I've held the future of books

[Cruise Junky]

Congrats!! Post when you get it.

 

I've been loading free books all day. I like mysteries and there are a lot of free classics out there.

 

The Sony feels nice and sleek. It's thinner than a cell phone. You'll really like it.

 

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 

Peggy

 

Hi - got it today. I was able to track one down at our local Sony Store. I love it!! It's currently charging, can't wait to load it tonight. It feels really nice!!

[ChefPeg]

Hi - got it today. I was able to track one down at our local Sony Store. I love it!! It's currently charging, can't wait to load it tonight. It feels really nice!!

 

Yay!!!

 

It will take about 2-3 hours to fully charge.

 

Start 'shopping' for some ebooks that you like. So far I've loaded about 20 or so and I haven't paid for one yet.:) You can load them onto your PC now and download to your Sony when ready.

 

Go to http://www.mobileread.com. Go to the forums page. They have a link the says ebooks and they are all free and you can look at ones that will load perfectly for the Sony(BBeB).

 

They also have a link that says wiki and it will take you other sites that have ebooks.

 

Let me know if I can help you with anything.

 

Have fun!!

 

Peggy

[Cruise Junky]

Yay!!!

 

It will take about 2-3 hours to fully charge.

 

Start 'shopping' for some ebooks that you like. So far I've loaded about 20 or so and I haven't paid for one yet.:) You can load them onto your PC now and download to your Sony when ready.

 

Go to http://www.mobileread.com. Go to the forums page. They have a link the says ebooks and they are all free and you can look at ones that will load perfectly for the Sony(BBeB).

 

They also have a link that says wiki and it will take you other sites that have ebooks.

 

Let me know if I can help you with anything.

 

Have fun!!

 

Peggy

 

Great site, thanks for sharing. Can't wait to get home and start loading it :)

[ChefPeg]

Great site, thanks for sharing. Can't wait to get home and start loading it :)

 

You are welcome!! Have fun!! I'm reading another scary ebook now.:D

[stomsf]

Also a good source for free classics/eBooks is Project Gutenberg (no relation to the actor)....

 

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

[kverdon]

A friend at work picked up a Kindle and I took a good look at it. It does seem promising. I too have issues with the way the buttons are layed out and how they work and will definately wait till the next version to come out before thinking about getting one. The idea, however, is great.

 

That having been said, I'm not to pleased with Amazon.com. I have an Ipod and am a BIG, HUGE, audio book fanatic through Audible.com. I have listened to and enjoyed many, many books from Audible. They make the 1/2 hour to an hour drive to and from work so much more enjoyable. Well Amazon.com purchaced Audible recently and the number of available books on Audible has plumented! Books I purchased as recently as last month are no longer available (though I can still re-download them). The 'buzz' is that Amazon purchased Audible to bury them and force people to the Kindle. Grrrr. I love having my books on my IPOD mini and would not like having to lug about the Kindle if I did not need it just to listen to my books.

 

I do agree however that the idea of a Kindle would be great for those long flights and cruises. Lets just hope that they and the audio books for small devices like the IPOD can exits together.

 

Kevin

[ChefPeg]

A friend at work picked up a Kindle and I took a good look at it. It does seem promising. I too have issues with the way the buttons are layed out and how they work and will definately wait till the next version to come out before thinking about getting one. The idea, however, is great.

 

That having been said, I'm not to pleased with Amazon.com. I have an Ipod and am a BIG, HUGE, audio book fanatic through Audible.com. I have listened to and enjoyed many, many books from Audible. They make the 1/2 hour to an hour drive to and from work so much more enjoyable. Well Amazon.com purchaced Audible recently and the number of available books on Audible has plumented! Books I purchased as recently as last month are no longer available (though I can still re-download them). The 'buzz' is that Amazon purchased Audible to bury them and force people to the Kindle. Grrrr. I love having my books on my IPOD mini and would not like having to lug about the Kindle if I did not need it just to listen to my books.

 

I do agree however that the idea of a Kindle would be great for those long flights and cruises. Lets just hope that they and the audio books for small devices like the IPOD can exits together.

 

Kevin

 

I hear ya! I know a lot of people are no longer thrilled with Amazon. Aparently they did the same thing with ebooks for the Sony Reader. They only sell ebooks for the Kindle and none for the Sony. At one point they did not offer the Reader for sale. A lot happened and now they sell the reader but not the ebooks for it.

[Cruise Junky]

A friend at work picked up a Kindle and I took a good look at it. It does seem promising. I too have issues with the way the buttons are layed out and how they work and will definately wait till the next version to come out before thinking about getting one.

