Gizmodo
Wired has compared the features of the new Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader. They don't give a definitive verdict yet, but point out the $400 Kindle's biggest drawback: lack of "format neutrality." Labeled as a "portable DRM bookstore," the Kindle won't be able to read open formats like Acrobat PDF (unless you have a Windows PC and convert them first). We agree. You will be the judge but, while the $300 Sony Reader may not have always-on internet connectivity, looking at the specs it seems like a better option. At least on paper:
The Sony allows you to read virtually any format. It may not have the huge commercial titles selection that the Amazon gadget has, but you can read any PDF, TXT, RTF, DOCs, Blogs and RSS for free and right away. On the other side, PDF, RTF and DOCs are all out of the question with Amazon's device unless you have a Windows PC and go through the hassle of converting them for the Kindle with Mobipocket Creator. And inexplicably, you will have to pay $1 for each blog and $1 for each RSS you subscribe to. Maybe not a huge investment, but is it really necessary to pay for this when you are already getting this information in your smartphone?
The Sony also wins in one important area, which is often overlooked by most manufacturers: design. The Sony is simple, clean and looks more similar to a book. With its cheapo UMPC-like keyboard, the Kindle looks awkward. If Jeff Bezos wants this to be the iPod of books, he better hire John Ive. Amazon argues that they wanted to make it look like the Vessel of Culture, but the fact is that something doesn't have to be ugly to appear serious.
And while some will love the idea of electronic mail and web browsing on the Kindle, gadget history has taught us that frankendevices more often fail than succeed. Of course, the rules are meant to be broken—as the convergence of telephony and computing has taught us—and this could turn out to be the device that kills the pulp forever. But personally, I have a difficult time seeing this happening with this version.
If I had to choose a device I will get the Sony Reader. What about you?
[Wired]
Comments
Amazon is attempting to turn books into a service. It simply won't fly.
i think with sony's prolonged battery life thanks to that new fangled OLED or whatever the hell they call it, it's a sure fire winner. now if they made it accessible with some crazy google apps then the world will rejoice and everyone will forget about the PS# for a while.
am i the only one to find it ironic that the sony is the one with open standards and not locked with drm?
Who cares about open format, when no book publishers will go for open format? If I'm gonna get an eBook reader, I'm gonna get one I can, you know, find the books I want to read on it. And right now Amazon.com wins the day - just by making a big hype machine around the Kindle, they are convincing more publishers to go eBook. Looking at the list of currently available books for Kindle, they've made a great start.
As for the keyboard, sure it looks ugly...but an ugly keyboard is better than no keyboard at all.
"At least on paper..." lol oh the irony
@rainsfather: Actually, Sony also uses DRM but they will also let you use other open formats. kind of like Apple with their iPods.
Sony only has USB connectivity, correct? Does anyone know if the Kindle will allow you to turn off EVDO? If not then anyone who flies should keep in mind that airlines may make you turn off your eBook during flights. Since flying is one of the best places to use an eBook (lighter than carrying books) both companies and consumers should keep it in mind.
Better yet would be airlines allowing WiFi on planes but I'm not recommending anyone hold their breath...
the amazon kindle was a big letdown (imo), because of tha lack of pdfs, and stuff like that...
@Dreamwriter: many people have their own stuff they can put into open formats. For exmple, there are thousands of classic books like the stuff you read in high school that are available for download in open formats for free. Stuff like Great Expectations, 1984, Pride and Prejudice are all FREE!
Graphic should be corrected. The Kindle does have audio capabilities. It supports Audible and MP3.
Never hurts to check the official specs.
[www.amazon.com]
I think this would be great for newspapers and magazines. I'd be more than happy to cancel my NY Times subscription and read this thing on the subway every day. Same with most magazines. But I think it would blow for books. Also, what's up with this "service" fee for viewing your own files or paying $1.00 per blog? That's ridiculous.
HOOOOLD ON! The Sony is not really open format. It only reads Sony's proprietary BBeB format for eBooks. This format is only avaialble from Sony's Connect eBook store. It can display PDF and other non-eBook formats as well. However, I find PDF docs dificult to read on mine.
