Does Sony's New eReader make me regret my kindle 3 preorder?

[muggle]

Now with the touchscreen capability that doesn't hinder the "readability" of the screen, it is a very tempting.  I've owned a Sony eReader before and it has GREAT build quality in a sleek and elegant form factor.  I switched to a Kindle because of the better pricing and selection of the Amazon store, but now that Congress has said we can hack our DRM'ed books without breaking the law (as long as we don't share them.)

See the new eReaders here (I updated this link with the CNET's review 9/1/2010):
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20015248-1.html

and here is Engadget's hands on review with a video clip:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/01/sony-slims-down-speeds-up-and-adds-touch-to-its-entire-reader/

It's a little temping to cancel my Kindle 3 preorder.  What do you guys think?

[jd78]

I'm probably going to stick with my K3...

I saw those pics, but didn't think much about it since there isn't really any info with it. No dimensions, weight, and from what I can tell, no mention of better contrast which means they are probably still using the previous version of e-ink. Also, Sony has stated they will not participate in the price war, only with "Quality". As much as I want to respect that statement, I believe B&N and Amazon still make quality e-readers, and they did the right thing by lowering the price to entice more consumers.

[muggle]

I'm not sure I understand Sony's statement that they're not going to get involved with pricing wars, since they lowered the price of their Pocket eReader from $179 down to $99.

[AnelaBelladonna]

Not interested.  I love my Kindle and love amazon.com.  At this point in time, I am not tempted to change but competition is a great thing for all of us.  Prices go down and the readers get better.

[Ann in Arlington]

I'm not tempted. . . .I have 600+ books for Kindle (Oh, and, for the record, I still don't think you're allowed to strip DRM, even for your own purposes.  But I did not read the actual ruling, and it's not something I'd be interested in doing anyway since it would be against the Terms of Service I agreed to when I bought the Kindle.    But that's just me. ) and zero interest in a touch screen.

And, you know, you can always return the Kindle, no questions asked, within 30 days.  When do the new Sonys come out?  'Cause the Sony page doesn't have anything different than the 3 it's sold for the last year or so. . . .and the article you linked to is useless as far as pictures go.

[Shetlander]

I've been so happy with my Kindles going back to the release of the K1 that I personally have no interest in Sony.  

[history_lover]

I am a little jealous of the touch screen - I'm worried how I'm going to deal with Kindle since I'm so used to the touch screen on my iPhone. I imagine I'll be having the urge to touch the screen for a while in the beginning until I get used to it. But I'm pretty sure Amazon still have the biggest ebook store to buy from, especially in the UK. That's far more important than a touch screen.

[jd78]

I don't think I want a touchscreen on my e-reader. I have an iPad and as much as I love it, I hate having to clean fingerprints all the time. Even with a screen protector it just makes them less noticeable, but they are there. IMO, unless the touchscreen allows the Sony e-readers to do so much more than the Kindle, then they are just a flashy gimmick.

[blefever]

I like Sony products, but not enough to make me cancel my K3 order. No way!!!!!!!

[Tom Diego]

Here's something that caught my eye in the article I read on electronista:

"Both the Pocket Edition and Touch Edition will use a new E Ink display which doesn't need an extra layer above the screen for touch, making for a look closer to paper."

In his interview on the Charlie Rose Show on the K3 announcement day, Jeff Bezos said that touch capability introduced an additional layer that compromised the reading experience.  Now I'm wondering why they didn't use the same e-ink display that Sony is going to use.

[Muddypawz]

Not interested.  I love my Kindle and love amazon.com.  At this point in time, I am not tempted to change but competition is a great thing for all of us.  Prices go down and the readers get better.

I totally agree!  I'm not going anywhere.

Melissa

[Linjeakel]

It doesn't appear as if they've officially been released yet and personally I'd like to have a lot more info than that if I was considering changing. The touch screen is attractive in theory but I'm quite obsessive about clean screens and the fingerprints would drive me insane. 

As it is, I'm sticking with Kindle. I've been more than happy with mine so far and the K3 is bringing even more improvements. Also I've got loads of Amazon books and I wouldn't want to be going to the bother of stripping the DRM from them even if it was legal (and I'm pretty sure it's not here in the UK). And, as Ann says, it's quite specifically against the Amazon ToS. Apart from that irritating inability to confirm shipping dates  Amazon are pretty OK with me, so I'll stick with them for now.

 

[muggle]

In my opinion, the real benefit of the Sony reader is the more elegant and slimmer device that is not made out of plastic.  The earlier versions of the touch screen reduced the clarity of the e-ink, so it is a significant breakthrough that they've now fixed this.

Other than the eReader supporting word docs natively, I think the Kindle pretty much beats out the eReader, particularly in terms of book selection and pricing.  

Incidentally, Congress did in fact make it legal to circumvent DRM for both ebooks and smartphones.  The ruling for eBooks was a deliberate "smack down" to publishers who disallowed the text-to-speech feature on the Kindle, it wasn't meant to be punitive to Amazon.  For smartphones, it wanted to allow users to break free from the "onerous" restrictions put in place by companies like Apple (not Amazon).  

[masquedbunny]

If the Pocket version really does go down to $99, I might get one just for accessing library ebooks... I've been looking at the Opus for such a purpose, but I can't justify spending what Cybook is asking for it--even though it is a very attractive little device.

As for Sony's touchscreen, I'm not really interested in that capability. I've read books on my iPod (much to the irritation of my eyes), and for me it's way too easy to accidentally flip pages with a touchscreen. Buttons are just less sensitive. And then there are the fingerprints...

