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Kindle or nook? - 4/25/2010 7:20:40 PM
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vetch
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I am considering buying one of these digital book readers and am wondering if anyone has one and which one is the best deal, and just as important in my line of work which one is more durable?
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Vetch
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 4/25/2010 7:35:49 PM
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blueeyedgirl2
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There was a thread a while back about this which might be helpful for you. . .
HERE's the link. 
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 4/25/2010 11:43:12 PM
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stellaluna
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I've never held a Nook and I have a 1st generation Kindle. I've had it since the very first release, about 2 1/2 years. I don't keep it in a cover, I carry it around in whatever bag I happen to be carrying, and I dropped it down a flight of stairs last week. It appears to be perfectly functional.
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 4/26/2010 8:19:03 AM
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DaveW
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I have looked at both (played with neither) but am still waiting for the BIG one; Plastic Logic's Que with the 8.5 x 11 size and full direct support for displaying pdf, doc, xls and other common file types.
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 4/26/2010 12:51:49 PM
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Expatriot
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As a famous father figure once said: "I'd miss the smell" if I gave up my old books.
I don't hate tech, but I'd rather read "pure."
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 4/29/2010 11:31:25 PM
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captaindiabetes
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i've never held a kindle, but Barnes and Noble now has stations set up in most of their locations where you can Demo a nook, and though i like expatriot enjoy the pages of a real book, i was impressed. it has a half touch screen that makes browsing very easy, clear screen, tons of neat features and games for when you get bored of reading, cna hold up to 1500 titles, so yeah. If you can do that, I'd recommend demoing it.
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 5/2/2010 9:59:04 AM
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nbcaldwell
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I was skeptical, but had to get one to platform test the Kindle version of my novel, A TERRACE ON THE TOWER OF BABEL. (And my wife wanted one anyway!) Neither one of us could believe how much we liked it. It reads like a book - turning pages and such. But, you can scale the font to whatever size you want. Has built in dictionary. You can highlight sections, mark words, phrases, whatever. And . . . it will read aloud to you in a surprisingly not-so-bad voice/reader. That way you can continue with a book while you're driving, etc., etc. Also books are much less expensive, generally 1/3 the cost, and are downloaded instantly. You also have a refund period available. Kindle vs. nook?: Vastly larger selection of titles for Kindle and will probably remain that way.
There are two economic reasons for this. First, there are an estimated 3 million Kindles out, far outstripping the stats for Nook or Sony reader combined. And they recently announced that you could dowload Kindle books onto the IPad via a "Kindle for IPad" app. That means that titles will continue to be made for the Kindle even with IPad competition. Second, is that Nook almost exclusively deals with established publising houses leaving out the giant and ever-growing independent publishing source of titles. Kindle, by contrast, is open source: anyone can publish to Kindle if they can master the technical requirements or hire it done. And almost all publishing houses produce for it as well. (Bottom Line: Barnes & Noble feared cannibalizing the revenue of their bricks and mortar stores which are built around marketing the wares of big publishing houses; also they wanted to limit the cost of the support staff necessary to handle the technicalities of e-publishing (let the big-boys do it all))(And can one blame B&N? - no, they are pretty much forced into this position by their business model).
And Sony . . . besides tradtional publishing, only two avenues exist to make titles available for the reader. One is by paying one of their publishing partners to do it. The other is to use "Smashwords" which can result in a product just as pretty as it sounds. A lot of people use Smashwords, but you have little control over how it comes out, though it will produce a Kindle version as well as the e-pub version for Sony Reader, etc. (Bottom Line: Sony is in the device business, not books or publishing at all. They don't want to even think about the costs of putting together the tech and editing staff necessary for e-publishing. Would even require hiring the management necessary to oversee it all. - Can you blame them?)(BTW - Amazon was already steeped in the book distribution business; e-pubbing and a device to do it were only natural offshoots - and they put together the staffing structure to accomodate it)
So for availability of books, my vote is for the Kindle. As far as functionality, all of them are probably pretty much the same.
Well worth the money if you can spare it.
To take a look at A TERRACE ON THE TOWER OF BABEL visit www.nelswrites.com
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 5/2/2010 12:17:54 PM
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Miss Giggles
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I'm thinking of getting a kindle. I have some PDF books and would like to be able to have to carry them all around, esp if my next job does not allow me to bring in a laptop.
However, I do love cookbooks/photography/books/magazines and I do hope that those formats don't die out or go to online only. Remember the kindle cannot do color and there really is no substitute for a good photograph.
edit: kindle for Iphone can do basic color, but the actual kindle is in black/grey. The technology isn't there yet for color e-ink.
