Burn your books! [eReaders] are here!

Fiskav

LoneIgadzra wrote:

Sorry to just jump in randomly, but I'd like some buying advice. A big reason I don't read much is carrying around books is a pain, so I'm pretty close to just ordering a Kindle now that they're so cheap. But there are some other options, and one of the main genres I read is books on computer programming (I am a web developer). These tend to be thick and cumbersome and have large diagrams and code examples. Are these basically pointless on Kindle/Nook? Should I just save for an iPad? Can you read PDF's on an e-reader at all?

I also have a moderate collection of "old-fashioned" books. Will I basically have to re-buy any I want on my electric book?

Also, Kindle or Nook?

You can read PDFs, depending on the size.

Really, it boils down to two choices.

Are you prepared to buy an iPad (more expensive option), read on an LCD screen (it hurts to read for a long period of time)?

Or would you prefer to buy a Kindle (fairly inexpensive), smaller screen (or the Kindle DX - is this even still out anymore?), with e-Ink (less eye-strain)?

Cantido

Fiskav wrote:

LoneIgadzra wrote:

Sorry to just jump in randomly, but I'd like some buying advice. A big reason I don't read much is carrying around books is a pain, so I'm pretty close to just ordering a Kindle now that they're so cheap. But there are some other options, and one of the main genres I read is books on computer programming (I am a web developer). These tend to be thick and cumbersome and have large diagrams and code examples. Are these basically pointless on Kindle/Nook? Should I just save for an iPad? Can you read PDF's on an e-reader at all?

I also have a moderate collection of "old-fashioned" books. Will I basically have to re-buy any I want on my electric book?

Also, Kindle or Nook?

You can read PDFs, depending on the size.

Really, it boils down to two choices.

Are you prepared to buy an iPad (more expensive option), read on an LCD screen (it hurts to read for a long period of time)?

Or would you prefer to buy a Kindle (fairly inexpensive), smaller screen (or the Kindle DX - is this even still out anymore?), with e-Ink (less eye-strain)?

Read reviews carefully. I got a Kindle because this is the first time a course has had textbooks available cheaper on Kindle, two no less. Both books are good but one of them reviewed poorly because it was not formatted nicely for Kindle. My teacher's PDFs come out very nicely on Kindle as well, so no more printing for me.

ArcSyn

You may want to check out a Kindle Fire/Nook Tablet/Android tablet before you jump all the way to an iPad price point. There are excellent 7" devices that maintain portability of size and allow for decent reading of PDFs.

E-ink devices, from what I've been told from friends who have tried, don't work very well for PDFs due to zooming and page flow issues.

adytum

I read (and annotate) a lot of academic and technical publications and books that are available only in PDF. Depending on the formatting of the publication, it can be difficult to read even on the 10" iPad screen. I have difficulty imagining reading a regular publication on a 7" screen, much less one of the less-favorably formatted publications.

I also have an e-reader that I use for books and documents published in the ebook formats, and it's a great supplement to the iPad. The iPad is much better at displaying PDFs and doing annotations, while the e-reader is superior for displaying non-formatted texts that require a minimal amount of annotation.

Cyvros

ArcSyn wrote: »

E-ink devices, from what I've been told from friends who have tried, don't work very well for PDFs due to zooming and page flow issues.

This. IIRC, some Sony readers have PDF reflow, so they might be worth a look. Also, the Kobo Touch has pretty good PDF support, plus relatively fast zooming and panning.

LoneIgadzra

Thanks for the input! A big issue for me is eyestrain since I spend all day in front of a computer already. Makes an ipad fairly low priority for me, even though I like them a lot. I'll probably just get the cheap small kindle and go from there, since the size is perfect for a lot of things.

Anyone want to weigh in on buttons vs touch?

Xeddicus

I haven't actually used a buttoned Kindle, but I assumed it would better or at least more convenient and probably is. On the other hand, everything being touch on the Fire hasn't pissed me off and it works. On the other other hand, they charge more for the touch and that seems backwards if buttons are better, so...yeah, whatever you want.

Cyvros

I've owned all three Kobos (two buttoned models, one touch) and I play around with Kindles (the Kindle Keyboard and the basic Kindle) a lot because I sell them at work, and at this point, I prefer touch input. If you want to cover all your bases, try out the Nook Simple Touch, because it has physical page turn buttons as well as touch input.