Now don't get me wrong. I love my Sony eReader. It comes in quite handy while traveling (it also is a great conversation starter) and while reading in bed (no pages to turn unlike the combersome traditional format). I just don't want people thining it is perfect.
BTW, the display is awsome.
It's a real shame if this fails due to the ugly factor or other stupid aspects (like 10 cent charge for viewing your own files). After the Sony Reader and this product fail, no one else will try it again. Unfortunate, because there actually is a spot in the market for a well-executed product of this kind.
The iRex iLiad still wins:
[www.irextechnologies.com]
A bit expensive, but extremely nice and easy to use.
Two more examples of how crappy and expensive ebooks are. Save your cash. I'm sure that these readers will go the way of the REB 1200 and Rocket eBook (my last two eReaders).
What about the new Cybook Ereader. Better format support then both and it's the same price as the ereader. No internet conectivity though.
Free EVDO...I wonder how long it will take this to get hacked to pass the connection to other devices via the USB port.
@bandit: After the Kindle and Sony readers fail (because they both suck), the market will not go away. It's just that the technology, with woefully low-resolution screens compared to the printed page, is premature. Once screens advance a notch or two and people actually enjoy the experience of reading from one of these things, someone will step in to make one. A well-executed reader is inevitable, but this aint it.
im sorry, maybe i am wrong, but in a time of the All-in-one wouldnt it make more sense putting the resources in developing this product towards a slim lined dumbed down tablet computer. Something you can take notes on, store books, files etc, and still be connect to the internet to receive your periodicals and what not. I know its the future, but it isnt that different from these products, except these fall short.
Both products will fail because people are not ready to abandon paper, yet. Sure, if the perfect product were released, there would be some geeks (like us) that would pick it up, but until the non-gadget minded folks actually start saying 'boy, it would be nice to not have all this paper', this will not work. It is unfortunately, though, because I would love to see this catch on.
Codex FTW.
I'd love to get my girlfriend hooked on one of these. She reads 3-4 books a week. Many of them are one time reads. She reads them, then gets rid of them. I'd rather not have to deal with getting rid of the books and the packaging they came in. Also recently she went on a trip and got tagged by the airlines for being over the 50lb suitcase limit. Those 10lbs of books in the suitcase were the problem. And yes....she read them all.
Having a Reader makes me a little biased, but I must say without the support for PDF's and RTF and DOC, I would rarely use my Reader (granted I still buy novels and such through the store, but I read a lot of other content). As for the arguments that the e-ink displays aren't advanced enough, I would honestly say go to a store and actually use the device, I find it just as comfortable as reading a printed page. And the problem with the whole tablet argument is that an e-ink display would be HORRIBLE for anything beyond reading, the way the tech works makes it limited in scope, but perfect at what it is designed for.
I absolutely love the idea of these, but there's still a few nagging flaws.
After the price (if they came down to $200 I might be able to justify it, but no higher), the thing that still bugs me about them is the contrast. Now, I haven't actually seen one of these in person, but I've been looking at a lot of pictures lately, and I think I can safely say that the contrast on the epaper they're using is still just way too low.
If they can get the background a bit lighter, to the point of newsprint at least, I think I'd be more comfortable with it.
@Noobs-R-Us:
Great, so people can put their own stuff on the Sony. But if I can't get the newest Stephen R. Donaldson book, it's useless to me; I don't want to *only* read the Gutenburg books and Shakespeare and classics. That's the big advantage - Amazon.com has the big publishers, and the hype to get more. And you *can* put PDF's and stuff on the Kindle, it just costs $.10 - I wouldn't be above paying a dime to get a PDF-format book on there.
A while back I tried using eBooks with my PDA - aside from the fact that reading books on a small, low-res, low-contrast screen sucks, there just wasn't much of a selection of what I wanted, and it took a while for new books to show up from series that they *did* have (like Stephen King's Dark Tower series). It's just not useful at all without publisher support.
I believe you can download the MobiPocket Creator (for free) and use it to put any of those file types on the Kindle for free. The 10c email-to-convert thing is a convenience feature if you're away from your PC, want to receive a document from someone else, or are otherwise just uninterested in hooking up the thing to transfer files over USB.
