B&N nook vs Amazon Kindle

[KarthVader]

Both look like great pieces of technology, but I think the nook might have the edge in this contest.

For the time being, unless there is a price drop, I'm gonna stick to the good old analog way of reading books aka open a book and read.

What's the consensus ladies and gents?

I think what is most interesting is the leap in technology we are seeing and will be seeing in the upcoming years.

 

[taprater]

I've considered a kindle for ease of travel but I agree unless there is a price drop it's a tad too expensive for my taste at the moment.

 

[WhosYerBob]

Yup, price stills needs to come down and more functionality needs to be built in. Also, ebook pricing is still *way* out of line.

 

[40_Caliber]

Yup, price stills needs to come down and more functionality needs to be built in. Also, ebook pricing is still *way* out of line.

+1
I would stay away from these first generation products. The days of single-purpose personal electronics are numbered. As multi-purpose devices like the iPhone and Net-books become more common place devices like the Kindle and the Nook will go the way of the dinosaur. Additionally, I don't like the business strategy behind these book readers. Lock-in.

As an example, I have e-book software installed on my iphone that works very well.
.40

 

[chris456]

I agree that the Nook has an edge. I also agree that the price is a little high for me for a dedicated ebook reader.

One thing that draws me to both though, is that e-ink screen . I think that is great stuff, so much easier on the eyes.

I don't think the price per book is that bad. 9.99 for a new release is reasonable.

Prices for these will be coming down though. With apple and microsoft talking about tablets, dedicated devices will have to give a little in price.

I still want a Nook though, and I am fighting the urge to just get one.

 

[chainfire]

Being book lovers, I guess my wife and I just don't get this trend. There are startling problems with the whole idea behind electronic books for us.

- We read A LOT, and would still be hard pressed to pay anything for either technology...even if they gave them away free, it's doubtful we'd jump on the bandwagon. 90% of the books we buy are used, borrowed or will be resold after a gentle reading, thus negating the supposed 'cost savings'. Electronic books don't allow resale or lending of purchased books as far as I know.

- If I lose or drop a book, I don't cry over it...and they seem as portable (if not moreso) than these readers (no need to take a recharger with you at least).

- Even though they apologized for deleting 1984 from their kindles, Amazon's still sticking to their policy that they are able to remove content you purchased at any time as long as they refund your purchase price...yikes! No book store comes to my house and steals back books they regret selling me.

 

[Emmett]

Besides the problems already noted, I'd need much greater functionality to make the leap. Books are essentially perfect IMO, therefore it is not enough for an e-reader to let me read. It needs to be a substantial improvement over what a book can provide me.

 

[arcman]

Besides the problems already noted, I'd need much greater functionality to make the leap. Books are essentially perfect IMO, therefore it is not enough for an e-reader to let me read. It needs to be a substantial improvement over what a book can provide me.

Some would say the tech is pretty competitive!

 

[infotech]

Prices are too high for me at this point, but once they go down I'll be all over one of them. I like PDF books for the simple fact that finding information is so much easier and you can have your books at your disposal anywhere you are at the time.

The one feature that sounds pretty interesting on the B&N reader is that you have the potential to share books. I haven't looked into the feature yet, but what I have read sounds pretty interesting.

 

[SiBurning]

Even though they apologized for deleting 1984

Funny you should mention 1984. I recycled my copy just this morning along with two large boxes of books. Before you go all a-ghost, one was just horror books, so I left those in the lobby for my neighbor's Halloween reading. The other was mostly old textbooks, and a dozen crappy novels. 1984 was the only one that caught my attention. It'll soon be fodder for new trashy novels along with Statistics for Underwater Basket Weaving Majors or some such title.

I'd really like a screen I could use to read at night that was real easy to use. Don't care at all about content, as long as it supports text, pdf, and whatever other formats I can get old out of copyright books. Much as I like to hold a book, it's hard to keep a book open lying on my side. Sounds like it's not the right time yet.

 

[Emmett]

Some would say the tech is pretty competitive!

 

[gollum83]

Being book lovers, I guess my wife and I just don't get this trend. There are startling problems with the whole idea behind electronic books for us.

- We read A LOT, and would still be hard pressed to pay anything for either technology...even if they gave them away free, it's doubtful we'd jump on the bandwagon. 90% of the books we buy are used, borrowed or will be resold after a gentle reading, thus negating the supposed 'cost savings'. Electronic books don't allow resale or lending of purchased books as far as I know.

- If I lose or drop a book, I don't cry over it...and they seem as portable (if not moreso) than these readers (no need to take a recharger with you at least).

- Even though they apologized for deleting 1984 from their kindles, Amazon's still sticking to their policy that they are able to remove content you purchased at any time as long as they refund your purchase price...yikes! No book store comes to my house and steals back books they regret selling me.

I don't get it either.

 

[Thelonius1]

Just got one as a gift. I agree they will go the way of Betamax, CD's and Standard DVD's soon enough. However, being able to load the RUles of Civil Procedure, heresay exceptions, with case citations, and a myriad of other pertinent items, it frees up an INCREDIBLE amount of room in the trial case and the Courts are fairly receptive to allowing them. Given that advantage, its a good thing, but I wouldn't have purchased it for myself.

