Busy (but Geeky) Mom wants freedom from laptop (lots of online fic forum reading)

[Siwickimom]

Ok. I am pretty technically proficient. I'm not a coder or anything like that, but if I have a good set of directions and troubleshooting information, I am pretty fearless when it comes to trying things out. As long as you back stuff up and always can revert- I usually say, why not? Here is my situation in a nutshell:

I'm busy. I have an 11 year old boy and a 3 year old girl and they are involved in everything under the sun. I love reading but my books seem to grow legs and walk off as little hands get a hold of them. I read a lot of online fiction at forums like fanfiction.net. I love reading classics and older works as well and I have ZERO personal/moral quandries about removing DRM and/or obtaining content in less than, ah, savory ways. I also don't mind paying for something if I really want to read it right away.

I am a long time Amazon customer and we have an annual Prime Membership and have long-lusted after the Kindle. However, being the geek that I am , I have to uber-research everything. Costco has the Sony 505 on display, I have never had my hands on a Kindle 2. But that Sony sure is sexy and feels so solid and comfortable in the hand. I'm also very anal about organizing my digital files (I have a million subfolders in Outlook, media center, etc) and the fact that there are no folder options for the Kindle kinda hangs me up, too. But- by and large- it's the Whispernet and browser that is holding me up.

I don't mind converting things, we have the computers and savvy to do it. But the things I have been reading MOST lately, by FAR is online fiction at fanfiction.net. Lots of stories that are ongoing and have new updates, etc. I know there are downloaders and grabbers out there and I was playing around w/ them last night. I can grab things and I know I'd be able to transfer them over to the Sony. But I just can't help having this daytime fantasy about being on the bench outside my daughter's ballet class and getting a notification from my cell phone that there is a new update to a story I was reading and whipping out the K2 and going to the forum and reading it. Or when I get 30 minutes to myself being able to just grab my Kindle and head off to my bedroom and browse for new LOTR fics and start reading, without having to pick what I want to read, grab it w/ a downloader, and transfer it over.

I DON'T like feeling locked into/tied to Amazon, even though we are loyal Amazon customers for the most part. I am very uncomfortable with them being able to change the Terms of Service on a whim.

*sigh*

What's a busy Mom to do? I just want to read more! Husband says I should buy the Sony from Costco this weekend, take it home and play around with it and return it if I don't like it and order the K2. I don't take a hundred dollar price difference lightly and don't want to overspend, either.

Oh, forgot to mention we are both Sprint customers and have awesome Sprint EVDO 3G signal in our area. That is another factor on the Kindles pro list for me.


Wow, that was a big nutshell, huh?

Thanks in advance for reading and responding!

Rebecca

[desertgrandma]

Welcome to MobileRead, Siwickimom

[Sweetpea]

Choices, choices!

Just get both, one Kindle and one Sony (so your husband can use the one you're not using!)

It looks to me, that the Kindle is more for you (except that it is ugly). As you don't mind removing DRM and format shifting, the locked format for the Kindle shouldn't be a problem.

But, I would take a look at the small letters about using Whispernet. There have been rumours going on (rumours, not facts, at least, not that I know) about extra costs...

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Choices, choices!

Just get both, one Kindle and one Sony (so your husband can use the one you're not using!)

It looks to me, that the Kindle is more for you (except that it is ugly).stop that!! As you don't mind removing DRM and format shifting, the locked format for the Kindle shouldn't be a problem.

But, I would take a look at the small letters about using Whispernet. There have been rumours going on (rumours, not facts, at least, not that I know) about extra costs...

And remember,,,,you have a 30 day unconditional return policy with Amazon. Just pay return shipping.

And the Kindle has a built in dictionary!

[Siwickimom]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

And remember,,,,you have a 30 day unconditional return policy with Amazon. Just pay return shipping.

And the Kindle has a built in dictionary!

Thanks for that additional reminder. I do like the built in dictionary idea, especially for the times I might allow my 11 year old son to read on it.

I am concerned about the possibility of Amazon beginning to charge a monthly fee for whispernet access as well, given that they already charge for email conversion. I have to believe that eventually the deal they have negotiated w/ Sprint will end and they might not decide to continue including it in the price.

I'm glad there are a couple responses already- just got back from sitting outside a dance class trying to browse fanfiction.net on my Palm Pre and was really wishing I had a digital reader with me!

[Siwickimom]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Choices, choices!

Just get both, one Kindle and one Sony (so your husband can use the one you're not using!)

My husband? Read?

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Siwickimom

Thanks for that additional reminder. I do like the built in dictionary idea, especially for the times I might allow my 11 year old son to read on it.

I am concerned about the possibility of Amazon beginning to charge a monthly fee for whispernet access as well, given that they already charge for email conversion. I have to believe that eventually the deal they have negotiated w/ Sprint will end and they might not decide to continue including it in the price.

I'm thinking the charges they've been starting have to do more with wanting people to buy only from them....not download from free sites thru whispernet.

I can't see them charging for the free whispernet when buying books from Amazon..........that would be cutting of their noses to spite their faces.

[emellaich]

OK, I have and prefer a Kindle so I have a bit of a bias towards that.

However, looking objectively at what you talk about it is tough to decide, but for slightly different reasons than you state.

1) Since you don't really read current books, and you aren't concerned about DRM the book store is not so much of a concern. That means that if I was going cheap I would look even cheaper than the Sony. I'd consider either the Jetco (about $169 on sale at newegg), or the Astak EZreader (expected to be on sale at Fry's for $219 on the fourth of July weekend). I hear that the Sony is sometimes available for $200, and if you can find it for this price it would fit also. Note that the Kindle 2, I like doesn't have a cover, so you are talking around $400 with a cover. This is around a $200 savings.

