Kindle vs. the iPad

[michchick98]

As far as importing LIT stories onto the Kindle, I save them in Open Office, then export them to .PDF . I send my favorites to my friends and they import them directly to their Kindles. That should work the same with the iPad. Hopefully.

I do the same for my Sony Reader, although, epub seems to be the best format for that particular device and I have a program that converts stuff to epub format. I can download pretty much anything and put it on the reader, without the software (since it seems to have stopped working for me anyway) and have no issues with any of it. Even books that I'd already purchased through the Sony Reader store are still readable/viewable.

I prefer books in the aspect that there's nothing like the feeling of a good book in my hands, but it's rather difficult to carry around 100s of print books in my purse.

ETA: Well, not so much "prefer" but I do like the feel of a book in my hands, but the reader is nice also because it allows me the freedom to carry multiple books around with ease.

 

[SirLicksAalot]

I've thought about buying a kindle, but I really believe I'd miss the absolute pleasure of a book in my hands, turning the pages, becoming lost in the story - I don't think an e-reader can bring the same experience as a book can.

Besides, I have an entire room given over to my books and cds...and I like it that way.

One should only be so lucky

 

[SeaCat]

I like both the Kindle and the Sony but I just can't justify the price of two of them right now. (It would have to be two of them as my wife likes them as well.)

Cat

 

[cloudy]

One should only be so lucky

When we bought the house, that was one of the stipulations: a room of my own.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I've thought about buying a kindle, but I really believe I'd miss the absolute pleasure of a book in my hands, turning the pages, becoming lost in the story - I don't think an e-reader can bring the same experience as a book can.

Besides, I have an entire room given over to my books and cds...and I like it that way.

Just a room? My entire house is lined with books and they spill out onto everything, as well. Once I'm retired and the stereo is upgraded (I'm not going to admit how old it is!) then the CD's will proliferate as well.

But back to the subject at hand. I think Apple is onto something with the newspaper schtick. I, too, prefer a book in my paws but I also like to read newspapers and not having to deal with recycling the weight of paper subscribing to one (or two or three or . . . ) would be a definite blessing. Can you make phone calls on the IPad as well?

 

[SirLicksAalot]

Just a room? My entire house is lined with books and they spill out onto everything, as well. Once I'm retired and the stereo is upgraded (I'm not going to admit how old it is!) then the CD's will proliferate as well.

But back to the subject at hand. I think Apple is onto something with the newspaper schtick. I, too, prefer a book in my paws but I also like to read newspapers and not having to deal with recycling the weight of paper subscribing to one (or two or three or . . . ) would be a definite blessing. Can you make phone calls on the IPad as well?

I think someone here has already said it. With Apple and most companies, new devices don't come out with all the expected technology already available at the time of launching. Upgrades are ration into succeeding versions, just look at the iPhone.

Pretty soon, iPad will have a mic jack (my estimate is v3), which pretty much opens it up for VOIP and the like.

 

[SeaCat]

So how does the Nook measure up to these others?

Cat

 

[michchick98]

I think Apple is onto something with the newspaper schtick. I, too, prefer a book in my paws but I also like to read newspapers and not having to deal with recycling the weight of paper subscribing to one (or two or three or . . . ) would be a definite blessing. Can you make phone calls on the IPad as well?

When my reader software was working properly, I could subscribe to newspapers and magazines as well. I've spent the last three weeks trying to figure out why it just stopped working. Not that I read the newspaper much, but I liked being able to manage all my ebooks from the reader software.

 

[3113]

Can you make phone calls on the IPad as well?

Nope. Part of that was the desire to keep the price down. However, it does look like they have a place for a camera and it's possible that there will be some kind phone/video chat option (as well as picture and maybe video taking) in the future. For right now, they seem to want to put the device out on the market and see how it sells. Likely if it does well, they'll offer more expensive versions that can do more.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I had an idea for a reader...

It was the size of a DVD case, one of the thicker ones so we could get all the guts in. It would have two screens, just like a real book. To turn the page you would just flip the side you want the page turned from. That way you could go forwards or backwards at the flip of a page.

Of course there were also on screen buttons and such.

 

[3113]

iPad Review from Boing-Boing

Well, Boing-Boing likes it. But they're a buncha Nerds In regards to the ebook part of the iPad, an author of a science book had this to say:

"The Elements [his book] on iPad is not a game, not an app, not a TV show. It's a book. But it's Harry Potter's book. This is the version you check out from the Hogwarts library. Everything in it is alive in some way....The Kindle is a great device, and I own several...But the concept of an e-book has always been that it's like PDF. Imagine if the web standard was PDF instead of html, if everyone's web pages consisted of what you can do in PDF? That would be a really boring world. I hate to see ebooks as being pigeonholed as these static, PDFlike things, in which the biggest 'a-ha' you can have is an exciting pageturning animation, or search...."

Which is pretty much what we've been noting here. If you want a paper book made electronic (PDF), no muss, no fuss, keep-it-simple-stupid, then Kindle is the way to go. And much cheaper, too. If you get an iPad, then you've got a small computer and all that brings you.

Full review here.