Posted on 12/17/2011 10:54:27 PM PST by Perdogg
I am going to buy either the Nook Tablet or Kindle Fire. I am not interested in an Ipad or Mac, thank you. Which is better?
I read the reviews online, but I am looking to hear from people who own one of the other.
ping
If you want a tablet pc go with the Samsung Galaxy.
If you want something for reading books...go to the library and get a paperback.
(8 years experience in electronic sales)
What I hate about electronic books is that publishers want to move away from selling me their books and move towards renting them.
If I take too long to read them, they could disappear and I would either have to renew my rental or forgo finishing the book.
The tablet works the same as the reader, as long as there is wifi hotspot, I am good to go, correct?
After you buy download them (a book) to your Kindle can’t you load on to a thumb drive or your computer?
I got a Kindle Fire for my b-day yesterday and I really like it. Does everything I want it to do and it’s a huge step up from the first gen Kindle that I had.
My daughter has a Nook and likes it too, but you can’t beat Amazon for electronic books. They have the largest selection and tons of them are free.
It sounds like they're just now figuring out that the "cloud" is not the deep-space vacuum they hoped it would be.
If they have to keep track of everybody's purhcase licenses for books for all time, that cloud is going to evaporate very quickly.
They're probably hoping that this "rental" concept will be accepted by the marketplace, and then they won't have to keep people's ownership records forever, just to let them access the "books" whenever they want.
-PJ
You can test out both by getting their apps for your android phone. I prefer the lay out / ease of use of the nook.
Which do you think will be around in 2 years?
Barnes and Noble or Amazon?
I rented a movie recently, off the web, and a 48 hour countdown started when I started the movie. After 48 hours, it disappeared.
I don’t know what the time limit for books would be, but it wouldn’t be any different. The moment you flip the front cover, the clock starts and the end of the term, the book disappears.
I think they would see their market drop off dramatically, unless it was maybe a 10 year rental.
The tech specs are better on the Nook, but I’d avoid both and wait a few months. I know it’s Christmas, but better spec cheap tablets are on the way that will run perfectly with Android ICS.
My best friend picked up a Samsung Galaxy Tab yesterday and I was researching this today and as much as I want one, I’m waiting. It’s just not right now. Either you’ll have a crippled stock Nook or Kindle or you’ll have a phone OS on a tablet. Within the 1st quarter 2012, that will change.
IMHO, you’ll regret it if you buy any of them now.
bmrk
There has been a long list of complaints about the Fire:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/309130-amazon-serious-security-flaw-in-the-kindle-fire
I decided to wait several months to see what gets fixed on the eventual upgrade.
Retina displays for tablets are coming out early 2012.
It will be worth the wait, at the very least because older tablets will be given a huge discount to move them along.
The iPad.
I have the iPad and the Fire. The Fire suffers by comparison in every respect. The extra cost for the iPad is WELL worth it, IMO.
Barnes and Noble or Amazon?
This is really important. Also, my son pointed out that I should purchase books from Amazon even on my iPad since the books can be accessed from other devices. I don't know how universal the access is for B&N material. I would suspect that they are more "closed" than Amazon.
go to the library and get a paperback...”
My son has a Kindle which is joined to his hip. Tried reading a book from it - part of reading a book for me is to be able to curl up on the couch in front of the fireplace complete with my blankie on a cold winter day. Kindle just doesn’t do it.
Captive customer = revenue maximization.
Run the other way.
If you solely want to use your kindle as a tablet pc when WiFi is available, then yes you’re better off with the Amazon product.
However, I have seen many people get hooked on the wireless availability offered by the 4g providers and hate waiting for open networks.
But if that is not an issue then yes I would go with the Fire. Either way you go I’m happy you see the sheer ridiculousness of purchasing an Ipad. It’s purely a status symbol.
I have had numerous Android tablets. I have looked at the same ones you have too. Save yourself some grief, buy the iPad.
Got the wife the Galaxy Samsung. Got the daughter the Kindle Fire. Daughter loves hers. Wife loves hers. Kindle Fire has limited apps, but big deal. Both do what they’re meantto do.
Me...? I bought myself a laptop with HDMI output so I can watch Hulu shows on my flat screen....
