silverthunder | (no subject)

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So, who all has a Kindle? Is it any good? Easy to use? Durable? How do you think it holds up against Sony's new PRS-600?

I really hate the touchscreen Sony loves so much (particularly since it makes the screen reflective and that would bug the crap out of me), but their non-touchscreen models apparently aren't as good (someone correct me if I'm wrong about this). However, Sony has the advantage of supporting the format used for library books (Kindle does not). I also don't care about wireless networks and downloading books immediately to the device, so that feature doesn't give Kindle any particular advantage in my opinion.

I don't know if I'd actually end up using up the space on the Kindle (3GB is a lot for books, and I can always keep a backup on my PC and swap books in/out if I somehow end up with that many of them), but the Sony has SD slots that allow you to expand the memory, which is another plus. Unfortunately, Sony starts out with only 512MB.

Another nice thing about the Kindle is the price. It's about $60 cheaper than the Sony. Even with the shipping cost added to that, it's still going to be less expensive.

Small instant-gratification issue: I could buy a Sony from Future Shop and have it immediately, but Kindle is temporarily sold out and won't be shipped before Sept 20th according to Amazon. I am not a patient person. It is tempting to go with Sony just so I can have it now.

One of my co-workers just got the new Kindle and loves it, and one of my friends has a Sony PRS-700 (very similar to the 600, I understand) and loves it. I'm kind of wavering between them - which would I like better? I don't know.

Any thoughts or insight?

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I have a Kobo (http://yukinoomoni.livejournal.com/tag/oh%20kobo), and so far it's great. The battery life is really good, it's light and durable, and it's easy to use. Like I say in my review, it's got its flaws, but for the most part it's not bad.

Yeah, I considered the Kobo (I like the simplicity, since all I really want to do is read books on it, and it would be cheaper than the Kindle + shipping), but changed my mind because of a couple of things:

1. No bookmark feature. I like to refer back to things or mark pages with scenes I want to quote somewhere, etc. So not being able to put in a bookmark and easily go back to something would annoy me.

2. No ability to skip to a specific page. This kind of goes along with the bookmark thing (I can't bookmark, and then also can't even write down the page number and refer to it later - throw me a bone here, Kobo!), but there's also the fact that I sometimes come across something in a book that makes me want to flip back and refer to something that happened earlier. Not being able to skip back easily would annoy me.

That's pretty much it, but the combination of those two turned me off from the Kobo. I'm thinking I'll probably end up going with a Kindle. The touchscreen on the Sony really doesn't sit well with me. I want this to be a good replacement for carting books around, not a bigger iPod touch.

The Kindle is fine if you just plan on purchasing things from Amazon or what have you from what I've heard, since it's lame and only supports specific formats. That and I think that some publishers won't permit them to use their books on it because of that feature or something else that's silly. (These are things I heard from the 2nd in command @ work. She has a Sony, and kept telling us about the new Kindle, Sony, Kobo stuff.) But ya, if you don't mind those couple of downsides then maybe the Kindle is right for you! :D

I've only personally seen the Kobo up close and personal. It's purdy. But ya, lacking a few features, but for $150 what can ya do?

Oh, you can get any format on there. ;) It wasn't hard to find references to a very easy converter for any files that are unsupported (like ePub files, which are used by libraries and a few of the sites that sell ebooks). Also, Kindle advertises the fact that it's compatible with various sites that offer free ebooks, so you don't even have to convert anything coming from there.

My co-worker has the Kindle. He hasn't bought any books from Amazon. All he does is download books from elsewhere and put them on there. He says it's ridiculously easy - once you have them in the right format, you plug the Kindle in to your computer and add them just like you would to a USB drive. I got to check it out yesterday when he brought it in, and it the display is very nice.

I don't mind doing the file conversion if the device is well-priced, easy to use, nice to read, and has the functionality I want. The pricing and the touchscreen are pretty much killing the Sony for me. The Kindle is $140. Sony is $200. Even with shipping, the Kindle is significantly cheaper. And the screen doesn't have reflective glare.

