nook or kindle

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Sidekick

Those speaking highly of the kindle have NOT used a NookCOlor for any length of time.

Correct in my case. Using it for a short time was plenty enough to prove the Nookcolor was horrible for my reading needs. I find eInk is far more comfortable to look at.
Plus during the short time I did use it, even the sales person in the B&N couldn't get it to work smoothly. That's probably been resolved now, but it tell me again why I'd want to spend more money for no 3G service and a glaring color screen when 99% percent of what I read is black and white text?
Oh, never mind, I figured out the reason: I wouldn't.
And I didn't need to spend any great length of time with it to find that out.

ApK

[Zarich]

Okay.. I think I really want the K3, but honestly the epub thing is scaring me off. Any help for my unstableness.

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by Zarich

Okay.. I think I really want the K3, but honestly the epub thing is scaring me off. Any help for my unstableness.

Yep. Get some experience with the K3 and you will become stable! But seriously, if you can get a refurb Nook for under $100, how can you lose?

Those of us who have the K3 and have chosen the route of no standards have already told you all we can, short of you doing it yourself. Now you have to make a choice.

I chose the device first, but before I bought, I made sure I could get and use books from any source. There was a bit of a learning curve initially, but it's even easier now than it was a few months ago.

[booklover6]

You don't need to worry about epubs. Anything that is available in epub format is also available in many other formats. Unless you really want to buy from a store that only sells DRM'd epubs, its nothing to worry about. Buy yourself a Kindle and be glad you have decided on a wonderful device.

And I agree with ApK and what was said about the Nook Color. I tried it. Real nice if you want to read something in color. My books are black and white.

[Zarich]

I will gripe for a minute about epubs.
First off I know they also custom fonts and formatting options. Those SUCK.
I have downloaded a couple of free books from B&N and read them on my nook color before I returned it. One they forced a custom font which I HATED. I couldn't change it at all. No matter what I told the nook the font stayed unchanged. The other the formatting was all over the damn place. Large words on this sentence, small on another. I realize that is a publishing issue, but still. If EPUB is going to be a standard I hope they make it so the user is not stripped of control.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Zarich

Okay.. I think I really want the K3, but honestly the epub thing is scaring me off. Any help for my unstableness.

The Kindle is a great reader and I'm happy with mine.

IF you are willing to strip DRM, then with Calibre and some plug-ins, using epubs, even library epubs, is trivial and you can have it all. My wife and I both happily read library books on our Kindles. Shopping for epubs at other stores would be just as easy, but honestly, we've never needed to. Amazon sells everything we've wanted at good prices.

If you are NOT willing to strip DRM, and DRMed epubs are important to you, then you'll have decide what's more important to you, the Kindle hardware or the DRMed epub support. If it turns out to be the latter, my choice would probably be the nook classic, because the free 3G web browsing is an important feature to me.

[ProfCrash]

My Brother has a Sony 505 that he bought after seeing my Kindle. He was worried about Amazon and DRM and one company controlling reading and so he went with the Sony. He consistently complains about the Sony store and is generally kind of ok with his Sony.

My SIL just won an auction for a Kindle package. My Brother has had two weeks to play with the Kindle and finds it to be better then the Sony in the area he deemed most important, the bookstore. He still kvetchs about the possibility of an Amazon monopoly but he loves the fact that my 11 year old Nephew was able to figure out how to use the Kindle (including renaming it) in less then 24 hours and was happily downloading age appropriate books from Amazon for free over the wireless. He also likes the ability to synch books between devices.

We have had a chat about how the Kindle would work just in case they need to deregister it but I doubt that is going to be necessary.

I spent them the URL for Apprentice Alf and have a feeling that the K3 is going to become the dominant e-reader in that household.

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by Zarich

I will gripe for a minute about epubs.
First off I know they also custom fonts and formatting options. Those SUCK.
I have downloaded a couple of free books from B&N and read them on my nook color before I returned it. One they forced a custom font which I HATED. I couldn't change it at all. No matter what I told the nook the font stayed unchanged. The other the formatting was all over the damn place. Large words on this sentence, small on another. I realize that is a publishing issue, but still. If EPUB is going to be a standard I hope they make it so the user is not stripped of control.

