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I have read some of the discussions about e-readers, but this is a simpler query, though the answers probably won't be so simple ...
I love real books, but I also love gadgets, and I love to read free books I get from Gutenberg and archive.org etc, and I'm tired of reading them on my Jornada. And, no Apple devices for me. I want that e-ink, not an active crystal display. I already have that in the Jornada PDA screen.
I'm leaning toward the Nook, because one can lend and borrow books, and they seem to support more freebies and maybe one or two other details I forget right now. Oh yeah, I have a B&N gift cert for $50 also.
Any thoughts from owners or reviewers of Kindles and Nooks? Or something else I should be considering?
I went through the same decision process back in December but at that time the decision was simpler because the Nook was loaded with problems. I think that they have corrected most of that. Bear in mind that my arguments are four months old, and they are fairly specific to me. I have paid little attention to the Kindle / Nook debates since, and not at all to the Kindle / iPad debates. I am quite happy with my Kindle and have no desire for an iPad although it is a handier machine. I just have no use for it or desire to buy one. I am getting more and more contraption adverse as I get older. The Kindle though I do really like.
Assuming that Barnes & Noble did get the problems on the Nook corrected, I would still choose the Kindle for these reasons.
1. Larger availability of titles at Amazon, and at the time better prices although the prices have changed with the agency sales model by the publishers.
2. Free Internet access. Yes it is klunky and slow and pretty much limited to Wikipedia and Google, but it works.
3. Far better customer service at Amazon. You get a 30 day trial period. You don't like the Kindle, return it in 30 days for full refund, no questions asked. Barnes and Noble had a 14 day trial with a restocking fee. From what I have read B&N customer service is abysimal, but I can't vouch for that--just what I have read.
4. More faith that Amazon will be here tomorrow than B&N. Borders is an bankrupt and I have read that B&N are not far behind.
5. The lending! You are allowed to lend a book ONCE (yes! once forever) for 14 days and only if the publisher approves. I had read at the time that many publishers were balking at the lending. But yes B&N allows you to lend, once. Amazon not at all. Bear in mind family members on the same account can have up to 6 devices (Kindles, iPad, PC, Blackberrys, etc) sharing books on the Kindle. I imagine the B&N has something similar but I do not know what it is. But the great lending policy is limited to once a book.
6. Kindle has an text to voice reader. I haven't found it to be very useful but some people swear by it. The publishers are P.O. with that feature also because it cuts into audio book sales. My experience is most of the books I have bought the feature is disabled by the publisher.
7. The dictionary is a little easier to use in the Kindle.
8. I have read that the Kindle is easier navigate through the features.
9. While I can't say that I am a fan of the Kindle keyboard, I don't like touch screens.
10. There is a software called Calibre that will convert the other formats like E-Pub to Amazon's format and you can convert and download many free books.
Two things I like about the Nook. 1) It is a more attractive device. For a crusty old bastard like me though, who cares? 2) It has a user replaceable battery. Kindle don't. You send your Kindle back with $60 bucks and they send you a refurbed unit with a new battery. I am not sure I like that policy.
The Nook also has a memory slot of some sort that you can store 17 gazzillion books. That sounds nice, but you can save books on your computer and Amazon stores your books on their cloud forever. So what do I need the memory slot for?
It doesn't matter to me but the Nook can change fonts as well as font sizes. The Kindle can change only font size.
The Nook has WiFi but I am not sure what that capability is. I have read that it is limited to accessing B&N book sales, but I could be wrong. Kindle has no WiFI. To me personally that is not an advantage.
Taking a nod at the iPad, I think that people who want a lot of additional function or who read a lot of magazines with color pages would find the iPad to be a better machine. My self I like e-ink. I can read far longer with e-ink than any illuminated screen. I have little need for color. I think that people who read books with a passion will find a Kindle or Nook to be good machines. People who want additional functionality will go for an iPad at perhaps a minor cost in eyestrain. Although from what I have read there are no complaints with the iPad in eyestrain. Apparently if you like to read outside, especially bright beaches e-ink works far better than the iPad. Obviously in the dark, the prize goes to iPad, but I have a small reading light that work wonderfully.
Again as a caveat, bear in mind that I am not a contraption guy and I could care less at this juncture what new flashy gizmos come out. I am very satisfied with my Kindle and only wished I had bought one earlier, to reduce my dead tree book count.
“Being Irish he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” W. B. Yeats
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." Bertrand Russell
"In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time." Edward P. Tryon
Thank you Veneer for an excellent and thorough reply, and some details that I didn't know about the Kindle.
Yes, I really want E-ink too, not a glaring screen. And I don't want all the noisy kinetic games and stuff that the Ipad has, I have a Dreamcast for that. The point of a book, even an ebook, is to get away from all that and do that cooperative thing between my imagination and that of an author.
Still, spurred on by your thoughtful response, I dug a little further, and found out the new detail that will probably make me a Nooker rather than a Kindler guy:
The Nook supports library book downloads in the Overdrive system. Kindle does not. Overdrive is the delivery and DRM system used by a bunch of public libraries. The Nook might even play the Overdrive MP3s, not sure about that though.
But I really in general appreciate this format flexibility I'm seeing on the Nook, but that seems quite absent from the Kindle.
I don't have much need for library access. I haven't sourced books from anywhere but Amazon and I have tons to read. I did mention a third party software called Calibre. Check it out, it does a conversion to Kindle's format and allows you to source books elsewhere.
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to sell you on the Kindle, but if there are features that you like better on the Kindle, I think you may find Calibre is the answer to some of the other book sources. Personally I don't know much about the program but I have read some rave comments about it at the Kindle forums.
