[andrys]

Originally Posted by boswd

I guess that would depend in how it's presented. If some of the differences are presented as "Deal breakers" or something that a 'must have" then you can certainly insert bias into your writing even if it is facts.

Sure, that's why I say that if people prize this or that above another thing, then the e-reader that has those will be the one for them. But 99% of reviews have not even mentioned that some features are missing and taken away in the Nook Touch (from what Nook users had with the Nook 1).

...device web browsing is clunky, and painful. It's not the ideal device if you want to surf the web, it may be useful during certain situations, but if any sort of real web surfing needs to be done, we will reach for our computers, phones or tablets.

For sure. But it's also the glass half-full thing. Sometimes '3' is better than '0'... when '10' is optimum.
I use it a lot to just look-up text-based info (movie locations, times, restaurants, product reviews while in front of a sales item) but I wouldn't use it for 'surfing' as it would be more like crawling unless you knew to access only text sites. Add that it can be used for free in about 60 other countries for accessing other websites and it can be a real plus for people who can save money that way. (Nook books are not purchasable by even U.S. residents when travelling abroad.)

Re slow-loading image-laden sites... I made a freely-downloadable file of mobile-device-optimized sites for that reason. But the 3G (which is free on the Kindle for use with any website) was really appreciated the other night, when my Comcast WiFi in the neighborhood was down for about 6 hours. I was able to make a brief blog entry explaining the situation. Otherwise, i had no connectivity at all. Believe it or not, I have Starbucks across the street, but it was closed :-)

And I was able to read my email. For some of us, that's worth a lot.

another is PDF rendering. While Yes it's true the Kindle offers more advanced features for rendering the PDF . the argument tends to only speak of the technical type of PDF's such as maps, graphs etc and ignores text based PDF's in which the nook STR actual performs well. the nook STR allows for font sized adjustments and it reflows with the rest of novel and performs quite admirably.

I mentioned that in 'Update 5' when I found out it did reflow text.

Now please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe the Kindle reflows text in PDF, but I'm not positive on that.

No it doesn't. It shows them exactly as laid out - but it also lets us see them in landscape, which helps a LOT on a 6" screen as the margins are closed and the fonts are enlarged to take advantage of the width. And we can zoom in although it is very clunky!

What I do then is use the original PDF to check or reference the original layout (and be able to Zoom the illustrations) and then make a copy that is converted (by free Mobipocket) to reflowed text.

Amazon does this for Kindlers, for free. It can work very well or, if it's a complicated page, with multi-columns and side boxes, it can be useless.

But it's usually somewhat useful. I did that when I downloaded the free Avatar script (PDF) so that I could see the original script layout AND do a mobi version that would let me use the normal Kindle search, text-to-speech and dictionary features, and reflowed text. I like the listed and linked search results better. (I also did an ePub copy).

I agree 100% with you re PDFs and 6" screens. Yet, I have almost every electronics manual on my Kindle and can read them, so it's still useful in a pinch. I tend to lose my manuals so this is a plus. The NookColor is 7" and starts being more useful for PDFS and is in color -- but I can't zoom or go to landscape. But, I like having both possibilities, and both devices are reasonably priced now. (I do have a 9.7" DX for PDFs when I want to save my eyes though.)

So what I'm trying to say is while yes you can take some differences that are true but if you place a high importance on these differences that can introduce and show bias.

Of course. So I do my best to put in pros and cons of both and pretty much did in the linked comparison. Those reading can decide. Clearly if touch-based screen access is important to you, the Nook Touch is the one!

(What bugs me about the Kobo is that the dictionary doesn't work with non Kobo books.)

Being able to touch a word and get it's definition as opposed to using a directional arrow to scroll to find your word are much more useful features then kludging along a webpage that will likely make you want to put a bullet through your head.

I love touch for web-browsing of course. I don't like it for dictionary use that much, as the NookColor is oversensitive, and just hovering over the screen means I can activate the wrong link (or words).

The e-Ink Nook Touch is much better that way as it's not oversensitive (but it often stops working and you have to reboot, and they're going to do an update for that).

Accurate highlighting is much harder for me to do on my NookColor, as far as controlling where it starts and ends. And the Kindle allows highlighting across a few pages. AND gives me a private, password protected annotations webpage on Amazon that shows me my notes on all my books and lets me highlight and copy them to a file to edit -- and I can print them.

Also, when typing, there's no non-destructive backspace and I have to insert a character, and that is sort of hellish :-) when doing an email. I don't think I have fat fingers. Some people are buying stylus things when typing/editing with the Nook, and I think that's a good idea.

But I love the NC for color magazines and for fast portable web browsing. I use it daily. Often it's the first thing I pick up, to quickly check email via the WiFi at home.

For me, the main thing is that for some reason the IR touchscreens so far (Nook Touch and iriver) have decidedly lighter fonts, and Wall St. Journal reports that Amazon's Touchco subsidiary was seeing the same problem with their touch panel.

If you've seen the reaction here to the Pearl screen on the DX when it came out and the brouhaha that some of us caused Amazon with Kindle 2 screens with fonts that were too light, you'll understand some of the sensitivity to the lighter, more greyish font of the Nook Touch and iriver. They say that's true of the Kobo also and I've seen only one screen shot of that.

But really, if touch is the main interest, there's no contest between Nook and Kindle. The Nook Touch will be the one preferred.