eBook Reader comments

[matt819]

A DUer just posted an astoundingly positive review of her new Nook. My son has a Kindle that he loves. I just downloaded a book to iBook on my iPad (the original).

I like reading on the iPad. Although it's a bit heavy, the text is a breeze to read. I don't think this is e-ink, but I don't know what e-ink is, so I'm not sure what I might be missing.

The iPad was a (sort of) freebie, and I don't use it much; I'm a dyed in the wool desktop user. But it turns out I like reading on it. Granted, the first book I chose to read on it was 11-22-63, which was big, bulky, and heavy, and a bit of a pain to read in bed. On balance, I think I prefer books - and library books at that (can't beat free).

Anybody have experience will a number of ebook readers who can comment knowledgeably of what works, what doesn't, and why?

[justiceischeap]

1. I don't have experience with a "number of ebook readers"

but I read almost all of my ebooks (unless they're PDFs) on my iPhone. I use iBook. I commute on the train on a daily basis for work and carrying my phone in my pocket (while lugging my laptop on my back) is much easier than trying to carry my iPad around. I use my iPad specifically for PDFs and comics.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. I have books on my iPhone, too, using both the iBook and Kindle apps,

but I download the same books to my iPad.

I use the iPhone to replace my old habit of carrying a book in my purse. Then I can pull it out to read whenever I have some downtime away from home, such as eating in a restaurant alone or waiting for an appointment or just hanging out.

I use the iPad as a one-stop communication and entertainment center while traveling.

For at-home use, I rely on actual paper books.

[Zorro]

3. I have a Kindle DX and iPad

The Kindle is great for airplane bookreading. The e-ink display is also quite legible for reading outside in sunlight. I put the Kindle in a leather cover, so it feels more like a bookreading experience. There are lots of free classic literature available for download from Amazon.

The backlit iPad is better for reading at night in bed. It's also good for reading online magazines, newspapers, and other media with embedded photos or video. There's a free Kindle reader download available for the iPad.

The Kindle is a great bookreader. The iPad is a versatile multimedia device.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. The kindle and other e-ink readers are much easier on the eyes.

The difference is that e-ink is very similar to paper: reflected light is how you see the words. With the iPad (and the kindle fire) the device itself illuminates the text: you are reading off an lcd screen that is blasting your eyes at its refresh rate.

I have both a kindle and an iPad and I love and use both of them. I read books on the kiindle. I read newspapers and magazines on the iPad. The kindle goes to bed with me as I read myself to sleep, I wakeup to the iPad and get the news. The interactive content that the magazine publishers are starting to provide is creating a tablet based renaissance for magazines. But my kindle ain't going anywhere.

[seabeyond]

6. i have a fire. it is heavy. i dont use it for books. i have a kindle reader. much lighter,

lighter than a book and with cover it is good to read in bed, with lights off. something about the surface is soothing on the eyes. there is a good choice of library books to get and i get a lot of free books or 99 cent books from amazon. though, i do get tired of the new authors and will then pick up library books for a while. back and forth. but i love it.

[dmallind]

7. Not much new to add, but 2yrs and 1200 books later, nook still good for mre

No I haven't read 1200 - that's what I have on the nook. Certainly into 3 figures though.

Advantages over "real" books:

Lighter than most
Remembers your place in however many you have open for however long until you finish
Adjustable fonts and size
Less storage space
Fewer dead trees and logging needed
Easy switch between multiple books as your mood changes
Try packing 1000+ books on a vacation - why decide what you want to read in advance?
Access to hundreds of thousands of free books, licit or otherwise
Net access at a pinch
Can replace purchased books if lost/damaged

Disadvantages

Upfront $79 and up
That "tangible" thing (overstated IMO but subjectively common)
Cost advantage for books less than should be - in some cases paying more!
OCR scans/pdf converts sometimes scramble text
To get decent graphics/photos need to go to higher $$ readers
While charges last a while and you have plenty of warning, losing power is a possibility

Advantages for reader vs. tablet/iGadget

Cheaper
Better screen for reading
Can manage direct sunlight
Batteries last longer

Disadvantages
Can't do anything else worth much - iThing can be all-in-one, e-reader can't really (can play audio, limited games and web access but crap for all of them)

General things to remember

Kindle/nook use same display technology and newer basic versions now have very similar interface - pick based on aesthetics/store preference.
The vast majority need no extra SD card - I only got one because I got the entire Cambridge Histories on pdf - all 7GB of it (but only 139 books - the other 1000+ regular books fit comfortably on the internal 2GB). Cheap and easy if you have/want a vast library tho'.

