Kindle Fire Vs. Nook Tablet

[enrigonz]

I also understand that with the Nook you have to buy most applications and usually a little more expensive than Amazon.

[geertm]

Originally Posted by enrigonz

I also understand that with the Nook you have to buy most applications and usually a little more expensive than Amazon.

That is because Nook apps have no advertising.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by monkeyluis

Specs aren't everything. Amazon has the ecosystem. That's enough for me.

"Ecosystem," in this usage, is a euphemism for "store." Amazon is offering the Walmart experience, propping loss leaders at the end of every aisle--FREE cloud storage, FREE server-side compression--and putting everything under one roof. Meanwhile, the music player is not designed to play music, but to sell you more. The library/reader is not designed to organize/display books, but to sell you more. Even the free cloud storage is not designed to hold all your files, but to sell you more cloud storage. None of these products or services have to be the best or even particularly good at what they do if they convince you that they are the default and the proper response to any shortcomings is to "upgrade."

Do not get your software from service providers. Their goal is to limit functionality so that you will pay to remove or get around the limitations, and to streamline your ability to continue handing them money at the expense of core functions for which you purchased the device in the first place. With virtually any device released on a subscription, membership, or contract basis, the advertised primary functions are an afterthought, never intended to be better than adequate.

[Janet16]

Hmm, I think the last winner is kindle fire, I think the nook is main for business use to company. And the Kindle fire is popular for most folks.
Well, maybe guys could add iPad to this comparison as aneesoft do.
"Kindle Fire VS Nook Tablet Specs"
"Kindle Fire VS iPad2, who is the winner?"

[gk05]

Yeah, I agree with taosaur.
Amazon ecosystem is great but only for selling you more & more unwanted apps.
Devices like kindle fire & Nook tablet are great only if you got rooted. If you want to get full functionality, root it.
I have Nook Color, rooted it with cyanogenmod 7 & it is open for full android support. How beautiful the screen is! For serious book reading, screen resolution is an essential part. Now with nook tweaks & screen filter software, it does not create eyestrain on my eyes. I have full flash support (adobe flash player 11 installed), adobe pdf reader and for creating word/excel documents- office suite pro.

[enrigonz]

I think either tablet could satisfy but I really don't think the Nook will be the tablet for the 7" form factor, you really need an ecosystem such as the one Amazon or Apple offers in order survive in this market. Hardware alone will not do it, there's many nice tablets out there, even more powerful than the Nooks & the Kindles but most do not have that system.

I also have an iPad 2 and is really hard to even come close to iOS mainly for that reason, Apple's ecosystem, if Apple were to produce a 7" tablet in the $300 range no other color tablet will survive unless they come close to doing what Amazon and Apple are doing. Hardware is not really the main feature here, it goes well beyond that and to actual user experience. I think the Kindle Fire because of what Amazon has to offer with their Prime membership and their App, Kindle & Amazon market all thrown in the bunch is a winner so far in the 7" form factor arena, just my 2 cents of course.

[WT Sharpe]

I love my Kindles, but I'm also a klutz. I've long wanted Amazon to design a reader or tablet with a simple place to attach a hand strap.

[taosaur]

This isn't Highlander; there can be more than one.

A centralized 'ecosystem' is the last thing some consumers want.

[enrigonz]

Originally Posted by taosaur

This isn't Highlander; there can be more than one.

A centralized 'ecosystem' is the last thing some consumers want.

But for most people, is exactly what they want, if I were to ask most of my circle of friends and family which they prefer, the majority of them will want an iOS system for that simple reason. I have an iPad 2 and I can understand why, "it just works", no need to tinker, jailbreak/unroot, etc.

I'm a 41 year old geek, had computers since 1982 (Commodore Vic-20), I have always "messed" with computers, building my own systems, changing things around (modding), with my iPhones and Androids, the same. Now I've gotten to the point were I really don't want to mess with anything, I just want it to work and I want for it to offer me a "system" that I can just stick to without having to modify it in any way.

I really don't care which way either tablet goes but at the moment it looks like the Kindle has the upper hand in many aspects. I bought the Fire about a month ago thinking I could use it and return it if it failed short of doing what's expected from a 7" tablet and so far is the one device that gets the most use from me.

[mastermesh]

Been reading a lot on this lately.. I have a kindle keyboard 3g that we bought last year, and I'm wanting more lately... so... I've been reading reviews...

Reviews are very mixed.

Advantage of nook:
sd card

more memory (1 gig vs the 512 mb in kindle)

more storage - at least you have an sd card you can put in it to add up to 32 gigs. Can't do that with kindle.

clearer picture since it doesn't have gorilla glass, so there is more contrast, which makes stuff like netflix look better, similar to the way plasma has deeper darks than lcd screens in hd tvs.

Up until a few weeks back - you could side load apps to nook WITHOUT ROOTING. I've read at least one comment on a blog/article that says that at least one person at Barnes and Noble has indicated that feature will be coming back real soon... I've read that in the past kindle could do similar sort of at least with the google app market, but have read that both are locked to their own app market at least for now... which sucks for nook users since nook has fewer apps in their market.

