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June 11, 2008
For You Geeky eReaders
* It doesn’t matter that Kevin is taking not one, but two master’s classes this summer.
* It doesn’t matter that he is writing pages upon pages of homework each day.
* It also doesn’t matter that he is teaching not one, but two classes online.
* No, it doesn’t matter that he is in the mist of home repairs and pool maintenance.
I still asked him to write a guest blog … and he did.
I hope you enjoy it :)
*****
From Kevin:
I really enjoy the Sony Reader I got for my birthday. It is cumbersome right at first but after 10 pages you ignore the device and just read. The contrast of the screen is excellent and I have not found any situations where I needed more light. The text is very clear and easy to read. There are 3 font size settings and I generally keep mine on small. MobileRead is an excellent website with tons of information on all the ereaders available.
If I had to purchase again, I would still buy the Sony Reader even with the recent price drop of the Amazon Kindle. If they had been the same price, the decision would become harder. I honestly think I would still buy the Sony. There are some great programs for the Sony that are not available on the Kindle such as library management and format converters.
I did quite a bit of research on both the Sony and Amazon's Kindle before I purchased the Sony. I have not used a Kindle but the screen is the same so I would think the reading experience would be the same. I understand it has more font sizes but I am not sure how important that is. I read mostly from the public domain books so I will not purchase a majority of my books. With this in mind, I did not need the ability to shop and buy books from the device and have almost instant access to that book.
The Kindle also has search and dictionary functions which are nice but not worth the extra money. Also, if you are outside the US the current wireless browser options on the Kindle will not work for you. You can still use it and buy books but they will have to be synced through your PC.
The bottom line is, if you are a reader who enjoys browsing books and are willing to read just about anything then an ereader will work for you. On the other hand, if you only read specific authors or types of books you really need to check into the electronic versions of those books. Make sure they sell those books in a format that will work on your reader. Amazon and Sony both sell ebooks and honestly Amazon has more of them so if you plan to buy a ton of ebooks then you might want the Kindle instead of the Sony. Just check out the stores before you buy.
One last thing, the Kindle does not support PDF documents as of this reading (without converting) and the Sony does open PDF documents but very poorly. So if your hope is to carry around a bunch of PDF documents with pictures (such as technical manuals or textbooks) then I would NOT get either reader right now. The converters currently available do not convert formatting and pictures from PDF files very well. And there is no correlation between the electronic page number and the real page number so textbooks do not work since you are often asked to refer to a specific page which you cannot do with the electronics version.
Posted by tami at June 11, 2008 2:15 PM
Comments
I heard the Kindle can't be used in a dark room because it is not backlit, but more paper-like in appearance. I'm curious about that aspect. I enjoyed your review of the Sony Reader. Can you read it in the dark? I know I can go look it up, but I am (a) getting ready to head to bed and (b) know I would be up two more hours reading about the darned things. LOL Oh, and I'm feeling lazy. ;)
Posted by: gw at June 11, 2008 11:03 PM
No, you cannot read these in the dark. There are no backlights on any of them that I know of because they can cause eye strain if looked into for long periods of time and I can agree with that. I was reading on a mobile PC for a few months and my eyes would really bother me after a few hours. With the Sony I have read for hours on end with no strain at all. Consider the ereader as an electronic book with electronic paper. You cannot read a paper book in the dark unless you have a book-light. Same goes for the ereader. If you want to read in the dark (such as in bed) you can clip a book-light to the cover just like you can a regular paper book. I know in a previous comment you said you read on your smart phone. If you enjoy that, then you would love reading on any of the ereaders. The Kindle does have basic Internet support and you can browse your favorite sites but it does not support Java so you cannot post or do advanced browsing with it. That alone might lead you to spending the extra $50 on the Kindle.
Posted by: Kevin at June 12, 2008 12:11 AM
That sounds fascinating - and I think that the ability to change font size might well be of use when trying to read with my glasses on! I shall have a look at them next time I go into one of the stores in town. Thank you for that!
Posted by: Miss L at June 12, 2008 3:57 AM