What exactly does global wireless mean? I really want to get an ereader. I’m torn between sony’s readers and amazon’s kindles, but am leaning towards sony’s product. help please.
Global wireless means the Amazon Kindle comes with free internet access in countries other than the U.S. (now over a hundred countries). The Sony Reader doesn’t even have a web browser…
And I say the Kindle is much better. Read this article and you’ll know, it is written by a person who has tried several ebook readers, and it is also the best review I’ve ever read about ebook readers:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Freview%2FR3QM7LGL62MZ4X%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref%255F%3Dcm%255Fcr%255Frdp%255Fperm&tag=querystr-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
Hope this helps you decide.
January 25th, 2010 | ereader
Global wireless means you can enjoy free 3G wireless with your Kindle even in countries outside the United States. See the official page here for details. There may be charge if you want to download personal documents or purchased books outside the U.S., but browsing the internet with web browser is free of charge:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fhelp%2Fcustomer%2Fdisplay.html%3Fie%3DUTF8%26nodeId%3D200375590&tag=moreinfo-po-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
I love my Kindle 2 very much, and I’ll say the Amazon Kindle is better than Sony Reader. The Amazon Kindle is better because it has free wireless and text-to-speech function. There are more ebooks you can find available for the Kindle, and books on the Kindle are quite a lot cheaper too. There are some good comparison between them here:
http://www.speedreaderxreview.com/kindle-2-0-vs-sony-reader-prs-700bc-comparison
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Freview%2FR3ULAFVHBGYVQP%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref%255F%3Dcm%255Fcr%255Frdp%255Fperm&tag=moreinfo-po-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
And in case you don’t know, Amazon has recently put a price slash on the Kindle 2, and it adds in international wireless access and native PDF support… So take the chance if you want it.
Hope it helps
References :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26rs%3D172282%26sort%3Dpmrank%26ref%255F%3Dsr%255Fst%26keywords%3Dsony%2520reader%26bbn%3D172282%26qid%3D1256199697%26rh%3Dn%253A172282%252Cn%253A%2521493964%252Ck%253Asony%2520reader%252Cp%255F4%253ASony%252Cp%255F36%253A10000-99999999%26page%3D1&tag=moreinfo-po-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957 (Sony Reader)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015T963C?ie=UTF8&tag=moreinfo-po-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0015T963C (Kindle 2 after price slash)
No, the Sony Reader does not even have a web browser…
I’ll say the Kindle 2 instead of Sony Reader. Read here to know more:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Freview%2FR266PE1Q47CYNH%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ASIN%3DB00154JDAI%26nodeID%3D%26ref%255F%3Dcm%255Fcr%255Fpr%255Fcmt&tag=more_info-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
It is better than Sony Reader because Amazon provide good content support, and the number of books available in Kindle format is kept on increasing (right now there are 300,000 Kindle books). Sony Reader, however, many users complain that it is difficult to find suitable books.
And the main problem is that books on Sony Reader are much more expensive than that on the Kindle (tips: if you’re outside the U.S. all the Kindle books you see will have a price of US$2 added. But if you choose to download to computer when you check out, the $2 will be waived. So you can get the books US$2 cheaper even if you’re outside the United States, and you can copy the books to your Kindle through USB cable). And many Kindle books, magazines and newspapers are cheaper than the actual paper version. Other benefits of the Kindle over Sony Reader include the free wireless internet access (now available internationally in many countries, so this is called global wireless), and the text-to-speech function.
Hope this helps.
References :
Amazon kindle 2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015T963C?ie=UTF8&tag=dcmb-20
Review:As one of the original Kindle’s biggest fans and an owner for over a year, I can speak to the Kindle from two perspectives–the benefits of owning a Kindle, and Kindle 2 improvements (as I’ve now had it for half a day)
The benefits of owning a Kindle (these do not change)
- Absolutely, Jeff Bezos is right that the Kindle ‘disappears’ as you read it…as I read other reviews (and non-user critiques) about the Kindle, this point is often lost. Once you have the Kindle in your hands, you forget everything and become immersed in the content of what you’re reading. Isn’t that really the whole point?
