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I was pondering this question today when I was reading the announcements of the Amazon Kindle for International Sales. Which of these would make a better reader?

Pricing: Kindle 1 vs. T91 0

The Kindle is at least $240 cheaper than the Asus Eee PC T91 series, so on price alone, the Asus T91 would lose, except…

Power: Kindle 1 vs. T91 1

The Asus Eee PC T91 is, in fact, a TABLET PC! Yes, it’s a fully fledged PC that can run software, browse, send email, read books, and a whole bunch of things that an ordinary PC could do. Even more, you are not tied to one reader or one e-book store, esp. if you buy PC software for reading ebooks, or install the Kindle for PC. So, in short, you avoid serious customer lock-in.

Features: Kindle 1 vs. T91 2

The Kindle is totally grayscale, while the T91 offers a touchscreen interface with tablet functionality, and even note taking features.

Size: Kindle 2 vs. T91 2

The T91 offers much in a small space, but the Kindle can easily slip into your bag or purse, without additional cables, power points, etc., unless you are going on a longer journey. The batteries will keep you reading for quite a while, certainly more than the T91 can ever do.

Dedicated: Kindle 3 vs. T91 2

The Amazon Kindle is in fact a dedicated machine, with simpler and more robust features. So it is designed to fulfill one function well. Unlike the Asus Eee PC T91 which is a flexible, and therefore, perhaps less reliable machine. So it boots faster, closes down quicker, and gets to the main function faster than any PC ever could.

Of course, in a perfect world, one would have both. At a combined price of less than $800, this is actually feasible. And avoids one of the pitfalls of an all-in-one type machine. You don’t have to rely one machine for EVERYTHING. Always a plus, in my book.

What would you buy? The Asus Eee PC T91 or the Amazon 6" Kindle or both or neither?

I don’t know why people waste their breath on the traditional PC vs. Mac wars. It seems rather ‘fruitless’ to me. A computer is a computer, after all.

What do you use it for?

A PC of any kind is only as good as what it’s used for. Most people will only surf the blogs, download music, and browse the occasional jobs ads or facebook. A mac is sufficient for that kind of internet. For sure. A PC, too. Even a netbook.

A broken Mac is useless

If I were smart, I’d have both. Trouble: a broken Mac is a huge pain, and rotten piece of fruit. A broken PC is easily repaired, again and again and again, if needs be. I will challenge anyone to say that a Mac is as easy to repair outside North America as a PC.

We have a regular PC store across the road. When things go wrong, they can replace a motherboard, a hard-drive, a CD-drive, a video-card within 48 hours (at most). They can reinstall Windows in about 24 hours. I challenge any Mac lover to get me service as good as that, anywhere. Granted, I have to pay for the changes to the system; but I can have it fixed near my home for basic costs.  Oh, and that’s despite the hardware on Mac being the same (essentially) a a PC!

Overpriced but flashy

Nice graphics, too, on the Mac. But when it comes down to it, do the graphics really help you get things done? Do they? I challenge anyone to say SnowLeopard helps them be more efficient than Windows 7 any day.

Software, Software, Software

The fact remains: Software on the PC is really the widest, most affordable range of commercial software on any OS. There are a few things on a Mac that you can’t find on a PC, but who uses them? I don’t. I can, however, run any number of commercial, free, and opensource software programs on my PC, and I don’t have to wait for Steve Jobs’ imprimatur or the latest update from the Apple crew.

And, yes, even Mac’s can run Windows. Congratulations, welcome to the world of interoperability! Now, when we can install SnowLeopard on our PCs as a virtual machine? Oh, we can’t.

In fact,

Windows runs on the widest range of hardware, has the largest range of software, in the most languages allowing users to do the whatever task they need to. And, the hardware or software is usually the best value available. What more can you say? Apple tried to do the same thing, and failed miserably. Yet, the Apple cult goes on. At least it gives me fodder to post…

So what do you use? Are you a Windows User or a Mac Fan? Or do you use both, like any reasonable user?

Having just tried out several music services and products, I happened to come across this piece of software, called RadioSure. It’s a simple player that sits between your PC and 12000 online radio stations, including many of my favorites.

RadioSure: A Great New Alternative

It’s easy to install, easy to use, and it plays the stream just as Windows Media Player would, but it seems to use a lot less resources on my PC. Always good.

I’ve been trying it out for a couple of days, it includes multi-format playback, buffering and a record feature that records in MP3 format at different (and high quality) bit-rates. I’m not sure where it pulls the station data from, so it’s not immediately obvious how up-to-date it is. It would be nice to see some station list update feature. Otherwise, it’s on my hit list of great music software, now.

There are a couple of other neat design features: click on the graphing window, and it goes silent; right clicking on station produces a table that you can update yourself with feed type, details, etc.; and a copy URL feature on right clicking to make those long URLs much easier to enter.

Do try it out. There’s even a simpler no-install Portable version which is the one I’m using. Perfect for your Eee PC, your USB Stick, or even no hassle install on your regular PC. Sorry, not available for Mac or Linux.