Posted on 06/28/2010 7:17:21 AM PDT by C19fan
I have only used a friends kindle and haven’t seen the Nook. Look and touch the screen on each device. See how it works for you. See if one is easier for you to look at in various lighting conditions, When there is not a clear technical advantage pick the one feels best for you. Kindle 2 will hold about 1500 non-illustrated books and dose not have a SD slot unlike the first kindle witch did have a standard SD slot. At one book a day it will be years before you need more memory.
Here is Mobileread’s “Which one should I buy?” forum:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=0a691907d250a4909cd9f2e6d6fc1c13&f=123
The Kindle is NOT backlit.
I love my kindle, I haven’t tried any of the other readers, so I can’t compare. The only down side is that you spend a ton of money on books because it is just so easy. I’ve read 30 books on the Kindle since the middle of February and my husband is beginning to complain.
There are some books that I prefer to read in traditional form, books that I want to skip around in, or books with pictures, or just books that I prefer to own in hard back because their lasting value or my desire to share. It’s hard to share an e-book.
Nook allows you to share ebooks. Not sure how it works. Nook to Nook in proximity?
That somehow sounds...mmm funny doesn’t it?
If I remember correctly, you can beam a copy to a friend. The book will stay on their reader for two weeks then erase itself. Your copy on your reader will be non readable for that two week period of time.
It sounded clever when I read about it, but it was last year so my memory of the details may not be correct.
Opinion,
Give it up and go to the public library and check out books.
We are free, easy to use, and very accommodating for requests.
You can send your Kindle e-books to other devices, but requires the other person to have a device. My husband is resisting the switch, so he is missing out on all the books that I am reading and sometimes, I end up buying him the hard copy. It’s annoying.
I’m thinking of getting an I-Pad, then I’ll be able to let him use the Kindle if he wants to read something that I have. He’s just a so much slower reader than I am that I fear I will never get it back.
It's about the size of a magazine (so not as portable/small as the regular Kindle) and the displayed page is the same as if you were reading a page in a book. It works for me!
The publishers give books away free to libraries now? No salaries are paid to librarians? Will you open the library when I get off work at 11:30 pm, so I can get some of those free books?
Just teasing. Libraries are one of the better uses of our tax money, if only people would use them.
I and my children will patronize our local library when
1) They stop shelving the Pokemon comics next to the Alan Moore graphic novels,
2) Rethink the implications of a Margaret Sanger biography written for fifth graders,
and 3) Move the graphic sex education manuals from toddler height two feet from the board books.
Have Kindle for PC on my laptop. I have to take it with me for business stuff, so why have more than one electronic device.
I downloaded a FREEE book reader for the PC. It’s caled YBook.
There are thousands of books on the Gutenberg Project that can be downloaded into it.
Put it on any notebook or laptop and viola’
I downloaded a FREEE book reader for the PC. It’s caled YBook.
There are thousands of books on the Gutenberg Project that can be downloaded into it.
Put it on any notebook or laptop and viola’
Can only compare the Nook and the Sony PRS-300. I have a PRS-300 and a friend has the Nook.
The Nook is a nice big device with a clear screen. The latest firmware now includes a chess game and a Sudoku game. Buying books directly from the device is nice if you travel. The onboard memory is massive.
Negatives. It feels slow. It is a bit heavy and big, more like a hardcover than a paperback. The touchscreen interface is less intuitive than you might expect. The page change buttons are in a somewhat inconvenient place and they are take a hard press. B&N uses a non-standard authentication system, so some store bought Epub books may not work.
PRS-300.
This was my choice primarily because it is small enough to really carry. I know this isn’t one of your choices.
Positives:
Very small and light. Excellent reading ergonomics. The control pad in the center is well positioned for right or left handed use. I wanted small and minimalist and that’s what this is.
Amazing battery life. Forward and back page turns are easy without changing hand position. There are a wide variety of sources for books and with a little searching, they are almost always the lowest price available. The Epub format is industry standard.
The Sony readers are compatible with the ebook borrowing system many libraries now have. This lets you check out ebooks from the library.
Negatives:
Small screen may not be optimum for some people. Only charges with USB when plugged into computer AND connected to Sony software. Beyond that, you would need a Sony Reader or Sony PSP adapter. Sony sofware is pretty bad and the default Sony store is overpriced.
It’s minimalist. No onboard book purchasing and the price needs to drop to about $99 to compete.
A couple general ebook suggestions.
inkmesh.com is an ebook search engine and price comparison site. It can help you find the best available prices.
Calibre is book managment software that is much better than any bundled software. It also lets you download blogs and newspaper sites from the net and formats them for easy reading on an ebook reader. http://calibre-ebook.com/
The "ePaper" display is a real battery-miser compared to an LCD -- we're talking several multiple DAYS of use (or longer), compared to a few HOURS for an LCD device. It is the least eyestrain-inducing display medium. (All of the popular readers use the SAME actual ePaper display, BTW.)
Unlike the high-priced/big-name readers, the Sony is METAL, and, unlike most readers, it accepts a wide variety of ebook formats.
Better yet, with the free "calibre" ereader management suite -- MUCH nicer than the official software -- you can convert nearly ANY ebook format, and load it onto the reader (it supports a variety of readers, not just the Sony) -- or, download hundreds of newspapers, magazines, etc, and load them into the reader).
It has fantastic organization tools, a very well-thought out database, and makes ebook management unbelievably easy -- I downloaded it after reading one post after another by people raving about how good it was -- and they were telling the truth.
I have a total of six bucks invested in content -- I bought one book from Baen (Live Free or Die -- a "first contact" SF novel) -- all the rest are thanks to stuff like Gutenberg and the Baen free library. I'll probably buy a few more books, but there is SO much excellent stuff in the public domain (and, in the case of Baen, non-public domain, but, given away as free advertising for their other stuff).
To everyone saying why buy an e-reader when you have a laptop, the answer is obvious to anyone who's used both types of devices -- a laptop is big and heavy and cumbersome, compared to an e-reader (my Sony, with the big screen (they have a smaller pocket-size model too) is approximately the size of a THIN paperback book. My laptop? NO comparison!
Plus, the laptop eats the battery like it's going out of style, whereas the Sony just keeps on keeping on.
A device smaller than a typical paperback book, able to hold hundreds (thousands, if I pop in a five dollar memory card), weighing a few ounces, with a battery life that's just bleepin' unreal... or, a big, heavy laptop, with a bulky screen, a huge keyboard, a battery-eating processor, memory, disk, display....
NO contest!
I obviously meant GIGAbytes, argh!
bkmk
I carried a Palm for my contacts/schedule and for genealogy data (still use my Blackberry this way...). I got the Blackberry so I wouldn't have to carry two devices, phone/Palm. But anyone who carries a laptop doesn't really need a Kindle.
I can second calibre. I have thousands of books, and it makes it really easy to find the particular one I want. Much superior to Sony’s bundled software. Plus, the ability to automatically fetch and convert rss feeds/news sites is fantastically useful.
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