Kindle Vs Sony Reader - Amazon Kindle Vs Sony 5" Reader Differences

Kindle Vs Sony Reader subject is also one of the hottest discussion points in Ebook readers market and gadget bloggers. Ebook reading is certainly a growing trend with many players like Amazon and Sony striving to be become market leader. Many customers are also confused which will be a better ebook reader to fit their needs. Over here, we mainly detail the crucial comparsions of Kindle Vs Reader (i.e. Kindle 2 vs Sony Pocket Edition).

In general, both kindle and Sony reader have some similiar technology in terms of display technology i.e. E ink display, processor type, memory storage modes and storage medium like the memory sticks. Both can deliver a similiar readability with zooming features and built-in fonts. Sony and Amazon are also considered as the earlier pioneers in supplying Electronics book readers solutions. With the growing competition, the differences between Kindle and Sony Reader have also become wider.

Let's discuss each of the features together.


Weight - Sony reader weighs 7.76 ounces while Kindle 2 weighs 10.2 ounces. This may be due to the smaller 5 inches display size that Sony Reader offers which makes the best portability here.

Storage - Kindle 2 with larger built in 2GB memory can store almost four times more ebooks than what Sony reader can take, i.e. 1500 kindle books vs 350 Sony ebooks.

Display Size - Sony Reader has a smaller 5 inches display size as compared to Amazon Kindle 2. So you will need to judge if portability is more important than readability for your reading needs.

Grayscale - Kindle 2 has a better display quality with 16 levels as compared to 8 levels offered by the Sony Reader.

Battery Life - Both Kindle And Sony Reader can operate for around 2 weeks which is longer than the Nook and iPad. This is assumed without any wireless connection of Wifi or 3G.

Connectivity - Kindle offers both Wifi and wireless 3G connection while Sony Reader only can support USB2.0. Having Wifi And Wireless 3G features built-in are essential for accessibility reason. The Kindle can be standalone without any computer. It contains an EVDO cellular 3G connection to the Internet over Sprint. Amazon's Kindle 2 provides the feature of Whispernet, free Internet access and free wikipedia. On the other hand, Sony's reader lacks this key wireless feature. IT Savvy readers will not find Sony useful because you have to upload books into your reader before hand. For the Kindle, you can buy books whenever you want or get them free at Kindle Store.

File Types - Kindle 2 supports more popular file types including HTML, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MOBI, PRC, AA, AAX and MP3. Sony Reader supports only a small number of file types including ePub, Word, RTF, BBeB

Text To Speech - Kindle 2 can support this awesome feature to help readers to read at anytime or anywhere even when the user is on the move or walking. What the user needs to do is to enable this text to speech mode and plugs its earpieces into ears for audio based reading.

Text Resize - Both ebook readers can support text resize feature.

Sync to multiple devices - Sony Reader is the only default reader for its support file types. Kindle 2 with its free kindle application can support other devices like ipad, ipod, iphone, BlackBerry, PC and Mac.

Colors - Sony Reader has various colors like Navy Blue, Rose and Silver while Kindle 2 only has a single white color selection.

Other features: Kindle 2 has shock protection feature which enables it to withstand the impact from falling down. Kindle 2 has over 620,000 selection of Kindle books from its Kindle Store which allows a huge selections of magazines, blogs and books.

With this written list of pointers, I hope you have a more better understanding of Kindle Vs Sony Reader differences. To read other comparsions like Kindle Vs iPad, visit Latest Kindle Store today. You can also grab your top 100 free kindle ebooks there if you are early to do so.

ABC7 /Consumer Report look at 9 readers for bookworm mothers. Collections for Kindle 1 maybe?

Now that things are quieter on the Apple front except for the Gizmodo Lost iPhone prototype story (the latest stories in chron order:  Cnet analysis;  Daring Fireball's John Gruber look at the laws;  Dilbert's take; Wired's team finds "finder";  and CNet finds helpers) with dramatic night visitations apparently encouraged by Apple, reporters are now writing about the Kindle again, without relating it to the multi-function iPad except to remember that the Kindle is a smaller, less expensive, dedicated e-reader for those who like that kind of thing.

Click on the picture at top left or here to see ABC7's videoclip of their news report in which they discuss what they and Consumer Reports found when teaming up to look at 9 different e-book readers, including the Nook, Kindle, Sony, and iRex readers, in order to make recommendations for Mother's Day.

The accompanying story by Ric Romero at KABC, Los Angeles, notes there's "a lot of misinformation" out there.  That's for sure.

They interviewed some people for the story and said that one person, Kate Lombardi, will be adding fewer books to her shelves, but she's reading more books than ever now that she has a Kindle. "It's made me look at books in a different way, and buy them in a different way, so I'm buying more," said Kate.

They found that while the iPad is backlit and people can continue reading in the dark, it weighs twice as much as most e-book readers.  And they noted that it's not easily readable in bright sunlight.  While it gets points for versatility and doing "most things pretty well,"  they found it "not the best choice just for reading e-books" per Paul Reynolds of Consumer Reports.

Rich Fisco of Consumer Reports, one of several testing the Nook, found the interface problematical in that the bottom LCD screen is "little" and is "all you get for navigating around, picking books, moving though pages, and typing in titles for searches and such."

Yes. ABC7 and Consumer Reports recommended the Kindle, a fact I'm putting in for the Kindle-edition readers as it takes longer to follow links on some image-heavy sites when reading blogs via the Kindle.

Much has been made recently of the idea that the iPad can cause insomnia.  Many of us thought this was almost surely not true.   A researcher at the UCLA Sleep Disorder Center told Eyewitness News that no study or research has been done that proves iPads cause sleeplessness.

