Sony has always been ahead of Amazon's Kindle in terms of looks, design, functionality, price, and useability. Sony's first and second Readers were designed much better than the disaster that was Kindle 1.0. Beginning with the Sony Reader 505 model, Sony was ahead of Kindle in terms of open format, better book selections (because you can buy ebooks from ANY online store and you are not locked into one store), support for the industry standard ePub format, and ability to download FREE books from public libraries.

Wifi access has aways been something websites like to push as a necessary feature, but in reality it's not. I have never been caught in public without a book to read. Books are not like music. A single book can take days to read. And my Reader is always filled with at least 10 books in the queue. Wifi is a nice feature, but certainly one I can live without.

So to say Sony is catching up with Amazon totally defies logic. Amazon still needs to catch up to Sony. Amazon's Kindle uses a proprietary format, does not support the industry standard ePub format, does not allow you to access FREE books from libraries, locks you into buying books from only one website, and looks like its made with cheap plastic. Sony is by far a much nicer one to have.

Pre-ordered it today…I will give it a try and see how my ebook reading will go. I am more interested in periodicals delivered to it daily.

This is how I access library books. Note that your local library must offer digital books for check out. If not, you can always drive to a city or town with a library that offers digital check outs, and sign up for a library card there):
1. First, get a library card.
2. Go to your library's website and find the link to “ebooks” or “digital library” or something similar. Website links will vary depending on the library. If you cannot find the link, I would suggest contacting your library and asking them.
3. Assuming you found your library's digital website, you should be able to browse through your library's digital collection. Note that they probably won't have as big a selection as their physical book collection.
4. You should be able to add 1 or more books to your “shopping cart.”
5. When you want to check out, you will probably have to enter in your name and library card membership number or create an “account”. Again, this procedure will vary depending on your library.
6. Upon logging in to your account, you should be given the option to check out the digital books for a few weeks (my library allows for 2 weeks check outs, with the option to renew).
7. Most likely, you will be prompted to install Adobe Digital Editions software. I think most libraries use that software to handle the DRM. Adobe Digital Editions works with the Sony Reader and you can transfer the book when you connect it to your PC via USB cable (I don't think wireless is supported). The book will expire according to your library's policy (meaning, you won't be able to open the file after the expiration date). I think most libraries allow you to renew, which will require you to re-download the file.

It's actually not that complicated once you do it the first time. The good thing is that you can theoretically do this with any library. Since libraries offer free membership cards to anyone, you can sign up for a few around whatever town you live in and access all the digital content from all of them.

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/PRS900.pdf

I received a Sony Daily Reader 900 as a gift. Unfortunately, most of the books I would like to read on it are only available through Amazon. com. Is there any way I can access Amazon Kindle content for the Sony Daily Reader?