Kindle or Sony Reader
August 26, 2008 by Greg
Anyone have an ebook reader of some sort?
I’ve currently abandoned the notion of working on the metro rail, so I’ve been wondering if an ebook reader would be a productive tool. Not only for reading books, but news and blogs as well with the added ability to save snippets for things like Urban Monarch.
I used a Pocket PC for a few years and tried several different e-books but was never able to make it through a whole one on that platform. Maybe it’s my attention span, but I think the longest doc I can read on that type of device is several pages. MP3 players are great for podcasts and audio books. That’s my preferred route now. Any books I read now are done the old fashioned way.
oddly enough amazon seems to be promoting 100 bux off the kindle today with signing up for a chase card.
I configured a Kindle for Steve and Donna Nelson when I was in Baja this summer. Prior to meeting the device, I was pretty skeptical of their ebook reader. Having seen it, though, I was pretty impressed. The screen is completely visible in direct sunlight and from 179 degree angles, it is attractive and well sized - a digital novel.
Books are automatically downloaded to the Kindle using the cell phone network. You buy it from Amazon and Amazon calls your Kindle and downloads it to your device. It does not have 802.11 wifi, and I really don’t know what utility it would have in reading web pages/blogs, particularly while on the bus. It is a book reader, and as far as I know has no internet support.
if you’ve got bluetooth in your phone then i’d suggest a Nokia 770 tablet, or potentially the newer 810.
didn’t realize that on the kindle…
Nice to get all the feedback.
Ben,
I feel the same way, but after glancing over the shoulder of a fellow traveler with a Kindle, I feel like it might be less fatiguing on some digi-paper-goodness of some sort.
Thomcom,
As far as blog surfing goes, I was hoping it was anything with an rss feed, but it looks like Amazon just offers select blogs on the kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Blogs-Kindle-Sports-Industry-Internet-Technology/b?ie=UTF8&node=401358011.
Goat,
What’s the screen like on those tablets? Is it like epaper or more like a laptop screen?
I really like the ability of not having to avoid the sun when choosing a seat on the bus.
eh, nokia is laptop like for a screen. can’t say i’ve tested it too much in direct sunlight.