Library offerings = major Kindle turning point, imo

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I find that touch screens are much less accurate. When I try to select text on my Sony PRS-350 I'm constantly ending up with the wrong text selected.

But the same doesn't apply to the iPad, right? I had a big issue with selecting text at first on my android devices, but they seem to have improved it with the latest releases.

seems I remember having issues with the Sony 950 as well. I'm hoping the new T1 is much better....waiting to see what the reviews say.

[Asawi]

Yes, library lending is good, but there actually are other things that make people choose other devices and those reasons are still there!

For example, I know that the Kindlers here at MR claim to hate touch screens, but out in the real world people don't. There isn't even an open coffin (for the competition) until there's a Kindle Touch. (Which I'm sure there will be shortly.)

[sylviebi]

Originally Posted by log

Touchscreen for me is important since I'd rather have a lighter/smaller device with the same size screen.

Also in this day and age, not having a touch screen makes the device feel real dated to most consumers.

Beyond this it's simply more intuitive to be able to use a touch screen instead of arrow keys on a keyboard.

personally I don't like touch screens. my fingers never make it work and too look for a stylus is a pain...
a keypad for me was a plus... no fumbling around trying to get the touchscreen to respond to my touch

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Asawi

For example, I know that the Kindlers here at MR claim to hate touch screens, but out in the real world people don't.

I hate touchscreens... and I live in the "real world."

Actually, I'll be fine if Kindle goes to a touchscreen as long as I'm not forced to use it. Meaning it still needs to maintain some button navigation—mainly page turn buttons (but preferably "Home," "Menu," "Back," and a 5-way controller of some kind as well).

And yes, I've had ample experience using/experimenting with other "quality" touch-screen navigation systems to form my opinion. It's just a preference... which seems completely "real world" to me. Granted we're probably talking a minority of users, but that doesn't have anything to do with the validity of said preference.

"Shut up and accept it's eventuality," however, seems like such a hard-line approach to take for those on the opposite side of the fence (not saying that's what you're doing, Asawi).

[Ron.]

I think the kindle now having library lending is great but library ebooks are still in their infancy. Limited selection if available at all and long wait times, adding kindle I'm sure will make them even longer. I have not the slightest idea what percentage on ebook users take out library books, so saying this will do in the competition seems unfounded. What makes the kindle such a force in the marketplace has less to do with the device and more to do with the fact it is backed by Amazon. I know several people who have heard of kindles but have no idea any other ereaders exist...

[Harry_Y]

I'm very happy to have seen this come about

Plus I believe in time they will get any bumps smoothed out.

It appears that if you later buy the book from Amazon
your notes , etc will be transferred in from the "Borrowed"
library copy. That is a nice little feature in itself for those
who read a book then later decide they want to purchase it.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by andrys

For over a year, the current Kindle (Kindle 3, in 4 models) all have WiFi.

It provides direct-to-device borrowing at the libraries now. People have expressed surprise Amazon made it so easy.

Direct-to-device borrowing means everything happens on the device and doesn't need a computer. You can't do that on a Kindle. You still need a computer to check out the book.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by abookreader

But you could use the iPod/iPad to check the book out and then go to the Amazon Kindle Manage Your Kindle page and select to have it Whyspersynced to the Kindle - right? I would assume that would work, I haven't actually tried it yet. It really isn't an issue that has come up for me yet. Maybe I need to vacation more.

Checking out a book on an iPod touch means getting it only in EPUB. It will not let you check out a Kindle book; nor can you convert an EPUB book to Kindle after the fact.

[cfo]

Originally Posted by andrys

For over a year, the current Kindle (Kindle 3, in 4 models) all have WiFi.

It provides direct-to-device borrowing at the libraries now. People have expressed surprise Amazon made it so easy.

The older Kindles (released 2007 and 2008), however, don't have WiFi, just 3G.

Originally Posted by andrys

I am probably missing something here, but every single Kindle 3 has a WiFi option. Some models have both WiFi and 3G. And you can use free 3G web lookups in about 100 countries, as a resident of a country that offers (slow) free 3G web.