I would really like to demo a Sony before making the decision. Maybe I'll ask Ashley if I can give hers a go, since she has the PRS-700.

I would love to get the Kobo because it's a Canadian product and has a nice simple design that I like (plus it's on sale for $128 right now). But the lack of bookmarks and skip-to-page ability nixed that for me, unfortunately. if it had those two things, I would probably get one.

Damn I'm out of the loop then! Didn't know it was that easy to convert the files! But ya, and I didn't realize that they were so inexpensive now! But yeah, good luck! (I still say go with Sony! Cause well.. it's sony! ;P Mwah hahah!) but ya! :D

oh and that was from Sarah.. I didn't log in on my netbook >

I would probably go with Sony if it weren't so expensive and didn't have that damn touchscreen! Curses to whoever decided that was a good idea! Being able to put my fingerprints all over the screen is not a good excuse for adding an extra layer of reflective glare.

I might be tempted to go with the smaller Sony models, but they have 512mb of space and no expandable memory. I'd love to try them out, though, since they're only $150. Maybe I'll head up to Future Shop and see if someone will be kind enough to provide me with a demo. Doubt it, but it's worth a shot, right?

Hell ya! Might as well take a look and see! ;P But ya, no expandable memory sucks... And glare sucks.. >.< Srsly, who comes up with these stupid ideas?!@ But ya! Lemme kno what they're like! :D

I'm going to head up to Chapters as well and see if I can try out the Kobo. Ya never know, I might even decide to go with it despite the flaws. ;)

Also meeting Ashley and Pierre tonight, so maybe I will get to try out her Sony. I'll let you know how they are when I get to try them.

Sometimes conversion isn't that easy if it requires DRM stripping (which can be complicated).

In my case I actually got a Sony e-reader a year back, realised I just couldn't get used to e-ink (the black flashing when changing pages) and gave it to a friend. Then I went the way of LCD e-readers. If I could have afforded it I might have gone for an iPad but it kinda sucks in daylight and I probably would get minimal reading done since I'd get distracted by other options like video (unlike with a dedicated e-reader). I guess ultimately it depends on what you're looking for in an e-reader and what your priorities are in buying one.

My one bit of advice is to go cheap for now since in a few years, there'll probably be something a LOT better out - the market is still pretty new.

Edit: *facepalms* Oh and I ended up with the Jetbook Lite haha

Edited 2010-09-03 01:17 (UTC)

According to this thread, a tool called Calibre does the best job of converting ePub to MOBI. I'll give it a try and see how things look on my PC at some point to make sure it's going to work okay.

Really, as long as I can get David Eddings' books on there, this thing will be worth it. Those are the ones I'm in a constant loop of re-reading. If I want to buy new books, odds are I would've bought them through Amazon anyway - all this means is I'll get them cheaper. XD

I really thought the e-ink was awesome on my co-worker's Kindle. I like how the screen looks. As for LCD... well, my job requires me to stare at an LCD screen for seven and a half hours every day, and then I stare at my personal computer screen at home for several more. XD I could probably do with something different when reading books.

All I want in an e-reader is to be able to store books on there and read them. I want to be able to do the things I like to do when reading a normal book: bookmark pages I want to look at later, flip back to refer to something that happened earlier in the book, etc. I'd rather the page turns are quick, too, because the more seamless the reading experience, the better.

The cheapest is the Kobo, but it doesn't allow me to do what I want. The Kindle is the next cheapest, and has what I want. It's looking like the best option right now.

How is the Jetbook Lite? Just out of curiosity?

I've been using Calibre a lot since I get the JBL - I haven't touched any DRM books lately though I remember having to jump through several software hoops to strip it off an old purchase. The hardest thing to convert even with Calibre are pdfs - you have to convert to rtf, do find and replace for footer/header info and then convert that file to your ebook format.