 

Now that I have the Sony, I look at the Kindle and really don't think I'd like it. My hands always seem to be where those buttons are on the Kindle, I think i'd be hitting them all the time.

[ChefPeg]

Now that I have the Sony, I look at the Kindle and really don't think I'd like it. My hands always seem to be where those buttons are on the Kindle, I think i'd be hitting them all the time.

 

I've had my Sony for about a week now. I love it! I really like the sleek, classy look of it. It's silver metal. It feels good to hold. Even the case it came with is nice, I didn't have to buy a new one.

 

The Kindle is white plastic. It looks too juvenile and not sleek at all. It look slarger than the Sony. I guess the keyboard makes it longer.

 

I agree about where the buttons are located on the Kindle. I have read several places that that is a problem. People pressing the buttons accidently and having to wait to return to the page they were on.

 

The buttons on the Sony, you have to press them. They are indented on the front / side of the device. I have yet to accidently push any buttons.

 

Also, I never read this anywhere but since I registered my Sony on the SonyStyle site and I get weekly e-mails. They have an offer to download a mystery book for free. I thought that was awesome.

 

I still haven't downloaded my free 100 books from Sony yet. I love that offer.

 

Sony worked well for me.

[Cruise Junky]

I still haven't downloaded my free 100 books from Sony yet. I love that offer.

 

 

I'm working my way through those :) I think I've downloaded about 30 so far and have suggested to DH that he takes a browse through there to see what he wants.

 

I got my Sony on Monday night and so far have read two complete books, I can't put the thing down !!

[ChefPeg]

I'm working my way through those :) I think I've downloaded about 30 so far and have suggested to DH that he takes a browse through there to see what he wants.

 

I got my Sony on Monday night and so far have read two complete books, I can't put the thing down !!

 

LOL!! I know what you mean. I love it! It feels great to hold which makes it nice while you are reading. I have never read so much in such a short amount of time.

 

I've loaded about 30 books too but only a few from Sony. DH is going to shop for some books too.

 

Did you load the free mystery on the web site? The link is in the middle of the home page when you go through the ebook library. It's available until the 12th, I think.

[Cruise Junky]

 

Did you load the free mystery on the web site? The link is in the middle of the home page when you go through the ebook library. It's available until the 12th, I think.

 

It's sadly only available to US residents. There's been a couple of things that I've wanted to buy that are US only. When you click on the little Why? hyperlink it says the author hasn't given permission for Canada.

[ChefPeg]

It's sadly only available to US residents. There's been a couple of things that I've wanted to buy that are US only. When you click on the little Why? hyperlink it says the author hasn't given permission for Canada.

 

You have got to be kidding me:eek: ! Why would it matter where you live:confused: ? That's is just ridiculous! :mad:

 

I am so sorry. Maybe that will change in the near future.

[stomsf]

I've had my Sony for about a week now. I love it! I really like the sleek, classy look of it. It's silver metal. It feels good to hold. Even the case it came with is nice, I didn't have to buy a new one.

 

The Kindle is white plastic. It looks too juvenile and not sleek at all. It look slarger than the Sony. I guess the keyboard makes it longer.

 

I agree about where the buttons are located on the Kindle. I have read several places that that is a problem. People pressing the buttons accidently and having to wait to return to the page they were on.

 

The buttons on the Sony, you have to press them. They are indented on the front / side of the device. I have yet to accidently push any buttons.

 

Also, I never read this anywhere but since I registered my Sony on the SonyStyle site and I get weekly e-mails. They have an offer to download a mystery book for free. I thought that was awesome.

 

I still haven't downloaded my free 100 books from Sony yet. I love that offer.

 

Sony worked well for me.

 

ChefPeg --

 

I had the same concerns -- was able to look at a Sony (one of my fellow travelers) and by the photos on the Amazon website I had come away with the same conclusions -- too big, clunky, odd button placement, etc.

 

But now that I have one, I'm completely on the other side. I love the large button on the left side, and the white plastic is actually fairly substantial. It came down to functionality and content for me, as the displays are identical and features nearly identical.

 

For functionality, the Sony has native ability to read .pdf files, which if I were to use it for work docs would be good. But that's what I have a laptop for, and I don't want to be bringing work pdf's with me on vacation. The Kindle can read pdf's if I want them, I just have to have Amazon convert them, which they will do for free and e-mail them to me, or send them directly to the Kindle for $0.10. As for other functionality, on the Kindle I have all of the Internet available (has an experimental browser and the internet access on the Kindle is free/included in the price). Admittedly the browser is very clunky to move through with the Kindle interface, but it's a nice option to have -- before everyone goes out to buy one to avoid shipboard internet charges though, the internet access is only available in the US and probably not at sea. A dictionary (offline) and access to Wikipedia (online) is also there if I need to look something up. The GPS triangulation/mapping capability is also a fun feature though I haven't used it yet. So functionality wise the Kindle won for me.