[JSRinUK]

I'm confused about Sony.  Here we are, barely a week away from the new Kindle release, and Sony apparently have two brand new ereaders to bring to the market - yet they're not bothering to tell anyone about them?  All we hear is a leaked rumour on a gadget website.

How does that work?  Surely the best thing they could do is to make a formal announcement complete with details and videos in an effort to distract a lot of us ebook reader newbies away from the Kindle.

Once I've got my K3, I won't be in the market for an ebook reader anymore.  I certainly won't be buying another one very soon.  I imagine there are a lot of newbie ebook reader customers in the same boat.

By hiding their new product, Sony are surely crippling the impact it'll have.  It's like someone coming out with an iPad device that's superior to the iPad but then saying, "no we can't be bothered to announce it until ten million people have bought the iPad".  Then they'll *really* have a lot of potential customers.

It just seems silly to have two brand new products that might tempt Kindle newbies to hold back on their purchases, and then not bother telling anyone about them until after they've bought their Kindles.  How does that make sense?

[Tip10]

I'll admit I carry a mobile with a touch screen.  It's nice but it can also be a pain in the backside alot of the time.

That being said I really don't understand the enamor everybody seems to have with touchscreens -- especially on a READING device.  Almost every touchscreen I've seen is generally covered with fingerprints, finger smudges from swipes, and oils and stuff from being touched all the time. Not something I would think would be conducive to reading.  I suppose the Nook had the right idea although I think it had a fairly poor implementation.  Now, if the K4 replaced the keyboard area with a multi-function touchscreen maybe.  But to overlay it or put it in with the reading screen - NO THANKS!

[Tom Diego]

If the Pocket version really does go down to $99, I might get one just for accessing library ebooks... I've been looking at the Opus for such a purpose, but I can't justify spending what Cybook is asking for it--even though it is a very attractive little device.

See my post here about the Sony Touch at Sears for $99.

[jd78]

Incidentally, Congress did in fact make it legal to circumvent DRM for both ebooks and smartphones.  The ruling for eBooks was a deliberate "smack down" to publishers who disallowed the text-to-speech feature on the Kindle, it wasn't meant to be punitive to Amazon.  For smartphones, it wanted to allow users to break free from the "onerous" restrictions put in place by companies like Apple (not Amazon).  

Just to clarify... It was the Library of Congress, not Congress itself that made this ruling. http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2010/Librarian-of-Congress-1201-Statement.html

[Rebekah]

I've been so happy with my Kindle experience that I see no reason to switch brands.  Also, I don't care to have a touch screen.

[chilady1]

I am SOOOO happy with my decision to order my K3 and can't wait to receive it.  I don't mean to be a spoil sport but I really don't get the big deal over touchscreen.  I have seen the Sony touchscreen and quite honestly, I am not impressed.  For one thing, glare is a big problem because of the screen type needed for touch response.  The other is how many times do you have to clean the screen?  I can't imagine all the fingerprints and smudges that must be on a touchscreen.  I have enough to clean around my house, don't need anything else to clean.  Just my 2 cents and I don't mean to trash those that like a touchscreen, I personally just don't get it.

[muggle]

I know...everyone seems touchscreen obsessed...but...not having to move a joystick a dozen times to highlight a passage would be nice.  Also, the eReader does have actual buttons for page turning if you don't want to have to swipe the screen every time.

I agree that not having a proper press release when facing an eminent launch of a competitor is weird at the very least.  Perhaps this is all a pipe dream?

[Mac Jones]

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

(well almost in the hand.....waiting   )

[Wunderkind]

I used the current Sony Touch ereader for a few months last year, and I have to say that the one big positive feature that the Sony had that I was sorry to give up was the ability to turn the page from wherever my hand was resting using the touch screen. I didn't realize how nice this was until I had used the reader for a few days and got the flip motion down, but it was literally a miniscule movement of my thumb and the page turned -- even if I was holding the ereader at the top which for the majority of time that I read is the more natural spot for my hand. There was enough of a border on the device that I didn't experience unwanted page turns either, and fingerprints surprisingly weren't as much of an issue as I had expected. This was a much more natural experience than reaching down to press the page turn on non-touch readers (which I frankly don't understand why the page forward buttons are so far down on these ereaders instead of being centered in the middle).

Another nice thing was the ability to use the stylus to write my notes on screen freehand style. Pretty amazing. However, the downside of screen glare was too much for me to deal with so I got a nook instead (I had bought the Sony so I could check out library books). If this new screen had been on the previous Sony that I had, I'd still be using it -- along with my Kindle of course!

[JSRinUK]

Another nice thing was the ability to use the stylus to write my notes on screen freehand style.

How well did this feature work?  I'm interested in touchscreens for this reason because I'm often correcting my own work by writing on the printed page.  However, I have a touchscreen mobile internet device (5" screen) and the sensitivity/accuracy leaves a lot to be desired.  I can't just jot down a sentance or two because it has difficulty with small and subtle movements (it handles big sweeping movements fine, but I don't want to fill the screen with one word!  ).

So, I'm curious how well touchscreens work on small ebook readers and would grateful for your experience.

[muggle]

Until I read these posts, I didn't realize that I could "borrow" electronic books from my local library, rather than buy them from online retailers.  THIS IS AWESOME!  I just checked out my local library's electronic collection and saw that it is part of an organization called OverDrive that has thousands of current copyrighted materials.  You can just download them from the internet without having to physically go to the library too.  Too bad Amazon chose not to incorporate support for this format.