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.