 

For content, as I've said before Amazon has tons of content available and prices are very reasonable. Almost all current bestsellers are $9.99 on Amazon where on Sony they can range from $12-16. Also being able to access the store without a computer was a good sell for me.

 

Now where the Kindle falls a bit short is the sexiness factor. The Sony Reader is undoubtedly better looking. But I got this to read books (identical displays) and to enjoy myself on vacation. And comparisons of the two units side by side (see picture attached, courtesy of Gizmodo) it's not much larger. Weight wise, the 3 oz difference is negligible to me.

 

They are both excellent products -- however one thing I noticed on the reviews at Amazon is the majority of the negative reviews were from people who don't even own a Kindle and are going off of the pictures, which do not do the Kindle any justice.

 

Either way, enjoy the reading experience no matter what unit you have -- the one thing we all can agree on is that we won't be lugging 5-10 books with us on our next cruise (and no more "don't bring any hardcovers!" restrictions when packing. :D )

 

Here is the size/interface comparison from Gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ebook-faceoff/amazon-kindle-vs-sony-reader-sizemodo-and-interface-comparison-gallery-326590.php

[ChefPeg]

ChefPeg --

 

I had the same concerns -- was able to look at a Sony (one of my fellow travelers) and by the photos on the Amazon website I had come away with the same conclusions -- too big, clunky, odd button placement, etc.

 

But now that I have one, I'm completely on the other side. I love the large button on the left side, and the white plastic is actually fairly substantial. It came down to functionality and content for me, as the displays are identical and features nearly identical.

 

For functionality, the Sony has native ability to read .pdf files, which if I were to use it for work docs would be good. But that's what I have a laptop for, and I don't want to be bringing work pdf's with me on vacation. The Kindle can read pdf's if I want them, I just have to have Amazon convert them, which they will do for free and e-mail them to me, or send them directly to the Kindle for $0.10. As for other functionality, on the Kindle I have all of the Internet available (has an experimental browser and the internet access on the Kindle is free/included in the price). Admittedly the browser is very clunky to move through with the Kindle interface, but it's a nice option to have -- before everyone goes out to buy one to avoid shipboard internet charges though, the internet access is only available in the US and probably not at sea. A dictionary (offline) and access to Wikipedia (online) is also there if I need to look something up. The GPS triangulation/mapping capability is also a fun feature though I haven't used it yet. So functionality wise the Kindle won for me.

 

For content, as I've said before Amazon has tons of content available and prices are very reasonable. Almost all current bestsellers are $9.99 on Amazon where on Sony they can range from $12-16. Also being able to access the store without a computer was a good sell for me.

 

Now where the Kindle falls a bit short is the sexiness factor. The Sony Reader is undoubtedly better looking. But I got this to read books (identical displays) and to enjoy myself on vacation. And comparisons of the two units side by side (see picture attached, courtesy of Gizmodo) it's not much larger. Weight wise, the 3 oz difference is negligible to me.

 

They are both excellent products -- however one thing I noticed on the reviews at Amazon is the majority of the negative reviews were from people who don't even own a Kindle and are going off of the pictures, which do not do the Kindle any justice.

 

Either way, enjoy the reading experience no matter what unit you have -- the one thing we all can agree on is that we won't be lugging 5-10 books with us on our next cruise (and no more "don't bring any hardcovers!" restrictions when packing. :D )

 

Here is the size/interface comparison from Gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ebook-faceoff/amazon-kindle-vs-sony-reader-sizemodo-and-interface-comparison-gallery-326590.php

 

Hi,

 

I agree that no matter which reader you buy a person would be happy with it as opposed to carrying around heavy paper or hard backs anyday.

 

I agree that we did buy it for reading books and the devices looks really doesn't matter too much.

 

I thought about getting the Kindle because they have soooooo many more publications and then I read that that amount also includes a lot of magazines (I need color pics for magazines) and newspapers, which I would not read onmy device.

 

A few people (MobileRead.com) did studies and discovered Amazon offers a lot more of the same books by different authors. They did a study of Moby Dick, Amazon offered 11 for the Kindle and Sony offered 2. They did this for several catagories. That would change the numbers greatly. I thought that was very, very interesting.

 

One thing I really loved about the Kindle, I almost bought it just for this, it has a dictionary. I wished the Sony did.