[mainer]

8. Kindle: long battery life. Only need to charge it once a week.

I have one of the early Kindles. As others have pointed out, Kindles are easier on the eyes than backlit screens, and if you have a black and white screen (not the Fire), you can take it on a trip without any electrical outlets and read all week on a single charge. Perfect for camping. I love real books, but nothing beats a Kindle on a long trip. No books to weigh you down, plus so easy to enlarge the font when your eyes get tired.

[Lex]

9. I think the Kindle's e-ink is BY FAR easiest on the eye.

I have an iPad (basically the same strain on the eye as a computer screen, imho), but the Kindle's e-ink is different, very gentle on my eyes, maybe (and I know this sounds weird) but maybe even easier on my eye than a traditional book, at least as far as no glare from the "page" and of course the size of the font is adjustable and not so in a regular book, of course.

[matt819]

10. One more question

Thanks all.

I have to say that I haven't experience any particular eye strain with the iPad - and I have bad eyes. Buying books via iBooks is a breeze.

Re the Kindle, do the new versions still "flash" when turning pages?

I think my library has a loaner kindle - or one ereader or another - and I think I'll give that a try. I'm leaning toward the nook, which, despite its own problems, does a better job, I understand, than the kindle with images/graphics, though I gather the newest Kindles overcome that issue.

[dmallind]

11. Yep - brief flicker when changing pages still. No idea why so many...

...people seem to consider that a problem though - turning a paper page is far more distracting visually.

[ohheckyeah]

12. True that.

I don't mind the flicker and barely even notice it any more.

I SO love my Kindle!

[DisgustipatedinCA]

13. I have experience with the iPad2, Nook Color, Nook Simple Touch, and an off-brand OEM

I've never used a Kindle, since Amazon has not permitted .epub books to be loaded on Kindle devices.

E-ink: E-ink devices have a very crisp display that can be seen from any angle, even very oblique angles. They require external lighting, like a lamp or the sun--no reading with this in the dark. Relative to other displays, e-ink is very friendly to batteries, and e-ink devices have the longest battery life of any e-reader device.

I purchased Nook Simple Touch devices for relatives for Christmas. The Simple Touch is an e-ink device, and I think it's great. If I ever lose or break my iPad, I'll get a Simple Touch right away.

We got a Nook Color for my daughter for Christmas. This one is not e-ink, but uses standard display technology, like the iPad. It's got a color display (I'll bet you guessed that from the name), and it runs on a locked-down Android operating system. This means you can download some apps available in the Android market, but not nearly all of them. It has a competent web browser, and with a 16GB microsd card inserted, it had no problems at all holding about 3500 books. Both Nooks (and the Nook Tablet, too) are good with dictionary/web lookups, highlighting text, etc. The Nook Color has what I'll call Book Priority. Much the same way most DSLR cameras have "shooting priority", whereby you can be looking at pictures or settings or anything, and a half-press of the shutter will immediately take you to picture-taking mode. In the same fashion, the Nook Color has a small book icon in the lower left corner. Whatever you're doing, whatever app you're in, pressing this icon will take you to your current spot in your current book. This is a nice feature.

The only real problem I've seen with either Nook model is in browsing a large book library. If you know what you're looking for, you can easily search for "hemingway" or for "11/22/63" or whatever. But if you want to browse, I believe the Nook shows 8 or 10 titles per page. The iPad, when set to list mode instead of bookshelf mode, will show a lot more titles per page. This isn't a huge deal--in practice, I just printed a 74-page pdf showing all the book titles--call it offline browsing.

I agree that the iPad can get a little heavy for in-bed reading, but I just do it anyway. By the way, I also love the night mode available in iBooks with a recent upgrade.

By the way, if anyone else has a large ebook library to maintain, or if you need to convert from one ebook format to another, I'd highly recommend the freeware program Calibre.

Also, if you want to convert ebooks from mobi, lit, prc, pdf, etc--to another format, here's a great, free, online utility that permits you to convert 5 books at a time (Calibre will do conversions also):
http://www.2epub.com/

[The Straight Story]

14. Used both kindle and nook

Love them both. Light, easy on the eyes, holds a ton of books (nook can hold more with an SD card than the kindle, but out of box kindle can hold more).

Only thing I don't really like is viewing some PDF's (the Kindle DX / iPad would be good for those though). Many of the PDF's I have are scans of really old books and just don't fit the screen. I have found conversions of them to mobi/etc but most of those use OCR and a lot of grammar/spelling errors.

Overall, I plan on buying several more this year (one for my son, a back up one, and hopefully a DX) once I get back to work.