nook or kindle

[ApK]

Originally Posted by CRussel

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.

Yes, once set up the process is now trivial and essentially transparent, but this involves stripping DRM, and possibly violating the terms of use, which as mentioned often, presents a possible legal and/or ethical concern for some.

ApK

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by ApK

Yes, once set up the process is now trivial and essentially transparent, but this involves stripping DRM, and possibly violating the terms of use, which as mentioned often, presents a possible legal and/or ethical concern for some.

ApK

Well, I live in Canada, where it isn't illegal. And ethically? I'm sorry, I don't buy that removing DRM for personal use is unethical. It's my public library system, paid for with my tax dollars. Or, in the case of books I bought, my fair use of same.

Frankly, I'm tired of everyone having to repeat, ad nauseum, "ethical concern, etc". It is not my place to suggest to someone what is their ethical concern. The rules of the forum are clear - we can't tell someone how to remove DRM. I'm FINE with that. We also don't have to tell them what the concerns are. I think we can, and should, all make those decisions for ourselves.

Now, if the thread is about the ethical questions (something that has been discussed at length, elsewhere), then, of course, that's a different colour horse.

[susan_cassidy]

Originally Posted by ApK

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.
ApK

They can only buy books if their Kindle is registered to your account, not anything else (unless you gave them your password, which would be crazy, or they are really trustworthy). You could change your password, tell them the password, allow them to register, then change the pw again.

When you de-register, your books are not removed from the device, you just can't access the Archive any more.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by Sidekick

Those speaking highly of the kindle have NOT used a NookCOlor for any length of time...DUMPED the Kindle 3 and picked up my NookColor again. Feels better, sturdier, sharper screen, fast access to books and magazines. Seriously, try both for a week---it is an obvious choice. Don't just talk about your Kindle because that is what you own and you stepped into B&N and held a NC at the counter. Try it, and your Kindle will be on ebay as fast as you can put the listing together. Truth be told.

Yes, it's absolutely unpossible for different people to have different preferences. I thought we were trying to help someone make a decision by presenting both the pros and cons of devices. My apologies.

NOOKCOLORS FOR EVERYONE! NO ONE CAN DISAGREE WITH ME! IT IS THE ONLY CHOICE FOR A TRUE READER!!

[maverick777]

Kindle newbie here. It's taken me a long time to take the plunge and get an eReader. I've been weighing my options since last summer. Originally, I wanted the Nook. There are some very nice features on it that the Kindle lacks. However, I ended up choosing the Kindle for the following reasons:

1. Battery life. The Kindle 3 is the champ in this department. There's no debate here. The Nook is very respectable, but 1 week versus 3 to 4 weeks is a big difference no matter how you look at it.
2. E-ink Pearl. It's definitely noticeable that the screen on the Kindle has better contrast and slightly sharper text.
3. Free 3g even in other countries. This means I can access the news wherever I go. And if I'm in a pinch while I'm traveling internationally, I can even search for directions or get information online. (this was really a feature I hadn't thought about until I got the Kindle)
4. Size. Neither devices are really "big" by any means, but the Kindle is noticeably smaller.
5. Kindle + lighted cover. This turned out to be a biggie. This combination is just the perfect travel companion. The size of this combo feels like a real book. Not too heavy and not bulky or big. Plus never having to carry/pack batteries around for the built-in light is very nice.

In the end, the lack of ePub support is more than manageable. If I need to use ePub for any reason, Calibre can quickly convert it to mobi. Not being able to checkout books from the library is a bit of a downer, but not enough to regret my choice.

The lack of expandable memory is a little unfortunate, but 4gb (3gb useable) is plenty for books. I would like more space for more music, but it's really just a nice to have feature. Moreso because the Kindle uses a pretty decent Wolfson dac. But my phone (Galaxy S) gets me by since I have it on me at all times.

Not having a replaceable battery is also kind of a downer, but Amazon's replacement time is very fast from the people I know that have had to ship their device back. They send you a new Kindle first anyways, so the down time is minimal.

As for the Nook color or any other tablet device, I ruled them out for 3 reasons.
1. Outdoor use. Forget about it. Using a Tablet in the sun is just not usable. Even in the shade, it's passable but it's not even a comparison when you look at any eInk device in the same condition. There's also the distraction of glare from the glass.

