Posted on 12/13/2012 7:57:13 PM PST by This Just In
Good day, Freepers -
I am in need of some information concerning Barnes and Nobles NOOK. I know that it is a device which allows us to read ebooks, etc. After purchasing the NOOK, who do u load ebooks?
Is the NOOK a good device? I am in search of advice and info. because a relative my be purchasing this NOOK for our children. We are book lovers, and enjoy reading books the old fashioned way, buy a loved one wishes to introduce us to the world of ebooks.
Your help is deeply appreciated.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
TJI
I agree on all counts. But a Kindle is convenient when on the move - waiting in a doctor’s office, traveling, etc. Compact to carry - just don’t let it disappear into TSA clutches. Anywhere you’re going to sit and wait.
It must be noted that Project Gutenberg has 40000 old classics in the public domain that do not have current copywrights.
Mine must have wifi then...all I do is lay the thing next to my computer and download, no cords...
I’ve gotten quite a few western novels, some trashy...which is NOT what I was after....”love” stories...I have a hodgepodge of books right now.
I think something has “eaten up” the reader on the laptop. It won’t open. So.........I’ll just uninstall and reinstall.
Yes I have my Kindle Fire set to an off white which is easier on the eyes. I also turn down the brightness. I don’t know about the black and white models
Amazon also has a “cloud” reader. If you go to manage your kindle on Amazon.com, you can choose to read now. It is probably one of the nicer apps.
Yes, the basic Kindle is $89. The basic Nook is $99. The color & app-capable versions of each are at least $100 more each. So you end up spending some $600 on four different tablets and you still don’t have an iPad which can do all that and more in one package starting at $329.
Gonna have to disagree with you on that. The Kindle Fire is $159. Not sure what you are thinking the Kindle Fire can’t do.
Wish I had a Kindle.
I have both the Nexus and Kindle. I read on the Kindle.
I’ve had both nooks and kindles. Go with the kindle. B&N is on the verge of bankruptcy and is only propped up by a $30,000,000 investment by Microsoft. Books tend to be a little cheaper on the kindle. More free books for kindle (check out bookbub.com). If your nook should ever break and you have to deal with their support in the Philippines you will pray you got the kindle instead.
I do not like amazon so I had a nook until I got an iPad and placed my nook app and barnes and noble account on it. My nooks went to family members who can also read the ebooks I’ve purchased. I like the brick and mortar side of nook. I would really hate for barnes and noble to disappear.
I don’t get your hostility. I LOVE anecdotal opinions from freepers
A nook is similar to a crannie. They are in the same family but are separate subfamilies.
We’re a two Nook family, both myself and eldest daughter have 1st generation Nooks. Made the decision at the time because of the ability to sideload content (primarily PDF), and our local library supported electronic lending on the B&N platform which my daughter was interested in.
You have to decide which ecosystem you want to live in. We’ve been happy with the offerings on B&N, but there may be content that you want that’s exclusive to Amazon.
After you decide which platform, you have to decide which device. It’s no longer just Kindle vs. Nook, there are different models of each- some like the Nook Simple Touch or the basic Kindle are ereaders- they have the monochrome e-ink screen which is great for reading, but is generally not fast enough to do anything tablet-like, then there are the tablet-like e-readers like the Kindle Fire’s or the Nook HD.
So, B&W or Color?
The B&W readers use a screen technology called eink which s great for the contrast and readability. They are easy to read in many different ambient lighting conditions, including outdoors - but they aren’t lit screens, so if you want to read in bed with the lights out, you’ll have to add a clip light or get one of the models with a built in light, the Nook simple Touch with Glow Light or the Kindle Paper white. The HUGE advantage of eink is battery life - these black and white will go for days between charges- and will standby for a month.
The color readers combine the features of a tablet and the features of a reader. If you want to do more than just read books- you want to run apps, watch movies, or whatever then the Fire or HD is going to be a better choice. However, the color screens are backlit, so they aren’t as “paperlike” as the eink screens, although they can be read in the dark, but the additional functionality, and the color backlit screens have a tradeoff in battery life. If you want to throw your device in your bag and spend two weeks at the beach without ever having to charge it, the tablet like reader is not a great choice (and the backlit screens aren’t particularly readable outdoors, if you’ve tried to use a laptop outside it’s the same sort of thing).
All of them have some additional functionality- my 1st Gen Nook has a Browser and some simple games. They work, but the novelty wore off quickly. I’ve got a laptop when I need to use the Internet or other non-book-reading functionality. I wanted a small-ish (they’ve gotten smaller over the years) device that I could throw in my bag and have my technical materials on it as well as whatever I happened to be reading for pleasure. And that’s why I’ve still got a first gen nook, haven’t needed to upgrade it it’s still doing that job just fine.
On my Nook, the books purchased from B&N are in epub format. The device also supports PDF which I use heavily for my sideloaded content. The Kindle has it’s own format but it too will render PDF’s as well.
My Nook has both Wifi and 3G, I can use either to connect to B&N’s storefront purchase and load materials to the device- I can be totally PC independent with it. I can also plug it into my desktop PC and load files directly onto it. You can decide what sort of connectivity you need, but do consider it, because you can’t add it after the fact. If you’re lways in an area with wiFi, you probably don’t need 3G. But if you want to purchase content while you’re camping in the middle of nowhere then you probably need the wireless connectivity.
One of the other considerations for me when I bought my Nook was expandable storage- at the time the Nook supported a secondary micro-SD card to augment the built in storage, and the Kindle at the time did not have any sort of expandability. The extra 16GB of storage really made my Nook into the equivalent of a portable library. Loaded a ton of classics on my daughter’s, and have stacks and stacks of work related docs in my personal library on mine.
All that said, and as much as I love my Nook (and I really do love my Nook), the Flight Attendant will typically still ask you to turn it off between door closing and cruising altitude, a restriction that good ol’ paper doesn’t have. And it does need to be charged. Battery life is really good, but there have been times where I’ve forgotten to charge it up before a trip, and found myself with a dead device and no convenient way of getting it charged- another problem you never have with paper.
So, do you want an eReader or a tablet? Is it going to be used only to read books or is it going to be used to run apps, watch video and occasionally read books? Do you plan on reading in the dark? Do you plan on reading outside in the sunlight? Does one ecosystem have specific content that you want or need?
Read Nook and iBook books for starters?
We have a Nook Color, and three Kindles (wife's, mine, son's). The Kindle is far easier on the eyes for reading. The nook is fun for games, but not so good for reading. It seem much more harsh than the Kindles do. The Kindles are just easier on the eyes for reading, but need light to do so. The Nook has a back-lit screen and can be read in low light, but that is also why I don't like it for reading purposes.
An Android tablet can be had for under $100. You can download free applications (apps) that can access both nook and Kindle (as well as other) books. It will do other things, as well. I both a Nook and an Android tablet, and the tablet is far more versatile. BTW, with the Nook app, there are about 2 million free books avaialble from B&N. My first was - Adam Smith, “The wealth of Nations”.
Kind of like Demolition Man. The only restaurant is Taco Bell.
We have Nooks.
As has been posted up-thread, the Kindle I can read outside in the daylight, with no problem. Not so much with the Nook.
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