May 24, 2011 at 6:16 am
Grant Fritchey (5/24/2011)
Kiara (5/24/2011)
For reading books and pure text? Kindle. For interactive web surfing? A tablet of some sort.The only problem with my Kindles (I have two - both the DX and the regular sized on - I prefer the DX for technical books)? It's very hard to get an author to autograph it. 🙂
I'll autograph it, but you won't be happy with me afterwards!
ROFL! I was actually considering asking you to autograph my Kindle cover at sqlsaturday... Could have been the start of a collection of autographs from my favorite technical authors!
-Ki
May 24, 2011 at 6:20 am
I was literally just having this discussion yesterday.
My reasoning stemmed from lugging around giant technical books and the back pain that comes along with that. Now, I don't own either but here's my list of pros and cons.
iPad - pros
touch screen
web browser enabled
apps
videos
music
games
read variety of formats
iPad - cons
glare
price $500
battery life
monthly fee for 3g wireless (monthly,no contract)
Kindle - pros
battery life
amazing for reading books
lightweight
specialized
price - $130
free 3g wireless (whispernet)
Kindle - cons
specialized
not browser friendly
tiny keyboard
6" screen
proprietary
Seems like the iPad is very flexible but costs more. The Kindle is great at what it is meant to do (display books for reading) but doesn't do much more but costs significantly less. Crap.
When does the iPad 3 come out?
May 24, 2011 at 6:26 am
calvo (5/24/2011)
Seems like the iPad is very flexible but costs more. The Kindle is great at what it is meant to do (display books for reading) but doesn't do much more but costs significantly less. Crap.
You forgot one major difference, that doesn't matter to some people, but matters a great deal to me.
Backlit vs. not backlit.
I'm not about to try to sell anyone on the eyestrain argument - I think you can probably produce medical studies that support both sides of that one.
But as a matter of personal preference, the Kindle DX was well worth the investment even though it's not as flexible as an iPad. I get the bigger screen, and a far more book-like reading experience.
My eyes really appreciate moving to non-backlit reading material. Other people don't notice any difference. (I actually didn't believe I would - I bought my Kindle DX originally to clear out several shelves full of books and reduce the weight I was carrying around - and was really, really surprised at how much I enjoyed reading *regular* stuff on it.)
I also don't expect a Kindle to do anything more than what's it's designed to do - provide as close to a paper book reading experience as possible in electronic format.
YMMV. It all depends on what works for you.
-Ki
May 24, 2011 at 9:00 am
The Kindle doesn't seem to be compatible with the eBook format, so you wouldn't be able to download library books (if that's important to you).
That may be changing, however: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/coming-to-your-kindle-library-books/
May 24, 2011 at 10:01 am
Peter Maloof (5/24/2011)
The Kindle doesn't seem to be compatible with the eBook format, so you wouldn't be able to download library books (if that's important to you).That may be changing, however: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/coming-to-your-kindle-library-books/
At the risk of sounding like a rabid fan-grrl, that's probably the biggest thing I've been waiting for with the Kindle - library lending. But, as the link above shows, they've promised it this fall. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the vapor-ware becomes real...
-Ki
May 24, 2011 at 10:54 am
Kiara (5/24/2011)
At the risk of sounding like a rabid fan-grrl, that's probably the biggest thing I've been waiting for with the Kindle - library lending.
Nothing wrong with being a big library fan - I'm one myself!
May 24, 2011 at 2:40 pm
There are a couple pretty good applications out there that can convert most formats to the kindle. I even use mine to read comics (no color does suck but better than reading 40 issues of the walking dead on my laptop).
May 24, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Yin Halen (5/24/2011)
There are a couple pretty good applications out there that can convert most formats to the kindle. I even use mine to read comics (no color does suck but better than reading 40 issues of the walking dead on my laptop).
I've used Calibre in the past, but found that it doesn't work perfectly. It could work OK. But since I have an iPad, I am satisfied with just loading on a .pdf (some books/ebooks have a free .PDF alternative). With the PDF format, I can't use the dictionary lookup or the highlighting feature, which kind of sucks. However, bookmarking and ease of reading is quite nice.
Jim Murphy
http://www.sqlwatchmen.com
@SQLMurph
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