I have purchased multiple ebooks (epub) from both Borders and B&N and after conversion, have not noticed any of the issues you mention above. Then again, perhaps I'm not as critical in that area. I have noted some issues with some freebies I got from Amazon... notably Sherlock Holmes having some funky characters in some of the words. But it was easy enough to figure out as I read along. That's the only inconsistency I can recall seeing.. and that was a mobi book.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Zarich

I will gripe for a minute about epubs.
First off I know they also custom fonts and formatting options. Those SUCK.
I have downloaded a couple of free books from B&N and read them on my nook color before I returned it. One they forced a custom font which I HATED. I couldn't change it at all. No matter what I told the nook the font stayed unchanged. The other the formatting was all over the damn place. Large words on this sentence, small on another. I realize that is a publishing issue, but still. If EPUB is going to be a standard I hope they make it so the user is not stripped of control.

You can delve into the epub and make adjustments, if you really wanted to ....

[FF2]

One more kindle vote. I "purchase" free drm-epubs from Barnes and Noble and read them on my k3. Immoral perhaps but they were free in the first place so who or what am I depriving or depraving by moving the format to my reader of choice.

[Zarich]

Actually ff2 ALL the barnes and noble free epub books I have found except their friday ones are generally available in mobi on other sites like smashwords. I wish amazon would post those on their sites as well.

[techWHAM]

I've done some videos and write ups on my blog showing the Kindle vs Nook as well as throwing the Nook Color and iPad into the mix....knowing full well it is kind of comparing apples to oranges, but I think it's still valid.

There are some things you can do on the Kindle that are a little "outside the box" that make it a better reader... (not compared to the Nook or other ebook readers, but just make the Kindle better if you will)

1) You can download/check out mobi-pocket files from the library without stripping the DRM, using a simple program (not python scripts). Link

2) You can share books with your friends and family by having them register your Kindle to their account for a few minutes....basically it's borrowing the book but without the 2 week time limit. (Commence the debate)

[boswd]

Originally Posted by techWHAM

I've done some videos and write ups on my blog showing the Kindle vs Nook as well as throwing the Nook Color and iPad into the mix....knowing full well it is kind of comparing apples to oranges, but I think it's still valid.

There are some things you can do on the Kindle that are a little "outside the box" that make it a better reader... (not compared to the Nook or other ebook readers, but just make the Kindle better if you will)

1) You can download/check out mobi-pocket files from the library without stripping the DRM, using a simple program (not python scripts). Link

2) You can share books with your friends and family by having them register your Kindle to their account for a few minutes....basically it's borrowing the book but without the 2 week time limit. (Commence the debate)

I guess for starters, how many libraries are still using the mobi picket files as compared to the ADE ePub Overdrive?

and also I'm not sure about the sony but on the Nook you can share One account on up to 5 different devices,

So still say the advantage is still in the Nook and Sony corner seeing how very few libraries are still using mobi pocket file as opposed to the Overdrive, which seem to be rapidly becoming the Library industry standard.

and the account sharing is a wash.

[CRussel]

So still say the advantage is still in the Nook and Sony corner seeing how very few libraries are still using mobi pocket file as opposed to the Overdrive, which seem to be rapidly becoming the Library industry standard.

And I download library ePubs and read them on my Kindle. The process is trivial, and I actually prefer bringing in ePub over Mobi. (But Mobi over PDF, any day.) For my money, there is no advantage there for the Nook or Sony. Both require side loading. The Kindle requires side loading. OK, I admit. I have a one time conversion required from ePub to Mobi. One click. A few seconds. Given all the other clicks involved in the process? A wash.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by boswd

I guess for starters, how many libraries are still using the mobi picket files as compared to the ADE ePub Overdrive?

Just an interesting note, I found that the New York Public Library has some mobi books in their collection as well as epubs.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that if I put my Kindle's PID on our library account, I can download the file and copy it to my Kindle directly, no tweaks or programs to run at all.
More importantly (to me) was the fact that for those books that they had in both formats, the epubs had a waiting list, the mobis did not!

epubs are clearly the leader in library lending right now, but for me, the UNpopularity of library mobis gave my Kindle an unexpected advantage.

By the way, re the 'lending' of books by registering the Kindle to your account, you can do that, but you had better have full trust in the person as they then can buy bunches of stuff on your Amazon account. Also, if I understand correctly, all THEIR Amazon books will be removed from the device when they re-register, so they will have to load everything back from archive when they are done.

If these are close family members we're talking about, another option is to simply leave the devices attached to the same Amazon account at all times.


ApK