Hi, I asked this question a while back in another thread, but since nobody is replying, maybe I'll fare better making a special thread for it.

My question is this:

Is there any REAL reason (besides for the name,  that I should be getting a Kindle above other e-readers?  I'm not ruling out ones that use LCD screens, since I'm not convinced e-ink is better. I never read in sunlight.

What's important to me is low price and value for money, reliability, and as wide a selection of file formats supported as possible.

Oh, and while I don't positively hate touchscreens, they're not a preference of mine.  I don't really need wi-fi on the thing either, I prefer using it like a mass-storage device on my PC.

But multiple media and formats can be a plus, especially multiple document formats supported.

So, perhaps the bottom line is: how far does the evidence go that e-ink is truly better for your eyes than LCD screens?  Is this hype or not? Is it worth the extra expense to get a device with e-ink technology?

Well Trav, I can only tell you that I wanted the Kindle fire, then after some research and alot of feedback online I decided to go with the Nook color reader because I wanted the extra stuff. Not that I need them, I just wanted them.   Like anything it just depends what you want to use it for. Also for me for me the black and white readers just dont make it, for some reason even though I read the paper everyday in black and white and read online all the time, when I look at those screens, its just not comfortable for my eyes.

The Kindle is also a few ounces lighter than the Nook if that means anything to you, for me it didnt.

 Wish I could give you more help with it but I think its a personal preference and when you go out to stores and start playing with them you'll decide which is right for you.

Thanks, Helen.  I was looking at some LCD screen devices that pack in a lot more features at a lower price; so I would have to get that very latest very basic Kindle 4 that just does ebooks and nothing else if I had to go for a kindle in the same price range.  Since e-ink devices is so much more expensive than LCD devices, I was wondering if it's really worth paying all that much more extra for the e-ink technology, you know?  But, yes, I guess I need to physically get hold of a few models and see if it makes any difference to me personally. 

I already have devices that play MP3 and MP4, so I guess just ebooks alone on the thingie would be fine for me.    Hmmmm....

Instead of a Kindle, I can get myself the Nintendo 3DS on which I can also of course do a lot of gaming, but my problem is to get hold of the SD card that will allow me to put ebooks on to the device.

Also, for the same price as the nintendo, I can myself an Android tablet, the

MSI Wind Pad Enjoy

Features & Specifications:

 I know you get some games for the Android OS, but, all in all if I can only get a card for the DS, I truly think the 3DS would be a better buy.  Of course there are many more games available for the nintendo since it's primarily a gaming device.  the 3Ds is also backwards compatible, so i'll be able to play the Zelda games on it. 

Neither, none, never.

I will repeat what I posted in another thread....do NOT use digitial readers if you love books. If you dont care about them enough to respect this request soon there may be no books at all, and kids will especially be harmed by digital junk. There are NO filters or processes in place for maintaining quality in digital creation of what appear to be books. Traddional publishing required resxources and investment of the print run and the setting up of the type, fonts, layout, etc. All of that traddton presvered quality and was a barreir to junk being made into what appears to be valid and actual quality, in truth any idiot with a word processor can now create what can appear to be a book.

Here is what i said and feel, with all my heart:

Please Please Please Traveller, get a real book. we MUST boycott all the electronic readers if we love books and publishing, otherwise we will all just become outlets for digital trash.

It takes a real book publisher to know how to publish books of quality and the readers are ridiculous toys of the idle digitally handicapped modern generations. I will never ever use one and I urge any who love books and the quality filters and knowledge of real publishers to ban and forbid them not only to themsleves but especialy to young people.

Part of the problem is that the way our visual cortex and our brains work, when we read things digitally it is accesed by lower intelligence first, and the higher realms of thought never have a chance to be engaged. It is a factor of what Pavlov in 1912 discovered to be what he called the Orienting Reflex. This means reading a book on a reader will seem normal but it is really not going to reach your higher or left side of your brain.

Ban Readers, Save Books.

Theres so much stuff out there it will make your head spin.

 I had no idea you could do that with the nintendo 3DS. My oldest son and nephew both have them and I dont think I've ever even looked at them.

 But yeah, when you get out to the stores and actually start playing with them is when you'll know better what you want. And of course that will be everything. At least thats always the case with me.

 Its fun shopping for that stuff, I always worry once I buy if I made the right decision and even though I havent done a whole lot with my Nook yet. Im very happy with it so far.

Heres the thing about that Cris, and I agree with most of what you say and will always buy physical books. But in my case I prefer the large print and its much easier on my eyes. But the Library only carries so many titles in large print and I cant always get what Im looking for.

 I certainly hope readers wont take the place of real books or newspapers. I love reading my newspaper at the kitchen table every morning with a cup of coffee and a reader just wouldnt be the same.

