Tell me about...e-readers... - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Nufy · 08-06-2011, 09:05 AM

My wife wants one but doesn't know what she wants in terms of features price etc...

I know nothing about them at all...

So how do they work and what is the best / most popular these days...

Screen size?? , wifi ? Memory size ???

Edumacate me please....

Hack&Lube · 08-06-2011, 09:19 AM

Decide whether you want the kind that looks more like white paper with ink or the kind that is actually an LCD screen like an iPad. The prior is more comfortable to read, but you are stuck with black and white and mostly text. The advantage is ease of reading on your eyes everywhere because it looks like paper, and weeks of battery life. The other kind is like iPad where it's a tablet with a glossy LCD screen but it displays vibrant colors. These can be hard to impossible to read in bright sunlight and have hours of battery life. You can usually find other features on e readers and tablets like web browsers, of course the internet looks better on the color LCD tablets. If she just wants to read books, get an e-ink type reader. If she wants a more varied device for computing as well, get a tablet.

Slava · 08-06-2011, 09:27 AM

I wouldn't discount the ability to read in bright light if you plan to read outside at all. Its an enormous difference between the two if you like to bring your reading out on the deck, to the beach, etc. The LCDs are tough in that lighting, or almost impossible if its really bright. All comes down to what she will use it for.

Oh, and the size doesn't seem to be a concern. My kindle is about a year and a half old with a bunch of books and its more than enough. IIRC they hold something like 1500 books and you could always delete if this was a concern.

justkidding · 08-06-2011, 09:51 AM

I have a Kobo Touch that I purchased at Chapters. I have been using it for about 2 months and have only charged it 3 times. It is compatible with the Calgary Library and the Kindle isn't. If you are in to the library this is a huge difference. Also, you can check out the library site and see what e-readers are compatible with their system.

Radio · 08-06-2011, 10:13 AM

I bought 2 Kindles, 1 for my wife and 1 for my son, for Christmas. I thought my son would like it and my wife would hate it...she's not very tech savvy. Turned out to be the opposite. My wife loves it, it's simple for her to use.

The wifi is basically for shopping the bookstore. She can search for books, get samples and buy later if she likes the sample. The ebooks are much much cheaper and you don't have them piling up. You're not limited to books you can get news paper subscriptions and magazines as well. It plays music, although we've never tried, she just uses it for reading. It has fantastic battery life, although hers is charged more often than the other because she has a cover with a built in LED light that's powered by the reader.

I don't have a tablet so I can't make a direct comparison but all in all if you're just going to read with it then I'd say the e-reader over the tablet. The readers are less expensive than the tablets, I paid ~$149 a piece for ours.

Crispy's Critter · 08-06-2011, 10:13 AM

I love my kindle, take it everywhere I go. I opted for the one with free 3G for life, and can purchase books anywhere in the world that a 3g signal can be found. It also can hook to wifi hotspots, so you can browse the net. That being said the browsing capabilities aren't great, and a bit of a PITA on some sites, as in order to read you have to zoom the text, but then you end up continuously scrolling side to side. It will probably improve later on, as the browsing is in the 'experimental' stage right now. Also nice on the kindle is a small keyboard on the bottom, which makes it really easy to search for books in the store, or wherever you need to type anything. It also has text to speech, which is fairly good, although not perfect, so if you want to just veg and listen to a story it's kind of cool. I don't use these features a lot, but have on occasion. Also as people have mentioned, don't underestimate the importance of being able to read in sunlight. My friend has an older lcd reader, and he has mentioned that even in places with florescent lighting he can have trouble seeing his screen. The Kindle does display pictures, but they are black and white.

No matter which reader you end up getting though there are a lot of sites and torrents on the internet that have free ebooks, and if you get a format converter like ecalibre you can download whatever format you want and convert it to the type your reader uses. The conversions aren't always perfect though. Pretty much any book over a certain age (30 years maybe?) becomes free public domain, and there are a lot of sites that are constantly adding ebooks, so you can buy an ereader and never pay for a book again if you wanted.

Kipper is King · 08-06-2011, 11:38 AM

I own a sony pocket e-reader, however I was really impressed trying out the Kobo touch in a store.

Whatever you do, get her an actual e-reader with an E-Ink screen. It's a pain to read on LCD screens for any length of time.

dissentowner · 08-06-2011, 11:43 AM

I was thinking of getting an e-reader but my hesitation is that I read at night in the dark a lot and I understand most e-readers have no backlighting. I don't think I would be fond of the little lcd lights that hook on so you can read it that way, I want backlighting.

