Posted on 12/17/2011 10:54:27 PM PST by Perdogg
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.
Publishers have been “renting” digital textbooks for years. The access is good for one term. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to move that model to general trade books. I would see it offered as an option along with the ability to purchase.
I have not only used one, but have purchased both an Ipad and Samsung Galaxy. I have sold many different tablet pcs and am quite familiar with the ones that I haven’t.
The Galaxy is a superior device on a superior OS. If you like being restricted by Apple on apps that you can download then go with the Ipad. Opensource will trump the Apple OS within the next few years.
But I’ll admit those Ipads sure are pretty.
rented a movie recently, off the web, and a 48 hour countdown started when I started the movie. After 48 hours, it disappeared. I can see that with renting, but are you not buying the book for your Kindle or Nook etc?
Agreed. I've been an iPhone user for a few years now and Android makes iOS look like a baby's toy. The problem heretofore has been that Android was primarily designed with phones in mind, making it a bit clunky on tablets. Now that ICS is out and open source, it will take hold very quickly.
Nook is better.
It has password protection and no subsription fee. It is faster, has more storage (can expand to 32 gigbytes, more books are avialible. No advertsiing, tech hel at any B&N store.
Maybe you missed my post, when I said that publishers are also starting to do that with books.
i like the face to face help with my nook. i got it to travel and took it to hawaii. was able to surf, work on Christmas letter, read books i downloaded from library (and a free book from BN that sells for $100), and played some light games. plus i can read anything for hour for free in a BN store (one is 1.5 miles from my house).
He's right, I'd wait, or buy a cheepie, or a used one off of Craigslist for now. Get to know it, and what you like/don't like, and then in the spring, shop for what you want.
That's my plan, and Wifey, er...Santa, got me a cheepie for the same reasons. Good luck and Merry Christmas.
The update that Amazon just pushed out to the Fire now has password protection. Since the Fire is WiFi, there is no subscription fee whatsoever.
I would totally disagree that the Nook has more books available. I would also disagree that the Fire has advertising. I haven’t seen any.
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