There speaks a person who HAS NOT USED ONE. You, JosephMama, do not know what you are talking about... you have not compared the experience of the tablets you are recommending with the tablet you claim is "purely a status symbol."
Get an IPOD, go to www,Audibles.com and buy some books and listen while you go about your chores, drive, walk, work out, whatever. Enjoy life and your collection of books, which you own.
I’m with you.
I like my iPad and have bought about 30 books on it ... but, aside from an iPad, the Kindle Fire would be my choice. Agreed that Amazon has a real edge in many digital areas.
Since you've read the online reviews, I don't need to elaborate the plus/minus of each. But you can ask me directly question you have. Hopefully I can help.
Even the higher-tech solution involves nothing more than following directions carefully. I rooted and upgraded my wife's Nook color in about an hour.
If you want an even less expensive alternative, which is what I did for myself, you can find a cheap Pandigital White Novel (not the black one, make sure it's the white) and upgrade that to android 2.1. they are working on a newer, stable verion of gingerbread now but it's not quite ready yet. The Pandigital cost me $70 from Newegg during a Cyber Monday special.
The downside of rooting your Nook color is that it voids the warranty, which really isn't much of a big deal. If you are worried about things like that then the first solution I offered is for you because everything is done off of the SD card. Take out the card and your Nook is exactly like it was the day it came to you.
Do Google searches for rooting and you will find loads of information.
BTW, the Kindle Fire is really a pig og a tablet but is still popular due to agressive marketing. I'd avoid it but that's just one person's opinion.
buy the one that doesn’t run that stoopid annoying blonde and the GeedTard selling some tablet.
“Better to receive than give...”
I hate that commercial!
“I don’t know what the time limit for books would be, but it wouldn’t be any different. The moment you flip the front cover, the clock starts and the end of the term, the book disappears.”
This is wrong. Please do just a little due diligence before posting.
Really? Publishers aren’t moving towards renting books?
http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0912/Amazon-moves-toward-a-Netflix-for-books
The simple fact is that there may be more money to rent books then sell them.
If you sell them, you sell them once. However, if you rent them out, you can get the customer to rent them again, especially textbooks or other reference material.
What are you mostly wanting to do with it?
If you are mostly reading books, the eInk display on the regular Kindles are what you should stick with.
If this is primarily to be a tablet for browsing the Internet, I have no strong opinion either way on those two devices.
Which one displays PDF best? Can either display protected PDFs?
I bought a plain Nook Touch a few months back. I do a lot of reading in varible light and outdoors in good weather. E-Ink is basic for that use and not a reader imitating a tablet. If I break down later and get an Ipad to parallel my Ipod which holds my music and movies, I can get the Nook App and read books from my Nook Touch, on my Ipad if I wish.
If you want one device that can do it all, get the IPad and a 4G account either with the Ipad or as a carry along hotspot device. However, for me, the E-Ink is the absolutely necessary
You must not have ever used an iPad. My IP1 has 60 books (1/2 Amazon, 1/2 iBook), a slick app for free rentals from my local library, a document manager app that allows me to carry around about 1000 pages worth of technical journals that used to occupy it’s own separate brief case, 1500 or so photos, a complete set of construction documents for the home I am building, 3 email accounts, 2 calendars, a shared drop box with my house contractor that shows me progress reports, photographs, and budget status.
It has never crashed, never failed in anyway, the battery lasts all day, all for 499.00.
Status symbol? Try indispensable.
I have both the original Kindle,(which still works great), and the new Kindle Fire.
I like the Fire because I can access all of the books I have purchased for my original kindle and well as surfing Free Republic. I have watched various TV downloads on the Fire. Mostly National Geographic stuff. The viewing quality is very good and the sound is quite adequate through the built-in speakers. Using headphones is superior though.
My major reason for going with electronic books though is convenience of storage. On the Fire I have over 500 books. It takes up minimal space. In the Garage I have over 2000 books that take up large amounts of space. Since I moved to a smaller home I no longer have the space for a dedicated library/office I used to have.
So because of that the Kindle allows me to indulge in my love of reading. I also don’t like renting a book once it gets into my hands it is there forever ;-).