Chris, like I said to another person who is of like mind with you, we have so many paper books in our house that we are literally falling over them.  Our bookshelves are 3 books deep stacked sideways,and the shelves are litearlly bending under the weight.  We've started stacking them on the floor, and some stacks are already obscuring other stacks behind them.

Besides that, I find many books too bulky and heavy to hold, I prefer a screen that stands by itself, it saves my neck and back.  Also, I cannot carry 1 000 paper books in my handbag which I can do with e-books.  Especially now that I am going away for a week, flying by plane, I'm limited on luggage.

I have no idea where you get your ideas from about that the cerebral cortex processes text read on a screen differently than text read on paper; please link to references or quote references. The e-ink people would love that argument I suspect, since e-ink is supposed to exactly the same as a paper book.  However, i have been reading my e-books on an LCD (my PC) screen for over a year now, including my academic work which I got distinctions for.

Just imagine how well I would have done had I been reading off paper or e-ink. LOL

Paper books will never go away unless people start burning the vast amount of paper books already printed.  There will always be outlets for them, but like I say, my personal book needs are more vast than I have space for (Why don't you have a peek at us on     Goodreads?  You'll notice I have really a lot of books in my 'to-read" shelf and I just keep adding.  (I'm Traveller there as well, and if you join, just send me a friend request and I'll add you)

Most importantly though it is VERY IMPORTANT that as world population and literacy increases, that we find alternatives to printing paper books as our natural resouces (read: TREES)  dwindle.

I feel VERY strongly about this issue.

Save our planet earth by saving trees!  

Trav: In the Sept, 2011 issue of Consumer Reports, they reported on e-readers. Here's some of what they said, "If you read mainly books, a fine e-book reader remains your best choice. Its lighter weight will make it more comfortable to hold during sustained reading. And the text on an e-ink screen is easier to read than the text on tablets' LCD screens. That's especially true in bright light, where LCD screens tend to wash out but e-ink ones remain quite readable. Longetivey is another plus: Devices with e-ink screens run for weeks or even months on a battery charge, compared with the hours of runtime for devices with an LCD screen...If have a more varied menu of reading material (ie. magazines & newspapers) a tablet might suit you because of their color screens... For e-book readers, we recommend a smaller size range.'

They rate the Nook Simple Touch Reader and the Kindle at the top with the Nook ahead by one point due to better file support and page-turning, the latter likely due to the fact that the Nook touch screen has a page-turning icon. The ratings don't take into account the presence/absence of a touch-screen or the number of available books. The Nook would win on the former and the Kindle on the latter.

I have 3 Kindles, the original small & large and the latest small (ie. the largest selling e-ink Kindle at the moment- the Amazon Fire is not e-ink). I like almost everything about the latest Kindle except for the brief flash that occurs when you 'turn' the page. It is true for all e-inkers, but I don't know if the one or the other of the Nook or Kindle does it better. Having the present 'king of LCD tablets', the iPad, I still believe that the e-ink screens are superior for prolonged reading, longer battery life and the ability to read anywhere including in full sun at the beach.

One final note: While I can easily recommend the Kindle, the present model has been out for awhile and my guess is that Amazon is not going to let the Nook Simple Touch get away with being the only major touch e-ink e-reader ie. I wouldn't be surprised that a new Kindle will be coming out in the next few months.

Trav, I have a Kobo touch reader that I got as a gift. I usually buy my books from Chapter/Indigo rather than Amazon, so the Kobo was the better choice.Here's my thoughts.

Pros:

It's light and easy to read. Many of the books I read are 800 pages +.

It has a dictionary built in and a highlighter for quotes. There are other functions, too, but I don't use them.

It holds a lot of books, easy to pack for holidays, but remember the charger.

You can adjust the font for easier reading.

The convenience of buying a book and start reading it in bed in under 5 minutes.

Cons:

I miss the colors of the covers, ,especially since I read mostly fantasy.

The illustrations suck. You cannot adjust the zoom and the writing is way too small. I either print out my illustrations and keep them in my Kobo cover, or just buy the regular book.

The pacing is off, since you can't easily tell when a section of POV or scene ends. There's usually a larger spacing in real books and you miss that on the screen, so it can jar you out of the story.

I often refer to appendices and illustrations in real books, just thumb ahead. It's much harder to do with an e-reader - finding your spot again.

My verdict. I will continue to buy my favorite authors and stories in paper. I may read the Kobo version, but I still want to have the real thing on my shelf.

Originally Posted By CrisGer

Neither, none, never.

 

I will repeat what I posted in another thread....do NOT use digitial readers if you love books. If you dont care about them enough to respect this request soon there may be no books at all, and kids will especially be harmed by digital junk. There are NO filters or processes in place for maintaining quality in digital creation of what appear to be books. Traddional publishing required resxources and investment of the print run and the setting up of the type, fonts, layout, etc. All of that traddton presvered quality and was a barreir to junk being made into what appears to be valid and actual quality, in truth any idiot with a word processor can now create what can appear to be a book.

