| It is becoming increasingly clear that the big battle, | | | | Amazon Kindle offered the mobi pocket format, |
| in the handheld ebook reader war, is going to be | | | | if you wanted.pdf support you had to turn over |
| more about eReader formats than eReader | | | | the extra to purchase the DX. Sony soon caught |
| discounts. | | | | up from catching a cold, realized the error of their |
| Look at the facts. The Nook (Barnes and Noble) | | | | ways and released a free software update for |
| and the Daily Edition (Sony), recent releases in to | | | | their prs505 reader. |
| the wireless section of the market, were in | | | | Then came the second generation handheld ebook |
| danger of cleaning up the very important | | | | readers. Kindle led the way, back in February 09, |
| Christmas sales. But, and it pains me to say it, | | | | when they released their Kindle 2. More of an |
| they have given the Kindle a way back in the | | | | update than anything ground breaking really and |
| short term anyway. | | | | again no natural support for ePub or surprisingly |
| The Nook and the Daily Edition, in fact the whole | | | | the Adobe PDF standard, opting instead to stick |
| Sony range, have taken the massive step to | | | | with mobi pocket for free content and once |
| include support not only for the Adobe PDF | | | | again, disappointing, their proprietary AZW |
| standard but also for the emerging ePub file | | | | standard. |
| format. When put like that, it does not seem that | | | | Fast forward then to the back end of the |
| important but let me explain further without | | | | summer, and in the midst of Amazon starting to |
| getting overly technical.eReader formats allow the | | | | offer eReader discounts, Sony unveiled their new |
| handheld ebook reader to handle (read) a specific | | | | Edition range. ePub and PDF support, matching |
| file format. Perhaps the most common or | | | | Amazon the price of best sellers and increasing |
| recognizable to everyone would be the mp3 | | | | the number of titles available at the Sony Book |
| format. This is an audio format, so if your reader | | | | Store. They also offered an entry level model |
| handles.mp3 you can play that format, not the | | | | packed with those features for an incredible $199. |
| best example I grant you but incidentally most | | | | Then hard on Sony's heels and later in the year |
| devices do handle mp3. Now two formats that | | | | Barnes and Noble brought out the Nook. Wireless |
| are popular not only for free content but as | | | | connectivity, touch enabled navigation screen and |
| importantly used by online book stores to | | | | importantly for consumers, epub and pdf support. |
| distribute text based content, are the.pdf | | | | Brave move as B&N are the biggest high |
| and.epub formats. | | | | street bookstore and make their money selling |
| It makes sense then, if you want to take | | | | books and here they are saying go buy your |
| advantage of the vast amount of public domain | | | | books from any place you like. |
| (free) content, that your device has support for | | | | I hope you can see now how it is very important |
| these file formats. And you would assume also | | | | to know which ereader formats are supported by |
| that manufacturers would be keen to give you | | | | the handheld ebook reader you're thinking of |
| these, after all without them you can not shop | | | | purchasing. Yes price is important, and a trip over |
| about for your content. But you may be surprise | | | | to my ebook reader review site will help you in |
| to learn this was not always the case. Both Sony | | | | that area, but don't fall in to the trap of |
| and the Amazon Kindle started out using | | | | purchasing on the size of ereader discount given |
| proprietary (their own protected) file formats, | | | | by the manufacturer over the ereader formats |
| Sony used the.lrf extension and Amazon the.azw | | | | your chosen device will support. |
| format. Neither offered the.pdf format and the | | | | |