I have made use of all of my built in dictionaries excluding the Dutch one, and I'm sure that that one will get some use eventually. I find the dictionaries invaluable, and I really don't see a need for you to laugh at my post. As for the Nook store, it is unavailable to me as I live outside the U.S. Font choices are nice, but then again, I can hack my device to get that feature or I can use Calibre to change the fonts in a file. To each his own, we all have our specific needs and wants in a device. Also, my PRS-350 was only $129 U.S., and that was 5 months ago, so price isn't an issue in this case.