So for Christmas I got my dad a Barnes and Noble Nook (the basic one for about $140). He's not too computer savvy, so I thought it was neat that he could take it to any B&N store and they'd give him free tech support whenever he needed it. He loved the Nook so much that he upgraded it to the Nook Color, and he loves this one even more. I toyed around with his Nook Color briefly the other day and I found the touch screen interface to become somewhat tiring/sluggish/non-responsive. I've read online that this is why some people prefer the Amazon Kindle for it's traditional button interface. At any rate, I was wondering if any of you have some e-readers that you'd suggest or warn me to stay away from. My birthday is coming up and I think my fiancee is getting me a Nook Color since she's seen how much my dad loves his. But I'm wondering if I should drop hints that I'd prefer a Kindle...or is the Nook Color definitely the way to go?
The Kindle has the best response time in actual use, but it has really bad file support - it doesn't read ePub files, doesn't allow you to "loan" books to other devices, and Amazon files have really restrictive DRM from what I understand. They're also the company that just went on to people's devices and deleted their copies of 1984 without telling them. People focus on the Kindle and the Nook, but there's also the Sony eReader and the Kobo, along with other devices.
No experience with the Nook, other than I understand that you can borrow books from some libraries on it, which you can't do with the Kindle. I have a Kindle and I've really liked it. The only issue I've had is that it freezes if I download several books at once on it. But that's easy to fix.
I've been reading the CNET.com comparisons of each major e-reader. It seems like the Nook Color is the way to go based on everything I've read. Plus it's support of PDF and Word files makes it more convenient than the Kindle, imo.
I think I would be attracted to the Kindle simply because of its keyboard (touch screens can get tiring, imo). Plus, the Nook's screen might suffer from glare. But the Nook supports so many things that it's a hard option to ignore.
I just use my phone, and then get apps for reading. Stanza's good for epubs and any public domain stuff, and the kindle app lets you use books you buy from Amazon's store. Obviously it's not as good as a dedicated reader, but I feel that I might as well have a book if I'm lugging around an ereader.
I just got my Kindle. So far I like it. In December they added the ability to lend some books with the Kindle. Lending is restricted by the publishers based on my understanding. I like the display on the Kindle everything is so crisp and easy to read. I was sitting on my porch reading in direct sunlight and had no problems. I ended up getting the 3G version which is nice since I don't have to pay the airtime. For travel I think it will be convenient to pick up a book when needed. A couple other nice features on Kindle are that it will read certain books to you. And there is a rudimentary webkit browser that can access the internet. I used it to update my Twitter the other day and to check scores on ESPN. All done on 3G. That's just my impressions on the Kindle.
He can't give his address to Amazon because they might come after him and kill his family, obviously.
It is up to the publishers. In December, Penguin publishing decided no to make their ebooks available to loan. Some lady was so pissed about it she returned 2 nooks. Nook color is awesome when it's been rooted to use as a tablet computer. Well, awesome for the price, anyway.
We don't have Barnes & Noble in the UK so that would knock the Nook for me. I might look at a Kindle if they release one here with a color screen.
I have a regular Nook and really enjoy it. I agree that the touch screen can get very annoying, but I use it so infrequently that it doesn't bother me as much as it could. However, Barnes and Noble has terrible customer service (as in, they don't answer the phone or return emails... I had quite a nightmare with textbook returns last year). But I really love the ability to purchase a book for much cheaper and have it instantly downloaded to my Nook.
I have a friend who uses his phone also. My smart phone ended up in wash last year and I haven't replaced it. My fiancee was gonna get me another one until she figured that the Nook Color can essentially do whatever a smart phone can but without the expensive data plan or service contract. I was of this camp for a while. But I hate finishing a book while I'm out somewhere and then having nothing to read until I buy another one or return home to get one. Plus, from what I've seen, e-books generally look cheaper than their physical counterparts. My dad has received pretty good service from them. However, he lives close to a store and simply takes his Nook in whenever he has a problem.
I use the Kindle app on my iPad and it's really good. iBooks is good too but has lower selection of books. It sucks though because the US has a much larger selection and I still end up having to buy physical copies. I've watched a few movies recently that I wanted to buy the book of (Never Let Me Go, Barney's Version, etc) and none of the books were on the Kindle store in the UK. To be honest the major problem with any of this is the DRM. At the moment I have half my books on iBooks, half on Kindle. It really puts me off buying a Kindle reader because I only have access to half my books.
I think I like the smell of old books. Anyway, for those of you with a Nook, is the glare on the LCD screen really bad?