1. What’s Best For Readers?
It's been a long struggle for e-readers, but they officially arrived this past July when Amazon announced that e-books had begun outselling hardcover books . After so many years of failure, it seemed the e-book reader had finally arrived.
The road to success was bumpier than the ones featured on the TV series "IRT Deadliest Roads," with countless failed e-readers littering the roadside. Part of the problem was that past efforts were lacking in hardware. E-books really were an idea ahead of their time and it took a long time for the technology to catch up. It finally arrived with E Ink displays.
The next problem was the software. I've seen countless great hardware platforms come and go because no one made software for it (Amiga, anyone?). The same holds true for e-readers. You can't get off the ground if no one will carry or sell the books. For the longest time, the effort was driven by the hardware companies, while the "software" providers, publishers, sat on the sidelines. It really took a vendor like Amazon to make this happen. They had the volume to go to publishers and say "we can make this happen."
Finally, we needed a form of delivery, and something better than the old tethered method. The advent of 3G and mass market Wi-Fi made that possible.
It took a while for this perfect storm to form. Amazon led the way, thanks to its prominence in the publishing world, and others have followed, among them Apple's iPad, although it is a far more multi-use device. There are other e-readers, some sold by book stores desperate to not lose customers, but none of them have grabbed traction like the Kindle.
The holidays are coming up, so no doubt someone you know will ask for one of these gadgets. But do you get them "just" the e-reader Kindle, or the multi-purpose iPad? Really, this is not an either/or choice, as they serve different use cases. The real question is, is a dedicated e-reader like the Kindle worth having a separate device in addition to a general purpose device like the more expensive iPad (or one of its competitors)? Let's dig in.
ipad isn't an e-reader, unless you mind headaches and blurred vision...
^^^you guys never stop do you...
So you can get Kindle books for almost every platform but you can only get iBooks for iOS devices. So why would anyone buy an iBook?
Sony Readers aren't even mentioned instead we get yet another round of brainwashing about yet another crippled fashion device by Apple. How refreshing...
PS
There is quite a number of quality e-ink readers out there. Most notable, most of them are NOT BOUND TO A SINGLE STORE. Heck, many of them, unlike the ones mentioned above, allow to "rent" digital books from public libraries.
I'm getting Archos 10 1 tablet as media player and e-reader myself...
screen isn't as nice as iPad but it does lot more than iPad for my use...
I read all my books on my iPhone using GoodReader. Sure the screen is small, but no one reads an entire page at once - it just requires more page flipping which is only a minor inconvenience. Plus I can set the screen to white text on a black background which is much easier on the eyes (and battery).
Who reads in the dark? Me. When I go to bed. And I am sure there are many more people who do the same.
Final point... since it's on my iPhone, my book reader is small and saves me from carrying another electronic device.
Not only is the Kindle easier to move than 10 boxes of books, it is cheaper than a book case to hold the books and doesn't fill up a home with stuff. Now if Kindle had a way to share a book.
The Kindle shown in the size comparison between the DX and the regular Kindle is a Kindle 2, not a Kindle 3, as the accompanying text would lead one to believe.
Couple things not mentioned:
The Kindle 3 is the way to go. It weighs ounces. The iPad feels like a chunk of lead next to it. There is no way you can lay on your back and hold a book above you or many other creative position you find yourself in after reading for hours.
The iPad works at night, sure...but it will cause insomnia.
The Kindle 3 with a cover actually DOES work in the dark. It has a light built into the cover that runs off the internal battery. And it doesn't cause insomnia.
The 3G phone built into the Kindle 3 is FREE. As in you don't pay monthly for it.
why is battery life not mentioned? This is one of the Kindle's biggest strong suits, the kindle can go for (potentially) weeks without a recharge. iPad can barely go a day of regular use without a recharge.
Came across, http://goo.gl/zXv2M for a Kindle DX review
Wow, I think I learned more about these e-readers from the comments than I did from the article...
I'm in the process of evaluating e-books/tablets for our board members so they don't have to print/hull around these 900 page board packets and none of these devices (except for the Archos 10 mentioned in the comments) seem appealing for the 5h board meetings.
I have been considering an e-reader for a while.
Primary needs - something I can hold with my right hand, in a suitable position that I can do a couple of hours reading.
(many have controls where my fingers need to go, having sloping/tapered edges, or are just too big to get my fingers around the back to hold them that way.)
Follow that with at least 24 hours battery life and a screen big enough to show a full (paperback) page at a viewable font such as is usual on paper books.
I tried a Sony and a couple of other 6" screen readers - so much fun scanning around while trying to look at a PDF with pictures, or follow the wires in something like a diagram of something such as wiring for a photocopier.
There was a nice twin screen mini-laptop/netbook, but that seems to have been 'discontinued', shame, ' cos it looked to be a reasonable alternative avoiding the 'marketing' inspired problems of the ebooks, but admittedly at a price.
Me - I'm still looking - maybe xmas 2013
first had an ipad and then I bought a kindle DX (the smaller kindle is like reading a pocket book. the DX you can read without scrolling full page pdf files on).
I can only confirm what the author is saying: get both. ipad is for interactive stuff but for reading a lot in a pdf (e.g. manuals) or a book, the kindle is absolutely worth the cost.
it's like having a computer and a tv. There clearly is overlap in functionality but most people would opt to have both.