Which E-Book Reader? (Nook, ipad or Kindle)

jtwrace · « **on:** 30 Mar 2010, 01:00 pm »

I've been looking at the Nook (from B&N). I think the Kindle is slightly outdated now. So the question becomes the Nook or the ipad. The really nice thing about the Nook is that the B&N Classics are free. The Nook is $260 compared to the ipad at $599. The Nook isn't backlit but does have a light that can be purchased.

Who uses the Nook and are you happy with it? Have you thought of going ipad?

zybar · « **Reply #1 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 01:13 pm »

I love my Kindle and think it works very well.

There are rumors that there is about to be a price drop for the Kindle to get it below $200 (http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20001088-82.html?tag=mncol).

As a pure reader, the iPad might not be the best choice. It's screen will have glare and could be fatiguing. This is definitely not an issue with the Kindle.

BTW, there are tons and tons of free books available for the Kindle.

George

rahimlee54 · « **Reply #2 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 01:29 pm »

All readers will have the 30k free books from the Guttenberg Press. I have been researching all of those plus the HP Slate because my wife wanted a reader. I gotta say the Ipad wont do multi tasking and is costly. The slate looks good but no idea when it comes out and it has free 3g.

ctviggen · « **Reply #3 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 02:10 pm »

Quote from: rahimlee54 on 30 Mar 2010, 01:29 pm

All readers will have the 30k free books from the Guttenberg Press. I have been researching all of those plus the HP Slate because my wife wanted a reader. I gotta say the Ipad wont do multi tasking and is costly. The slate looks good but no idea when it comes out and it has free 3g.

Is multitasking that important for a device used primarily for reading? I think the iPad is too costly, too. I've tried to convince the wife to get one of these, but she likes used books, and there's no equivalent of used books on these. For instance, she was able to get me 11 books of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series for not much money relative to what the real books would cost. She also likes to give books she bought to others, which again isn't possible with these. Free books might help to convince her, though.

jtwrace · « **Reply #4 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 02:13 pm »

Quote from: ctviggen on 30 Mar 2010, 02:10 pm

She also likes to give books she bought to others, which again isn't possible with these. Free books might help to convince her, though.

I know the Nook (and Kindle says zybar) have many free books. Also, I know with the Nook you can "loan" each e-book once. Which is neat.

EthanH · « **Reply #5 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 02:21 pm »

I personally don't foresee a reader in my future as I prefer to just order books through my library and subscribe to the periodicals I enjoy. I also like to frequent used book stores. However, I have played around with the kindle and I have to say that I am not impressed at all. I don't think any of these products are perfect, but I would probably go for the ipad since I enjoy books and journals on art, and the ipad seems like the best one out of the bunch for that sort of media. It is overpriced, however.

rahimlee54 · « **Reply #6 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 02:51 pm »

Multi tasking isnt that important in a reader but when it costs as much as the Ipad I would expect a little more functionality. The ipad and other tablet pcs will also have access to kindle and B&N libraries so that is something else to consider.

turkey · « **Reply #7 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 05:43 pm »

Things like the Nook and Kindle have always seemed to be overpriced to me, because they are basically methods of selling you more books, and trying to make sure you won't be buying books from some other bookstore.

If I ignore that, I'd say the Nook looks pretty good. It would be nice if it also handled plain text files, but I can work with epub or pdb format too.

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #8 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 05:46 pm »

I've tried the B&N Nook, the Sony Reader and the Sony Touch. The biggest issue I have with them is that the screen is too small. Even with the text size at the smallest setting they can't display the equivalent of one mass market paperback page of text. I was able to confirm this with the Nook, because I found the same book that was on the demo unit in the store and compared the same page from the Nook and the paperback to each other. Also, when reading a physical book, two pages are always visible, except perhaps at chapter breaks. So the e-readers displays less than half of what a paperback book does.

What this means is that you are advancing the pages constantly. Yes, it is just a button push or a finger swipe, but it takes about 1.5 seconds for each page to turn and for the text to stabilize. That may not seem like a long time, until you've had to do it 100 times in an hour of reading. I continually lost the flow of the demo book(s) I tried to read when I was evaluating the readers and it became incredibly annoying.

The exception might be the Kindle DX, it has a much larger display. However, I haven't had a chance to try the DX or a Kindle 2 yet. Also, I'm not a fan of any closed architecture.

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #9 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 05:47 pm »

Quote from: turkey on 30 Mar 2010, 05:43 pm

Things like the Nook and Kindle have always seemed to be overpriced to me, because they are basically methods of selling you more books, and trying to make sure you won't be buying books from some other bookstore.

The Kindle is closed, but I believe the Sonys & Nook are open.

jtwrace · « **Reply #10 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 05:59 pm »

I wonder if / when the generation 2 Nook will come out...maybe it will have a larger screen.

turkey · « **Reply #11 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 06:01 pm »

Quote from: Dan Driscoll on 30 Mar 2010, 05:46 pm

The exception might be the Kindle DX, it has a much larger display. However, I haven't had a chance to try the DX or a Kindle 2 yet. Also, I'm not a fan of any closed architecture.

I thought the Kindle supported a few public formats, and allowed you to upload your own files to the device using a USB cable? That's about as open as I would expect for this kind of device. It looks like the Nook is about the same in this respect.