Keep in mind that some ereaders allow you to configure which areas of the screen you touch to navigate between pages. The Kobo Touch has three settings for the touch 'zones' (a 'normal' layout, a left-handed layout and a right-handed one), plus directional swiping. The Kindle has pre-defined touch zones (left margin to go back a page, the rest to go forward a page). I couldn't find a diagram for the Kobo's zones, but this is it for the Kindle (they're fucking tap zones, Bezos; you don't need to have a catchy new name for things that have been around for years).

If you're definitely looking at a Kindle and you're tossing up between the basic one and the Keyboard one, though, go for either of the Keyboard models. Double the battery life, double the storage, wider page turn buttons and you won't have to use the D-pad all the time just to write notes or search for things.

Xeddicus wrote:

I haven't actually used a buttoned Kindle, but I assumed it would better or at least more convenient and probably is. On the other hand, everything being touch on the Fire hasn't pissed me off and it works. On the other other hand, they charge more for the touch and that seems backwards if buttons are better, so...yeah, whatever you want.

The Kindle Keyboard is the older model, formerly the third generation Kindle. The Kindle Touch is part of the fourth generation models, and the hardware required for touch is more expensive than the hardware for plain ol' buttons.

Xeddicus

Oh, I know the actual reasons for it being more. But the consumer doesn't get anything out of touch possibly, so why possibly pay more. I was just looking at nonsense pricing for Dead Island in various mediums/locations, so it sprang to mind.

Cyvros

There's a difference between region pricing for games (total bullshit) and different prices for different devices (often bullshit, sometimes not). It's not "possibly" the consumer doesn't get anything out of it. Amongst other things, the consumer gets a physically smaller, thinner and lighter device that is also arguably far more aesthetically pleasing. Highlighting is also less time consuming because you're not D-padding everywhere. There's also the X-Ray feature, which is only available for the Touch and the Fire.

sir_pinch-a-loaf

The Touch also has higher storage capacity and a longer battery life.

Elin

Cyvros wrote:

There's a difference between region pricing for games (total bullshit) and different prices for different devices (often bullshit, sometimes not). It's not "possibly" the consumer doesn't get anything out of it. Amongst other things, the consumer gets a physically smaller, thinner and lighter device that is also arguably far more aesthetically pleasing. Highlighting is also less time consuming because you're not D-padding everywhere. There's also the X-Ray feature, which is only available for the Touch and the Fire.

The Fire doesn't have x-ray. Unless it's just mine that's lacking it. Conspiracies.

Cyvros

sir_pinch-a-loaf wrote:

The Touch also has higher storage capacity and a longer battery life.

Compared to the basic, yep, but it's the same as the Keyboard (4GB/30 hours).

Elin wrote:

The Fire doesn't have x-ray. Unless it's just mine that's lacking it. Conspiracies.

Hrm. My bad. I thought I'd read that it was available for the Fire. That sucks.

warder808

How is the Nook Tablet? I might pick one up soon.

mightyspacepope

So I'm thinking about picking up a Kindle Fire (although I'll probably wait a little bit to get the next generation of it). Quick question for people who use the Comixology app:

Do you have to be connected to the Wireless network to read the comics you've bought? Or can you read them offline?

Elin

mightyspacepope wrote: »

So I'm thinking about picking up a Kindle Fire (although I'll probably wait a little bit to get the next generation of it). Quick question for people who use the Comixology app:

Do you have to be connected to the Wireless network to read the comics you've bought? Or can you read them offline?

You have access to anything that has been downloaded onto the device. Anything on a server or the cloud is not going to be there.

mightyspacepope

Elin wrote: »

mightyspacepope wrote: »

So I'm thinking about picking up a Kindle Fire (although I'll probably wait a little bit to get the next generation of it). Quick question for people who use the Comixology app:

Do you have to be connected to the Wireless network to read the comics you've bought? Or can you read them offline?

You have access to anything that has been downloaded onto the device. Anything on a server or the cloud is not going to be there.

Thanks. I guess I'm trying to ask, though, if you need to be connected to the Wireless for the Comixology app to work.

Centipede Damascus

Once you purchase comics from Comixology, they are downloaded onto your device and you do not need to be connected to the wireless to read them.

Thanatos

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

Once you purchase comics from Comixology, they are downloaded onto your device and you do not need to be connected to the wireless to read them.

