Kindle 2.0 vs. everyone else

[Philosophickle]

I'm thinking of splurging on some kind of e-reader because I have a ton of stuff I want to read on PDF files but 1) reading on a computer makes my face numb and 2) printing out 7 million pieces of printed paper is uneconomical and would challenge the Federal Reserve in terms of trees killed (wacka wacka).

Here's the thing. I like the Kindle 2.0, but there are some ridiculous difficulties with PDFs, or so I've heard. PDF functionality is a must, or else there needs to be an easy and fast way to convert them to another Kindle-friendly format.

Is anyone here familiar with the hardware? Have you played with the Kindle or the Sony Reader? Thoughts? Advice? Scathing rebuttal?

[LoneWolf]

Well, I won the Kindle 1.0 and I abso-freaking-lutely love it! It is hands down the best purchase I have ever made. But I use it to read books. I tired a pdf on there one time and the results were…ok. Maybe it has improved with the 2.0 but when I did it the pdf function was experimental. If you a pdf file you want to read on the Kindle you have to send it to your free Kindle email address and a couple minutes later you receive back the document in a format your Kindle can read. I would think if you were going to be reading many pdfs it could become tedious.

If your primary purpose is to read pdfs then I can not in good conscience recommend the Kindle for you…yet. I don’t know if the Sony reader is better with pdfs.

[Philosophickle]

If your primary purpose is to read pdfs then I can not in good conscience recommend the Kindle for you…yet. I don’t know if the Sony reader is better with pdfs.

Thank you very much for the advice.
As far as I know, the Sony Reader comes PDF compatible and is as easy as a drag and drop onto the device. I really, really wish the Kindle was that easy.

[LoneWolf]

If the Sony reader is that compatible with PDFs then I might recommend that one as the only reason I went with the Kindle over the reader was the selction of books Amazon had available for the Kindle.

Just note that both of them use e-ink technology (which means it does not emit light) and both of them only have grey scale displays. Once again, perfect for books and text but if your pdfs have alot of color pictures it may not be conducive.

[Zebulon]

I haven't bought either a Kindle or an e-Reader yet, but I'm definitely interested.

Sony recently announced a deal with Google to offer classic books.


http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161530/sony_ebook_store_to_offer_classic_books_digitized_ by_google.html

If you have a Sony Reader, you have a lot of reading to catch up on. Sony Electronics has struck a deal with Google to distribute half a million titles through the Sony eBook Store -- for free.

The books, all published before 1923 and now in the public domain, were digitized by Google as part of its Google Book Search program. Sony will offer them alongside the 100,000 or so books still under copyright that it sells through its eBook store.

[Philosophickle]

If the Sony reader is that compatible with PDFs then I might recommend that one as the only reason I went with the Kindle over the reader was the selction of books Amazon had available for the Kindle.

Is it possible to put kindle books on the sony reader?

Just note that both of them use e-ink technology (which means it does not emit light) and both of them only have grey scale displays. Once again, perfect for books and text but if your pdfs have alot of color pictures it may not be conducive.

I've heard that the sony reader has some glare issues. Have you had any with the Kindle?

I haven't bought either a Kindle or an e-Reader yet, but I'm definitely interested.

Sony recently announced a deal with Google to offer classic books.


http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161530/sony_ebook_store_to_offer_classic_books_digitized_ by_google.html

If you have a Sony Reader, you have a lot of reading to catch up on. Sony Electronics has struck a deal with Google to distribute half a million titles through the Sony eBook Store -- for free.

The books, all published before 1923 and now in the public domain, were digitized by Google as part of its Google Book Search program. Sony will offer them alongside the 100,000 or so books still under copyright that it sells through its eBook store.

That sounds awesome. Thanks for the heads up.

[Loren Pechtel]

I've been tempted but the conversion issues have held me back.

The ability to buy books with it is of no value to me as I will not buy DRMed stuff. The list of discontinued DRM systems is way too long for comfort.

[Philosophickle]

I've been tempted but the conversion issues have held me back.

The ability to buy books with it is of no value to me as I will not buy DRMed stuff. The list of discontinued DRM systems is way too long for comfort.

Can you put non-DRMed stuff on the Kindle? Or do you mean the things you buy from the kindle store?

[LoneWolf]

Philosophickle, Kindle books will NOT work on the Sony reader. In fact, due to the DRM protocols they have in place, your Kindle books will only work on Kindles that are registered to YOUR account. So a book purchased for your Kindle would not work on my Kindle. Many people are turned off by this, but I also understand that if it wasn’t doesn’t that way many publishers wouldn’t allow their books to be released in that format.

The screen is a smooth surface so there might be a glare if you point your light source directly at the screen straight on but it has never been an issue for me. The book light I use at night to read it is always pointed at an angle toward the screen and there is no glare issue.

You can put non-DRM stuff on the Kindle.

I just looked it up and apparently the Kindle 2 can support more document types than my Kindle 1 without the need of conversion. It says it supports the following docs: Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC, PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP (through conversion). It says PDF is still not perfect though.

[Loren Pechtel]

I've been tempted but the conversion issues have held me back.

The ability to buy books with it is of no value to me as I will not buy DRMed stuff. The list of discontinued DRM systems is way too long for comfort.

Can you put non-DRMed stuff on the Kindle? Or do you mean the things you buy from the kindle store?

You can put your own stuff on it. Anything you buy from their store will be DRMed.

[Philosophickle]

I've been tempted but the conversion issues have held me back.

The ability to buy books with it is of no value to me as I will not buy DRMed stuff. The list of discontinued DRM systems is way too long for comfort.

Can you put non-DRMed stuff on the Kindle? Or do you mean the things you buy from the kindle store?

You can put your own stuff on it. Anything you buy from their store will be DRMed.

Ok, here is what I've come up with after playing around with a friends Kindle 2.

*I can convert PDFs to Kindle-friendly format by simply saving my PDF documents as a text file.
*This really messes with, or ruins, PDFs that are DRMed. This sucks.
*Even if they aren't DRMed, it can goof up footnotes/endnotes and rather normal variances in the text (a greek word, extra spaces, a tab character, etc.)
*PDF images...don't even want to talk about what that did to my PDF books.

However, those situations are relatively rare, perhaps affecting only 1 in 5 of my PDF files (out of about 1300 of them). But after talking to some Sony Reader people, they have some significant problems of their own. Even though they don't have the DRM problem and basically all document types will transfer to the Sony Reader, it won't always format properly. Many PDF files are un-resizeable and result in tiny, unreadable text sizes. Memory on the Sony Reader is a lot smaller and the screen sucks unless you are in ideal conditions.

These lead me to believe that I will be purchasing the Kindle 2.0 and place my hopes in improved 3rd party solutions to the PDF problem.

:bang:

[Loren Pechtel]

These lead me to believe that I will be purchasing the Kindle 2.0 and place my hopes in improved 3rd party solutions to the PDF problem.

:bang:

I'll wait until there is a good solution out there.