- I read more now that I have my Kindle, 10 years out of college than I did when I was in school, and I really enjoy it. Books look a lot less intimidating when they aren’t sitting on your bookshelf and 3 inches thick. I recently finished Team of Rivals, and I am sure that if I had to read it in book form, I would never have gotten through it because it would have felt so intimidating.
- Heft and weight is a complete non-issue with the Kindle. I like to read in odd positions (in bed, on the couch, on a plane, poolside, shifting around in a lounge chair) and I’ve always had trouble with real books because unless you are in the absolute middle of the book, it always is weighted to one side or another and frankly, my arm and pinkie finger gets tired holding it up. The Kindle is balanced and portable, and entirely usable in any situation.
- I can be in the middle of a lot of different books at once…not much more to say here. You never run out of space on the Kindle, and though it may be a little bit hard to maneuver around a lot of books in your library, it’s still better to have access to all your books at any time.
- I now read newspapers. I always found physical newspapers to be clumsy and take up too much space to actually subscribe to. They are great for short content pieces, but terrible for reading in transit because the pages are so big. I also read some articles on my BlackBerry, but find myself scrolling a lot and waiting a long time for page loads. On the Kindle, you have wireless delivery, easy navigation, no ads, no need to flip to page D17 and find the place where you left off. You also have a searchable/annoted/bookmarked archive of all your newspaper articles if you ever need to find something again.
- All of these things can probably be accomplished with any eBook reader. The difference with the Kindle is that you have wireless delivery of content. This means, literally, that I can be sitting on the plane, start talking about what good books the guy sitting next to me has read recently, look it up on my Kindle, read the reviews and download it before the rest of the passengers have boarded and the plane doors close. This has happened.
- My biggest complaint, which I’m sure will be addressed in due course is that the entire wireless benefit does not exist outside of the US. I have taken my Kindle to Canada, Mexico and China, and I found that I had to (gasp), decide what I wanted to have on my Kindle before I left the US. Foreign language support would also be a plus, but again, I see why this might come later.
Now, onto improvements with the Kindle 2
You can also choose, male/female and speed. I think this could be a nice feature, though probably won’t be using it all the time.
- There are the obvious ones: sleeker look and feel (it feels solid in your hands), sharper screen, no longer accidentally depressing the next page button by accident and having to find your place in the book again…you can read about these from various sources)
- The 5-way button, though a bit small, allows you to select left and right, and not just up and down like the original version. This is very helpful when you want to select and highlight.
- There are now two layers of interaction…before when you were reading a paper, you could only go back to the previous screen to select the next article. Now, there is an option at the bottom of the screen to skip to the next article when you tire of the current one.
- Page loads are much faster. I can feel that the delay between pages is much less. Only issue is I need to recalibrate now–in general, I try to anticipate how much time it will take the next page to load, and when I’m two lines from the bottom, I would hit the next page button. Now I need to push the button later.
- Text to speech is cloogey, but fun. I’m not sure how useful this will end up being. I tried to have the voice read the user’s manual to me and it paused at commas and periods, but skipped right over hard returns. It also scrolled the page as it was reading, so if you are trying learn English and don’t mind developing a metallic accent, it could really help.
- Managing your books is much easier. It’s easy to see what is in your archive and re-download onto the Kindle. Also easy to
References :
Global wireless means the Amazon Kindle comes with free internet access in countries other than the U.S. (now over a hundred countries). The Sony Reader doesn’t even have a web browser…
And I say the Kindle is much better. Read this article and you’ll know, it is written by a person who has tried several ebook readers, and it is also the best review I’ve ever read about ebook readers:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Freview%2FR3QM7LGL62MZ4X%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref%255F%3Dcm%255Fcr%255Frdp%255Fperm&tag=querystr-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957
Hope this helps you decide.
References :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015T963C?ie=UTF8&tag=querystr-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0015T963C (Kindle 2 sales page)