This applies to the free comics, too.

LoneIgadzra

So I love my new Kindle touch except for one problem: occasionally I'll be reading a book - even one from Amazon! - it won't be able to display some character, such as an accented 'e', e.g. é. (it will be replaced with a little square of garbage.) An easy example is the free "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which is messed up every time there's a pound sign. Is there anything I can do about this? I'm amazed a device designed for reading text wouldn't take great pains to have robust unicode support.

I suppose I shouldn't complain too loudly when the main instances I've observed were from free books or web pages I converted using cailbre, but still.

JHunz

LoneIgadzra wrote: »

So I love my new Kindle touch except for one problem: occasionally I'll be reading a book - even one from Amazon! - it won't be able to display some character, such as an accented 'e', e.g. é. (it will be replaced with a little square of garbage.) An easy example is the free "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which is messed up every time there's a pound sign. Is there anything I can do about this? I'm amazed a device designed for reading text wouldn't take great pains to have robust unicode support.
I suppose I shouldn't complain too loudly when the main instances I've observed were from free books or web pages I converted using cailbre, but still.

That's nothing to do with the device, or Amazon either. That's just fucked up OCR and bad proofing. I've seen it on free books - both the classics and in indie stuff, I've seen it in Baen books from Webscriptions, and I've seen it on books I've paid for from various publishers. It'll generally be one specific character that's fucked up throughout the entire book , and you can tell it's lousy OCR because sometimes it'll be something like an apostrophe that is the offender (plus it'll be fucked up in the same way regardless of what device you're reading it on).

I find it almost offensively lazy that they charge money for ebooks that it's obvious nobody has bothered to proofread, though.

Darmak

JHunz wrote: »

LoneIgadzra wrote: »

So I love my new Kindle touch except for one problem: occasionally I'll be reading a book - even one from Amazon! - it won't be able to display some character, such as an accented 'e', e.g. é. (it will be replaced with a little square of garbage.) An easy example is the free "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which is messed up every time there's a pound sign. Is there anything I can do about this? I'm amazed a device designed for reading text wouldn't take great pains to have robust unicode support.
I suppose I shouldn't complain too loudly when the main instances I've observed were from free books or web pages I converted using cailbre, but still.

That's nothing to do with the device, or Amazon either. That's just fucked up OCR and bad proofing. I've seen it on free books - both the classics and in indie stuff, I've seen it in Baen books from Webscriptions, and I've seen it on books I've paid for from various publishers. It'll generally be one specific character that's fucked up throughout the entire book , and you can tell it's lousy OCR because sometimes it'll be something like an apostrophe that is the offender (plus it'll be fucked up in the same way regardless of what device you're reading it on).

I find it almost offensively lazy that they charge money for ebooks that it's obvious nobody has bothered to proofread, though.

Yeah, that's not to do with the device or Amazon, I've been able to read books on Old English and it displayed characters like þ, ƿ, and ð just fine.

Xeddicus

My Fire will just decide to blank out an entire page for some reason once in a great while and to fix it you just need to turn a page and it reopens the current one. Like it opens between the pages then realizes its mistake. No idea what does that, though, as it seems random.

Darmak

If I were you I'd send Amazon an email. If it's a problem with the device I'm sure they'll fix it for you.

Xeddicus

It's so rare it's not even worth the effort of an email. It would seem to be a software issue, too, but I don't really know. Long as it's just a single tap once every 200 pages or more to fix I'll live with it.

Elin

For those of you with Kindles: Google Play (aka the android market) now has books on sale regularly. Amazon is quietly price matching 99% of these sales. So far I've come across only 1 sale price that wasn't matched. So if you have access to Google Play you can take advantage of this pricing.

Nook users benefit as well as I believe Google ebooks are compatible with Nooks.

GenlyAi

Question for the thread:

I want to get either a Kindle Touch or a Nook Touch. For "ecosystem" reasons, I'm leaning toward the Kindle, but at my local Best Buy yesterday, it seemed like the display Kindle took much longer for page turns than the Nook did. Like maybe 3/4 second vs 1/4 second. Is this a known difference between the two devices, or could it be just a quirk of the display models? Are there any other advantages to the Nook that I should know about?