Im with sony this time. Looks better, works better, give you a better reader experience (or they say so).
Now sony, give me a 50 dollar rebate (yeah yeah rebates are evil but i do remember to send it and 95% of the time I get the check) AND 1 or two free books and I will get one for xmas.... deal?
@MWillis561: very nice one. but not worth 350. Or at least I wont pay that much. $250 would be ideal.
@draconis2941:
Free EVDO also means that they can constantly report back to the mothership, and cut you off if you're using hacks like that. And there's no guarantee that the low-level software like that is even modifiable.
Tablet PCs. NO! You haven't seen an e-ink display. It's very close to reading paper which is a huge advantage if you're actually reading a long book rather than just surfing the web. Tablet PC/PDA/Phone advocates, IMO, always miss this point. An e-ink based book is a *book*, it, in theory, has the feel of reading a book, not reading your phone.
And all those other displays positively devour power. A Sony reader will last for *weeks* without recharge if you're just reading books on it.
Open? The Sony has DRM. It also has open formats. The Kindle has DRM. It also has open formats. I don't see the big difference.
PDF is the only thing missing (Adobe wanted too much for licensing?). Unless your PDF reflows (reflow doesn't work on the Sony) its going to look horrible on a small reader screen anyway. I never use PDF on my Sony, it's too much trouble.
Now if the Kindle *really* won't let you load your own books over USB if you want to, then that's terrible. I know $.10 is small, but it could add up fast if you're throwing pages over one at a time for some reason. But it doesn't seem likely that its really locked out. I could be wrong, of course. This is top of my "want to know" list. And if you can load your own books, it's another toss-up.
Any management software can't be worse than the Sony software. It's horrible beyond description.
And that, admittedly silly-looking, keyboard is a huge advantage. You do know you can't search on the Sony, right?
Sony's books usually cost *more* than the paper versions. Sometimes a lot more if they forget to lower the price when the paperback comes out. Did you know that? The Sony ebook store is a half-assed afterthought. Using my crystal ball, I just *know* Amazon will do better. They can't do worse.
oh did I mention that the Kindle is F ugly! If I bring that to bed, my gf wont touch me for a while. Not happening.
I don't care about the ugly factor. I love the idea of having magazine and newspapers. The price is a bit high. But I would pay it in a minute if I didn't have to pay to put my own documents on my device. I currently read my eBooks with my Sony Clie Palm device with iSilo. I love the autoscroll feature. I realize this isn't possible with the eInk, but it's really nice to set the scroll and prop the Clie on the exercise bike to read while exercising.
The only thing holding me back from buying the Kindle though is the fee for my existing documents..
Paying for RSS feeds and blogs seems pretty stupid when browsing the web is free on that thing. I don't think the kindle will kill the sony yet.. but looks pretty grim if sony doesn't do something quick to expand their library. Evdo really should have been optional on the kindle. I've got my treo to browse the web and read emails.
At the right price, not $400, I'd like to have one. First stop is Project Gutenberg and the TXT or HTML files of all the Tom Swift books! There are plenty of free ebooks available in formats this will support. And to pocket my whole library would be a boon to my family for the same reasons given by RAND above.
it's sad when the newly unveiled kindle is losing in a poll to...
"Screw eBooks! I want to keep killing trees and transmit bacterias to other people."
i think this survey should be forwarded to amazon
@Dreamwriter: The dozen or so eBooks I currently own are watermarked PDFs with no DRM, so open format matters to me (not that I'm interested in a dedicated reader device).
I've been watching the sony reader and waiting for it to drop to the magical $200 price point.
It would be great for carrying around PDFs of reference manuals and the like.
For ebook reading, I think the Sony wins, but the killer app for me is the downloading of daily content like the New York Times. It's like $170 a year for the download, compared to $400/year at the newsstand. The convenience of it practically obligates me to buy one, but it's too damn ugly!
Where's my "still waiting for someone to make a $50 ebook reader with a good-enough LCD screen and waterproofing so I can read in the tub" poll option?
