Kindle or not?

[Herr-Berbunch]

I've spoken to my father-in-law recently (he's a rare sight) and he's raved about Amazon's Kindle, and now I'm considering getting one for the wife (she'll have to wait till christmas time now). Do those of you that have got one have good or bad experiences with it?

I'm not interested in the kindle apps, as I still believe staring at a small backlit screen (monitor, phone) cannot be great for your eyes, but the actual Kindle isn't backlit!

[Growler]

Depends on intended usage.

Here's what's in the house right now: one Kindle, one NOOK, and two iPads.

For straight leisure reading, Kindle and NOOK are the way to go - downloads are quick, and they're really just like reading a paper book. Only drawback is, like a paper book, if you don't have light to read by at night, you just can't read 'em well. That said, the digital ink technology is pretty great for preserving battery life. Don't know too much about the apps for either of those two, though.

The iPad is the Swiss Army Knife of e-readers - it has lots of apps, and does a lot of things reasonably well, including ebooks, but it's not a dedicated reader, or a dedicated tablet computer; much like I wouldn't use a Swiss Army Knife to swap an engine out on a car, I wouldn't use and iPad for heavy computer processing.

iPad is backlit, which eats battery a little faster, but allows reading in lower-light than does Kindle or NOOK. iPad is also a heckuva lot more expensive - you could probably get both Kindle and NOOK for the price of an iPad.

If this is your first venture into the ereader/portable arena, I'd say look closely at NOOK and Kindle. Both are good devices, and will serve well.

[JSLTIGER]

For what it is meant to do (reading books) it is fantastic. I have the Kindle DX, and I love it. It is a fantastic reading device, and the e-ink screen is not hard on the eyes at all. It's really like reading from paper. Battery life is wonderful (especially with 3G off).

It is NOT an iPad, however, so don't expect it to do everything an iPad can do. It does some (but not many) games, most of which are text based, but it does not have apps, and it is not a good web browsing device (although for rudimentary text based websites, it does do OK). For reading though, I think it's the device to beat. You can take an entire library of books with you on vacation in one slim portable device.

EDIT: Wow...unintentional, but almost the same post as the one above mine posted at the same time...guess that means our observations line up pretty well!

[Sailor Steve]

I've never thought of having either, as most of the books I want are reference works, but my dad has one and loves it.

EDIT: Wow...unintentional, but almost the same post as the one above mine posted at the same time...guess that means our observations line up pretty well!
Or you were looking over each others' shoulders and passing notes in class.

I'm telling teacher! :O:

[Growler]

I've never thought of having either, as most of the books I want are reference works, but my dad has one and loves it.


Or you were looking over each others' shoulders and passing notes in class.

I'm telling teacher! :O:

You're just sore that we're ruining your grade curve.:hmmm::O:

[Sailor Steve]

mumble-grumble-frazza-razza I hate you!

[Growler]

mumble-grumble-frazza-razza I hate you!

*smooch!*

[Tribesman]

I've spoken to my father-in-law recently (he's a rare sight) and he's raved about Amazon's Kindle, and now I'm considering getting one for the wife (she'll have to wait till christmas time now). Do those of you that have got one have good or bad experiences with it?


I had offered to buy the wife one, she couldn't see the point.
She borrowed one last weekend for while she was away at a competition.
Now it looks like I have to follow up on the offer.

[MaddogK]

I was pricing the nook when I was donated a 1st gen Kindle DX, an am glad I didn't buy the nook. The DX screen size fits my needs perfectly as I don't need color, the battery life is fantastic, the built-in 3G allows ma to download books from Amazon, other online sites, and I can check my email with it.

Bad thing is the built in PDF reader is limited. It's killed a few picture intensive PDF books to the point they're unreadable, luckily there's an app to allow you to format your own book files. I've taken to re-writing a few books with this app to format them to my needs. Works great for service manuals that I use alot.

[DarkFish]

The only help I can give here is the advice not to buy an iPad. Apple has a long history of releasing mediocre technology for high-tech prices. If you want the processing power of the iPad, buy a faster smartphone for half the price. If you want a good reading screen, buy something like a kindle or NOOK for even less than half the price. If you want both processing power and a large screen, buy a smartphone AND a kindle/NOOK and you're still cheaper than an iPad and have better technology.

[Bilge_Rat]

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/4958/ipad00001.jpg


...my precious...

[Weiss Pinguin]

There is definitely something wrong with your iPad, it's turning the forums an ugly blue color :smug:

[Gargamel]

The wife got a Kindle (Mk 1) a couple years ago. We ended up sharing it for a while. Then we both got Iphones. I haven't read a 'real' book in the last 18 months, everything has been on the kindle/Iphone. Yes the phone is backlit, but even with the small screen saize, I can turn down the brightness and there is no fatigue at all. It's really cool that I can transfer my books between my phone, kindle, and any PC that has the app on it, and each device syncs with the amazon server so another device will open right up to where I left off.

The PC app makes it nice if you occasionally (or frequently) read text/reference books. I have my copy of Blair's U-boat war on the Kindle, and reference it often enough. The only downside is that you can't copy and paste from the app. I understand the need for copy protection, but limited copy and pasting for reference work should be allowed.

There are also a lot of free Kindle books available. Most are out of copyright works, like "The Art of War", von Clausewitz's "On War", and many many Classics (Around the world in 80 days is a fun read). A lot of authors are also choosing to make the first volume of a series free to download too. The idea is to get you hooked on the series, and then you buy the rest. It's a great deal any way you look at it, free books? That fact alone should get you to at least get an app, free books are cool! All you need is an amazon account.

You can also "Loan" books out. One of the more enjoyable reads I've had in a long time, "John Dies at the End" David Wong, I was able to loan to my buddy who has the kindle Droid app. It prevented me from opening it for a two week period while he was reading it. When he was done, it "sent" it back to me. Some books can't be loaned, some can be loaned limited times etc. I loved that book so much I actually went out and got an autographed copy of it.

Oh, and the man behind the Tea Cozy, Brag, his work "Kingmaker" is available on Kindle :up:.

I love my Kindle app, and always make sure I have at least 1 fresh book ready to go. My complaint with the Kindle device itself was the lack of hold points. Both sides were almost entirely buttons, and so everytime you shifted, the page turned. But apparently that has been remedied in later models.

But as always... make sure you use the subsim link!

[UnderseaLcpl]

Oh, and the man behind the Tea Cozy, Brag, his work "Kingmaker" is available on Kindle :up:
Indeed.:up: It really is an excellent and enjoyable piece of fiction. I honestly don't know why it isn't sold in airports, as it is a damn sight better than most of the novels available for purchase. I blame Braguine's publisher for that.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Thanks guys, I'd not even heard of the NOOK until just now. Having just been to B&N website and seen the price I think the Kindle is the way forward.

Wouldn't even entertain having an iPad. Some love it, some hate it, some are in the middle - that's me, but I'd rather spend my money on a thousand different things than buy one.

:yeah:

[Takeda Shingen]

If you simply want a dedicated e-reader, go Kindle. I love mine.

[Platapus]

When I was looking at the E-readers, I choose the Sony Reader. It has one of the largest displays in such a small footprint.

Check out the Sony Reader too before you make your decision.