Digital Reader (e-Book) dilema

nwoods

Expedition Leader
Well, I seem to have left my Kindle 2 somewhere in a field in the Eastern Sierra's. Now I am contemplating IF I should replace it, and IF so, with what?

Kindle 2 - Pro's & Cons
I greatly enjoyed the tremendous battery life, the excellent daylight reading, the glare free, smudgeless screen. I enjoyed how fast it was to download books from the store, and the user interface was completely acceptable to me. I found it easy to make bookmarks and highlights.

However, I have not found it as easy to utilize those highlights and bookmarks as I anticipated, and certain reference books with exhibits and tables that were originally in color (or in light gray text) were virtually unreadable, and you could not zoom in on them to decipher them. I also am not wild about the index of books. I'd like to categorize or sort them better for easier access. (I often read several books at a time, or download several and read them serially, but finding the book in my index is just not as user friendly as it should be).

When I got the Kindle (as a gift from my wife) It was a $400 item, and I really resented that expenditure, and was hesitant to use it thinking I would probably just return it...but I quickly got addicted to it, and my reading actually went up a noticeable amount.

I have used the over-the-air Sync to sync to my PC and to my iPhone on a few occasions, and it worked well and was a good solution when I needed it.

I just found out today that Amazon is about to launch a Kindle 3, in two flavors, one with WiFi for $139 and one with 3G (only?) for $189. Those prices are great, and I can utilize my book library already purchased...

Options:
iPad? Expensive, but beautiful. Multi-functional. Not effective outside (have you seen this?), not great for your eyes at midnight in a darkened bedroom. Can I load my existing iPhone apps on an iPad and iPhone at the same time? I don't know.... I can however, for sure access my Kindle library on the iPad thanks to the free App created by Amazon.

Real Books? There is a good used book store near my house. My wife bought the Kindle because the quantity of books stacking up around the home is driving her nuts. But a $3 used book that I can share with others is definitely something to consider verses a $9 digital download that I cannot share or resell or regift or really do anything with....

Alternate readers? There are other e-book readers out there, but I don't know if they can access or read my current Kindle library?

Decisions!???
So right now, I have no idea what I want to do, I just know I'm going nuts without having ample reading material close at hand. Thank God I got my OJ issue last night!

What do you recommend?
 
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nwoods

Expedition Leader
The iRiver Story seems interesting also. Similar to Kindle, but more format friendly: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/e-readers-gallery/7/

ebook_7a.jpg


Nothing on iRiver's website yet, though they certainly aren't hiding it:
http://www.iriver.com/
 

trump

Adventurist
:lurk:

I've been thinking about this for a while. I would love to carry many books with me, and also think I would be more inclined to pick it up and read.
 

ywen

Explorer
I know I am resurrecting an old thread. nwoods, did you ever get the Kindle 3?

I'm thinking of getting a Kindle 3G. I want to take it along with me on trips overseas so that at least i can still connect with e-mail and look up wikipedia and tripadvisor for trip planning.

Oh and the book reading feature too!
 

targa88

Explorer
I know I am resurrecting an old thread. nwoods, did you ever get the Kindle 3?

I'm thinking of getting a Kindle 3G. I want to take it along with me on trips overseas so that at least i can still connect with e-mail and look up wikipedia and tripadvisor for trip planning.

Oh and the book reading feature too!

You might want to check this out
 

ywen

Explorer
You might want to check this out

Thanks for the link.. but to be honest that was basically comparison of each device's spec sheet.

I'm already sure for my needs the Kindle will be the best. Mainly due to it's long battery life, free 3G connectivity, and light weight.

I'd be interested to hear anyone's experience with the 3G Kindle and how well it fared outside of the U.S.
 

nwoods

Expedition Leader
I know I am resurrecting an old thread. nwoods, did you ever get the Kindle 3?

I'm thinking of getting a Kindle 3G. I want to take it along with me on trips overseas so that at least i can still connect with e-mail and look up wikipedia and tripadvisor for trip planning.

Oh and the book reading feature too!

Yes I did, but just the wifi version. I have no knowledge about overseas use, and I've never tried to load a website other than the Amazon store. At that, it works brilliantly, at other non-kindle optimized websites.... I'm skeptical.

As a book reading device, I absolutely love it. It is more pleasurable to use than a real book, due to the non glare screen. I can read longer with less eye strain. There's a growing number of books (and authors) who are releasing shorter works for under $3, and they are quite enjoyable to explore.

I'm also experimenting with www.ebookfling.com, which allows you to lend and borrow kindle books (or Nook). It's brand new and a little bumpy in execution, but a great concept.
 

Antichrist

Expedition Leader
Wow, leaving it somewhere has to hurt, depending on how many books you had on it.

It reminds me of reading some years ago about IBM's research in to recording media that works at the molecular level. If perfected you could store all the worlds music on a single CD.
My first thought was, "What if you drop it and scratch it?" lol
 

Xterabl

Adventurer
I highly recommend the nook color as a nice compromise between iPad and kindle WRT price and performance. It is wifi only, but for $200 (occasional eBay refurb) or $250, and with a few hours internet research, you can make it into a near fully-functional Android tablet by only making a bootable flash memory card (i.e. NOT by changing anything internal that would void the warranty).
If anyone wants to learn more:
http://quinxy.com/2011/04/01/comple...c4-android-2-3-gingerbread-on-the-nook-color/

And what's more, this process enables bluetooth functionality (ad-hoc wifi connection ability, too, for 3g wifi tethering ala joikuspot)...and I've recently used this to tether my phone (nokia symbion OS) gps signal to the nook...giving me a 7" GPS screen. I did similar to what this guy's done here:
http://androidforums.com/archos-tablets/214568-gps-working-archos-101-a.html

Oh, have I mentioned I like my nook color????
 

nwoods

Expedition Leader
Actully Tom, that part is no problem at all. Amazon keeps all your content on their massive S3 server farm. You can access 100% of your content from your Kindle, phone, tablet, or computer at any time, forever (according to amazon). So that part was not a concern. The frustrating part was A) loosing an expensive device, B) not having it to read on, and C) I had to wait several months until the K3 came out!
 

BKCowGod

Automotive ADHD is fun!
I absolutely love my Sony Reader - metal body, 2 weeks battery, can handle every format. I have Calibre on my Mac and my netbook and it syncs with both of them. I carry 350 books on it at any given time and in the last 6 months I have never felt a need to buy something new while I was on the road. Also cheaper than the others, though apparently the new one is a touchscreen and costs more.
 

ywen

Explorer
just picked up a K3 from target.. awsome reader.

reading A Walk in the Woods right now and also downloaded a bunch of news articles from Calibre's fetch news feature.

Ppl have indicated to me all the web is accessible via 3G in China so this will be a huge help when traveling there.. Hope it's accurate when we get there.
 
We have a the K3 3G/wi-fi and have been using it with no problem in Latin America. We have used it to buy and download books from Amazon.com. We also use Calibre on our MacBook to get newspapers, magazines and to convert other formats and import to the Kindle.

The experimental web browser is very unpolished and painfully slow, but in a pinch it will work with 3G or wi-fi... Lacey has successfully sent and received e-mail using the free international 3G coverage.

Amazing device.
 

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