Now drawbacks to the Kindle Fire. Hmmm, well I think the screen is a little to touch sensitive, and I have to charge it every night. It’s slightly heavier than my original kindle or my wife’s Kindle II, but with that being said I don’t notice any fatigue with using it for long hours.
Bottom line? I like it, it was a good purchase and I am pleased with it. If you are looking for more functionality than a media display device for books, videos or music then the Kindle fire is not for you, but if you are using it for those things exclusively? Yes, it’s a good purchase.
I have a 2nd gen kindle with 3g — great for international travel, batteries last forever on long trips, very light. But also have Kindle (and Nook) on iphone and ipad. I resisted getting an ipad but now have one and love it. One way or the other, ebooks are wonderful. I buy antique or special “keeper” books on paper though.
The numbers of books available are not great, but they have lending libraries for electronic books now. I just rented and read one this past week. For free.
I also have been able to rent my last two books for college classes. They aren’t classes that I needed to keep the books for beyond the class, so I really liked the reduced fee and not needing to keep up with the book or resell it.
I like Kindle Fire. I’m using it now.
There is no countdown feature as of yet. Were that to happen, it would be like renting from a library, not paying full price for something which will go away.
Sounds dumb, but I’ve been reading older books in .mobi format on my Palm Zire. I tried it to see it I’d like it. It isn’t bad, but i turn pages a lot. But I can read it at night with the lamp off, and if it falls on the bed between us because I nodded off, it’s not a big deal.
I have a Kindle 3G (keyboard) and have downloaded almost 400 books. I can read them on the Kindle or on any of my computers (5 destinations allowed by Amazon). There are many free books offered for Kindle (many more than for Nook). These books do not disappear nor expire. I’d be lost without my Kindle.
“My daughter has a Nook and likes it too, but you can’t beat Amazon for electronic books. They have the largest selection and tons of them are free.”
You can load the Kindle Reader on the Nook Tablet, so you can read books from either source on that one. Not the other way around.
My pick of those two is the Nook Tablet, but not entirely because of the above. Its specs are much better than the Fire, and it has a slot for a flash card so it’s infinitely expandable.
The only real downside to the Nook is that you can’t stream Amazon video, so if you’re an Amazon Prime member that might tip you back towards the Fire.
“Which do you think will be around in 2 years?
Barnes and Noble or Amazon?”
Without a doubt, both.
“They’re probably hoping that this “rental” concept will be accepted by the marketplace, and then they won’t have to keep people’s ownership records forever, just to let them access the “books” whenever they want.”
To be clear, there is not even an option to rent books on Amazon or B&N. They know such a thing would never fly.
With either device, you can “loan” your e-books to someone else with a device in the same family for two weeks.
I do hope good crack software comes along so we can save non-DRM copies of our books in our backups. That way their fate isn’t tied to the entity that sold them to us.
“Either way you go I’m happy you see the sheer ridiculousness of purchasing an Ipad. It’s purely a status symbol.”
LOL! Yep, the 40 million or so folk that have bought an iPad were all just that stupid...
No, actually it’s a great device that’s a pleasure to use and which has far more apps than any competitor - and any comparable device is right at the same price point.
Watch the iPad 3 with Retina Display continue to blow away the competition over the next year or two.
(BTW, a particularly interesting conversation lately was with a sailor who said the iPad has become quite popular as a navigational aid using its built-in GPS.)
In truth, it will depend upon which vendor you want to be tied to: Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
Obviously, Amazon is the big guy, but B&N did an interesting thing. The family bought back all the stock before they made the venture into e-reading so they could take the company where it needed to go without the burden of public stockholders. Their response to providing support for the Nook indicates to me that they intend to be a player and see it as the way to be sure their company thrives.
When my original Nook had an issue I took it into a store and they put a new one in my hands in 5 minutes flat.
My 76 year old mother-in-law who lives with us set up her new Nook tablet last night by herself. The only thing she need from me was the wireless password. To me that indicates a pretty good user interface.
Own both myself, was going to say the exact same thing. The WiFi range on my Fire seems to be a tad better than my iPad though. Still, you won't see the plethora and quality of app's that are available on the iPad available on the Fire.
I’m no apple fanboy, but I am very happy with the iPad 1 I purchased on Ebay for about $350. Many useful apps in addition to books, etc.
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