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.

Originally Posted by JSLTIGER

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!

[Growler]

Originally Posted by 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.


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

I'm telling teacher!

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

[Sailor Steve]

mumble-grumble-frazza-razza I hate you!

[Growler]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

mumble-grumble-frazza-razza I hate you!

*smooch!*