Like I said, it’s not a good thing to buy for a E-reader.
Now, that being said, if you were going to get a iPad anyway, then using it also as a e-reader is not a bad idea. But purchasing one for the primary purpose of being a e-reader is not the best idea.
I just don’t see how you could sit down and read a book on the iPad in bed after spending all day, as many of us do, staring at another backlit screen.
I just spent a week in the Bahamas with my new Kindle, and I absolutely loved that I was able to read it on the beach in the direct sunlight the entire time, and didn’t have to recharge it once, to boot. The page turning didn’t bug me nearly as much as I thought it would; that was my main fear when I purchased it, but I barely noticed it. Kindles are awesome.
(This does not necessarily mean that the Nook is not equally awesome, of course. It’s more an argument against the iPad as a reader unless you need it for some other reason.)
I hear this a lot from folks, and I must say, I just don’t get it. Most LCD screens these days, and particularly the ones from Apple, are pretty easy on the eyes unless you’ve got the brightness cranked to maximum. That’s pretty much why the CRT is no longer around. I read in bed on my iPad most nights (using the Kindle app, and sometimes changing to the “white-on-back” scheme if my wife is trying to sleep) after a programming day job, and don’t have any trouble with it. My Kindle DX tends to sit unused next to the bed – it requires a relatively bright external light with the associated glare from that light – the iPad is a much better “in the dark” reading experience.
And if you read books that aren’t read front-to-back (reference, tech manuals, cookbooks, etc.), the Kindle just doesn’t cut it at all – search is far too clumsy and slow, especially if you need the 15th reference to something rather than the first.
That said, for beginning-to-end reading in decent light, they’re roughly equivalent (and the Kindle 2 is much cheaper). If you’re going to go to the Kindle DX for the larger screen, though, I’d spend the extra $20 and get the iPad. Battery life isn’t as good, but you’ll get 10 hours of reading out of it easy, which is more than I’d ever need at a single sitting.
Oh, yes, I definitely wouldn’t recommend a Kindle for reference books. Generally I prefer hard copy for that sort of thing anyway - much easier to flip through, say, a cookbook than anything else.
You’ll get my Kindle 2 from me when you pry it from my cold dead hands. I love it. I also have some of my own text files on there, too.
I have a first-generation Kindle, and a Nook which is, of course, newer.
My biggest problem with the original Kindle was getting a replacement battery when the original refused to take another charge. At the time there was a shortage.
Now I understand with Kindle II you can’t change the battery yourself, you have to send it back to Amazon? Even if the battery lasts 10 times longer than before, that’s not something I would want to do.
So I bought a Nook instead of a newer Kindle, and I like it fine. The touchscreen at the bottom (instead of the keys on the kindle) works fine but is not a big seller for me. It can accept all the formats that the Kindle can, I think, including Project Gutenberg and the other free ebook sites. They also have access to the Google Books library, but I found that it was not impressive - the Google Books that I looked at were just OCR’d without any human intervention, and there were so many errors that they were very hard to read. Plus that library is not organized, there may be 100 versions of the same book because they apparently just scanned every book on the shelf, even the duplicates.
So don’t get the Nook for the Google library. But it’s at least as good as the Kindle, and the other thing that sold me was that I could look at it and handle it, at the Barnes & Noble store, before I bought it.
Roddy
I was skeptical myself. I kept my Sony for a few weeks after I got my iPad, but as it turned out, I never picked it up again. I just adjust the brightness to the level I like and I can read for hours without issue.
Nook. Love it. I can download borrowed books from the library and many other source types. Good feel, easy to use. Love it!
Are the page turns on the Nook any faster than on the Kindle? My understanding is that page turns on the Kindle 2 got a little faster, but are still an issue for some/many people – and after spending a couple of minutes with my brother’s K2, I think they could be an issue for me. How do you feel about them on the Nook?
Oh, I wouldn’t. And I’m not interested in library loans (yet, anyway). I would be all about buying books from the B&N and/or Amazon site. How do you feel about title availability for the Nook vs the Kindle?
This is important to me, too. I know a few people with Kindles, and I’ve seen both the original and the K2 in person, but I don’t know anyone with a Nook – and I’d have to be able to handle one.
The page turns on a Nook are very quick. I’ve never used a Kindle, but I perceive very little lag time in the page turn, and I am generally sensitive to those waits (and find them irritating!).