 

I really like the idea of downloading my ebooks to a PC. I thought that was a great idea. You can read any book on my PC. Also if my device is out of comission for any reason, I always have easy access to them. It takes about 1-2 seconds to load an entire book. So loading wirelessly wasn't important to me, with 30+ books on my Sony, I don't think I will need to load a book in mid travel.

 

Before I bought, I looked up any books I might purchase to read on both sites. Amazon had a few at 9.99 and some were 12.00-16.00. Sony offered the same books for 7.00-16.00. So the pricing was close, IMO. On the other hand Amazon offered 2 books in Kindle format that Sony did not have for the reader.

 

They both have a lot to offer and as I said, anyone would be happy with either.

[ChefPeg]

ChefPeg --

 

 

Here is the size/interface comparison from Gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ebook-faceoff/amazon-kindle-vs-sony-reader-sizemodo-and-interface-comparison-gallery-326590.php

 

Thanks for posting this link.

 

Very, very interesting. I had no idea the Kindle was so much larger than the Sony.

 

I think there will always be some sort of debate between the 2 readers.

 

There are other readers out there but there doesn't seem to be as much rivalry amongst them.

 

Take care!

[marc and jan]

One more thing that stomsf didn't point out (and I agree with everything he/she said because I LOVE my Kindle) was the reason the case was made from the material it is made from. It was made to withstand impacts if dropped. Watch the video called "Watch the Kindle Drop Test" on this page.

 

Warning - It's down almost 2/3 toward the bottom of the page, right after it shows some of the books, newspapers, magazines, blogs and related accessories. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FI73MA/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=2057405171&ref=pd_sl_20wgx685w_b

[frenchmartini]

Thanks for this very helpful comparison of the two devices - frankly I'd be excited to have either one. Leaning towards Kindle as I've always had great service from Amazon - hope that doesn't change.

 

Question: Are there any privacy settings or password protections on the Kindle device?

 

Someone mentioned that the Kindles are great "conversation starters"... I'm wondering if you hand over your Kindle for someone who is curious, can they see your entire library? It's not like I'm reading anything bad, but wouldn't necessarily want everyone l run into seeing my entire e-library collection.

[stomsf]

No password protection or privacy settings, though you can limit what is displayed from a library perspective on what is stored on your Kindle (internal memory), what is stored on your storage card, or both. Also, if yuo delete the item off of your Kindle I understand you can re-download it anytime from Amazon, though I haven't tried it yet.

[Cruise Junky]

 

Question: Are there any privacy settings or password protections on the Kindle device?

 

 

I know you can password protect the whole device on the Sony, but not sure about individual books. I'm sure the Kindle has something similiar. If there was something I didn't want anyone else to see, I'd be tempted to keep it on the memory card rather than the device. Glad you found this thread by the way :)

[skellis]

I have had an ereader for almost two years. I love it, and if you take the cover off and turn it sideways, you can use it as a tripod, for use on a table or the floor next to the bathtub. There is a lot of free or low cost content which is available in rich text format which you can use on the ereader. I am not sure you can do it on Kindle. Baen (a sci-fi publisher) has many free books and low cost books, serials and advance copies which will work on ereader.

 

I also like storing the books on my computer so I can swap them out. I am interested if the kindle can do the same.

[ChefPeg]

I have had an ereader for almost two years. I love it, and if you take the cover off and turn it sideways, you can use it as a tripod, for use on a table or the floor next to the bathtub. There is a lot of free or low cost content which is available in rich text format which you can use on the ereader. I am not sure you can do it on Kindle. Baen (a sci-fi publisher) has many free books and low cost books, serials and advance copies which will work on ereader.

 

I also like storing the books on my computer so I can swap them out. I am interested if the kindle can do the same.

 

Great sci-fi site. I just loaded 2 Harry Turtledove books from Baen this week.

 

I'll have to try taking the cover off and use as a tripod. Thanks for the tip.

[stomsf]

I have had an ereader for almost two years. I love it, and if you take the cover off and turn it sideways, you can use it as a tripod, for use on a table or the floor next to the bathtub. There is a lot of free or low cost content which is available in rich text format which you can use on the ereader. I am not sure you can do it on Kindle. Baen (a sci-fi publisher) has many free books and low cost books, serials and advance copies which will work on ereader.

 

I also like storing the books on my computer so I can swap them out. I am interested if the kindle can do the same.

 

Skellis --

 

Thanks so much for the lead to Baen's website -- there are a lot of older books that I love that are on there for free and they work seamlessly with the Kindle. :D

 

FYI, natively supported document types on the Kindle are: .AZW, .PRC, .MOBI, .MP3, .AA, AND .TXT. .RTF documents can easily be saved as TXT or converted by Amazon (along with .PDFs) for free.