[teholbeddict]

I've been looking at getting a Kindle for a while, however, I'm reluctant as I'm not sure about availability of books and what not. Plus I love to collect books, I'm not sure it would be quite the same. It's a bit defeatist to buy a book for the kindle and the buy the hard copy for my collection. So does anyone have one? Or have an opinion on the Kindle?

(I've added a link to the Kindle just in case people aren't sure what it is.)

http://www.amazon.co...uct/B000FI73MA/

[Aptorian]

teholbeddict, on Oct 28 2008, 04:13 PM, said:

I've been looking at getting a Kindle for a while, however, I'm reluctant as I'm not sure about availability of books and what not. Plus I love to collect books, I'm not sure it would be quite the same. It's a bit defeatist to buy a book for the kindle and the buy the hard copy for my collection. So does anyone have one? Or have an opinion on the Kindle?

(I've added a link to the Kindle just in case people aren't sure what it is.)

http://www.amazon.co...uct/B000FI73MA/

There's a couple of threads on this subject in the Discussion forum and in the Movie, tv and music forum.

[Bhurnae]

we just call it an e-reader..............there was a thread in Purgatory discussing the pros and cons of em............personally I like the weight and feel and smell of a good book........but I'm old and dribbly

[teholbeddict]

Thanks, I'll go check out the previous discussions. I like the heft of a book and smell of it as well Bhurnae, which is part of my quandry. Initially I was dead set against e-books, but I must admit they are becoming more appealing. Damn modern advances!

[cerveza_fiesta]

Looking at a few different brands, the sony one seems like the nicer and sleeker design. The Amazon one looks like some kind of 1980s speak n spell toy for youngsters.

There are some serious e-readers out there if you have the money though. There are a few that even have sketch functions and stylus things for taking hand notes while reading.

[caladanbrood]

Personally, I much prefer paper for my reading. Availability of books is also a problem.

[teholbeddict]

I didn't even know Sony had one available, I'll have to check it out. I agree the Kindle is not the most attractive. If I did pick one up it would have to be in a reasonable price range, because I would probably still be buying the hard copy of all the books as well. Which of course begs the question of why bother with it in the first place.

[cerveza_fiesta]

they cost a fair bit, but are VERY cool. I've seen one in a demo and it is every bit as good as reading a piece of paper. There is no backlight so it's not like an LCD screen. It is like looking at a white piece of plastic, and all of a sudden words appear on it. Totally fucked...but good for reading.

The sony one is called the Sony Reader (original name I know).

I'm probably going to get one, but will definitely wait a year or so for them to knock 200 dollars off the price.

[D'rek]

Kindle makes me think of kindling, which is contrary because paper from a book would be far better for starting a fire then some plastic thingy...

but how will I put sticky notes on all the Banaschar sections if the screen just changes the words??!!

[Darkwatch]

The thing with e-readers is that they can store mutiple books without taking up more space.

I think that e-book publishing should try another angle, and not just stick to novels. They should start trying to get text books and school manuals on them. God knows how heavy my bag can get carrying a lot of books to class. If I could have just one book that held them all that weighed no more than one, why then I'd be ecstatic. Not to mention that if the publishers put out the text book in electronic format then they'll save tons on shipping and manufacturing costs, and shipping delays for books from over seas (which have been a serious problem for me) would suddenly dissapear! And the books become more affordable for students when you take the shipping costs out.

Also it would finally allow me to get my hands on SE's books when they come out, without having to wait 3 months for them in Canada or pay overseas shipping.

edit:

You might also want to check out the "iLiad" reader from iRex.

The advantage with the kindle is that it's wireless enabled and connects to the Amazon marketplace. There you can download most books and magazines for 10$ US, which means you don't actually have to go to the store. Good for when your out and about.
Though the kindle is one ugly machine.

edit 2:

comparison and reviews of kindle and Soney Reader:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ebook-faceoff/a...lery-326590.php

This post has been edited by Darkwatch: 29 October 2008 - 02:51 AM

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Can you get a paper-cut with it?

[D'rek]

Actually, Darkwatch, you made me think of something:

If the publishers no longerhave to expend any money on shipping, packaging, printing, binding... really not on anything at all except paying the authors, and yet these are still going to cost 10 bucks each... why is the damn thing 400 dollars??!! They should be giving them out for free!

[teholbeddict]

I took a look at the Iliad Darkwatch, it is really nice also really expensive though. The Sony reader seems to have some pretty big draw backs although it costs $100 less. Thank you for posting that comparison. My other big issue with Sony is that their products are only compatible with other Sony accessories (I'm thinking in terms of memory cards and what not.) and their accessories are very expensive.

[Darkwatch]

D'rek, on Oct 29 2008, 08:42 AM, said:

Actually, Darkwatch, you made me think of something:

If the publishers no longerhave to expend any money on shipping, packaging, printing, binding... really not on anything at all except paying the authors, and yet these are still going to cost 10 bucks each... why is the damn thing 400 dollars??!! They should be giving them out for free!

Because it's not the publishers who make the e-readers.
And if they did, then they'd have to pay for manufacturing, the employees who assemble them and shipping to distributors.

Prices will start to go down eventually when demand for the e-reader increases. It's just that with the new print on demand systems, and the global lack of investment confidence, not many investors want to back e-readers, and considering that they haven't really been a huge hit (the Kindle did surprisingly well though) the near future holds no real price drop.
But as I suggested, if they went for a scholastic approach as well, then I think they'd suddenly get more popular.