ArcSyn

GenlyAi wrote: »

Question for the thread:

I want to get either a Kindle Touch or a Nook Touch. For "ecosystem" reasons, I'm leaning toward the Kindle, but at my local Best Buy yesterday, it seemed like the display Kindle took much longer for page turns than the Nook did. Like maybe 3/4 second vs 1/4 second. Is this a known difference between the two devices, or could it be just a quirk of the display models? Are there any other advantages to the Nook that I should know about?

Nook may have patched to have a faster page speed. I don't know if that is what you are seeing. Link to a great comparison review:
http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/kindle-vs-nook-99-e-ink-touch-readers-face-119062

Centipede Damascus

GenlyAi wrote: »

Are there any other advantages to the Nook that I should know about?

The nook supports the open source ePUB standard for ebooks, and the Kindle doesn't. The main benefit of this is many libraries these days have ebook lending services, which use ePUB books.

Also if you're having trouble with your nook and you live near a B&N, you can take it right in to the store. Another neat thing is when you're in the store with your nook, they will have special deals on certain books you can only get if you have a nook.

JHunz

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

GenlyAi wrote: »

Are there any other advantages to the Nook that I should know about?

The nook supports the open source ePUB standard for ebooks, and the Kindle doesn't. The main benefit of this is many libraries these days have ebook lending services, which use ePUB books.

Also if you're having trouble with your nook and you live near a B&N, you can take it right in to the store. Another neat thing is when you're in the store with your nook, they will have special deals on certain books you can only get if you have a nook.

You can also borrow library books with the Kindle from any library that uses Overdrive for their ebook offerings (although I really do wish the Kindle had ePub support for other reasons). And if your Kindle is in warranty they'll overnight a new one to you for free.

GenlyAi

Thanks everyone.

Just to update, I got a Kindle. Pretty sure the difference in page turn speed I observed in the store was due to the kindle being set to fully refresh the screen on every page turn, and the nook not. I don't think there's much difference if they're set the same.

Thanks again for your advice.

Heisenberg

Is color e-ink ever going to come out?

ArcSyn

Heisenberg wrote: »

Is color e-ink ever going to come out?

There are a few out there, but the colors are very washed out so it's not quite ready for proper consumer devices. I'm waiting less than patiently myself for it.

Heisenberg

ArcSyn wrote: »

Heisenberg wrote: »

Is color e-ink ever going to come out?

There are a few out there, but the colors are very washed out so it's not quite ready for proper consumer devices. I'm waiting less than patiently myself for it.

Same.

valhalla130

I've been looking at the different options, and I think I might want a Nook because of the fact I can go into the local B&N and actually hold one and try it out. That means a lot to an older guy like me. I've been trying to decide between an e-ink one or the Color, and the only reason I might need the Color is if I'm trying to read comics or want to check my email or play games. All things I don't really need it for. The only thing I really want it for is reading. All the other things, while very nice, would be highly distracting. And the Black Library fully supports e-books, so that is my main reason for wanting to get this.

If I went with a regular Nook, it would be cheaper, and I could get quite a few books for free, from Project Gutenberg. In fact, I already have. Is there anything I need to do when I get my Nook to make sure these books will work on it?

Bullio

Most retail outlets like Walmart and Best Buy have demo Kindle units, for what it's worth, and they're placed next to Nooks. So you could hold one of each in each hand if you wanted to and try them out side by side.

Centipede Damascus

valhalla130 wrote: »

If I went with a regular Nook, it would be cheaper, and I could get quite a few books for free, from Project Gutenberg. In fact, I already have. Is there anything I need to do when I get my Nook to make sure these books will work on it?

No, not really, but I would recommend downloading Adobe Digital Editions, it's a program that helps organize your ebooks and sync them from your computer to the nook.

BobCesca

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

valhalla130 wrote: »

If I went with a regular Nook, it would be cheaper, and I could get quite a few books for free, from Project Gutenberg. In fact, I already have. Is there anything I need to do when I get my Nook to make sure these books will work on it?

No, not really, but I would recommend downloading Adobe Digital Editions, it's a program that helps organize your ebooks and sync them from your computer to the nook.

Really? I hate Digital Editions with a passion. I'd be much more likely to suggest Calibre for organisation and syncing.

Centipede Damascus

I've never used Calibre, but I haven't had any problems personally with Digital Editions.

Shen

Now that we finally get to have what y'all have had for like a year, how much better is the Kindle Touch compared to the Kindle Keyboard?