Any E-reader users?

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Later

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Jan 30, 2009
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I have been thinking about getting an E-reader and am looking for advice. Looking more at the Nook color price range rather than the I-pad. Not concerned about the telephone.
 
Not much to add in here other than some anecdotal accounts. Don't have any e-readers myself.

- Ipad isn't a very good e-reader... too much $$ for bad picture. Now, will Ipad 2 be better in 3-4 montsh? remains to be seen. Certainly will still be $$

- Have heard very good things about the nook and the color seems nice.

- That being said, it sounds like Amazon's kindle is the 800 lb gorilla in that market and you may want to consider backing the winner. (As an aside, you're talking to somebody who purchased a Tassimo single serve coffee maker instead of the Keurig K-cup and it looks like the Tassimo might go under). I don't think Barnes and noble is going anywhere but it might be like Blu-ray vs HD-DVD where you could be buying a doomed technology.
 
My wife reads constantly. We bought the newer, smaller Kindle, and she loves it. I also installed the app for the Kindle on a netbook, so she and I can share the Kindle account. I don't know whether it can be installed on multiple computers. From listening to a tech talk program on NPR, the long term likely will be in the direction of color, ability to handle photographs and graphic art, so as to make the e-readers more useful and interesting to the user. That said, for simple text, which is most books, the Kindle is great. Easy to read, size the text to what you want, no-brainer to use.

A big side benefit is that we no longer have volumes of paperback building up around the house, passing them off to a community shared library, and even throwing them away. This alone made the Kindle worth its price to me.
 
I like my b&W Nook. It supports a similar digital rights management arrangement as my on line library, so a book can be borrowed for say 3 weeks or so, by downloading to your pc and then sideloading by a usb connection to your nook. A good thing with B&W is the battery length.

The only thing is with all this epub stuff, is that if the outfit goes belly up you've lost anything you paid for, potentially.
 
Thanks, I had thought that the Kindle was the better value/reader but our library systems don't support it. However, looking at the e-book offerings in the library system, there isn't much there that interests me. I get mostly paperback books so there isn't really any price difference between e-books and paperbacks. Although, paperback books fit the stove better and have a few more BTUs. I'll need to keep looking.
 
nook is the way to go. barnes and noble has excellent support. one of my customers purchased the nook. she was given a personal tutorial at the bookstore. then she got it home and it broke. she took it back and it was exchanged no problem, even tho i suspect she broke it by accident. they never even asked about that.

she brings it back to the store every now and then because they hold nook "classes"

she even called tech support on a few occasions and they were very helpful. they walked her through converting one of her music cd's to mp3, and then sending it to the nook to play on the go. that's patience especially with this lady! lol.

i personally wouldnt get much use out of an e reader but if i needed one i'd look for the one with the best support.
 
nice thing about the new nook color is its a full blown android tablet, but it has to be hacked to unlock it.

Saw one at the local B&N over the weekend...in my opinion its too small to be used comfortably by myself. I'd rather spend the extra hundred bucks and get an ipad or Android 10.1" tablet and use it to read e-books...or better yet, continue buying paper books since there doesn't seem to be a economic incentive to go e-book (last time I checked, the e-book download was same cost as the paper copy of the same book, this was about a year ago).
 
mayhem said:
nice thing about the new nook color is its a full blown android tablet, but it has to be hacked to unlock it.

Saw one at the local B&N over the weekend...in my opinion its too small to be used comfortably by myself. I'd rather spend the extra hundred bucks and get an ipad or Android 10.1" tablet and use it to read e-books...or better yet, continue buying paper books since there doesn't seem to be a economic incentive to go e-book (last time I checked, the e-book download was same cost as the paper copy of the same book, this was about a year ago).

B&N e-books are about 25% off full retail for their hardcover books, maybe a couple% less. About what I can save if I'm patient. Still up in the air about getting one.
 
I don't have one, but if I were to get one I'd want it mainly for putting "full view" pdf's from google books onto. I've got a lot of them that I want to read, but regular acrobat reader doesn't have a handy way to save your place, unless you read them in one go.
 