The LCD used on the JBL isn't quite the same as those on the iPad and laptops - the screen is more greyish and works even in bright sunlight (its not backlit so you need a reading light on when using it, just like a regular book/e-reader)

E-ink page loads are definitely going to improve over the next few years (as it is now it takes a sec or two for a page to switch)

I had assumed all e-readers would bookmark/switch pages/hold your place if you go back or temporarily shut off the screen D:

Been carrying the JBL while running around vancouver and its pretty awesome - have folders for different sections of books (slash vs fantasy vs fanfiction) and it loads up a lot of formats of ebooks but the best are epub, mobi, rtf, html and txt. Posted about it here (http://gossymer.livejournal.com/391640.html) just this past week. I think its weakness against other readers is probably typography, since you can't use your own fonts yet - that might change in future though since they do update the software/OS \o/

The Kobo does hold your place in the book. What I want is the ability to bookmark additional places in the book and return to them later. Also the ability to skip to a specific page in the book. XD Unfortunately, it doesn't offer either of those things. Otherwise I'd probably be going for a Kobo right now, since our local Chapters sells them.

As far as I can tell, the Kindle has provided support for pdf files in the Kindle 2, Kindle 3G and Kindle Wi-Fi (this is the one I'm looking at). It's ePub that they don't support.

From what I've read, the Kindle, Kobo, and new Sony are very quick to switch pages, so the technology is coming along. The old Sony e-readers (the ones that are cheaper and don't have touchscreens) are slower.

I'm not too concerned with fonts; I can read a number of different fonts and it doesn't bug me too much. Maybe I should consider a Jetbook Lite, even though I'm iffy about the LCD screen. XD I'll look it up. Do you add files and folders to it like you would a USB drive or does it have its own system?

Anyway, new Kindles won't ship until Sept 20th according to Amazon, so I have some time to look into alternatives.

The problem with pdfs is that they don't show up well on screens smaller than the files are designs for (so if the pages are A4 sized when loaded to the e-readers they get shrunk and can't be read easily) - so other formats are usually preferred

Oooh didn't know that! I had looked up youtube demos of the e-readers so haven't seen the page switching in person for the latest versions

Am very nitpicky about fonts lol but reading on the JBL isn't a problem in any case :) It's pretty much just files/folders so its super easy (none of that installing additional software to set it up, just transfer the ebooks and you're good to go)

I know some sites have sales for the JBL for $99.99 but not sure about the jetbook itself - youtubing the e-reader will let you see how it runs though :D

I found the page switching to be fairly quick - I have to admit, after checking out the JBL on youtube, it is quicker, and if you're annoyed by the black flashing every time the page turns... yeah, that's still there on the others.

I will probably have to see when I try out the Kobo if this is going to be an issue for me or not.

It actually sounds like the JBL has everything I need... (I could probably still buy books from amazon and transfer them onto this device, right? If not, no biggie, I can buy them elsewhere, but it'd be convenient since I already have an account with Amazon and like to buy from them) Even the batteries are probably not that much of an issue. Unfortunately, I probably wouldn't find it in-store to test out, but maybe I'll try out the ones I can and do a little more review-hunting and checking things out on youtube and see how I feel.

Like I said, I really am just looking for something that's going to mimic a real book for me as much as possible. And the price is very attractive on this one, too.

Just out of curiosity, where did you get yours?

Kindle's Mobi format should work without a problem but if its DRM-ed AZW, then it probably would need stripping and then converting >_> There are some ebook stores (fictionwise and smashwords) that most people seem to default to if they're not using the Kindle

I got mine off of Newegg Canada but Buy.com and Amazon.com are cheaper usually if you can get it from USA - the JBL goes for $99 while the Jetbook is about $135 I think.

Eh, I'd probably just order from another ebook store. Not like it's that big a deal, and I'd rather be spared the hassle.

I'll check out Newegg Canada. :) Better if I can see the price in Canadian funds right off the bat. But if worse comes to worse, I can always go Amazon (too bad their CA site doesn't carry any ebook readers).

