[*Flower*]

So how do you think that this new deal will affect Kindle/Amazon?

They were trumpeting it all over the airwaves this morning- sounded mighty pleased with themselves.....

 

[bkworm8it]

Here's a link to the article

http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/03/sony-google-e-b.html

 

[Kind]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting the link.

 

[KindleMom]

I think this is good to have competition.  There are too many books on Amazon that are overpriced.  If Sony gets the instant download up an running, Amazon is going to have to lower prices and come up with some new features.  I still think the Sony is a better product except for the instant download which is why we own two Kindles at this house.

In short, this bodes well for the consumer.  We'll just get better products and prices.  I hope.

 

[mwvickers]

The only advantage I really see is that the Sony 700 series is now a little cheaper than the Kindle 2.  All of the books added are public domain, and most of those can probably be found on manybooks, freekindlebooks, etc. I would imagine.  

I don't get it, really.

 

[intinst]

Since Amazon still has many, many more books available that are not public domain, I believe they are still far ahead in the game. But, competition is good for the consumer, in most cases.

 

[TM]

Hopefully this will push Amazon into supporting ePub format on the kindle.

 

[mominsky]

i gotta say, with the new SonyStyle credit card deal, the sony reader is beciming much more attractive - they are offering $200 credit on your first statement after a 349+ purchase when opening a sony style credit card....to buy their PRS-505 (plus some accessories) for only $150 is VERY tempting, OR to get the PRS-700 for that same price...cant really go wrong........if only it had whispernet

 

[peritusONE]

It's my opinion that it is only a matter of time before Amazon adds epub and/or pdf support to the Kindle.  This whole eBook reader market is just now taking off into mainstream, and has a while to go.  Amazon (and Sony) will figure it out as they go.

The only question is whether or not Amazon will apply any future format updates via software to previous Kindle iterations, or if you'll have to buy the newest Kindle.

Regardless of all this, a lot of Kindle owners know that you can get a lot of this stuff on the Kindle through an Amazon convert, and most of us also know that there is an option to convert these WITHOUT a fee...a fact that most news reports gloss over.

 

[Jesslyn]

Considering that public domain books are available EVERYWHERE!, not sure all the fuss was warranted.

 

[mom133d (aka Liz)]

I saw this on Yahoo news http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090319/ap_on_hi_te/tec_google_sony_reader

Since it is fairly short, I'll copy here (bolding is mine)

Sony e-book reader gets 500,000 books from Google (AP)

NEW YORK - Google Inc. is making half a million books, unprotected by copyright, available for free on Sony Corp.'s electronic book-reading device, the companies were set to announce Thursday.

It's the first time Google has made its vast trove of scanned public-domain books available to an e-book device, and vaults the Sony Reader past Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle as the device with the largest available library, at about 600,000 books.

The scanned books were all published before 1923, and include works like Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" as well as nonfiction classics like Herodotus' "The Histories."

The books are already available as free downloads in the Portable Document Format (PDF), which works well on computer screens but not on e-book readers. Google will provide the books to the Sony Reader in the EPUB (electronic publication) format, which lets the lines flow differently to fit a smaller screen.

Google spokeswoman Jennie Johnson said the company wants to make the books available as widely as possible.

"Really our vision is: any book, anywhere, any time and on any device," she said. "We want to partner with anybody who shares our vision of making them more accessible."

The publishing industry has more or less united on EPUB for e-book distribution, but Amazon uses its own format for the Kindle. However, unencrypted EPUB files can be converted to a format readable by the Kindle using PC software.

Unlike the Sony Reader, the $359 Kindle has a wireless connection directly to its e-book store, which boasts more than 245,000 titles. To get books onto the Reader, the user first downloads them from Sony's Web site using a computer, then connects the Reader to the computer.

There are two models of the Reader, priced at $300 and $350.

On the Net:

http://www.sony.com/reader

http://books.google.com

http://www.amazon.com/kindle

If I ever get freetime, I was going to look to see what was available. I went to the books.google site and saw mostly public domain titles that we can probably get from other locations. You had to register at sony and I didn't have time to test that out.

 

[r0b0d0c]

Seems pretty misleading, since Kindle can download "over 245,000" books directly to Kindle, plus how many more titles (anyone have a number of public domain books from freebooks, etc.?), whereas don't you need to download to computer first, and THEN to the Sony eReader for ALL titles?

the "600,000" number certainly gives bragging rights and marketing to Sony, for now.

 

[mwvickers]

Let's just hope Amazon doesn't "fight back" and pull even more free public domain books into the Kindle store.  It's a nightmare as it is.

 

[webhill]

Let's just hope Amazon doesn't "fight back" and pull even more free public domain books into the Kindle store. It's a nightmare as it is.

Why is it a nightmare? I like having them there! I mean, some of them are titles I would like to read on my Kindle, and it's nicer to be able to d/l them over whispernet, and have them backed up in my amazon archive, instead of having to get them elsewhere...

 

[mwvickers]

Why is it a nightmare? I like having them there! I mean, some of them are titles I would like to read on my Kindle, and it's nicer to be able to d/l them over whispernet, and have them backed up in my amazon archive, instead of having to get them elsewhere...

It's mainly a nightmare for trying to search through to find books. In some cases, you wade through tons of those. Some search tools have made it possible to exclude those now, so it's not quite as bad, but still.

As far as having them backed up, I guess to each his or her own. I am rarely able to use whispernet, so I have to use the USB and my computer to download books no matter where I get them from, so it's just as easy for me to find them on another website as to get them from my Kindle library. Also, to me, because all books are backed up in your Kindle library, it makes it even harder and longer to find other books you paid for if you have tons of public domain ones sitting in your Kindle library.

As I said, though, to each his or her own. I just think it's kind of silly for any company (Amazon, Sony, etc.) to say they added several thousand books when they are public domain and can be found other places, especially while there are so many newer and older non-public domain books that are not available yet.

Just my two cents.

 

[SongbirdVB]

Seems pretty misleading, since Kindle can download "over 245,000" books directly to Kindle, plus how many more titles (anyone have a number of public domain books from freebooks, etc.?), whereas don't you need to download to computer first, and THEN to the Sony eReader for ALL titles?

the "600,000" number certainly gives bragging rights and marketing to Sony, for now.

I'm wondering how accurate that number is. Is it 600,000 BOOKS or 600,000 TITLES? As we know, there are many books out there with numerous publications. So it could be 600,000 different "versions" of Moby Dick!

 

[Marguerite]

Just for fun I went on their cite to check it out and I am seeing that they are higher for the cost of books.  In some cases $12 for what is in paperback at the grocery store for about $8.  I will stick to the Kindle.  I also found their demo guy to be annoying.

 

[MamaProfCrash]

(sigh)

Gee, we just ingested hundreds of thousands of books that you could have downloaded for free. WEEEEEEE

Am I suppose to be impressed?

All this tells me is that Sony is clearly desperate and responding to the release of Kindle 2 with a pretty lame ploy. Then again, if you don't know much about e-books, maybe it is not so lame. (shrugs)

 

[SusanCassidy]

I'm wondering how accurate that number is. Is it 600,000 BOOKS or 600,000 TITLES?

I was thinking sort of the same thing. If a "title" is just a short story or article, then 600000 is not that impressive. Most of the interesting public domain stuff is probably already available from manybooks.net or feedbooks.com. Don't know why they are so excited, for the most part.

 

[kguthrie]

Competition is always good for the consumer. Bring it on!