It's the Kindle 1's (2007) and Kindle 2's (2008) that have "only" 3G, which works almost anywhere you happen to be for all the regular book downloads from multiple online book sites.

Kindle 3's came out August 2010, over a year ago. The Sony model mentioned just came out, but it's not competing against a non-WiFi Kindle when mentioning advantages of WiFi with models released in the last year.

(What am I missing?)

I think you missed the point a bit.

JSWolf's criticism is that borrowing a library Kindle e-book is a 2-step process that requires a computer. You still need a computer to "redeem" your checked out library e-book and have it sent to your reading device. Also, library books can't be sent to the Kindle via 3G. It has to be WiFi or side-loaded. So, right now, library e-book borrowing is not truly direct-to-device like when you buy a book from the Amazon Storefront from within your Kindle.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by kennyc

You should grab a rag or tissue and begin to furiously clean the screen and give 'em this:

While yelling "my precious, my precious" ...LOL

[andrys]

Originally Posted by Harry_Y

I'm very happy to have seen this come about

Plus I believe in time they will get any bumps smoothed out.

It appears that if you later buy the book from Amazon
your notes , etc will be transferred in from the "Borrowed"
library copy. That is a nice little feature in itself for those
who read a book then later decide they want to purchase it.

Harry
(I just found my way back to this thread -- for some reason I don't get notifications on some, though I mark the alerts.)

Good point. Another really useful thing about the annotations being kept for us involves book clubs. When you've been reading for a discussion but the book loan has expired and you no longer have the book for the meeting, all your notes will still be on your annotations web page and can be printed out or referenced (or even emailed).

- Andrys

[andrys]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I find that touch screens are much less accurate. When I try to select text on my Sony PRS-350 I'm constantly ending up with the wrong text selected.

I don't even have to touch my keyboard at all for it to activate a (usually wrong) link when my fingers are hovering above it. Gads.

I have a hard time typing accurately at all on the NookColor, much as I love it for everything but that (even reading a book by dimming background light makes it doable though e-Ink is a delight in bright sunlight)).

Just got a Pocket Edge and am using it with v2.2.1, and touch scrolling is extremely unreliable on it while the keyboard is actually more accurate to use (by far) than the NookColor one, for me. Even then I have used the neat stylus that comes with it and. with that. can do highlighting with more precision. Too bad the stylus doesn't work on the NC. Oddly, I really enjoy the Pocket Edge despite its display not nealry matching the incredible NookColor screen. I think if they could have sold it for $179, say, and made a profit, maybe they'd be still be around, but then the cost of having BOTH types of screens would mean they couldn't do that.

The WiFi on the Pocket Edge has been more reliable for me than the NC's.

[andrys]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Direct-to-device borrowing means everything happens on the device and doesn't need a computer. You can't do that on a Kindle. You still need a computer to check out the book.

Overdrive sends you to Amazon's site to redeem the book. But I'm one that has made heavy use of the web browser when hooked up ti WiFi networks and I go to manageyourdevice page with it to select things, as ungainly as that can be, and I download books from Amazon webpages now, with WiFi (the ordering AND delivery works under WiFi web browsing).

It surprises me I couldn't use the WiFi web browser on my Kindle to go to the library and do the transaction with it. I click on links to buy from Amazon and it works for downloading books.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by andrys

It surprises me I couldn't use the WiFi web browser on my Kindle to go to the library and do the transaction with it. I click on links to buy from Amazon and it works for downloading books.

Somewhere in the lending process, a new browser window is being opened (or attempted anyway) when clicking on a link. The Kindle's browser cannot handle that kind of link. It's been a known and annoying quirk for quite some time.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Ron.

Limited selection if available at all and long wait times, adding kindle I'm sure will make them even longer.

The Overdrive backlist selection is of course terrible.

The selection of recent, serious, physical nonfiction library books, around here, has gotten so bad, due to budget cutbacks, that available Overdrive titles are looking, to me, not so much worse as similar.