2. Battery life. As good of a battery life as the iPad 2 has, it's still too short for me. I'd have to recharge every 2 or 3 days. Some will argue that it's not an issue, but 2 or 3 days vs 3-4 weeks per charge is a huge difference no matter how you look at it. The Nook Color is worse than the iPad in this department.

3. Fingerprints. As if glare wasn't enough of an issue, fingerprints are very distracting. Sure I could wipe them off, but I'd have to do it almost every time.

For me, the Kindle is the winner. I can't say it's the clear winner overall since both the Nook and Nook Color have their advantages, but for what I use it for, it's the champ. For now.

[Zarich]

The music thing keeps being brought up and honestly weirds me out. It ruins the immersion for me. Of course if I am reading a technical novel I guess I could understand, but still.

That being said.. which has the better sounding player stock?

[boswd]

Originally Posted by Zarich

The music thing keeps being brought up and honestly weirds me out. It ruins the immersion for me. Of course if I am reading a technical novel I guess I could understand, but still.

That being said.. which has the better sounding player stock?

can't speak for the kindle but the nook's isn't too shabby, I was surprised. It's not as good as my Sansa clip + but then again not much is. But I'm like you I don't have much use for playing music while I read so I only threw a couple of songs on there just to give it a test drive.

my wife uses it's MP3 player every day. She likes audio books as well, so she's ripped her collection and then sideloaded them to her nook and runs male to male 3.5 headphone cord to the car stero. For this purpose the micro SDcard slot is a must for her.

[Zarich]

Uh.. I can sorta see your wifes purpose. My car takes a flash drive. So I put audiobooks there. Which works awesome. Or I have a sansa as well. So really no point. Just curious.

[techWHAM]

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?

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.

I live in the Denver area and have 2 library cards...one of the libraries doesn't have mobi-pocket files (Englewood), the other does (Denver). THEN not all books are available in mobi-pocket.

Still, it's no problem finding hundreds of mobi-pockets in the Denver library. But I would say it's 30% of the books are available in mobi-pocket?

[techWHAM]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

They can only buy books if their Kindle is registered to your account, not anything else (unless you gave them your password, which would be crazy, or they are really trustworthy). You could change your password, tell them the password, allow them to register, then change the pw again.

When you de-register, your books are not removed from the device, you just can't access the Archive any more.

To do it the safest way, you don't discuss passwords during the whole process...

You log into your own account, then tell the other person to give you their serial number. Then you de-register the Kindle again immediately after book swapping is done. Passwords to accounts are never shared and Kindles don't stay on other peoples accounts for longer than needed.

[maverick777]

Originally Posted by Zarich

The music thing keeps being brought up and honestly weirds me out. It ruins the immersion for me. Of course if I am reading a technical novel I guess I could understand, but still.

That being said.. which has the better sounding player stock?

I do not have a Nook, so I can't make any comparison, but I can describe how it sounds compared to my phone and my iPod.

I threw on my nicer earbuds (Sennheiser IE8) to do a quick comparison with my Galaxy S (which also has a Wolfson dac).

The sound is very clean. As in, if theres nothing playing, you do not hear any hissing. My earbuds are pretty sensitive to hissing and the Kindle passes that test.

In terms of it's sound signature, I'd say it's pretty decent. Nothing special, but better than average due to no hissing. It sounds very similar to my 80gb iPod 5.5gen (which also has a Wolfson dac) which is pretty good. It lacks a bit on the low end in comparison to my phone and since the Kindle has no equalizer theres no way to make any adjustments. It seems to have a pretty flat frequency response.

All that being said, listening to music is not what most people will use the Kindle for anyways. The music is really just for background noise. Other uses include audio books and text to speech usage.

In those cases, the Kindle is more than sufficient.

Also, I'm using fairly high end earbuds to make the comparison here. Most users will probably be using something like Apple earbuds and such in which case you will not notice a huge difference between the Kindle and most other mp3 players.

I hope that was helpful.

