Kindle and Its Ilk
I read a blog post yesterday morning extolling the virtues of Amazon’s Kindle. Intrigued, I clicked over to Amazon and began reading. I was nearly convinced. I flipped over to Sony’s site to read about their device — the Reader Digital Book.
The Sony comes (if purchased before September 20, 2008) with $199 credit for classic books (100 books at $1.99 from their site) if downloaded before October 31, 2008. The Sony is $100 cheaper than the Kindle. It needs a computer USB connection to get it’s downloads.
The Kindle costs $100 more than the Sony but is equipped with Amazon’s proprietary Whispernet which will download your purchases anywhere, anytime within minutes. Therein lies the rub. I checked the Kindle’s coverage area and our Central Texas home is completely outside the Kindle service area (must be carried on Sprint or something . . . it appears to only hit major metropolitan areas and interstate corridors).
I’m holding off for now, but the Sony looks like a better deal for me. On the other hand, it doesn’t have a Mac Desktop application, and I intend to migrate to the Mac platform next. Do you have any experience with eBook readers? What, if any, would you recommend? Maybe the Palm I already have is good enough.
I had a Rocket eBook Reader a few years back – complete waste of $199.00!
The biggest problem was lack of professional quality books, though I can’t imagine you hitting that problem with Amazon. Other concerns I ran into:
– Damaging the reader. I was constantly dropping it or knocking it off the end table. They don’t bounce as nicely as paperbacks! 🙂 Definitely invest in a good cover of some type. It eventually just stopped working and I never bothered to get it fixed.
– Storing the eBooks. The books I bought were stored in a “library” on my PC that were only accesible through the readers software/link. Trying to transfer them to a new system was next to impossible. I wound up losing ten novels I’d purchased, with no way to get them back. The reader I had could also only hold 3-5 books at a time. The two above seem much better in that respect.
– Screen glare. I like reading in many odd positions and that was a problem. The screen always reflected the lights at the exact wrong location so the only good position was sitting up straight in a chair – not good for a lazy old man like me! Also, make sure these readers are both backlit for night reading!
– News/magazine subscriptions. These were more expensive than the regular print versions and didn’t provide the graphics, etc.
I’m sure the new readers have addressed most, if not all, of these but you asked for a heads up . . .
Later!
I’ve looked at the Kindle. We are covered by its wireless, but I don’t know how much I’d enjoy reading a book that way. My boss’s wife has one, and she loves it. I’m hoping she’ll bring it over some time so I can look at it.
If you’re going to migrate to a Mac, I recommend getting an iPod Touch. Usable for so much more besides just reading, but through various applications (such as eReader, a free download), you can buy and download recent books. Classic books are readily available from manybooks.net and booksinmyphone.com free. Just go anywhere you’ve got wireless and download. Or download to your computer and then sync.
Granted, the iPod Touch does not have the eInk technology. But you can go to an Apple Store and see whether or not you think you could read off the screen for any length of time. Plus, you can use it for music, videos, note-taking, calendars . . .
(Can you tell I’m a satisfied customer? At the moment, I’m trying to decide which model to buy my husband for his birthday so he has one for himself–and I have one less person to share with!)
Thanks, everyone. I’ve been lusting for a 32G iPod Touch, Erin. I think I might prefer it to an iPhone, because I’ve heard criticism of the iPhone’s phone quality, and I’m not wild about using phone battery life for mp3 and other things.
The Touch’s WiFi capability should allow me to do most of the iPhone things, although phone access to weather maps and weather reports are my primary use of my data access on my phone.
I need to find a home for my 40G 2nd generation iPod, and I should consider finding a home for my third generation 16G Nano before springing for another iPod.
I don’t know if I could get used to holding an electronic to read, especially pleasure reading. If I got such a gadget, what would I have to dust?? 😉
FF, that’s a concern I share as well. I just like the feel of a book in my hands, and I’ve never really taken to reading from an electronic screen.