Thread: Are other electronic book gadgets besides the Amazon Kindle?

I am very gadget illiterate but I love to read am an interested in an Amazon Kindle or anything like it. What exactly are they called, are they e-books? Do you have to be online in order to purchase books? Must you purchase every book or are there sites where certain ones are free? Just like with ipods and there are diff gigs to hold more music, are there different reading gadgets that go up like that? I'm sure I could think of more things to ask about this, so if anybody can share any additional info that would be awesome.

Most of your question are answered on the Amazon Kindle web site. And yes there other brands besides the Kindle. Search e readers.

Yes, they're called e-book readers and there are others besides the Kindle. The major players that use the e-ink technology are Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle, Nook and Kobo; this assumes you're in the US. Some, but not all, are available in other countries as well. You do have to be online to buy or borrow and download e-books, just like you would if you were buying digital music or video. There are different capacities but, unless you would put audio-books and/or music on the reader, capacity is more than sufficient for pretty much the life of the device. Of the four, I think the Kobo has the lowest capacity at about 1,000 e-books. I'm not sure about Nook but it does have a micro SD slot. All of the Sonys have a capacity of about 1,200 e-books. The 6" Sony, PRS-640 and the 7", PRS-950 have two slots, one for memory stick pro duo and one for SD up to 32GB. Sony 650 and 950 also support AAC audio in addition to MP3. The others that do support audio support only MP3.

Personally, I would rule out Nook for several reasons, one being that it's still got last year's e-ink technology but hasn't come down in price. Sony and Kindle both have the new Pearl e-ink display but Kindle's downfalls are that it uses a proprietary file format, it does not support borrowed library e-books and the hardware is pretty chintzy. My Kindle has been replaced twice already. I bought my first Sony almost five years ago and never had one problem with it. I upgraded last year and haven't had any problems with that one and I just gifted a new one that is flawless. Where Sony really wipes the floor with Kindle is that in addition to the Pearl screen, it's got a brand new and absolutely amazing new touch screen technology. What that means to an avid reader, in addition to the high quality hardware from a trend-setting manufacturer is that in one or two taps or a swipe, one can accomplish what it takes 6, 8 or more keystrokes to accomplish on Kindle's outdated physical keyboard. Sony also has ten embedded translation dictionaries, something none of the others has. The Sonys cost more, yes. But a device that will be used for hours a day for years to come is worth the additional cost compared to the poor quality hardware and lacking features of the others. Unfortunately, all three of them were on sale last week and now they're back to regular price. They will be on sale again, either separately or bundled, at SonyStyle.com, Borders, Best Buy in-store and online as well as B&H Photo. In the meantime, I highly recommend that you visit a physical store that has Sony, Kindle and Nook on display so that you can at least compare the hardware, especially the screen technology.