Beat me to it. Love my PRS-600 (touch screen), and my 500 before that.
To the OP, happy shopping and reading. I was a little skeptical when I was given my first e-reader a few years ago, as I love books; holding them, carrying the, smelling them, collecting them. But, my little Sony won my heart, for many reasons, but primarily the sheer convenience of being able to have so many books and documents (often work, unfortunately), not to mention music and audio books, all in one small package. Great for travel.
I'm in the same boat as you. I love the physical act of reading. But I'm a bit frustrated because of the sheer mountains of books I've acquired over my life and quite a bit intrigued at the idea of reading anything and everything whenever and wherever I feel like it. I like the idea of the convenience of it, I guess.
Could you (or any other Sony Reader enthusiast) expand on these products a bit? I'm a non-techie, so please be as expansive as you'd like
I'll bite.
First off I have to confess that I know nothing about the Nook except what I've seen online. I have "played with" both the 1st generation and current version of the Kindle (though not the DX) a few times, and I've owned a Sony Reader since they first came out in 2006 (as I mentioned above, it was a gift.) It's purely a personal preference thing, but I just don't like the way the Kindle feels in my hand. especially the extended portion below the screen with the physical keyboard buttons. I confess that I can absolutely understand, however, why others would like this feature very much; it's just not for me.
As for me and my Sony Reader, we had been on a vacation during which I had taken along one very thick book that I was finishing, and 2 other books (because I wasn't sure what I'd feel like reading after this wonderful but very "intense" novel I was finishing.) In addition, I had a very thick legal brief I had to take on the plane to review before boarding our cruise. Needless to say, I had a LOT of paper with me (and a lot of extra weight.) That Christmas (after enduring my grumbling about this state of affairs), The Hubby gave me the first generation Sony Reader, and I fell in love with it rather quickly. I recently went on a similar vacation for which I brought along the book I was finishing, as well as 4 others to choose from once that was finished, 3 Trek FanFic stories, and another rather lengthy legal brief (a hazard of the profession) all on my thin little Sony Reader.
The devices use "e-ink" which is LCD technology. The screen is
not backlit, so it does require a light source or "book light" in low light situations. However, because of the LCD technology the battery life is quite long - I have been able to make it through an entire 9 day vacation without recharging, and while reading rather extensively (I do note that I did take my charger with me, but did this as an experiment - I'm not a fool.)
The devices are very thin and just a little bit larger in surface area than a standard paperback book. The Sony supports many file formats, focusing now on the "ePub" format used by various vendors and public libraries, etc. (meaning you can borrow ebooks from libraries that offer such services.) It also supports PDF and RTF format and several others (though not MSWord, but I merely use the "save as" function in MSWord to convert MSWord doc's to RTF and have no difficulty.) It also supports audio books and has a headphone jack and volume control. You can also store pictures on the device, though they only appear in black and white and, to be perfectly honest, the resolution for photographs does not really make the device optimal for this purpose.
The Sony devices do NOT have wifi capability (like the Kindle), so there is admittedly an additional step in getting content to your reader as compared with the Kindle. However, if you're familiar with iTunes, you should not have any difficulty with this; it works in much the same manner. There is a computer desktop interface (like iTunes). You can purchase books from the Sony Book Store online (or other sources) and these are automatically imported to your desktop reader library interface (just like iTunes). You can also easily upload any other content to your computer's desktop reader software (such as PDFs, RTF, etc. - I frequently do this to upload all the wonderful TrekBBS Fan Fic I'm so fond of.) You plug your reader into your computer via USB cable, at which time the portable reader device will appear in the desktop interface (again, much like plugging an iPod into your computer when iTunes is open) and then you merely drag the desired content from your desktop interface to the portable reader icon. You can then click on the reader icon and create sub-categories (or "libraries") if you like to keep your portable device organized (for instance, I have separate "collections" for work content, SciFi, Trek SciFi, standard Fiction, non-fiction, read and unread, etc.) You can remove content from your portable reader in the same manner, while continuing to store it via your desktop interface.
My original reader had a standard interface, with buttons to turn pages forward and backward, to set (and remove) bookmarks, to access the menu, the library, etc. I found this worked very efficiently. The only reason I do not still own my original Sony Reader is that they upgraded their system and preferred content format and my old reader essentially became obsolete.
I was angry about this at first, but Sony offered a very generous "trade in value" and I do find the new ePub format to be more accessible, so that's a plus. In addition, the new PRS-600 which I purchsed to replace my beloved PRS-500 is a touch screen device (they do still make a non-touch screen version as well.) It still has physical buttons if you prefer to use them, but everything is also accessible via touch from the screen; you can access menues, libraries, settings and controls from the touch screen; you turn the pages by swiping your finger across the screen (much like a book - and you can program which swipe direction turns the page which way, a benefit for lefties); you set and remove bookmarks by tapping the upper corner of the screen; etc.
This particular device also has the capability of embedding notes in text, either via a virtual keyboard you can bring up on the touch screen or via "hand-written" notes using the included stylus (stored in a slot on the side of the device), which I absolutely LOVE! That and the fact that you can increase the font size (for when I either forget or don't want to wear my reading glasses.)
The think is supposed to be capable of holding up to approximately 350 books on its internal memory (or equivalent in various content), and it also has an SD slot and a slot for a Sony Memory Stick, which out allow you to increase your device memory as much as you want. Though, I have to say that I have well over 100 books on my device, as well as plenty of other content and I'm still nowhere near maxing out my internal hard memory.
So, I hope that helps answer some of your questions. Feel free to ask if I've missed anything.
Happy reading!