I love the size of the Nook. It fits very comfortably in my hands. I also love that you can go into BN stores and immediately access their WiFi and download in store content. You can read ebooks for 1 hour free in the store (don’t have to buy the book).
Away from the store you also get daily downloads of specific blogs and other new content that you don’t pay for. They often have free books on Fridays. Some I choose to download, some I do not. I don’t know if Kindle has anything comparable to these features, but I like it for the Nook.
In my research I really came to love the features of the Nook, I was leaning towards the Kindle when I started, and I have not been disappointed.
You get used to the Kindle page turns - eventually you start clicking the button before you’ve read the last sentence or so. It’s an unconscious thing.
The Kindle does often have free books, or sale books, or what have you. Mostly not to my taste, but sometimes there’s a good one (you used to be able to get Perdido Street Station free, don’t know if you still can.) There are also some bundled books, which is nice (seems to, as in real life, mostly be women’s interest mysteries.)
As I said above, the best thing about the Kindle IMHO is the effortless Amazon integration. I can be browsing around Amazon at work and see something I like. If they have it for Kindle, I can get a FREE sample - click “send to ___'s Kindle” (we actually have two on the same account, which is AWESOME if you’re a couple that reads a lot of the same stuff - you keep exactly what you want on your Kindle, and it keeps track of where you are, but if I tell the boyfriend “Oh hey you need to read this - it’s on the Kindle” he just goes into archived stuff in the “cloud” and poof, he has his own copy on his.) If you get to the end of the sample and you like it, you can click “buy now” on the Kindle and voila! And of course you don’t pay a cent for all that connectivity.
Nook’s integration sounds similar to Kindle’s. Browsing on Barnes and Noble.com or even on the Nook itself, I can sample or buy a book immediately. Nook allows you to “lend” certain books as well. The book disappears off your Nook and appears on someone else’s, until you get it back. I’ve never tried that feature myself, but it sounds interesting.
I don’t know how the Nook handles multiple accounts, as I’m the only one with one. I’d be curious about that!
Do you know if the Nook archives your books on a server like the Kindle? That’s one thing I really like; no fear of loosing a whole library if the unit is lost or damaged.
I live in a B&N desert – does anyone know if Borders’ e-reader is similar? In their stores they have the Sony, but online they seem to be pushing a Kobo.
They seem to- I hopped onto the BN site and sure enough all my ebooks are present, including all my eIssues of The New Yorker. Underneath each book is a “delete” or “archive” button.
For a pure e-reader, I would go for the Kindle. It has crisp e-ink, you can buy books in the middle of the desert, and it is very portable.
If you have any plans on answering a few emails and reading the 'Dope, then I would definitely say splurge and get an iPad.
I have both, and the Kindle is perfect for taking on business trips and bedtime reading. That said, however, it is abysmal as a browser.
My wife, a non-computer person, uses her iPad all the time. It does so much more than any e-reader does, and Kindle has a free app that turns the iPad into a Kindle that is even better than the real deal.
Before deciding against the iPad, go to an Apple store and play with one, or see a friend who has one. The physical experience is a must.
And its batteries last ~10H, more than enough for a long flight.
Here’s my somewhat more detailed reviews on the devices:
My Kindle is effective in taking paper out of my home—and my wallet!
My Kindle is effective in taking paper out of my home—and my wallet! (Part 2)
Never say Never, or How I bought an iPad five minutes after walking into the Apple store
The iPad has a free Kindle app that lets you access a (even pre-exiting) Kindle library, a free Barnes and Noble app that lets you access the B&N Library, and a free iBooks app that lets you access Apple’s new bookstore.
That may sound more impressive than it actually is, since most books would be in all three libraries anyway (although I have found price differences between the three), so really it’s just giving you buying options, not really expanding your selection much.
The Kindle, by the way, will last you an entire week-long trip where you unexpectedly spend the whole thing in a hospital waiting room without recharging, as long as you have the wireless turned off. Plus the ten hours you got stuck in the Atlanta airport on the way home.
I just tried a Nook at a B&N store, and was surprised to find that it was noticeably heavier and thicker than my Kindle-2. Looking at the specs, it’s only a 1.9 oz difference, but it seemed pretty obvious.
Does the Nook LCD display turn off automatically? It didn’t seem to when I was flipping through pages, and it was a bit distracting.
Otherwise the two seemed comparable. I didn’t feel any desire to switch to the Nook (or own both), and personally I’m happy that I have the lighter model.