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Buying an e-reader - Jona Lendering - 09-13-2010
I am thinking about buying an e-reader. A friend of mine is very happy with his Kindle. Does anyone use an e-reader? Can anyone offer advise?
Re: Buying an e-reader - Narukami - 09-13-2010
Both of my daughters received the Barnes & Noble Nook E-Reader (gifts from the Ellen Show) and while initially thrilled, after using them they were not impressed. Mediocre support from B&N made it less than easy or enjoyable to use. My grandson is now using one of them to read Percy Jackson.
After doing some more research, the Kindle seems to be the best bet for the price. Amazon is giving it full support, and the new lower priced models makes it an even better deal.
I like Sony equipment very much (both consumer and pro gear) but at the price they are asking for their E-Reader you should consider an Apple iPad.
If you are looking for an E-Reader and a way to transport & store a large library then the Kindle is the way to go. On the other hand, if color is critical, or you want the ability to surf the net, send E-mails and play games as well as read books and magazines, then you should consider the Apple iPad.
Just my observations.
:wink:
Narukami
Re: Buying an e-reader - mcbishop - 09-13-2010
Quote:After doing some more research, the Kindle seems to be the best bet for the price. Amazon is giving it full support, and the new lower priced models makes it an even better deal.
Well I am seriously considering one of the new Kindle 3s with wifi and 3G but it is a very different beast from the various existing or planned tablets (and I would opt for a tablet with Android or ChromeOS on it, just because I'm me) so you have to undertake a very careful analysis of what you want it to do. Long battery life, some web connectivity, lightweight and small makes it ideal for my purposes. Most tablets are too big (like the iSlab) and something approaching the PADD of Star Trek fame is much more convenient, although I have always felt the best form factor is the codex, like wax writing tablets. Just waiting for more detail on how good the built-in PDF reader is.
I like my netbook (probably because Steve Jobs doesn't like them ;-) ) ) for longevity (8 hour battery life on my Eeepc running Ubuntu) and smallish size and being able to do nearly everything I want on the move, including Google Earth, but it is still quite heavy and not for reading books on. Laptops are a joke these days, as the screens are way too big for practical portability and the batteries are puny; look more and more like a horse designed by a committee. So the lightness of an ereader, together with that longevity, are appealing.
Of course, you have to take that with a pinch of salt, as I am a complete gadget-head :roll:
Mike Bishop
Re: Buying an e-reader - richsc - 09-14-2010
depending upon your definition, my iPad is a more versatile reader, and it has all the color photos that I can expand, or the videos that I can take to demonstrations, as well as all the PDF I can load, access to RAT, etc. But you knew all that already, right?
Re: Buying an e-reader - Epictetus - 09-14-2010
I'm glad you started this topic. I've been thinking about it too, but I'm hesitant. I really like the physical aspect of reading a book, for one thing, and I'm also a bit leery regarding things like this:
Quote:This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.
But no, apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by this author from people’s Kindles and credited their accounts for the price.
New York Times
Re: Buying an e-reader - mcbishop - 09-14-2010
Quote:depending upon your definition, my iPad is a more versatile reader, and it has all the color photos that I can expand, or the videos that I can take to demonstrations, as well as all the PDF I can load, access to RAT, etc. But you knew all that already, right?
Just as we knew it is too big, difficult to read in sunlight (so is my otherwise superb Android phone), and simply over-specced for just reading a book. Looks gorgeous, of course, but is burdened with no less product lock-in than the Kindle. My netbook does all of those things already; what would be interesting (and Microsoft almost attempted it with their diptych design) is a tablet with both e-ink and some form of LCD that is small and light. When I first saw iPad, I thought it was a KIndle-killer; then I saw Kindle 3 and thought it holed iPad below the waterline; now I think both are vulnerable to The Next Big Thing (the $35 Indian/Chinese tablet, if it exists, for instance), but that won't matter to iPad/Kindle fanboyz'n'grrlz.
Quote:I'm glad you started this topic. I've been thinking about it too, but I'm hesitant. I really like the physical aspect of reading a book, for one thing, and I'm also a bit leery regarding things like this:
Quote: This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.
They subsequently back-pedalled on this but it is just one aspect of the compromise that has to be made to read ebooks - I can sell my deadtree books and buy secondhand ones in delightful shops that exist just for the purpose and DRM and all the associated cr*p put paid to that, since publishers are peeved they don't get a slice of that market. Personally, my main use for it would be reading PDFs which maintain page numbers (Kindle does away with them, wrongly in my view) and having some limited internet connectivity where my phone can't cope (using data outside the UK is prohibitively expensive when roaming). Ultimately, all tech choices come down to compromise, since the perfect solution never exists.
Mike Bishop
Re: Buying an e-reader - Jona Lendering - 09-14-2010
I am reading all this with interest.