< Message edited by Miss Giggles -- 5/3/2010 5:21:04 PM >
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 5/3/2010 4:54:52 PM
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ManimalX
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Don't forget that iPad has a pretty cool e-read function, and the Sony Reader is pretty popular as well.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-3508_7-0.html?tag=bc
Gives list of prices, lots of info on features, professional reviews and user reviews.
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"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" - 2 Cor 10:5
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 5/25/2010 3:08:23 AM
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serasvictoria
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quote:
Expatriot
As a famous father figure once said: "I'd miss the smell" if I gave up my old books.
I agree. I collect books and it just wouldn't be the same if they were all contained on a piece of plastic, but I would consider a kindle if I had a job that required me to travel alot.
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 5/25/2010 7:16:09 AM
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9drtr
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I want an e-book reader of some sort if only to access the vast number of classics availabe for free online.
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When we know who is coming, how can we worry about what is coming? When the last hour belongs to us, how can we worry about the next minute?
Ross Crighton
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/4/2010 10:49:18 AM
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9drtr
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Okay, I bought one, an Aluratek Libre Pro.
Why that one? Two reasons: at $160 Canadian only the Kobo eReader was cheaper; and the Kobo only supports .epup and .pdf, while the Libre also supports .mobi, .rtf, and .txt.
The Libre also comes with 100 free e-books, which is a bit of a bonus, but not that much because pretty much all of them are available from gutenburg.org anyway. Most of them appear to be the Project Gutenburg editions at that. Doesn't matter. The way I look at it, I'd have happily paid $160 bucks for the complete works of Big Bill Shakespeare alone, and that makes the Aeneid, Alice in Wonderland, the Brothers Grimm's Household Tales, the KJV, George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind, Songs of Innocence and Experience, and The Scarlet Pimpernell bonuses, not to mention the Nibelungenlied, which I've wanted to read for many a long year.
Impressions so far:
The whole thing is about the size of a paperback, which means that the screen is definitely smaller, and you have your choice of scaling the font down or turning a page every few seconds. OTOH, I was surprised how readable it is even with a small font, and page turning is a matter of touching a button or shifting a slide device and no matter how I hold it one of the two is under my left thumb anyway. The bonus is that the whole thing is much smaller than an open paperback.
I had a bunch of back issues of two e-zines on my computer, Deep Magic and Ray Gun Revival both of them in .pdf format, so they got loaded onto the Libre first thing. Problems. While the Libre will certainly read PDFs it doesn't really do a good job with them. The highly-formatted style of the e-zines causes some eccentricities when presented on a smaller screen. Enter Calibre.
Calibre is a free program for managing e-book libraries. It will also translate one e-book format into another. So far, I've translated a couple of .pdf files into .epup and .mobi files and tried those. Neither translation is perfect, but the .mobi seems to have an edge so far.
The only other issue I have is that the Libre requires ambient light to read. That's one of the factors that keeps it so cheap, so I can't complain, but reading in the dark isn't an option. And I'm usually in the dark about something.
Just about anywhere I look, everything is offered in both formats, .epub for Sony and Nook, and .mobi for Kindle, as well as in other formats, so I don't really see availability being an issue right now, especially since Calibre can convert files.
Overall, I'm happy, but not quite giddy. A built-in dictionary would have made me giddy.
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Edwin
When we know who is coming, how can we worry about what is coming? When the last hour belongs to us, how can we worry about the next minute?
Ross Crighton
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/4/2010 9:22:11 PM
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Aelric
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I own a kindle. I love it, but I am a stickler for certain things. I speed read, naturally. I cannot stop from doing it. So, in a flight, or a long trip, I would need to either lug around 30-40 books, or a kindle. I would only read 3-5 books, but I might want a selection. The kindle also LACKS a touch screen, color, and has a way to turn OFF wireless. Those 3 are my big plus moments. I have NO use for a touchpad with a book. I don't need color to read a book, and the wireless means I can use it on a plane. All of them together mean the 1 week(tested for about 8-9 days) that a kindle lasts on a charge turns into 12-15 days. Also, it's charge cable is a USB with a plug adapter, and I can get a new plug, cheap, for overseas, and car. That also means a serious lack of cord tangle, since I only need one. It is rugged. It can be broken if the screen is pierced, but I just carry it in a re-purposed CD holder for my car...the one that wraps around the visor, now wraps around my kindle. Also, PDFs, .txt files and the kindle downloads do well on it. This means all of those free books from places like project Gutenberg can be placed on it from my PC. The kindle for Ipad was an expansion of kindle for mac/pc/and others. Meaning if the system dies, my ACCOUNT which is linked to amazon, can be placed on my laptop, pc, mac(if I had one) and I would assume whatever else came out later.
All in all, I am very happy with my Kindle!