[cerveza_fiesta]

teholbeddict, on Oct 29 2008, 01:24 PM, said:

I took a look at the Iliad Darkwatch, it is really nice also really expensive though. The Sony reader seems to have some pretty big draw backs although it costs $100 less. Thank you for posting that comparison. My other big issue with Sony is that their products are only compatible with other Sony accessories (I'm thinking in terms of memory cards and what not.) and their accessories are very expensive.

from my earlier research, I believe they can all display standard file types like pdf and txt files. I think the iliad can even do .doc files, though I'm not sure. Considering most stuff will probably be in .pdf format, including pirated stuff, it shouldn't matter file format-wise.

The only thing that would hold me back on Sony is their retarded obsession with proprietary software. Why can't the POS just have a directory structure like every other goddamn thing. You always have to use the gay sony software to load files onto it so that if it doesn't like the digital rights on something it can shit a warning at you. The Kindle might not be much better though since being linked to the Amazon marketplace exclusively could be limiting. The whole format will undoubtedly improve as publishers adopt the ebook format however, since Amazon can sell you pretty much any book you want.

I wouldn't worry too much about the memory cards though. There are such things as generic Sony memory cards now and their price is comparable to a SD or CompactFlash card. I've used all manner of cards and I find the sony ones to be very fast and worth the miniscule hassle.

It is completely silly that they put an MP3 player into the reader though. I don't understand why they do that with everything now...but that's just me.

One question, anybody know what the keyboard is for? Is it for word-search? If so that would be a deal breaker on the sony one. Word search is ridiculously convenient and I would easily pay extra to have it. I read a lot of scientific papers in my job and it would be really great to be able to load them on there for reading and do my keyword searching on the same device.

[teholbeddict]

cerveza_fiesta I found this info on the kindle sight:

"The Kindle offers numerous advantages. By using the keypad you can add annotations and notes just as you would write in the margins of a book. You can also edit, delete, and export your notes. Without carrying a highlighting pen, you can highlight any areas of the book. You can also clip passages to keep for use later and you can easily bookmark pages you might want to return to later. You never have to bookmark your place in a book, since the Kindle will automatically take you back to where you left off, even if you are reading several books at one time.

The Kindle has a built-in dictionary so you can easily look up the meaning of words without lugging around a dictionary. You can also easily access Wikipedia to get more information on anything you are reading. Searching the Kindle is also a very power feature. You can search the Kindle Store, or any of the reading material on your Kindle. You can even search for a certain word and find every instance in the books and magazines on your Kindle. Amazon keeps a copy of all of your purchases, so if your Kindle breaks or you decide to purchase a new one, you can have Amazon transfer your books to your new Kindle."

So yes as you say the Sony not having the keypad is a big detractor. The word search would be extremely convenient.

[Sparkimus]

I'll be all over them when they're sub $200. As of now I wouldn't even think of spending $400+ on something just to spend MORE money on book for it.

Plus I'm pretty sure my nifty new phone can display eBooks.

[Darkwatch]

Sparkimus, on Oct 29 2008, 03:51 PM, said:

I'll be all over them when they're sub $200. As of now I wouldn't even think of spending $400+ on something just to spend MORE money on book for it.

Plus I'm pretty sure my nifty new phone can display eBooks.

I hope that either your phone has a screen of comparable size to the e-readers and has e-ink technology or that you are Japanese and have been trained to read books on tiny cell phone screens.
(And yes there's a huge market in Japan for cell-phone literature. They are published solely for cell phones. I was disturbed.)

[Sparkimus]

Aye, large zoomable touch screen. Not nearly as big as I'd like for something like that, but for the sake of saving hundreds of dollars it might be worth a try.

It's that Google G1 T Mobile phone. Damn thing has everything you'll ever need (and lots more you didn't know you needed) and the market gets bigger every day.

[cerveza_fiesta]

teholbeddict, on Oct 29 2008, 04:13 PM, said:

cerveza_fiesta I found this info on the kindle sight:

"The Kindle offers numerous advantages. By using the keypad you can add annotations and notes just as you would write in the margins of a book. You can also edit, delete, and export your notes. Without carrying a highlighting pen, you can highlight any areas of the book. You can also clip passages to keep for use later and you can easily bookmark pages you might want to return to later. You never have to bookmark your place in a book, since the Kindle will automatically take you back to where you left off, even if you are reading several books at one time.

The Kindle has a built-in dictionary so you can easily look up the meaning of words without lugging around a dictionary. You can also easily access Wikipedia to get more information on anything you are reading. Searching the Kindle is also a very power feature. You can search the Kindle Store, or any of the reading material on your Kindle. You can even search for a certain word and find every instance in the books and magazines on your Kindle. Amazon keeps a copy of all of your purchases, so if your Kindle breaks or you decide to purchase a new one, you can have Amazon transfer your books to your new Kindle."

So yes as you say the Sony not having the keypad is a big detractor. The word search would be extremely convenient.

aaaah... The sony reader (link) has a search and annotation too apparently, it just works via a touchscreen. Kinda like the iphone...but knowing how unbelievably frustrating it is to type on those things, I really appreciate the qwerty keyboard feature on the kindle. Pretty much worth the extra price for me if I was going to be doing a lot of annotation (like reading scientific papers). If it was going to be primarily for leisure reading, I'd probably go with the Sony one since it's just a slicker, cheaper design...plus I rarely take notes on my leisure books.

Sparkimus, on Oct 29 2008, 08:58 PM, said:

Aye, large zoomable touch screen. Not nearly as big as I'd like for something like that, but for the sake of saving hundreds of dollars it might be worth a try.

It's that Google G1 T Mobile phone. Damn thing has everything you'll ever need (and lots more you didn't know you needed) and the market gets bigger every day.

See above. qwerty keyboards are where it's at. Iphones are nifty and all, but you really can't beat a push-button keyboard for typing stuff.