Re: Buying an e-reader - Ron Andrea - 09-14-2010
I love this thread. I'm in exactly the same position:
I read lots of books and have no gadgets between my old-style desktop computer and my old-style Motorola cell phone. I'd want to read books, but I'd also like to send and receive emails. Access to maps, weather and news'd be nice, too. Do any of them have cameras? My cell phone doesn't, but I thought it'd be nice. And . . .
hock: Where do you draw the line? I guess your budget does that. :wink:
Re: Buying an e-reader - mcbishop - 09-14-2010
Quote:Where do you draw the line? I guess your budget does that. :wink:
No, you do that by a careful analysis of what you need 'it' (whatever 'it' is!) to do. There are certain rules you must follow:
1. Don't wait for The Next Big Thing; it may be vapourware and may never appear; worse still, when it does arrive, something else will have become TNBT!
2. Don't be an early adopter and queue outside a shop all night for something you have only seen the CEO raving about (no names, no pack drill, no Flash); you may fall foul of Early Adopter Syndrome (cf. iPhone 4 antenna problems). Even Amazon appear to have been caught out by the demand for the Kindle 3.
3. Do be realistic and look at what is available, reviewed, and affordable. If it is new 'gadge', it will one day end up in your box of old gadge; never forget that, for form factors and media advance at a relentless pace (cf. parchment, rag paper, wood-pulp paper - we don't even need to get digital on that one!).
4. Try and get your hands on it, especially if you have a friend who has one, or at least look at YouTube videos of it in operation.
5. Consider early adopter side-effects: will Kindle 3 (as an example) and comparable new models from competitors make an existing over-priced rival ereader be dumped on the market at a knock-down price? That may suit your needs (and that is how I have acquired every one of my series of digital cameras, which depreciate faster than Range Rovers).
6. Always remember your fall-back position. What you have already (dead-tree books) are still pretty good at what they do.
Mike Bishop
Re: Buying an e-reader - Ron Andrea - 09-14-2010
Taking your last point first, it's my love of holding a book which has cooled my fire toward buying an ereader.
Good advise all around. I am certainly not a first adopter, but I can also see where waiting for the next big thing will paralyze me.
Before the advent of ereaders, I'd thought I needed a netbook.
Yes, I'd like to handle one--more than just a display model in a store.
Thanks.
Re: Buying an e-reader - Narukami - 09-15-2010
I think the iPad type of device is where all of this is going. Ever since I first saw the Astronauts using "data pads" in the film 2001 (first run in a theatre in Hawai'i, now that's dating me) I've wanted a data-pad of some sort. The iPad is a big step in that direction and I am certainly interested.
However...
Being on the cutting edge, as Mike rightly points out, can be a bloody affair. We all know of the great technologies that failed due to poor marketing or better marketing by their competitors. My garage is a museum of Promising Dead Ends:
Betamax
Mattel Intellivision
Atari 600XL computer
Pioneer Laser Video Disc
(I do still use my Betamax and Laser Disc player)
Of course I love having a library, shelves crammed with books, here in my back room, but to be able to travel and carry a 1000+ books in your hand ... now that's something to consider.
Amazon is selling the new Kindle models for under $200 making them not only attractive but almost a common appliance.
The iPad is still an expensive proposition, but it does offer some nice features and capabilities, not least of which is color. Apple is probably 6 months away from releasing the second generation iPad and that new model will probably add the camera as well as more connectivity for out board devices.
If funds were available I would be tempted to purchase a Kindle now and upgrade to the iPad v2.0 if/when it becomes available.
In my case the funds are not, so I don't have to worry about this decision ... yet.
:?
Narukami
Re: Buying an e-reader - mcbishop - 09-16-2010
Quote:Of course I love having a library, shelves crammed with books, here in my back room, but to be able to travel and carry a 1000+ books in your hand ... now that's something to consider.
The key thing is that (as with so much tech) this is not an 'either/or' scenario but a 'both/and' - I can envisage scenarios where I would rather have dead-tree books, particularly when I'm at home, and an ereader (especially travelling, where it's a big winner) providing the right books are available - lugging all the volumes of Roman Inscriptions of Britain around with you on your hols could cause some serious excess baggage charges (...oh come on, you don't mean there are people who don't read RIB on the beach?). However... that little link on Amazon's page prompting you to nudge publishers to Kindle-ize their books is a little worrying (will they, won't they...), as is the whole DRM lock-in (which my dead-tree books don't suffer from), which quietly erodes your rights as an owner of The Artefact Formerly Known As A Book.
Incidentally, low-power colour might not be so far away for ereaders... oops, that's A Next Big Thing!
Mike Bishop
Re: Buying an e-reader - jkaler48 - 09-18-2010
When the big EM pulse from the next massive Coronal mass ejection fries all the satellites computers and e readers the owners of real paper books on how to do stuff without satellites computers and e readers will rule whats left of the world!
Re: Buying an e-reader - mcbishop - 09-18-2010
Quote:When the big EM pulse from the next massive Coronal mass ejection fries all the satellites computers and e readers the owners of real paper books on how to do stuff without satellites computers and e readers will rule whats left of the world!
Always assuming they don't have a fly-by-wire aircraft drop on their heads as a by-product of said CME.
Mike Bishop
Re: Buying an e-reader - Gaius Julius Caesar - 09-18-2010
I'm afraid I'm one of those who lugs a few books everywhere I go, even into town for a coffee..... :oops: