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View Poll Results: Which e-reader should I get for my parents? (read my post first!)
Kobo wifi 6 37.50%
Nook 0 0%
Kindle 9 56.25%
Something else? 1 6.25%
Voters: 16. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 11-11-2010, 11:50 PM   #1
I3iggy
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Which e-readers for my parents in Canada?

So a while ago my dad expressed interest in getting an e-reader, so I thought I'd get my parents a pair for Christmas. I've done a pile of reading, but can't find comparable info on the e-readers I'm interested in. Myself, I'd be all over the nook, but I'm not sure if that would fit my parents needs. They go through a ton of books, so I want to make sure I get them whats best. Here's what I'm looking for:

- lend or share ebooks, or can you log two readers in to the same account? (theres no way they're buying their own copies of each book)
- buy ebooks from the e-reader over wifi (no way they can figure out how to load them from a computer...)
- EASY user interface, primarily for buying the ebooks and loading ebooks they have bought.

So far I've been looking at the Kindles, the Nook wifi, and the Kobo wifi.

Kobo - I know every bodies going to crap on the Kobo, but remember what features I'm looking for. Nowhere can I find if you can lend or share books on a kobo. BUT I can get Chapters gift certificates off of my credit card reward points so I can conceivably get them for free...

Nook - The only thing I'm worried about with the nook is how easy the user interface is? They spend quite a bit of time in the states so if there's a book thats not available in Canada, they can just head across the border and download it at a B&N store. AND it can lend books!!

Kindles - It's never really done it for me, not in to having a keyboard on an e-reader. But if it works the best for my parents, then I can live with it! I've read theres also some problems with books not being available in Canada? Also, can you led books on a Kindle? Also, would the 3g version of the kindle work in Canada and the states?

Any other e-reader that meets the specs?

Thanks everybody!
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Old 11-12-2010, 12:06 AM   #2
desertgrandma
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Wecome to MobileRead, I3iggy.

I can only answer for the kindle.......you can lend some books, but like the nook....it depends on the publishers permission to do so.

If both kindles are tied to the same account, they can share any book, but it must be downloaded from the computer....not a difficult thing to do, and Amazon is very good at walking you thru problems........there is even a "call back" service where they call you back almost immediately.
There is , of course, different geo restrictions with any reader......good luck with your choice!
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Old 11-12-2010, 12:16 AM   #3
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If you want to go the most absolute fool-proof route, get them Kindle 3s with the 3G access (unless your parents have wi-fi at home and are savvy at connecting to wifi on the road). The 3G service on the Kindle works in Canada and most other countries in the western world.

Yes, if you assign both their kindles to the same account, they can share the books bought on that account. All the books just sit in an "archived" folder on the kindle, synced to the Amazon servers, until your mom or dad decide they want that particular book on their kindle. Amazon is also working on some basic cross-account sharing as well, similar to the Nook.

The Kindle store's prices are in US dollars, so the prevailing exchange rate will affect the price they pay for books, but at the same time you don't pay GST or provincial sales tax.

In terms of selection, the Kindle store has more titles, though if you are into Canadian content, you may have better luck with the Kobo store. You can not for example currently purchase the most recent Giller Prize winner (The Sentimentalists) on Amazon but you can on Kobo.

The keyboard is actually a good thing if they are using the kindle exclusively for browsing the search the bookstore. The onscreen keyboard of the Kobo looks tedious.

The kindles also come with a three-prong plug power cord so you never have to connect it to a computer for charging.

I've got a first generation Kobo and a Kindle 3 and think the Kindle is much better in terms of screen contrast (the text looks pretty close to real print), speed, page turn buttons etc.

I've never used the Nook so can't comment on it.

I would recommend you also get some sort of case as well, regardless of what ereader you end up purchasing.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by wildstar; 11-12-2010 at 01:04 AM.
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Old 11-12-2010, 01:14 AM   #4
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id probably go kobo, simply for it's ease of use, simplicity and canadian access.
Personally I dont like it, but I like my tech stuff to be full of features and do funky things, for just a simple device that has wifi and reads books, Id go kobo.
The only reason I pick it over the kindle is the fact that you can get library books on it, if they dont care about library books, id go kindle.
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Old 11-12-2010, 02:57 AM   #5
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Your parents will also need to have a US billing/shipping address (not necessarily their own) to put in their account on B&N's website before they can buy books. Downloading them from within Canada isn't a problem, but B&N effectively only allow checkout to US-based customers, or at least IP-addresses which look like they are.

Another thing that may be a consideration is library e-books. Many places in Canada (especially the big metropolitan areas) seem to have a pretty good selection. They mostly come in ADE-DRM ePub and PDFs, which Sony, Nook, Kobo, etc. support out of the box, but the Kindle doesn't.

As for your other concerns, you can share books between multiple Kindle, Kobo, Sony, or Nook devices registered to the same account. For Sony and Kobo, it all depends on the Adobe Digital Editions registration, which allows up to 6 devices per user ID. Once your parents' readers are registered, they can easily put their books on either or both devices and read them simultaneously.

Kindles have an additional bonus in that people can keep separate accounts, but swap their collections by temporarily registering their Kindles to the other person's account just long enough to download the book they want.

Nooks take it a step further in allowing anyone to enter the unlock code for their books just once on another person's device, which thereafter stores it so they can read any other books from the same source, as well as the books that go with the original user's account. Just a warning: the official Nook lending method is actually a one-time-only, 14-days-only feature which depends on publisher restrictions.

Regarding book availability and shopping ease, there's nothing special in particular about books not being available for Canadians in the Kindle store. Any titles which for some reason or other aren't available to Canada due to rights issues or whatever will be unavailable in pretty much all the stores.

Some people get around this by creating a separate US account for purchases they want to make, but this may be too much of a hassle for your parents so maybe the Nook with a B&N store account would bypass this, if you think it's something that might turn up enough to be bothersome. They can still shop at the Kobo store for any Canadian-only titles they might be interested in, as long as it's a title available in ePub, since the Nook supports the ADE-DRM that the Kobo store uses.

However, apparently the Nook insists on sideloading any non-B&N purchases into the My Documents section instead of My Books, which your parents may or may not find confusing (some people do, not unreasonably expecting *all* their books to be listed under "My Books").

For actual buying, I think I'd say that Kobo would probably end up having the best pricing overall. While it doesn't get some of the deep discount deals that Amazon occasionally features, they do regularly put out coupons for $1-2 or 20-30% off, which work on most books for Canadians. And I've read that the Kobo people are working on getting Chapters gift certificates to work on the site.

Also, the Kobo site charges in Canadian dollars, whereas the Amazon Kindle store, even when set to Canada, will charge in US dollars. Though you can minimize the currency conversion fees by buying a large denomination gift certificate to apply to your parents' account when the exchange rate is good.

Finally, the Kindle is very easy to use, and 3G works fairly well in Canada (at least, in the suburban satellite municipality of the major metro area where I live) and should work in the States when they visit.

Hope this helps, and welcome to MobileRead!
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Old 11-12-2010, 06:25 PM   #6
dee_dee
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I'm leaning towards the kindle primarily because of book availability..
Here's a generic article if that helps:

http://www.infobarrel.com/Choosing_A...e_Ebook_Reader
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Old 11-13-2010, 02:54 PM   #7
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Two ebook readers in one household?

That sounds like an ideal situation for both Kobo and Kindle, giving them the access to both worlds. They shared pbooks all their life, it is not like they are used to simultaneous access to the same book...
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Old 11-15-2010, 10:30 AM   #8
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You can sahre Kindle books without downloading them through the computer. As long as the book is in the archive it can be sent wirelessly to a second Kindle.
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Old 11-15-2010, 11:26 PM   #9
I3iggy
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Thanks for all the info everybody! It sounds like I'm headed towards the kindle. I've read your comments and done some further research and it looks like the kindles system of sharing books is pretty intuitive. I'm assuming it's still something like how it's explained in this article:
http://mickwest.com/2008/03/22/shari...-does-it-work/
And I like the idea of my dad using a keyboard rather than a d-pad to search for books. Sorry kobo! Thanks again everybody!
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