Sony Reader

Kilarney

Has anyone purchased the Sony Reader? I'm really tempted by these. I live in a rural area, and the price of the paperback books is not that bad since you don't have to pay shipping.

I'd probably get one if I could find a good source of PDF books for sale. I hate the idea of depending on Sony's store. Does amazon sell many e-books?

HungryJoe

Discussion

Apreche

Because of my Sony credit card there was a way I could have gotten one for "free". I opted not to. I'll probably get a PS2 instead when the time is right. I suggest Project Guttenberg as a source for books.

Kilarney

I just read a bunch of reviews, and I think I'll wait until a 2nd gen model comes out. It's sooooo tempting, but it isn't quite there.

What has made me really want one is the fact that I'm already stuffed to the gills with books. At any given time, I've got 10 or 15 books waiting to be read. It would be nice to have these all in one handy electronic gizmo.

HungryJoe

It's sooooo tempting, but it isn't quite there.

I agree. I have lusted in my heart for it. I lust after it like I've lusted after few pieces of consumer electronics. If they could get the page rate fixed up and get it to accept more formats, I would kill or die for one. Kill or die.

HungryJoe

I actually saw one today at Border's. It's so shiny. I want it so bad.

It did have a problem with page turning though, so I'm probably still gonna wait.

But - it was so nice. Damn.

raquor

I've thought ebooks would be the shit FOREVER. Sadly I don't see this device taking off, primarily because it's a book reading device that they are trying to sell to me for the same price as many PDAs, Cell Phones, and Hand held gaming devices. All those other gadgets also read ebooks and PDAs do it pretty damn well. The reader's advantage would be amount of text on screen and cheapness...except that it's not cheap. You can get a decent PDA for sub $100 and it does a fair bit more than the Reader does.

Ideal price for this thing is $30 - $50 as far as I'm concerned...until then keep your fancy ebook reader. I'll use my new Motorola Q when I get that...mmmm...Motorola Q.

Kilarney

The Sony Card has a good offer right now. If you sign up for a new account, you can get the Sony Reader for $50 (plus $9 shipping) when you are approved. From what I've read on the net, approval is not instantaneous, and comes in about 3 weeks in the mail.

Offer found here.

I took the plunge and signed up. You have to order the Reader by 9/30/07.

Here is the way I see it:
PROS:
1) Display. E-ink is the real deal.
2) Portability
3) Ability to support open (or nearly open) formats (TXT, RTF, DOC)

CONS:
1) Refresh rate (approx 1 second)
2) Somewhat clunky navigation and controls
3) No other DRM supported other than Sony's
4) Useless with PDF files unless you go through a painful process of reformating them to fit the 6 inch screen.

It's definitely a first-gen device.

I've got my eye on the Bookeen Cybook. It's got a next-gen (Viziplex) e-ink screen. It supports Mobipocket DRM books. Mobipocket is owned by Amazon, so there is some potential there. It also supports the "open book" format as well as RTF, HTML and PDF. It's supposed to come out in September, so I'm hoping to get a look at it prior to purchasing the Sony Reader. (Not that justifying the $350 price tag will be easy if I can get the Sony Reader for $50.)

Kilarney

Just ordered one today with the Sony Card promotion for $58.99 all in. I have no doubt that this will be a first-gen toy - but for the price it's worth it to me for the novelty. If I really like it, I can picture myself getting a next-gen model a year or two down the road. I can always turn this one around on Ebay for $250 or so if I don't like it, so there's really no risk. (I'm even tempted to do a quick sale and use the profits to buy a Bookeen Cybook.)