 

Here is what i said and feel, with all my heart:

 

Please Please Please Traveller, get a real book. we MUST boycott all the electronic readers if we love books and publishing, otherwise we will all just become outlets for digital trash.

 

It takes a real book publisher to know how to publish books of quality and the readers are ridiculous toys of the idle digitally handicapped modern generations. I will never ever use one and I urge any who love books and the quality filters and knowledge of real publishers to ban and forbid them not only to themsleves but especialy to young people.

 

Part of the problem is that the way our visual cortex and our brains work, when we read things digitally it is accesed by lower intelligence first, and the higher realms of thought never have a chance to be engaged. It is a factor of what Pavlov in 1912 discovered to be what he called the Orienting Reflex. This means reading a book on a reader will seem normal but it is really not going to reach your higher or left side of your brain.

 

Ban Readers, Save Books.

Man is there so many things wrong with that statement.

* The assumption that publishers are the bywater of quality. LOL. Most publishers are only interested in how much money a book will make rather than the actualy quality of the book. Why do you think trash like Twilight gets published?

* The assumption that ebooks from the publishers don't go through the same processes as paper books is also aronious. Sure there are the options to self publish on Amazon etc, but the readers will ultimatly determine and review the quality of that stuff and the dreggs will filter themselves out, back to Fan Fiction websites etc. Just because you knock out a book doesn't mean anyone will actually read it.

* What is a REAL BOOK? Literature comes in many forms and delivery systems from Stone Tablets, Papyrus to paper etc. Ereaders are just another delivery system. Surely the most important aspect is the actual stories themselves. The delivery system is irrelevant.

This is nothing more than flat earth syndrom. Peoiple fear change even In Ancient Greece where Socretes decried the advent of this new fangled writing which would make everyone dumb.

It should surprise no student of history that this moment in time — when many of us feel as if we’re teetering on the edge of a brand-new technological cliff — can also be seen as a familiar human problem. Powers reminds us of when Socrates, the greatest of all oral communicators, was freaking out over “the very latest communications technology, written language based on an alphabet” (though as Powers concedes, “writing wasn’t completely new&rdquo

. Socrates believed that scrolls would erode thought by permitting people to forget what they had learned because they’d be able to look things up, that “they wouldn’t feel the need to ‘remember it from the inside, completely on their own.’ ” Worse, writing wouldn’t “allow ideas to flow freely and change in real time, the way they do in the mind during oral exchange.”

Onto the original question.

The Kindle is a waaay better experience for reading than using an LCD screen. The way the screen refracts light rather than emits and reflects light makes it virtually paper like to your eyes. Reading from LCD screens can be tiring on the eyes and lead to eye strain.

The Kindle is cheaper than a 3DS or Ipad/tablets ($79) and will give you a decent amount of storage and the largest library of ebooks available. You can also use Calibre library http://calibre-ebook.com/   - software for managing an electronic book library that can convert any format of ebook into which ever e-device you use.

I have hundreds of paper book in the house and I still love reading books that way and still buy certain books by my favourite authors, but 99% of my reading is now done on the kindle as it is far easier to carry around and access books on the move.

Thanks for the input, SirDave, Lucien and Colpet (and Helen of course).  I have a smartphone that I can theoretically read on, but the screen is too tiny, and like you mentioned, battery life is a problem.  The latter is one of the main reasons why I've been considering paying more for an e-ink device.

I was wondering what turning the pages are like, indeed - I've heard that on some devices that takes a while, and that would be a problem for me.  (I'm an impatient reader)

There is a cheapie Kindle out now, that does only B&W ereading and wi-fi, that I'm looking at getting; it's this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eReader-eBook-Reader-e-Reader-Special-Offers/dp/B0051QVESA

Oh, and PS.. Colpet is one of my 'friend' contacts at GR, and i happen to know that she really, really reads a LOT.  *And I mean a lot as in at least 2 books a week, if not more - sometimes a book a day..  

Oh, and i don't think it's possible that i ever CAN stop buying paper books.  Even if they stopped printing paper books, i'm a 2nd hand bookshop addict. That will never change.  It's a treat and therapy for me to visit such a store and come away with a bagful of treasures.

..but space is becoming a problem, so the ereader will be there for backup...

Very Quickly on the Nook, I just tap the page and it immediately slides over to the next page.

 Seems like the Kindle has just what your looking for so go for it, it was a toss up for me and I kept going back and forth then just decided I would go with the Nook for the extras.

Truthfully I changed my mind almost daily.   It was a Christmas gift from my husband so he bought it several weeks ago I would have gotten the Nook no matter what.

But everyday I would tell Him why I decided on the Kindle and then the next day I would tell him the Nook. So he kind of made my decision and Im happy with it.

