Choosing a wireless e-book reader is getting tougher all the time! Well, maybe not all that tough but here’s a chart comparing the offerings from Amazon, Sony, and IREX.
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Device |
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Price |
$299 |
$489 |
$399 |
$399 |
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Screen Size |
6 inches |
9.7 inches |
7 inches |
8.1 inches |
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Touch Screen |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
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Rotating Screen |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
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Storage |
2GB not expandable |
4GB not expandable |
2GB expandable via Memory Stick and SD |
No on-board memory, comes with 2GB SD card |
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Wireless |
Sprint |
Sprint |
AT&T |
Verizon Gobi chipset for worldwide use |
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Bookstore |
Amazon |
Amazon |
Sony eBookstore |
Barnes & Noble |
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Content Availability |
350,000+ books newspaper, magazine, blog subscriptions |
350,000+ books newspaper, magazine, blog subscriptions |
100,000+ books One million public domain books via Google* Participating local library rentals* *not available over 3G |
750,000+ books “Users can purchase books, newspapers or magazines from a wide variety of sources”* *not available over 3G unless purchased through built-in bookstore |
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Natively Supported Formats |
Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible, MP3, MOBI, PRC |
Kindle (AZW), PDF, TXT, Audible, MP3, MOBI, PRC |
ePub, PDF, JPEG, BBeB, RTF, TXT |
ePub, “multiple DRM solutions” |
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Formats Supported via Conversion |
PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP |
HTML, DOC, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP |
DOC, HTML, “other text file formats” |
Not sure yet, will update when more info is available |
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Web Browser |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
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Other Features (lists may be incomplete) |
Bookmarks, annotations, dictionary, Wikipedia, search, audiobooks, iPhone sync |
Bookmarks, annotations, dictionary, Wikipedia, search, audiobooks, iPhone sync |
Highlighting, annotation, dictionary, handwritten notes with included stylus |
Bookmarks, search, included stylus, “users will have the ability to download content to the device while traveling abroad next year” |
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Available |
Now |
Now |
December ‘09 |
October ‘09 (Europe in mid-2010) |
The IREX one was just announced, so we’ll try to fill in more details as we get them.
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
