(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
Posted on 09/05/2010 8:41:08 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
Editors' note (September 3, 2010): This story has been updated to reflect the release of the new third-generation Kindle models and the announcement of new Sony Readers, among other new details.
Yes, it's true: now is a better time than ever to be in the market for an e-book reader. Hardware prices are more affordable than ever, and more titles are available electronically--anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions, depending on whether you include the huge library of free public-domain titles--than at any point in history.
The market has consolidated around a handful of major players: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, and Apple. Recently updated products from the first three include excellent options in the sub-$200 (and even sub-$150) price ranges. Also, a flood of new reading-centric apps continues to solidify the
Apple iPad's position as the premium media tablet of choice.
With these new variables, now is a perfect time to re-evaluate the e-book reader landscape and figure out which product is best for you. If you're an experienced shopper, you can jump straight to our list of top e-book readers; however, everyone else can consult this quick guide, which boils the purchase decision down to six questions:
(Excerpt) Read more at news.cnet.com ...
I purchase everything from Amazon....even cereal. You can get ten boxes for a minimum price (the cereal I buy cannot be purchased in a grocery store anymore). It is puffed rice and i love it. Barnes and Noble if fine if I just want to pop in a store and grab a coffee and browse, but if you want DVDs, books, electronics, food or anything else, Amazon is the best. I don’t chose stores according to their politics. If I did, I could never buy anything because they all have something that is not liked.
Library? Sheesh. I really wish the government would shut them down or at least put them up for commercial sale. Why should we pay for libraries. I don’t mind the libraries at colleges because the colleges pay for them, but cities should get out of the library business. I would love to know the attendance levels of libraries. I bet it is extremely low.
BTT for later reference
When life gives you horse droppings, use them for fertilizer ;)
/tangent
Thanks. This is a great article.
Kindle, and probably many of the others, downloads, stores, and displays PDF files. I don’t have the need for multiple PDFs that you do. However, there are a few, like the instructions for my Celestron telescope and instructions for astronomy software. The astronomy software PDF, if printed, would fill a 1.5” ring binder and be very difficult to use. By downloading it and the telescope’s instructions to my Kindle, I have everything in a small, convenient package. Also, the instruction manuals that come with many consumer electronic products and instruction manuals for many other products may be found on the Internet in PDF format, making them excellent candidates for downloading and Kindle storage.
The “more up to date” folks will laugh, but I use my IPOD for a reader using the Barnes and Noble Ap. I’m looking at Kindle, IPad and Nook like the rest of you, but I think we need to look at “how” we use it. I carry my Ipod in my shirt pocket. I’m at the mall, the wife wanders off ... I open the Ipod and I’m into my book. The other readers just don’t fit into a pocket so unless I “CARRY” them, they aren’t readily available for the “shopping emergencies.” I got the little Otter case for it and read it floating in the pool too. You can make the print large. The small screen just doesn’t bother me that much. I’m waiting for the next generation ITouch IPod ... we’ll see what that looks like.
Wow. There is not another thing I would add to your post about the Jornada. You said it perfect. Bring back the Jornada with an Android operating system.
“Are you doing that via the wireless connection...?”
I was. Mine has wi-fi and 3G. Since I was lying in my bed, I was using out home wi-fi connection. The 3G would have worked anywhere in the world, although to download content like books and newspapers, there’s a surcharge outside the US. 3G is also slower than the wi-fi.
If you get one, you have 30 days to decide if you want to keep it, and if you don’t, you can send it back to Amazon.
You can purchase, at a very reasonable price, all the tin foil you need to make hats for the entire family at Amazon.com.
It's kind of like buying insurance from Peter Lewis's Progressive.
Probably the Samsung pad, with Android it’ll have the ability to read all the formats like the iPad but it’ll be at Kindle prices.
Amazon’s wildly overpriced cover for the K3 has a light that uses power from the Kindle to operate. Solar chargers are available for Kindle and other electronics, and not a bad idea really.
http://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Portable-Travelling-Motorola-Ericsson/dp/B002ZSH13Y
This Kindle case actually allows the Kindle to float.
These are the “medical dictionaries” available on the Kindle.
Hope that helps.
I have close to 80 file boxes of books in my garage. I love my old books but I was one of the first Kindle users. I currently have 1456 books on my Kindle. And I can read it anywhere except on takeoff and landing in a commercial airliner.
After using the kindle for some time now I think the thing that I like best is the whole library on the device and the capability of buying a book at anytime and having it available to read right then and there.
The biggest drawback so far is that many of my older books from the 40’s through the late 60’s are not available for purchase and download. If I want to re-read them I have to go digging for them which can take hours going through the book boxes.
But if you want to read a book printed on paper they are more than willing to sell you one. If however you want to switch you are going to have to re-purchase it in electronic form. It kind of reminds me of the dance of going from LP’s to 8-track to Cassette and finally to CD. if could just have that money back again, sigh.
“Can a Kindle connect directly to a PC?”
Yes. That’s one way to transfer content, through USB.
I hope you're using Prime. Free 2 day shipping with a yearly membership.
I also buy most things on Amazon. It's great to find all sorts of things that no other retailers seem to have, like your cereal. Also, some things are insanely cheap compared to a brick and mortar store--things like ziploc bags.
I am usually on top of tech trnds but due to the extremely vague Amazon video about this Kindle it totally escaped me.
What I see here is an excellent tool for the person who is cut off from communications but needs instant pdf files for equipment, wiring schematics, operator instructions and of course a medical database,and with wifi downloading one should be able to download from a group of users in the field specific information from a novel to how to operate a locomotive.
A perfect tool that makes me think of the flat film viewer that was used in “Red Planet”.
I recall Obama wanted to ban the use of this at a university, could it be because in a marxist/islamic world these devices would work against oppression of the working class? That the MSM propaganda machine could not function if people instead turned to a kindle like device?
Bookmark
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