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Charlie Stross reviews the PRS-300
December 20, 2009 | 1:48 pm
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By Chris Meadows
I’m about a week late on this, but I only just now noticed this piece. SF writer Charlie Stross posted an in-depth review of the Sony PRS-300 e-book reader to his blog. He compares it to the PRS-505 and finds it a considerable improvement.
But in the end it was the ergonomics that got to me. If you read books on screen, you will be in intimate contact with the ebook reader for hours on end. And the page turn buttons on the PRS-505 were diabolically stupid in their placement: bottom-left of front, or middle of the right edge. I got cramp in my thumbs, turning pages. Not good.
He finds it easier than reading from a PDA due to his ageing eyes (due to the screen size; he discounts the “backlit screens” argument) and dislikes the Kindle for battery-draining bells and whistles he does not need and Amazon’s policies surrounding it.
At the end, Stross also notes that his wife is looking for a Macintosh-compatible e-book reader that supports annotations and solicits suggestions from readers in the comments.
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Comments:
“dislikes the Kindle for battery-draining bells and whistles he does not need and Amazon’s policies surrounding it.”
This statement puzzles me. What battery draining bells and whistles? The Kindle is one of the longest lasting batteries amongst e-readers, is it not?
Also, I am unsure what your spouse wants in “annotations”. You can highlight and you can make notes on a page or across pages. Endnotes can be linked so you can go and read it and then come back with the back key. What am I missing here?
I like the choice of fonts on the Kindle. I have not used a Sony because when it first came out with the model 500 I could not find one to look at. The Kindle offered to send me one for a month to try out and keep it if I wanted it or return it if I did not. Also the Kindle had search, which I wanted, and the was supported by the Mac, which I had. I have not looked back since. It would be nice if we could all have agnostic DRM so that we could buy books from whatever source we wished. I think all publishers and e-book distributors are shooting themselves in the foot on this one.
Meanwhile, enjoy your Sony. There is room in the market for many good readers. Eventually, like the automobile, they will shake out to just a few, hopefully more than one as monopolies tend to abuse their power.