HOPE FOR KINDLE-1 USERS FOR KINDLE ORGANIZATION/COLLECTIONS?
At the Amazon Kindle forums, 4greatscotts posted a response said to be from Amazon Customer support to the plea that Kindle-1 users also get some type of organization for their first-generaion devices, though the programming and instructions won't be the same because the cursor cannot go to places on the screen as the later model does, due to a slower screen and navigation through rows instead of individual words or alpha characters.
  Here's the posting by about this (no confirmation from Customer Support Team yet).

'Posted on Apr. 29, 2010 4:55 PM PDT
4greatscotts says:

Here is the response I received from customer service today when I asked if they were going to do an update for K1 owners.

We have heard from many of our Kindle 1st generation customers that you would
like to have a better way to organize your growing Kindle libraries.  We are
currently working on a solution that will allow you to organize your Kindle
libraries.

At this time we aren't able to provide you the exact time of when this update
will release, but I'd suggest you to continue checking back our website
regularly.

Thanks for using Kindle!

Best regards,

Prakash T
Amazon.com
We're Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company '

---

 See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
  Check often: Latest free non-classics, shortcut http://bit.ly/latestfreenonclassics.)

How to save on college textbooks

An AP article carried by Cleveland Ohio Business News suggests "3 ways to save on college textbooks"

The article points out that publishers are now offering to rent books or are providing electronic versions at what AP says is a fraction of the cost and that, next summer, colleges will be required by federal law to "list the cost of required materials in online course schedules.  Publishers will also need to disclose book prices in marketing sent to professors who may not realize the costs"

Until then they suggest
1. Renting.  They give Chegg.com as an example - that site is renting Introductory Chemistry for a semester for $44 while the list price of the book is $140.  They have a catalog of 1.6 million titles and say they will try to track down books requested that are not in the catalog.  While the student pays for shipping, returns at the end of the semester are done with prepaid envelopes.
  BookRenter.com works similarly and there is an option to buy at the end of the rental period, with credit for the rental price.  Both places offer refunds if a class is dropped - within 30 days at Chegg.com and within 10 at BookRenter.

2. Buying Used.  The AP article states that used books cost almost as much as new ones, at campus bookstores, so they recommend going online to Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Borders for better pricing, where the condition of a book is often described by the 3rd-party sellers (rated by users) and online coupons or special sales are offered in email by the bookstore chains.

3. Digital books.  Coursesmart.com offers about 7,000 titles and the company says that its e-textbooks are, on average, half the price of new print copies, and have the same layout so there's no confusion over what 'pages' are assigned.  Print copies are available too.  There is rather limited copy & paste allowed but students can print 10 copies "at a time" (whatever "a time" means).  Highlighting is also a feature.
  Cengage Learning makes its titles available electronically at iChapters.com.  Unlike e-books bought for the Kindle or Sony readers, the books at both companies can be kept for only the equivalent of a semester and can't be used later for referencing.  These are not bought but leased then.

 The Kindle DX and Sony Reader are also mentioned, but it's pointed out that some textbooks won't be available for them.  They add:

" Three textbook publishers -- Pearson PLC, Cengage Learning and John Wiley & Sons Inc. -- have agreed to make books available on the Kindle. But representatives for Kindle and Sony did not respond to questions about the breadth of their textbook selections or prices.

As an example, however, "An Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics" cost $45.45 on the Kindle, compared to $75.11 for a new copy from third-party vendors. "

Sony reader screen comparisons and the Kindle

The enlarged version of the photo at the left, from the article by Simon Cohen at syncblog.com, shows the significant loss in clarity and readability with the touch screen technology used for the Sony PRS-700's e-Ink screen.

  After lamenting that the Kindle isn't available in Canada yet Cohen explains the touchscreen's effect on clarity:

'...Because Sony's engineers had to layer a capacitive membrane over the E-Ink display to enable the 700's touch-screen features, they reduced the amount of ambient light the eInk receives, and thus the amount it can reflect.  The result is (when compared to the 505) like reading through a thin layer of onion skin paper.  Contrast is reduced and some crispness at the edge of letters is lost.  Worse still, this top layer is quite reflective and depending on where your light source is located, you need to tilt the 700 slightly backward to avoid the glare...'

In this comparison of the two Sony Readers, there are also caveats that will be familiar to some Kindle users when it comes to the e-Ink screens, which most reviewers find far easier on the eyes for any length of time than reading from an LCD screen (which can do color and backlighting at a cost to battery drain in addition to eye fatigue, though with better refresh rates).

'Some people might be aware of the light gray background of the screen itself – indeed this is probably the cause of my perception that the ink could stand to be a little darker.  We're all used to seeing black ink on a white page, or at least off-white and there's no escaping the fact that the light gray doesn't provide as much contrast as a piece of paper.

The good news is: you get used to it quickly and after a few chapters you barely notice it at all.'

Then he explains the black flash between page turns:

'Turning pages on the Reader produces a momentary flash of black before the ink resolves itself into the new set of words. This happens anytime the display needs to change what it's showing.  While a little disconcerting at first, you again grow accustomed to it. The transitional effect is caused by the nature of eInk displays.  The "pixels" work more like an etch-a-sketch tablet than like a typical LCD display.  With LCDs, each pixel can change on it's own, very quickly, and go from one colour to another in an instant.  eInk on the other hand exists in more of an ON or Off state.  To switch between these states, an electrical charge is needed.  Moreover, it seems that the entire area that is to be re-drawn must be first "cleaned" by turning all of the pixels on, then off.  Only then can the final image be rendered.  Odd as it is at first, I'm so used to it now that I wonder if a transitionless page turn would be an improvement.'

Cohen goes on to detail quite thoroughly the many differences between the two Sony readers.