Advantage of Kindle = cloud access... but at least 2 reviews I've read say that browsing is actually faster on the Nook despite this, which I can only assume is because nook has 1 gig ram while kindle only has 512 mb ram... proble with cloud access is what if you are travelling and are not on a wifi network?... the apps that depend on the cloud won't work... so having extra space on sd card for that sort of situation would make nook the winner.

Honestly, with newer stuff coming out all the time (CES IS THIS WEEK I THINK), which might not be locked to any one app market, i.e. novo 7, transformer prime, cell phones like atrix 2 purchased outside of cell phone contract, etc., I think the real winner is the gizmo that can manage to keep all the app stores open with a sort of net neutrality thing. It'd be completely stupid to have to pay 2+ bucks for some app in one store when it's absolutely free in another. I HATE DRM and being locked in to one app store.

Oh, almost forgot to mention... MAJOR DISADVANTAGE to barnes and noble app store - you CANNOT even download FREE stuff without having a credit card on file in their system. Amazon at least lets you one click purchase free stuff without having cc in the database, which is nice so you don't accidentally one click something you didn't mean to buy, etc.

[booklover6]

never mind

[geertm]

Originally Posted by mastermesh

Oh, almost forgot to mention... MAJOR DISADVANTAGE to barnes and noble app store - you CANNOT even download FREE stuff without having a credit card on file in their system. Amazon at least lets you one click purchase free stuff without having cc in the database, which is nice so you don't accidentally one click something you didn't mean to buy, etc.

The reason you need a credit card even for free ebooks is because B&N's social DRM encrypts the books using your credit card number and name. The advantage of this is that you can copy B&N ebooks as many times as you want, to as many devices as you want.
Kindle DRM ties every ebook to the hardware ID of a specific device. This means that every device must be tied to your account, to download a version of the ebook that can only be read on that specific device.

To prevent you from accidentally buying an ebook, every Nook ereader gives you the option to password protect shop purchases. Something I believe is still not possible with Kindle.

[BobbyN]

Should B&N spin off it's Nook, would that have any effect on r/d, investment... ? It appears this is being considered.

Just asking.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by taosaur

"Ecosystem," in this usage, is a euphemism for "store."

No, not quite. While an important part of an ecosystem is a place to buy content for your devices (and maybe that's the most important part), Amazon also allows this content to seamlessly (mostly) be used on your other devices. I.e., you can buy a movie on your Fire, watch part of it on the fire, another part on your home computer, and finish it up on your home TV. Or you can buy a book on you Kindle and read it on your Kindle, Fire, computer, or anyone else's computer - plus an older Kindle if you have one. This sort of "buy once, use everywhere" interconnectedness is part of what people mean by an ecosystem. It's more than just having a store.

Amazon is offering the Walmart experience,

Selling lower quality goods at cheap prices? I don't think so. Mentioning Walmart and Amazon in the same sentence doesn't make Amazon Walmart. But nice rhetorical trick.

propping loss leaders at the end of every aisle--FREE cloud storage, FREE server-side compression--and putting everything under one roof.

Why is this a bad thing? Because you don't like Amazon? Would it be better if you had to pay for cloud storage?

Meanwhile, the music player is not designed to play music, but to sell you more.

I wouldn't use a Fire as a music player, but it's nice that you can play music you bought for your iPod on your fire as well, isn't it? Would you prefer if you couldn't?

The library/reader is not designed to organize/display books, but to sell you more.

Really? You can't organize your books? What it's designed to be is a reader, and it does an adequate job of doing that. But, yeah, they'd also like you to buy books from Amazon. It is, you know, a business.

Even the free cloud storage is not designed to hold all your files, but to sell you more cloud storage.

Again, this just makes no sense. The free cloud storage should easily hold all of most people's e-books. And of course content you've bought from Amazon doesn't count against the limit. But I really don't understand why you would criticize Amazon for providing something for free simply because some people may need more space than they are giving for free. Dropbox only give 2.5G free. And - surprise - they'd like to sell you more.

None of these products or services have to be the best or even particularly good at what they do if they convince you that they are the default and the proper response to any shortcomings is to "upgrade."

Amazon's books are the same as anyone else's. Amazon's movies are the same as anyone elses. Amazon's music is the same as anyone else's. Amazon offers about the same amount of free cloud storage as anyone else. There's no "trick" here.

Do not get your software from service providers. Their goal is to limit functionality so that you will pay to remove or get around the limitations, and to streamline your ability to continue handing them money at the expense of core functions for which you purchased the device in the first place. With virtually any device released on a subscription, membership, or contract basis, the advertised primary functions are an afterthought, never intended to be better than adequate.

Cite? And what does this have to do with Amazon, which doesn't sell any devices on a subscription, membership, or contract basis?

[taosaur]

I'm not fond of copy pasta, as it tends to be more associative than rational and tends to miss the forest for the trees, but I'll respond to this noodle:

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Cite? And what does this have to do with Amazon, which doesn't sell any devices on a subscription, membership, or contract basis?

All of their devices are tied to your Amazon account, and derive a significant chunk of their value from that association. The Fire is not even worth considering unless you intend to maintain not only an Amazon account, but a Prime membership.

If you are already using a lot of Amazon services and don't care about having any genuine control of the device, the Fire may well be a good fit for you. Enjoy your 'ecosystem.' Personally, I think you're paying for the privilege of buying, a business model in which I prefer not to participate.