[owenfinn]

Originally Posted by maverick777

3. Free 3g even in other countries. This means I can access the news wherever I go. And if I'm in a pinch while I'm traveling internationally, I can even search for directions or get information online. (this was really a feature I hadn't thought about until I got the Kindle)

I live in Japan but am in the states now visiting, and was thinking of buying a Nook Color and rooting it to use as a poor man's tablet before I go back.

I have a Sony PRS-700 so don't really need another dedicated book reader but I would like a way to gain access to the internet, email, blogs, etc when outside the house (without signing up for a monthlly access plan). Problem is, where I live, it is very difficult to find free wifi so while the Nook Color w/wifi sounds like a great deal, I'm not sure how often I would be able to use it as a tablet outside the house. Now, I'm wondering if maybe I should get a kindle and take advantage of the free 3G.

Question is - what can you do when connected?

Obviously much less I know, but if I could just check email and read blogs or forums and surf the internet a bit that probably would be OK.

[maverick777]

Originally Posted by owenfinn

I live in Japan but am in the states now visiting, and was thinking of buying a Nook Color and rooting it to use as a poor man's tablet before I go back.

I have a Sony PRS-700 so don't really need another dedicated book reader but I would like a way to gain access to the internet, email, blogs, etc when outside the house (without signing up for a monthlly access plan). Problem is, where I live, it is very difficult to find free wifi so while the Nook Color w/wifi sounds like a great deal, I'm not sure how often I would be able to use it as a tablet outside the house. Now, I'm wondering if maybe I should get a kindle and take advantage of the free 3G.

Question is - what can you do when connected?

Obviously much less I know, but if I could just check email and read blogs or forums and surf the internet a bit that probably would be OK.

This is the 3G coverage for the Kindle. As you can seem most of Japan is covered.
http://client0.cellmaps.com/tabs.html#cellmaps_intl_tab

The Kindle has a built-in Webkit browser. It's not as full featured as a tablet like the Nook or the iPad, but it's sufficient for getting news and posting things on facebook and such. Flash does not work, so videos don't work. Not that it matters since eink is too slow anyways.

I use it to check facebook, twitter, news (BBC, CNN, ESPN, Reddit, etc), wikipedia, google maps, etc. when no other options are available.

I going to Europe in the fall and plan to take it with me to lookup directions. I'll have my phone with GPS and prepaid sim, but data is not unlimited or cheap with prepaid sims, so I'll utilize the Kindle for some reference.

If you want to watch Youtube or play flash games and such, the Kindle is definitely not the right device. The Nook Color and iPad are much better for real web browsing.

[owenfinn]

Originally Posted by maverick777

This is the 3G coverage for the Kindle. As you can seem most of Japan is covered.
http://client0.cellmaps.com/tabs.html#cellmaps_intl_tab

The Kindle has a built-in Webkit browser. It's not as full featured as a tablet like the Nook or the iPad, but it's sufficient for getting news and posting things on facebook and such. Flash does not work, so videos don't work. Not that it matters since eink is too slow anyways.

I use it to check facebook, twitter, news (BBC, CNN, ESPN, Reddit, etc), wikipedia, google maps, etc. when no other options are available.

I going to Europe in the fall and plan to take it with me to lookup directions. I'll have my phone with GPS and prepaid sim, but data is not unlimited or cheap with prepaid sims, so I'll utilize the Kindle for some reference.

If you want to watch Youtube or play flash games and such, the Kindle is definitely not the right device. The Nook Color and iPad are much better for real web browsing.

Thanks! I'm not interested in playing games or watching video - just reading blogs, email, facebook etc. and now that you mention it, checking for directions on google maps could be really very useful to me if it works.

Seems like the Kindle 3G is the way to go (for me). thanks again!

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by maverick777

I going to Europe in the fall and plan to take it with me to lookup directions. I'll have my phone with GPS and prepaid sim, but data is not unlimited or cheap with prepaid sims, so I'll utilize the Kindle for some reference.

Be aware that 3G coverage in Europe can vary from grand in big cities to non existent in some areas that are still very touristic, so unless you are doing "Europe in 3 days" (me being a bit sarcastic here, sorry in advance), do not rely on your Kindle as a GPS ersatz, you might be very disappointed !!