For me the big selling point was the free internet access. Very limited and klunky but it is amazing how helpful being to access Wikipedia (which works good on the Kindle) or just Google. It will access sites that are text based. Strong graphics or dynamic screens are not handled well. The only thing that concerns me on the Internet access is that Amazon considers it a "experimental" feature. There is something worrisome about the term "experimental". I think what it really means is that we will offer this until it gets too expensive then we will either block it or start charging for it. If it is a few dollars a month ah what the hell. But Amazon's internet capability would have to improve a hundredfold before I would consider paying 20 to 30 bucks a month for it.
“Being Irish he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” W. B. Yeats
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." Bertrand Russell
"In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time." Edward P. Tryon
I adore the Kindle but didn't really warm to the Nook, (or Barnes and Noble for that matter.) I've shopped with Amazon for many years, (200+ orders), and never once had a problem. With Barnes and Noble though I've had many problems --- the biggest issue that comes straight to mind was having to return something I ordered online five times (!) before receiving the correct item. (I had ordered a NY Times Electronic Chess game and kept getting sent a much cheaper Crossword game despite dozens of phone calls telling them they had put the wrong bar-code sticker on their warehouse stock and being assured the problem was resolved and I would be sent the correct item next time.) One time the customer care person said to me, "Can't you just do crosswords instead of play chess?", in a serious tone, (I'm fairly hopeless at Americanised crosswords due to being British and having limited knowledge of American sports, politics, history, etc. Plus I wanted a chess game, hence why I ordered a chess game!) B&N eventually offered to refund me, (as they evidently had an inability or desire to converse between their departments), which I begrudgingly accepted, then I received no refund for two months and eventually called them to ask why and was told they would refund me that day. I never did get the refund, but took delivery of the correct item on the sixth delivery the following day. The whole experience kind of soured me to shopping online at B&N, (although I've always found their store workers very pleasant and friendly.)
So far as I'm aware, both the Nook and the Kindle 2 use an identical 5" e-ink screen. I find this perfect for reading with, (some complain the text is too light, but I've never had a problem - there is a "hack" online to darken the text anyway.) The Kindle supports PDF files natively, which is a handy feature, although because of the limited layout limitations of PDF files, you may find you need to rotate the text 90 degrees to make it a comfortable reading size, (you can't adjust text size in PDFs). Personally I always convert PDF's into MOBI Kindle format before loading them on my Kindle to avoid this problem.
I've only got limited experience with a store demo Nook, and don't really have any valid reason to dislike it, I just didn't warm to it. On the other hand, I love my Kindle. Plus, as it's sold and supported by Amazon, (who I cannot fault in all my years of dealing with them), I feel confident in my purchase and in Amazon's striving to make as many books available as possible.
I love the fact the Kindle has a real keyboard as I use it often and the touchscreen on the Nook didn't appeal. I adore the fact I can browse the web TOTALLY FOR FREE on my Kindle, (granted the browser is basic, but it's more than good enough for keeping up to date with news and sports results when I'm on the move.) The I-Pad may well take a significant proportion of the potential Kindle and Nook market, but for a simple book reader, e-ink can't be beaten and is much easier on the eyes than a back lit screen.
Last edited by DaK on Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:27 pm, edited 6 times in total.
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere" -- Carl Sagan
It has a browser now, which works with Wifi access. It's not the dealmaker though.
2 main things: I get electronic books from my local libraries, online, without going to the library, and side load them into the Nook. Right now I'm reading three books, all recent, all library books: One 2009 novel, one non-fiction bestseller also from 2009, and a recent book of short stories.
Also, my friend with a Kindle the other day told me he put a PDF on his unit and Amazon charged him $2.50...just to put his own PDF onto the Kindle.
I loaded about 20 PDFs onto my Nook so far. If I had a Kindle that would have cost me $50? No thanks.
Nook also has games on it now, Chess and Sudoku. Haven't played Sudoku yet.
It's also fun to go into the B&N store with it and get the free stuff, and coupons.
The web browser, well, it's better than nothing, but pretty clumsy.
It's fun just to browse books in the "shop" area, read the reviews, the sample chapters.
"Also, my friend with a Kindle the other day told me he put a PDF on his unit and Amazon charged him $2.50...just to put his own PDF onto the Kindle."
a) You can copy pdf's across to your Kindle just like a flash drive, and the Kindle supports pdf viewing natively. For free.
(Personally I don't like viewing PDF's on the small screen, so I usually convert the books to another format (MOBI or TXT) in Calibre before copying over. This then gives full control over resizing the text, etc. which you can't do with the basic PDF viewer on the Kindle.)
b) You can give your Kindle an email address and email pdf's to your Kindle. For free.
c) You would never need to pay to put something on your Kindle if you are familiar with using a computer... nothing technical, just not a total newbie.
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere" -- Carl Sagan
I'm going to give in and get a kindle by summertime. I was originally going to get a Nook Color, and it sounds really really cool, but I'm not so good with LCD screens up close. I mean, it doesn't cause actual eye damage, but it does strain my eyes a bit and I am prone to migraines (not that LCD causes migraines for me- they might start up a mild headache, but they usually just make any current migraine worse ). My computer monitor is LCD and I find myself having to blink a lot or turn off the monitor. (It's gotten better since I turned down the brightness, but the problem's still there.)
I'll probably end up testing both out just to be sure. I'd get a nook color if graphic novels were available on ereaders but, alas, not yet. That and it's what, $250?
Big bright accent, catty smile
Oscar Wilde confrontation
Ah, live like it's the style.
...
). My computer monitor is LCD and I find myself having to blink a lot or turn off the monitor. (It's gotten better since I turned down the brightness, but the problem's still there.)