I've been downloading books from Barnes and Noble/Nook and Amazon/Kindle for a couple of years into my iPhone. Because I'm never without my phone, I am now never without my book. No need to pay a few hundred dollars for another gadget. I read all the time. Now I never have to worry about being without my book in the doctor's office, waiting for an oil change... whatever. I travel for a living and never have to worry about running out of reading material, or hauling around a bunch of books. I store several books on my iPhone. If I do finish all my books while I'm on the road I just download a new one. It's easier to read from my cell phone on a ten hour flight to Europe than it is to read a regular book and I don't have to have the reading light on while others are watching a movie or trying to sleep. All of this is also true for a Nook or Kindle but, again, I already have the phone. Why pay big bucks for another gadget?
 
Exmasonite said:
As an aside, you're talking to somebody who purchased a Tassimo single serve coffee maker instead of the Keurig K-cup and it looks like the Tassimo might go under
I had not heard that. I hope not. I just bought one for my wife's birthday a couple of months ago and I think it's just about the greatest thing ever. We buy these Maxwell house Cappuccino things that are freaking awesome.

anyway, I'm on the local library board and I guess that the Kindle can't read any of our downloadable books? I don't know yet, because the system won't be up and running for about another 3 weeks or something.
 
Bringing this back from the dead. I swear I remember reading on this forum somewhere a member who was using a Pandigital e-reader and liking it's android system. Who was that? I'm considering buying one before I make a leap to a new android phone. I have an iPad and really enjoy it, but it's just lacking somewhat, so I'm scared to ditch my windows mobile phone for an iPhone or android phone without trying the systems both out...
 
color me kooky, but I like the tactile experience of page turning, but I also still buy...whole CDs (I likes cover art and liner notes, though they aren't as impressive as they were in the Vinyl Era). I dont know anyone personally using an E-reader, but I'd like to give it a "go" to see what its like. I only buy used books, and I trade them in for credit at same place, though I usually keep books I really like. I paid $6 for my copy of The Pickwick Papers, most I've spent on a book in a few years. Can you move books from 1 e-reader to another, trade like, with other peeps?
 
but what do I do with it after I've read it? can I trade it to someone else? I dont generally read the same book twice.
 
But can you check your email, surf the web, and watch YouTube on a $6 book? I only want one for the android tablet capabilities.
 
would I really want to surf the web on a 6" screen? i dunno. I dont get all that excited about the whole technology thing. I have no phone thingy and Hearth.com is about the most I do on the interwebs. I'm like a hermit/recluse...no one emails/calls me (i like it that way), so I could just as easily check it on my book :lol: .
 
I'd be your Facebook friend, Delta. That alone should be worth getting on the interweb some more.
 
tempting....you can face friend my wife..then we can "play it by ear". If all goes well I will join facebook and in turn, join the rest of the civilized world.
 
Delta-T said:
tempting....you can face friend my wife..then we can "play it by ear". If all goes well I will join facebook and in turn, join the rest of the civilized world.
So Mrs. Delta is on Facebook, but you are not? Don't feel too bad. I've had a FB account since like 2008 or so, but until this summer had been essentially inactive. I don't know how active I'll be when summer is over and I'm back to working at school.
 
Danno77 said:
Delta-T said:
tempting....you can face friend my wife..then we can "play it by ear". If all goes well I will join facebook and in turn, join the rest of the civilized world.
So Mrs. Delta is on Facebook, but you are not? Don't feel too bad. I've had a FB account since like 2008 or so, but until this summer had been essentially inactive. I don't know how active I'll be when summer is over and I'm back to working at school.

you are correct, she is connected, I am not. I assure you, I do not feel bad. Most everyone I know calls me when they need/want something. I call nobody, except when its your birthday, then I call and sing Happy Birthday in various voices and to different tunes. My MIL got the Frank Sinatra version the other day, she was quite impressed (she didn't know I could carry a tune, knows that I play guitar). I think the whole e-reader idea is neat. If you are a real junkie for news outlets or something like that, maybe a traveler, I can see the application. I'm afraid that once the portable screen becomes more common place that we will end up like the folks in the movie "Wall-E"...stuck staring at the screens ignoring the things around us "We have a pool"?. It happens with the phones and such now...fortunately the screens are small enough that you still get some periferal vision. When the GPS devices start telling you to... "now open the door, welcome to Starbucks" thats when we've gone tooo far.
 
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