Azure · 08-06-2011, 12:12 PM

Is there a difference between the e-readers and what type of content you can put on them? Say I have access to 'free' books that I don't buy through the official store, will any of them prohibit me from loading them onto my e-book?

metallicat · 08-06-2011, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justkidding

I have a Kobo Touch that I purchased at Chapters. I have been using it for about 2 months and have only charged it 3 times. It is compatible with the Calgary Library and the Kindle isn't. If you are in to the library this is a huge difference. Also, you can check out the library site and see what e-readers are compatible with their system.

How does this work? Can you download any book in the library system for your Kobo? Is there an added cost to this, on top of the fee that your annual library membership might cost?

Kipper is King · 08-06-2011, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

How does this work? Can you download any book in the library system for your Kobo? Is there an added cost to this, on top of the fee that your annual library membership might cost?

No. Just your library membership. They do not have all their books online, and they do actually have queues. In other words, only a certain amount of people can download one title at a time.

Kipper is King · 08-06-2011, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure

Is there a difference between the e-readers and what type of content you can put on them? Say I have access to 'free' books that I don't buy through the official store, will any of them prohibit me from loading them onto my e-book?

Yes. There is a difference. I believe Sony and Kobo support the most formats.

CMPunk · 08-06-2011, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Azure

Is there a difference between the e-readers and what type of content you can put on them? Say I have access to 'free' books that I don't buy through the official store, will any of them prohibit me from loading them onto my e-book?

E-Caliber will convert formats for you...so you can put kindle books on a kobo or vise versa. It will also load any of your "free" books on the reader

MickMcGeough · 08-06-2011, 03:30 PM

I've got a Nook Color and it's fantastic. I read mostly indoors so I wanted an LCD screen.

It's got a great IPS 1024x600 display and it's got a web browser, email, and an app market (Angry Birds, etc.).

Azure · 08-06-2011, 09:21 PM

Which app market? I'm looking at the Nook Color as well.

Ironhorse · 08-06-2011, 10:17 PM

I badly need one of these, as my wife has a reading fetish and there's books all over the house - there are regular deliveries from Amazon etc.

So if I understand it correctly, just about all books are purchased and downloaded just like music in the iTunes store? Can you download and read them again later for no additional charge?

How can one check to see if a book they wish to buy is available to an e-reader without first purchasing the hardware?

kootenayguy9 · 08-06-2011, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissentowner

I was thinking of getting an e-reader but my hesitation is that I read at night in the dark a lot and I understand most e-readers have no backlighting. I don't think I would be fond of the little lcd lights that hook on so you can read it that way, I want backlighting.

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...018ca135deen02

This is an awesome product for reading in bed with an e reader. The wife loves it very much.

kootenayguy9 · 08-06-2011, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

I badly need one of these, as my wife has a reading fetish and there's books all over the house - there are regular deliveries from Amazon etc.

So if I understand it correctly, just about all books are purchased and downloaded just like music in the iTunes store? Can you download and read them again later for no additional charge?

How can one check to see if a book they wish to buy is available to an e-reader without first purchasing the hardware?

Go to Kobobooks.com and see if the book is available for purchase. Many free ebooks also available. Once you buy a book via Ibooks for example it is linked to your account so you can re download it if you need to.

CMPunk · 08-06-2011, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

I badly need one of these, as my wife has a reading fetish and there's books all over the house - there are regular deliveries from Amazon etc.

So if I understand it correctly, just about all books are purchased and downloaded just like music in the iTunes store? Can you download and read them again later for no additional charge?

How can one check to see if a book they wish to buy is available to an e-reader without first purchasing the hardware?

http://kobobooks.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks/...ode=1286228011

Yes, you can save them to your laptop...but you can store something like 1500 books on one of the devices

starseed · 08-06-2011, 11:09 PM

I bought a Kobo Touch on Wednesday. This thing is amazing. It can hold a charge for a long time, and it can hold more books than you will be able to read on it. It also has expandable memory.

I had to set it to refresh the screen every 4 pages from the default 6 because I did notice ghosting, but it is small issue that was easily fixed.

I hate how the Kindle has a qwerty keyboard on it, but it does have the ability to search for text within the book, and the Kobo does not.