Comments on: e-Book Echo: More Kindle Books than Print Versions; Nook and Sony Reader Downloads Overloaded

By: Andrys

Andrys — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:16:56 +0000

James,
I’d heard about the Nook problems on Christmas day but not about the Sony. Didn’t realize so many of them were sold that last week. Thanks for the news on that.

Interesting reader. I like the ability to write notes on the screen page. I hope the price comes down from that heady $400 though, especially w/o ability to go anywhere but to the Sony store.

By: Andrys

Andrys — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:14:05 +0000

Heavy Harmonies,
You just wrote my favorite description of the Kindle Web Browser, “a little pokey” – love it.

Yes it is. As you say, text-based mobile-optimized sites are best, and lately they’re not quite as pokey.

It’s good to see people enjoying this feature which, if it were on the Nook, would be praised by the gadget press.

Surprisingly, the regular Engadget site doesn’t do badly on the DX in landscape mode.

At any rate, if anyone with less Kindle web experience than Heavy Harmonies wants a free Kindle file of mobile-optimized site links, ready to click on w/o going through experimental browser menu, try my download described and available at
bit.ly/mobiweb

– Andrys

By: Heavy Harmonies

Heavy Harmonies — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:30:01 +0000

I played with a Kindle 2 this past week and I’m sold (although I think I’ll opt for the larger DX model). Interface was easy to use and fairly spry. Screen was VERY readable. The included cell modem service, while a little pokey, was quite usable. With the 1 week+ battery life, this makes a great emergency internet device.

While the web browsing is primitive and monochrome, it certainly works for searching Google and Wikipedia. In “Advanced Mode” the browser supports cookies and JavaScript, so logging into Gmail and checking email was very doable.

As long as you stick with primarily text-based sites and blogs, or stick to mobile versions of sites, you can get a fair amount done.

It’s spoiled me in one respect though – I cannot even consider the Nook or Sony e-readers as viable, since they do not include any Internet capability outside of downloading books. :(