The Nook does look nice, but I see that itt's once again an LCD screen, and the other tablet I was looking at is cheaper and possibly a bit more powerful.

One last question before I decide to go with the cheap Kindle:  Can I erase books again once I've read them?  I see the thingie only has 2 Gigs storage, and since I'm a fan of the Gutenburg project which sports tons of free books, I already have 2 Gigs worth of books on my PC hard drive.

So in comparison, 2 Gigs really isn't a lot... also, my smartphone came with 16 Gigs which I can upgrade by 32Gigs, so....

I'm very tempted to go ahead and get a 7" tablet.  Problem is that it weighs 395grams, wheras the small Kindle will weigh 170grams - quite a bit lighter.  So it's battery and weight vs e-ink and music, audiobooks, browsing, games, etc - multiple applications.  With an Android, I could play quite a few cool games, but that might be a waste since I don't spend much time commuting on public transport where I'd have hands free.

Sigh.  ..and the 3DS is also still a temptation...  Ok, read the other thread again, so maybe not...

PS. Have other people also been getting these irritating captchas again?

I feel your pain Trav. I told you your head would spin at all the stuff they have to offer out there, its hard to make a decision.

 Good luck!

Originally Posted By Traveller

I'm very tempted to go ahead and get a 7" tablet.  Problem is that it weighs 395grams...

Originally Posted By SirDave

Originally Posted By Traveller

I'm very tempted to go ahead and get a 7" tablet.  Problem is that it weighs 395grams...

It's all relative- be thankful you weren't Moses.

No kidding - he had two of them, but they broke shortly after got back into town.  Funny how some things never change

LOL, I'd have to be careful not to smash them/it into rocks... (For a moment my biblical history was a bit fuzzy, so it took me awhile before the image popped into my mind...)

So Trav....what did you end up getting?

 I love my Nook now that I have really started to play and read with it.  I also love the fact that I can read in bed at night without disturbing the hubby with my reading light.

 Im thinking I probably would have been happy with any of them to tell you the truth. Just being able to shop for books so easily and have them at your fingertips is great, I love it. 

I ended up getting a normal tablet with an LCD-screen, because it was the most readily available and I didn't have much time left.  I'd be happy with it if it wasn't for one thing:  Short battery life. 

There's a lot of wonderful things you can do with it, like game, watch videos, listen to music and audiobooks, and read books and documents, surf the 'net etc.   ..but you hardly get to do all those things because before you know, the battery's gone flat.. again!  gah.

...so for reading purposes, I'll get that cheapie Kindle as well, as as soon as I have some cash to spare.  In the end, the thing I thought would bother me more (weight) is bothering me less than the short battery life which I hadn't anticipated would be so much shorter than that of my mobile phone, which I use a lot less for all these kinds of activities.

So ironically I'm wanting to get an e-ink device not because I think it will make much difference to the visual aspect of reading (the LCD sometimes reflects shiny objects, but as far as the brightness goes, you can easily set that to fit in with the brightness of your surroundings), so that's not the main problem for me. 

However, e-ink devices have battery lives of weeks, whereas tablets have battery lives in terms of hours.

So yeah, the e-ink device's battery lives are about 5-10 times that of tablets, it would seem.

Originally Posted By SirDave (28 DEC 2011 12:07pm)

Trav: In the Sept, 2011 issue of Consumer Reports, they reported on e-readers. Here's some of what they said, "If you read mainly books, a fine e-book reader remains your best choice. Its lighter weight will make it more comfortable to hold during sustained reading. And the text on an e-ink screen is easier to read than the text on tablets' LCD screens. That's especially true in bright light, where LCD screens tend to wash out but e-ink ones remain quite readable. Longetivey is another plus: Devices with e-ink screens run for weeks or even months on a battery charge, compared with the hours of runtime for devices with an LCD screen...If have a more varied menu of reading material (ie. magazines & newspapers) a tablet might suit you because of their color screens... For e-book readers, we recommend a smaller size range.'

 

They rate the Nook Simple Touch Reader and the Kindle at the top with the Nook ahead by one point due to better file support and page-turning, the latter likely due to the fact that the Nook touch screen has a page-turning icon. The ratings don't take into account the presence/absence of a touch-screen or the number of available books. The Nook would win on the former and the Kindle on the latter.

 

I have 3 Kindles, the original small & large and the latest small (ie. the largest selling e-ink Kindle at the moment- the Amazon Fire is not e-ink). I like almost everything about the latest Kindle except for the brief flash that occurs when you 'turn' the page. It is true for all e-inkers, but I don't know if the one or the other of the Nook or Kindle does it better. Having the present 'king of LCD tablets', the iPad, I still believe that the e-ink screens are superior for prolonged reading, longer battery life and the ability to read anywhere including in full sun at the beach.

 

Okay Trav, what is a 'normal tablet'?