One small note, kindle does only charge 2-12 dollars for most books, and most of that price goes to the writer, since you cut out all of the printing costs past the editor for THAT book, but some books, like CompTIA A+ guides and other training books are still their normal price.
I still have almost every book I have on the kindle, on paper, but it is easier in some places to carry a kindle, not lug a backpack of books!
EDIT: Thank You Edwin!!!!!!!!!
The calibre program just solved one of my problems. I had a few .lit and .epub books that I had bought years ago that I cant use on the kindle, now I can!! THANKS!
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/5/2010 3:11:46 PM
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LiebeGott
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Thanks for all the details nbcaldwell. I had just recently started my own comparison process and your post helps. Also, in just my initial comparison, your comment about Kindle having a greater availability of books was the
first conclusion I had made about it.
Tcshuss
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/5/2010 4:07:34 PM
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benelchi
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quote:
ORIGINAL: vetch
I am considering buying one of these digital book readers and am wondering if anyone has one and which one is the best deal, and just as important in my line of work which one is more durable?
For me it was neither, I chose the Sony (but to be fair, I did so before the nook was released).
Here are the reasons that I did not choose the Kindle.
1) Although Amazon is the largest ebook provider, it is not the only ebook provider and Kindle's solution is difficult to use with ebook libraries outside of Amazon. I work in the computer industry and many of the manuals I read (one of the reasons I bought a ebook) are in PDF format and although the kindle does read PDF's it doesn't do it well. Many times it formats them very poorly which makes reading them very painful. Additionally, some of the "locked" formats from other ebook stores cannot be read on the Kindle (unless you find software to remove the DRM.
2) The Sony allows you to underline, highlight text, and take hand written notes (that can be attached to underlined or highlighted text, or book marks). It also offers a memo pad that can be used for note taking (something I use quite often).
3) The Sony allows you to turn pages by dragging your finger across the display, in much the same way as you would turn the page of a real book.
4) The Kindle allows Amazon to access the content (that has already been paid for) on your device remotely and delete items from the device without your consent (something they did a while back when they decided that a book they sold should not have been released).
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/5/2010 11:45:10 PM
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stellaluna
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quote:
ORIGINAL: benelchi
4) The Kindle allows Amazon to access the content (that has already been paid for) on your device remotely and delete items from the device without your consent (something they did a while back when they decided that a book they sold should not have been released).
Unless you don't keep your Whispernet on all the time. Although I'm not sure if Kindle 2 has that option.
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/6/2010 1:29:49 AM
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Aelric
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It does, also, amazon has only used that option once. I might also add that the Iphone and Ipad have that option as well, as would any connected device.
As for the book that was sold. It was deleted, because they did not have the rights to sell it.
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/6/2010 6:35:33 AM
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Random
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quote:
ORIGINAL: stellaluna
Unless you don't keep your Whispernet on all the time. Although I'm not sure if Kindle 2 has that option.
Really? I have a K1, and if K2 does not have that option that is a huge disadvantage. Makes it pretty hard to use in an airplane, doesn't it?
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/6/2010 8:52:32 AM
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Aelric
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Random
quote:
ORIGINAL: stellaluna
Unless you don't keep your Whispernet on all the time. Although I'm not sure if Kindle 2 has that option.
Really? I have a K1, and if K2 does not have that option that is a huge disadvantage. Makes it pretty hard to use in an airplane, doesn't it?
The K2 does have that option. It also helps to move the charge time from 1 week to 2.5
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/6/2010 11:05:22 AM
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Random
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Thanks, good to know!
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/14/2010 3:36:25 PM
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benelchi
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quote:
ORIGINAL: scottmcc1
Just wondering, could you write notes on a Kindle?
The kindle will allow type written notes; the sony is the only device that allows hand written notes.
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/16/2010 6:58:40 PM
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Miss Giggles
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benelchi or anyone that knows..
Can you do search on a Sony reader.. I work in IT so that function is necessary...
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/16/2010 7:32:27 PM
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benelchi
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Miss Giggles
benelchi or anyone that knows..
Can you do search on a Sony reader.. I work in IT so that function is necessary...
Yes, you can do searches. I also work in IT, and bought the Sony primarily because of its ability to work the PDF's (something the Kindle doesn't do very well).
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RE: Kindle or nook? - 7/16/2010 7:44:37 PM
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Miss Giggles
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Well then I may get that.
I actually just bought a Kobo but I am returning it. There isn't a search function. I guess I should have read the specs better first. It is a pain resizing the pdfs as well.
ETA: Do not buy the Kobo yet. Technically there are no refunds if you buy it at the store but I talked the manager into it.
Plus the cables that came with the Kobos were not made right.. they don't even fit..so if you don't have a mini usb cable you wouldn't be able to use it.
< Message edited by Miss Giggles -- 7/17/2010 1:52:03 PM >
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