Personally, the tangible feel of books and papers are part of their joy, perhaps I'm old fashioned but I love the smell of old bookstores and all that paper. Alas...

 

[kwk285]

I have a Kindle. I got it back in February. I really like it.

I travel every week for work. I like the fact that I can have several books in my briefcase taking up little room. I have about 25 books on my machine. I was able to get all of the books from anywhere from $3 to $ 10 less than the bookstore.

I showed my Kindle to my dad. He is starting to have issues with his vision. He loved to read by was reading less and less. I showed him that my Kindle could enlarge the print to a size that he can see. He had me order him one that day. He told me he is now reading a lot.

As with any piece of technology some will like it and some won't.

 

[Monkeydad]

I work in finance at the county's public library system.

Our largest library and some executive staff members tried out the Kindle next year and were grossly underwhelmed with it. There seemed to be issues with loading books on it and it did not seem to be user friendly at the time of its original release. The libraries have no plans to ever do anything with the kindle, although they are on the lookout for a good e-book source in the future and have experimented with other technologies like the Play-away, an audio book that is like an MP3 player that you can plug headphones into and slip in your pocket. They loan these out to patrons. (to extinguish any thoughts that the libraries may be anti-nonpaper books)

Sony just released one, which I have not checked out, but the price for any e-book reader is still too high in my opinion, much like early VCRs.

I do not believe that paper books will ever go extinct, although many media outlets and groups of people foresee a future of all books being electronic. It just won't ever happen.

 

[AndrewWiggin]

I disagree that just because it's dedicated it will go away, think about iPods. There's a good deal of readable content out there, and reading e-books off the iPhone just isn't the same. The display of the Kindle is probably it's biggest asset. It doesn't strain your eyes.

Saying that the Kindle or the Nook will be the next Betamax is very premature. It may end up that the Kindle replaces most mainline book purchases. I just got one as a birthday present, and I've wanted one for a while.

I agree that physical books are irreplaceable, but having a Kindle means I have multiple books with me at all times, and nothing to distract me (whereas an iPhone or tablet will have the internet). It's easier than carrying a book around, it's light, it will read to you, and you can adjust the text size and make notes. I am loathe to mark up an actual book, but since I've used the Kindle, I have notes everywhere. Couple that with the fact that you could replace textbooks with e-books, and you're cooking with gas. Using a laptop in class is a distraction, but the worst that a kid could do with a Kindle is read another book.

Basically, I don't see them going away. I see the price coming down and once they're more accessible, the savings on books will likely do to the publishing industry what Napster and iTunes did to the music industry.

 

[tg16]

Being book lovers, I guess my wife and I just don't get this trend. There are startling problems with the whole idea behind electronic books for us.

- We read A LOT, and would still be hard pressed to pay anything for either technology...even if they gave them away free, it's doubtful we'd jump on the bandwagon. 90% of the books we buy are used, borrowed or will be resold after a gentle reading, thus negating the supposed 'cost savings'. Electronic books don't allow resale or lending of purchased books as far as I know.

- If I lose or drop a book, I don't cry over it...and they seem as portable (if not moreso) than these readers (no need to take a recharger with you at least).

- Even though they apologized for deleting 1984 from their kindles, Amazon's still sticking to their policy that they are able to remove content you purchased at any time as long as they refund your purchase price...yikes! No book store comes to my house and steals back books they regret selling me.

I'm with you. My favorite book stores are the used ones. There's something about the feel of a book in the hand.

 

[chris456]

Being book lovers, I guess my wife and I just don't get this trend. There are startling problems with the whole idea behind electronic books for us.

- We read A LOT, and would still be hard pressed to pay anything for either technology...even if they gave them away free, it's doubtful we'd jump on the bandwagon. 90% of the books we buy are used, borrowed or will be resold after a gentle reading, thus negating the supposed 'cost savings'. Electronic books don't allow resale or lending of purchased books as far as I know.

- If I lose or drop a book, I don't cry over it...and they seem as portable (if not moreso) than these readers (no need to take a recharger with you at least).

- Even though they apologized for deleting 1984 from their kindles, Amazon's still sticking to their policy that they are able to remove content you purchased at any time as long as they refund your purchase price...yikes! No book store comes to my house and steals back books they regret selling me.

The Nook actually allows lending not just between Nooks, but macs and iphones.

Its not like e-readers are trying to replace books. I am a book lover as well, and think these are great.

When I get one it's not like I can't ever pick up a book. But as someone said above me some technology is not for everyone.

 

[airplanedoc]

I am somewhat interested in one. I borrowed a kindle from a friend recently to see if I would like it, and to find out more about it. She really likes hers, and gets many of her books for free from her local library. Apparently they have a e-book system that she can download and after a given amount of time they book is erased or locked out just like a regular library book. She says she is a very active reader, and it has paid for its self many times over. She also lives in a small town about 60 miles from the nearest bookstore, so it saves her considerably in gas and or shipping charges.

I don't see the e-reader going anywhere soon.
I think there will be more functionality to come
I cant's see the iphone's tiny screen being very book friendly
In my expereince a tool that is "multi purpose" usually provides sub par performance on everything it does.

 

[AndrewWiggin]

I should add in, I think the B&N Nook is pretty cool, it certainly looks slicker than the Kindle. That being said, the added features and colors would likely distract me (I have the attention span of a gnat).