2) On the other hand, I don't see you really being satisfied unless you can dial into your fanfiction in real time. This would suggest the Kindle as your only real choice and definitely worth the extra bucks. However, remember caveat emptor (buyer beware)... there are two things you need to be aware of:

a) Amazon has advertised the Kindle as having free access to wikipedia. The general web is 'experimental' and "You may be charged a fee for wireless connectivity for your use of other wireless services on your Device, such as Web browsing and downloading of personal files,". So I read this to have two warnings. First, Amazon may decide to withdraw web browsing altogether. Alternatively, they may choose to charge for web browsing (currently they only charge for wireless delivery of personal files). My guess is that it will continue to be available and continue to be free for at least the next year or so. If the Kindle ever comes in a form factor that is better suited to web browsing (say a touch screen with a pixel qi screen) then they will have to charge to moderate usage levels.

b) I periodically use the Amazon web browser and I think its a great tool. However, it is definitely crippled when compared to a full featured browser. If you have specific web sites that you visit, perhaps you should have someone here try them out for you and make sure they work on the Kindle. There is always the chance that your web site uses some specific flash or AJAX features that aren't supported on the Kindle.

[emellaich]

Just noticed that the Sony is either $150 or $200 (I'm not sure since I didn't read the full thread) if you apply and use a Sony card:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46753

[Lady Blue]

Hello Siwickimom, and to Mobileread.

Originally Posted by Siwickimom

My husband? Read?

What a coincidence. I've got one of those, too.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Siwickimom

My husband? Read?

Hey, you're never too old to learn!

(and wait till you show your new gadget in front of his face, he'll start to read just because he'll be jealous you've got that cool thing and he doesn't!)


(and I know how to make our granny bite!)

[Kokomo Lee]

Originally Posted by Lady Blue

Hello Siwickimom, and Attachment 31225 to Mobileread.







What a coincidence. I've got one of those, too.

I have one too! As someone who reads anything and everything i can get my grubby little hands on, it's still puzzling. But the growing pile of unread books I kept giving him finally convinced me...

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by SLMines

I have one too! As someone who reads anything and everything i can get my grubby little hands on, it's still puzzling. But the growing pile of unread books I kept giving him finally convinced me...

I gave him my old PDA (so I could buy that new one) and I'll put books on them too. The PDA is beside his pillow (on his nightstand, while mine is most often underneath my pillow...) and he'll read mostly at night (just before sleeping or when he can't get to sleep). Really, it works!

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Siwickimom

I read a lot of online fiction at forums like fanfiction.net.

I don't mind converting things, we have the computers and savvy to do it. But the things I have been reading MOST lately, by FAR is online fiction at fanfiction.net.

I presume you already know about FLAG? I'm working on creating a "Portable FLAG" install (basically, Portable XAMPP with the configuration modified to work with FLAG) that people can run on their computer. Another thing I've noticed is most downloaders (alas, including FLAG) require that you enter the story id when you want to download a fanfic. Hopefully, I can code something to get around that, say you can just search for the title and it will return a page similar to FanFiction.Net's search results page, except it has embedded links to both print and ebook versions of the fanfic.

Originally Posted by Siwickimom

Lots of stories that are ongoing and have new updates, etc. I know there are downloaders and grabbers out there and I was playing around w/ them last night. I can grab things and I know I'd be able to transfer them over to the Sony. But I just can't help having this daytime fantasy about being on the bench outside my daughter's ballet class and getting a notification from my cell phone that there is a new update to a story I was reading and whipping out the K2 and going to the forum and reading it. Or when I get 30 minutes to myself being able to just grab my Kindle and head off to my bedroom and browse for new LOTR fics and start reading, without having to pick what I want to read, grab it w/ a downloader, and transfer it over.

I already have something similar going on, which is, perhaps, the reason I love my iPhone so much. I have a XAMPP server running on my home PC with FLAG installed and coded some PHP scripts that automatically creates online catalogs for Stanza on the iPhone. With that, I just browse the online catalogs for new and updated fanfics from my favorite categories directly from Stanza. If I find a fanfic I feel like reading, I just click on download and the script automatically prepares a nicely formatted Stanza-compatible epub complete with ToC. I have to say, the instant gratification aspect of such a set-up is wonderful. Still need to add some more features to the catalog, though (add to favorites, add to story alerts, etc).

[rgeorg]

If money is a factor, download your fiction to a PC (automatically or whatever) and purchase the less-expensive jetBook reader (or 2 of them!). You can then download the text to the device and read it at your convenience. Depends whether or not you are willing to pay a premium for instant-access convenience? It's easily a $200 difference between the K2 and the jetBook (which is also a mp3 player). Your 11-yr-old would probably enjoy it even if you eventually do not, and it would be great for him to read the classics that he'll be assigned to read in school (I say that as a teacher and mother!).

jetBook also has a dictionary (multiple languages in case your 11-year-old is learning a second language in school) and since you are happy - as I am - with non-DRM and some light format-changing - the jetBook is a real bargain at $169 from newegg.com. I am thinking of getting another one for my 16-yr-old - if I lived in the US I would have the second one by now for sure!

Being a busy mom/teacher also, I also like the size and portability factor of the jetBook, I am lugging around so much as it is! My husband enjoys reading -but typically PDF-formatted textbooks rather than fiction - but he's been quite interested in the jetBook lately (after first snubbing it as "too small" ).

But I won't let him borrow mine!