Hmm... I really like that Jetbook Lite is so cheap, and has the bookmarking functionality that I want (not sure about skipping to a specific page). I like the idea of having folders for different sections of books, too. And since the LCD screen isn't backlit, it's probably not going to cause strain on my eyes or anything. I like that page turns are smooth and pretty well instant, too.

I don't like having to use batteries in it - I would prefer a lithium-ion battery that you can plug in to charge. Also, I couldn't find anything about how much memory is on there. I guess since it is expandable, it's not much of an issue. I assume it's probably 512mb?

Is loading books onto it a nice smooth process? The Kindle is supposedly just like using a USB drive. How is the JBL?

I'm going to head up to Chapters today and try out the Kobo, just for the heck of it and to see what it's like. Maybe it will still impress me. ;) Also going to see what Future Shop has in stock.

Thanks for the rec!

It can skip to a specific page and the Jetbook (non-lite) version uses lithium-ion - I've found those types tend to die on me faster over the years (my mp3 player, my laptops) until the charge doesn't stay anywhere as long as it should so I went for rechargable AA batteries in the Lite ^^

Not sure about memory TBH - I use a 2GB card in it that I pop into the laptop when I want to load books (super fast) though you can use a usb drive too.

I remember when buying my mp3 player I narrowed it down to two and ended up buying both via credit card - then I just returned the one I liked less XD If you have the opportunity to test them out in person, that's definitely the way to go :D

I don't think I'll be able to test-buy any of these, particularly the Kindle since you have to order it through Amazon and I'd imagine it would be a pain to try and return it. The ones I can buy at Future Shop, maybe... I think they have a 30-day returns policy. I'm not sure about the Kobo - I'll check into that.

I found on a website that the JBL has 128MB - the smallest I've seen. But again, it doesn't really matter bcause it's so cheap and I can get a 2GB SD card for it anyway. I like the idea of loading books onto the SD card and just popping it back into the reader.

Forgot about the Kindle's order system ^^ Youtube vids would be the next best alternative probably :)

I remember I had about 40 books on the reader before I switched to my SD card and now the external storage acts as a mini-library so anything I feel like reading is a click away. The pop-in/pop out is much easier than having to deal with USB connections so would recommend external storage id you plan on transfering books from your computer.

TBH, I use the ebook comms on lj (if I love the books I usually end up buying them later anyway) so transfering from the laptop is key ^^

Yeah, I've been looking at Youtube vids, and my co-worker brought in his brand new Kindle on Wednesday (he's off until Tuesday now), so I could probably ask to take a longer look at it. He's told me a lot of what I know about what you can do with it, too.

One of my friends has a Sony PRS-700, so I'm hoping she'll let me play around with it when I see her next.

The Kobo, of course, I'll try in-store.

I really wish I could try out the Jetbook Lite, just to see what it feels like and how it is to hold and to read from. I checked it out on YouTube and liked what I saw of the demo, but it's still not quite the same. I did see a couple of reviews that said it stopped working for them after about a month and wouldn't even power on - which scares me a little.

Anyway, I'm not in a rush right now. I'll continue checking things out. Unless, of course, something really impresses me and I decide I must have it immediately. XD We'll see.

All this talk is getting me tempted to buy something like that now. I love science books, and I especially love new science articles and magazines.

You must keep me informed of what you decide to do! :D

I'm leaning towards the Kindle again, which is how I was thinking at the beginning. I got to try both the Kobo and the Sony. The Kobo was slow with page turns, and the Sony's screen is too reflective, but I love the e-Ink technology. I was considering Jetbook Lite for a while, but it uses LCD, so... maybe not.

Other than the reflective screen, I actually really enjoyed the Sony, but the combination of that screen and the higher price has me thinking the Kindle is probably a better option.

I'll be considering it for a while, though, as new Kindles don't ship until Sept 20th. I put my order in, but can always cancel it before then if I decide to go with something else.

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