From Amazon's web site:

Files Kindle Recognizes

You can purchase and wirelessly download Kindle books, newspapers, magazines and blogs from the Kindle Store as well as download and read other types of non-DRM text-based content on your Kindle. You can also play Audible audiobooks or MP3 files. When your Kindle is connected to a computer and mounted as a USB drive, you will see three default directories or folders. Here's a list of the directories and the file types recognized by Kindle:

* Documents: Kindle (.AZW, .AZW1). Text (.TXT), Unprotected Mobipocket (.MOBI, .PRC)
* Audible: Audible (.AA, .AAX)
* Music: MP3 (.MP3)

Tip: Mobipocket files must have no Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection applied to be readable on your Kindle. If you purchased a Mobipocket file from a Mobipocket retailer, you will not be able to open the file on your Kindle.

turkey · « **Reply #12 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 06:04 pm »

Yep, the Nook is the same.

There's a question in the FAQ on whether or not you have to buy all your books from B&N.

No, but there are advantages to doing so. One advantage is the large selection: over 1 million eBooks and Periodicals. A number of nook features apply only to eBooks you purchase through Barnes & Noble and that are stored permanently in your online digital library: lending, bookmarks, highlighting, notes, rating, recommending, and cross-platform reading. You can read other compatible eBooks on your nook by placing them in the my documents folder using the USB connection to your computer. See our nook Tech Specs page for a list of nook-supported file formats.

jqp · « **Reply #13 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 06:10 pm »

There will be tremendous movement in this market in the next few years. I could see eventually getting one of each for5 different features, etc., once prices come down. The Kindle will be color soon, as I'm sure any others will be . Screens will be bigger and better.

They will give away the razor to sell the blades with this technology.

Prices will be dropping especially after Apple lowers the price of the iPad models. I would buy one that is not too expensive (possibly used?) since you will want a new one in 1 or 2 years anyway.

In other news, Win 7 beta is expiring and XP will not work with new tech going forward, so I ordered new hardware and OS for my main PC - soon we will all be upgrading our pads.

zybar · « **Reply #14 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 06:20 pm »

Quote from: Dan Driscoll on 30 Mar 2010, 05:46 pm

I've tried the B&N Nook, the Sony Reader and the Sony Touch. The biggest issue I have with them is that the screen is too small. Even with the text size at the smallest setting they can't display the equivalent of one mass market paperback page of text. I was able to confirm this with the Nook, because I found the same book that was on the demo unit in the store and compared the same page from the Nook and the paperback to each other. Also, when reading a physical book, two pages are always visible, except perhaps at chapter breaks. So the e-readers displays less than half of what a paperback book does.

What this means is that you are advancing the pages constantly. Yes, it is just a button push or a finger swipe, but it takes about 1.5 seconds for each page to turn and for the text to stabilize. That may not seem like a long time, until you've had to do it 100 times in an hour of reading. I continually lost the flow of the demo book(s) I tried to read when I was evaluating the readers and it became incredibly annoying.

The exception might be the Kindle DX, it has a much larger display. However, I haven't had a chance to try the DX or a Kindle 2 yet. Also, I'm not a fan of any closed architecture.

Good point, but I think it will be different for each user.

It took me a few books to get used to the flow on the Kindle and the experience of reading on a device vs. having the book in my hands. While I won't say that I prefer reading on the Kindle over a physical book, I am quite happy with reading on the Kindle. I really love not having to lug a backpack full of books on my business travels (especially when going to India).

George

jtwrace · « **Reply #15 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 06:25 pm »

George,

Have you commited 100% to the Kindle or do you read books while at home and not traveling?

zybar · « **Reply #16 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 06:26 pm »

Quote from: jtwrace on 30 Mar 2010, 06:25 pm

George,

Have you commited 100% to the Kindle or do you read books while at home and not traveling?

I read books and use the Kindle. I am not committed 100% in either direction.

George

jtwrace · « **Reply #17 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 06:27 pm »

Quote from: zybar on 30 Mar 2010, 06:26 pm

I read books and use the Kindle. I am not committed 100% in either direction.

George

Ok.

Thanks-

turkey · « **Reply #18 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 08:42 pm »

I just ran across some mentions of the Ectaco Jetbook and Jetbook Lite.

The Jetbook Lite looks like a good bet. I like that it uses standard AA batteries so I can use inexpensive rechargeable batteries, or even stop somewhere and buy a set of alkaline batteries if I need to.

I don't really need or want the ability to buy books and download them wirelessly, so the Kindle and Nook are not that attractive to me.

The Jetbook Like is also at a much nicer price point - $150 or less.

Dan Driscoll · « **Reply #19 on:** 30 Mar 2010, 09:39 pm »

Quote from: turkey on 30 Mar 2010, 06:01 pm

I thought the Kindle supported a few public formats, and allowed you to upload your own files to the device using a USB cable? That's about as open as I would expect for this kind of device. It looks like the Nook is about the same in this respect.

Kindle doesn't support ePub or any other format with DRM, except their own AZW, of course. And non-DRM content in most other formats has to be emailed to your Kindle account and be converted before you can read it. That means almost everything you read on your Kindle has to pass through Amazon's hands. Also, Amazon has the capability to remove content from your Kindle, without your permission, and has done so in the past. Ironically, 1984 & Animal Farm were the works removed.

The Nook supports ePub, which is the standard used by the publishing industry. So you can download content from any provider that usee the ePub format, i.e., almost every publisher that has made their catalog available digitally. That includes DRM and non-DRM protected material.

The Sonys are the most open, they support pretty much every non-proprietary format available, with or w/o DRM.