Be Excellent To Each Other

Has anyone got a Kindle or similar device? Any good? Worth waiting until colour e-paper devices are more available?

Craster has one of the Sony ones (the 505 I think). I've fondled it. It was thoroughly lovely and I'm tempted to get one (mostly because I really want a new geegaw and Apple haven't released a tablet yet DAMN YOU).

Get bidding and you too can eat up Martha.

Yep, I've got the Sony PRS-505. It's wonderful and I love it so.

Worth waiting for colour? I dunno - what do you want that would be in colour? I guess it might be worth it for graphic novels, but then I'm not convinced the res is up to doing them justice.

Most of the stuff I want to shove on one probably doesn't need colour, but I do occasionally get specifications (and other docs of that ilk) through which would benefit from colour. Have you encountered any problems putting PDFs on your Sony?

None in the least - other than the fact that PDFs don't have a lot of the formatting markup that the other eBook formats do, so you occasionally get stupidly-placed page breaks.

A poor mans Amstrad Penpad.

I see the Kindle is coming out in the UK.

possibly orange as their data is better?

Unlikely. "Almost worldwide deal" suggests Vodafone to me. They're by far the biggest operator internationally.

Also, define "better".

Also also, note this is not a UK Kindle launch. It's an announcement that US Kindles now get data worldwide, so for the first time, it's maybe reasonable to import one. Grannell was bitching out the price on Twitter earlier, but I think he missed the point, which is that (well, I suppose) that a formal UK launch would work out cheaper than a self-imported US model.

better as in bigger 3g coverage. And the largest provides in the uk

Who, Orange? In two years, maybe.

i thought they had better 3g than their rivals years ago. I get better on my own mobile compared to my works vodaphone.

In the OFCOM test, that is true, but coverage is only part of the story; I'm actually more interested in backhaul capacity, which Orange were not great on when I was with them (neither are O2 to be fair).

Uhh, what? O2 are the largest in the UK. As Grim... notes, they won't be the largest (by customers) until the T-mobile merger is done and dusted, which is some way off.

fair enough. But they will be. Where i work all over the uk Orange is better than Vodaphone. That is only what i know.

Might I also add, given recent events that are too painful to go in to and which I am attempting to blot out of mind with the power alcohol, Orange suck donkey dick.

that does not sound good.

Also, don't buy a Kindle. Think how many times you've suddenly thought to yourself "I need Fly Fishing by J.R.Hartley, and I need it right now, in this queue for chips!"

Well, I dunno. Sometimes my chippy runs out of fish.

Also the Kindle seems to open all the same unprotected files that your Sony does, and have a better store...?

i still like books, but the sony device in waterstones did look quite nice.

Is it called a Kindle because they expect us to set fire to our books after purchasing one?

Hang on. I read some of my current book in bed on my Kindle. I go to work the next day. I settle into a toilet cubicle, fire up my iPhone, load the Kindle app... and it has the same book and I'm in the same place?!

DO WANT.

now that does sound cool

The odds of my getting a Kindle just quadrupled. Admittedly they weren't enormous to start with.

I cry bullshit on that! It's a new gadget and yowm a big nerd. Of course you were going to get one.

Mein Gott! It's like you know me a little.

BUT! Is it more nerdy to want an ebook reader, or more nerdy to like proper books? CONUNDRUM.

Nah, it's not new any more. However, why would you want to read books on your iPhone when you have Kindley goodness?

it is normal to have books.

I think the solution is to have the ebook reader, but buy paper versions as backups, and put them in little covers that look like DAT tapes.

Yes, it is. Just like it was normal to carry tapes and a walkman 15 years ago. It's been a while since I actually saw someone carrying CDs or tapes around with them.

I have pockets that can fit my reader in.

I can't read the Kindle in boring meetings, wouldn't always have it in bus queues, and would look suspicious carrying it into the toilet in work. The idea of mostly reading on the Kindle but, umm, "fill-in" reading on the iPhone sounds most excellent to me. Note than the purchases sync across without extra charge. Note also I remarked to you in IM that I wish the Kindle did this, and now I find out it does!

I like your thinking.

true. I was kind of joking. But books have been around for quite a while. The tech will get better

Anyone know what the battery life is like on the Kindle? The one thing I love about the Sony is that the battery life is measured in x hundred page turns, because an eInk display uses no power once rendered. I can imagine an always-on data connection changing that significantly.

A new challenger!

Barnes and Noble have announced the Nook in the US. Very similar in concept to the Kindle, in that it has 3G (and also WiFi) and is quite closely tied to the B&N bookstore brand. It's a lovely looking device, much sexier than the Kindle.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/features/techspecs/

The Nook? Jesus.

That's a pretty device.

Is it always on? I thought it was on demand.


That looks far nicer than the kindle.

Cripes.

There is no way it's going to sell with a name like that

we call our dog Nook, as it is short for Nanook...

It would make me chuckle if I had one.

BitterWallet says that ebooks on the B&N service will be "significantly cheaper" than paperbacks and that this new Nook device runs Android.

VERY INTERESTED.

Aaaaand

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketc ... eader.html

After reading several books on it, do you wake up one day to find that your eBook reader has grown larger? So you read a few more and all of a sudden there's another screen on it with two irritating twins on there commenting on everything you read?

Bitterwallet have totally misread Gizmodo.

BN have said that eBooks will be significantly cheaper than their paper counterparts for those books that BN publish. Yes, BN are a publisher. No, I've never bought a book published by BN, and I suspect you haven't either.

It is Android though, yes.

I can share. It's called "attach .lrf or .epb file to email". "Send".

Sure, with the other seven Sony eReader owners. Out here in the real world, we'll be measuring this new device against the Kindle.

Ooh, get her!

Helpfully, B&N have already done a comparison for you. Note how they helpfully include non-biased categories like "Allow you to download content inside a Barnes & Noble bookstore".

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/compare/

I like this thing, it's a really nice-looking device. I'd just hate to see the future being locked into single distribution channels of drm-restricted content.

Also, you missed the comment about Bitterwallet being utterly wrong about the pricing.

Indeed, this diagram provoked a hearty mohh.

Absolutely. The best thing that can happen is to have multiple successful platforms now so the publishers can be prodded into moving to a common platform later. So this device coming out is a good thing.

I think the colour screen is a gimmick mind.

I didn't miss it. I just wanted to get the burn in about the eReader.

I'd take one of them.
The wifi would still work in the UK, wouldn't it?