Can the Sony Reader Take Kindle Books?
The Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle are two different electronic ebook reading devices that support e-book formats. Because the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle were not developed by the same manufacturer, their specifications differ. Only two formats are supported on both devices, even though each can respectively read more formats.
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Sony Reader
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The Sony Reader is an e-book reading device manufactured by the Sony and first introduced in 2006. Since then, there have been 10 models of Sony Readers and as of August 2011, the most recent model is the PRS-T1 with Wi-Fi. This device has 2GB of storage and can hold up to 1,200 e-books, depending on the format. The Sony Reader also has a Reader Store, where e-books can be purchased and downloaded to the device.
Sony Reader Formats
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The PRS-T1 Sony Reader supports the EPUB, PDF and TXT ebook formats. The EPUB format, short for electronic publication, is a free and open source e-book standard and is the official standard of the International Digital Publishing Forum. PDF files were developed by Adobe and TXT files are plain text. The Sony Reader does not support any other e-book formats. Former versions of the Sony Reader supported Microsoft Word, RTF and BBeB (Broadband eBook) formats.
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Kindle Formats
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The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader like the Sony Reader, but it was developed by Amazon. It can store up to 1,400 e-books and has 2GB of storage, as well as free Amazon Cloud storage. The Kindle e-book formats include AZW (Amazon Word), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI and native PRC. The converted formats the Kindle supports are HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP. The Kindle does not support the EPUB format at time of publication.
PDF and TXT
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The only two formats supported by the Sony Reader and the Kindle are PDF and TXT. Software can be used to convert some MOBI, AZW or PRC files. If these e-books are DRM -- digital rights management -- protected, then the e-book can't be converted. Only unprotected MOBI files can be converted using software, such as Calibre, the Auto Kindle ebook converter.
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