Bezos is one hell of a smart guy, or at least that's what I felt till I saw this ugly thing.
Jesus, u r totally right in your comment that "If Jeff Bezos wants this to be the iPod of books, he better hire John Ive." Or a designer at all.
I read books: last time I checked I enjoy reading them because I can instantaneously flip pages in a form factor which has been working fine for THOUSANDS years and counting.
Gimme something as simple and as easy to read as a book, and that can read without having to check an account online, and I'll buy it.
Oh yeah and never mind one of the best quality of a book: once I buy it it's MINE. I can lend them to anyone, resell them, fotocopy them for research and scholastic work, all without any DRM.
Guys, RTFM. It has better format support than the Sony (which I have). PDF support is easy. You convert from PDF to Mobipocket and that works fine. Amazon also converts documents to AZW (Kindle format) free to a non-reader Email addy. So you can use DOC files that way. I have the feeling someone will come up with converters for PDF, DOC, etc, so you don't have Amazon handling your docs. Here's the list of docs the Sony supports.
Sorry, not much more than the Kindle and I'll trade those for the EVDO functionality and the killer pricing. Sony's pricing ain't exactly a bargain!
The Kindle also supports Audible so I can load up with O&A and Dave Barry and have it all in one. :D
You guys want freedom and open source? Go get a iLiad or Bookeen. For those of us who just want ease of use, and the ability to buy books on the go, this thing will be freakin' AWESOME! Aside from that, I'm thrilled with Amazon's service and would rather support them than Sony.
Kindle for $200 w/out the connectivity and I'm sold. Give me the ability to convert via a PC app and connect via USB and we're golden. This $400 with the "free" EVDO connection is way too much.
the kindle is truly ugly. wouldn't it make sense to reduce such a device as much as possible, until you have only the display left? i'd also prefer a thin and light device to read a book rather than this kindle-monster. btw: kindle sounds like the old-german version of kind/child! so what does this ugly monster device have to do with a child??? confusing.
@gizGianca:
I'll trade your instant ability to flip through thousands of pages with not having to carry a book containing thousands of pages thousands of miles when I travel. Between work documents, pleasure reading and reference texts/dictionaries, I probably have 80 books and 50 docs on my Sony PRS. Put THAT in your carry-on and smoke it. For people who don't read in a linear fashion (many I know are reading two or three books interchangeably) it's a huge boon.
I have a Sony Reader and love the display and it's jsut like reading a paperback except you don't have to hold the book open to read it.
I ordered a Kindle as soon as they were available today, since the wireless features are a really nice addition and Amazon has way more books available than Sony does.
The illustration at the top of the article is complete FUD. The Amazon unit does audio books and music just like the Sony. The PDF viewer in the Sony is complete crap, so having to convert PDFs into another format is not a big deal for me. It's not $0.10 to view your own files, just if you want to send them to the reader wirelessly. Plug it into a USB port (as you *have* to do with the Sony) and just drag and drop your files, pictures, music, etc. onto the device for free.
I looked through the Amazon store, and the book prices seem competitive with Sony's. Both services maintain your collection and allow re-downloading so there is no loss of purchased content if you lose the device. You can add multiple Kindles to your Amazon account, but it's not clear if all of them get access to all the stuff you've bought (Sony lets you authorize something like 5 or 6 reader devices for your account, which can be Sony Readers or PCs, etc.
There's always a danger that it wil flop and the service will go away, and clearly at $300-$400 neither of these devices will replace books any time soon. But reading on an e-ink display is soooo much nicer than any other disply technology.
Oh, and the person calling for backlighting should understand that no e-ink display can ever be backlit, any more than you can backlight a paperback book (and for the same reason).
Z.
Why in the HELL would I pay $0.10 to open my own files?
This isn't a useful device if I need to think twice about using it. Amazon should have been smarter about entering the eBook market - this could stigmatize their reputation similarly to Sony's loss to Apple's business model on avoiding annoying DRM regulations.
Would never pay $400 for this device - especially if it will burn a bigger hole in my wallet by utilizing it's basic features.