So we're thinking about picking up an e-reader. I would like one that is compatible with free e books from the library if possible. What should I look for? Which one is the best? TIA!
So we're thinking about picking up an e-reader. I would like one that is compatible with free e books from the library if possible. What should I look for? Which one is the best? TIA!
The wife has had a Sony for a while now and loves it.
Kindle. Love it.
If I could have standed the text quality on the touchscreen Sonys I'd probably have given that a shot.
I love my Kindle, but it currently does not support library lending. My library claims it is coming soon, though.
If I get one, I'm going for a nook.
3 responces, 3 different answers.
Yep-ck the public li-bary site to see what they support before you buy.
My pic is the iPad cause I can do so much more with it.
My only issue with the iPad for reading is when I'm on the front porch on a very bright day and I get some glare, but that is easily fixed by an adjustment of the chair orientation.
Then I can stop, post to facebook, send texts/emails, surf the web and pick right back up. That does it for me!!
We've got three Sonys in the family, but the new baby Nook is a really nice package. Touchscreen with a couple of page flip buttons on each side, so it's really clean and a nice small size. We just got one for my father in law.
The software that comes with the Sony readers will drive you absolutely bonkers. Not for casual users, I have to do perform tech interventions on a regular basis. I know the Nook is compatible with most of the library software.
I've got an iPad as well. Great tablet, but not as good for reading books as the dedicated readers are. The Nook Color is a reader that's trying to be a tablet, seems to me it's not quite doing either one right.
The small Nook is nice. The wife got the old Nook for her birthday last year and likes the new one enough that she's willing to sell her old one to fund a new one.
Personally, I don't see the need to upgrade, but I'd certainly check it out.
I bought my wife a Kobo from Borders for her birthday back in March. I only did this because it was the cheapest one on the market,and I was unsure she was going to like an e-reader. So far she loves it,and uses it all the time. She reads a lot,and so far I don't think she has had any complaints. I would love to get an i-Pad in the future,but I doubt we will.
Like my Sony. Get the free Cabrella (SP?) computer software for e-readers and life is fine. Works with just about all e-readers.
Consider a tablet instead of an ereader. The ereader is a target specific item. It's fine at what it does, but it only does that. Would you want to surf the web or play silly games as well as read?
I just got a Nook Color, but that's mostly because my Mother-in-law works for B&N and is an author who gets kick backs when ever people buy a Nook with her code. But it's been pretty to me so far. I think I'm gonna root it soon.
Thanks for the feedback (though a consensus would have been nice 
). I've considered the tablet vs e-reader conundrum, but one of the principal users of this particular device will be my 11 year old daughter and I'm pretty sure I don't want her to have any other functionality at this point.
We are leaning towards the Nook but I'll check with the local library first to verify what their e-pub works with.
Keep the thoughts coming!
Isn't it the Nook that people are hacking and running alternate operating systems on?
I just got a Kobo for my birthday. Seems simple enough to use -- but I can't make a judgment about it compared to others. I think it needs the cover, to feel "more book like" (this is coming from someone who probably reads 100 or more books a year).
I know nothing about e-readers (because I have an iPad and I can't read) but my daughter is looking to buy one. (12 years old) I want to stay away from color and web-browsing because I already have to police her phone and iPod touch. I do know that the Nook has exclusive content available from Barnes & Noble if you visit the actual store, which is neat, but probably not all that valuable.
foxtrapper wrote: Like my Sony. Get the free Cabrella (SP?) computer software for e-readers and life is fine. Works with just about all e-readers. Consider a tablet instead of an ereader. The ereader is a target specific item. It's fine at what it does, but it only does that. Would you want to surf the web or play silly games as well as read?
Calibre. Unfortunately, it won't let you read those free library books.
Most of the reader hardware really isn't that different - the market has settled down some. I think the baby Nook (Nookling?) is how they're all going to look with some small differences. A touchscreen, minimal physical buttons, no LCD screens or keyboards, WiFi. They all use basically the same screen now. That's a big reason you're not seeing a consensus, a lot of the devices are really pretty similar.
Where they differ is in software, both the software to load books on to the device and the storefront. That's where Sony really fails badly. Janel currently has a first-generation Nook and a Sony Pocket Reader, and she's noticed that prices in the Nook store are a couple of bucks less than the Sony store. That plus the ability to download sample chapters converted her to the Nook almost immediately once she started playing with it. She got the Nook for a Christmas present from a professional organization she belongs too and we didn't even look at it for six months.
If you're more of a power user and/or interested in shopping elsewhere than just the official vendor's store, the Sonys are more flexible. They run more formats than most and have pretty solid hardware.
Nook, Kobo and Sony all work with ePub and Adobe DRM. I have a color Nook, but buy my books from Kobo (Canadian and B&N won't let me download into Canada) and install them with Adobe Digital Editions. I also use ePubbooks.com for classics.
I rooted the color Nook when I had version 1.1. I have since upgraded to ver 1.2 (Android Froyo) and wish I kept 1.1 with autonooter.
I also have a Sony touch screen reader which has a lot better battery life than the nook, but the nook is backlit so I don't need to read with a light.
Maybe autonooter 1.2 will be out soon and I can have my Google Apps library back. A nook with the kindle app on it was kinda fun. 
Don't mess with that electronic junk. If we don't keep chopping down trees to make paper for books, the whole world will be covered with 'em!
Seriously, you're going to invest how much on a gadget that needs to be recharged and could be lost, stolen, or broken so that you can read a book?
E-book reader = answer to a question no one asked. That idea's going nowhere!
It's for my health. I find the reader a lot easier on my back than carrying 400 books with me.
kindle here. though I'd love to get a ipad, the kindle is great as a dedicated e-reader with the e-ink display. if you like sc-fi, Baen Books has their own e-book store which supports many e-book formats with many free books (to get you hooked on a series;). and the battery life for e-ink is like a week of daily use with 3g turned off.
Au contraire, ebooks are very much going somewhere. The market is steadily growing. In some areas, it's explosive growth.
The fundamental thing ebooks offer over paper is lots of book for virtually no space.
Now, if the libraries could ever get it together well for ebooks. That is lacking. I've only managed to actually download something like two books from my library so far. But, there's enough available through the various gutenberg projects and the like to keep me occupied.
Right now, we're still at our infancy with this stuff. Imagine someone writing a repair manual made for an ereader. One that doesn't simply have static pictures, but shows the motion and the disassembly. A manual that thoroughly cross links itself, so you can find that other image of the fuel filter and its secret location. Shezam! Now go further and integrate it to the camera and the likes, so you can point it at the problem area and have it tell you say, which relay is the fuel pump relay, or tell you if you're in the wrong area of the vehicle.
foxtrapper wrote: Right now, we're still at our infancy with this stuff. Imagine someone writing a repair manual made for an ereader. One that doesn't simply have static pictures, but shows the motion and the disassembly. A manual that thoroughly cross links itself, so you can find that other image of the fuel filter and its secret location. Shezam! Now go further and integrate it to the camera and the likes, so you can point it at the problem area and have it tell you say, which relay is the fuel pump relay, or tell you if you're in the wrong area of the vehicle.
I keep a copy of every tech order and directive I need for work on mine. It's so much faster to search through than flipping through a thousand page document.
heyduard wrote: kindle here. though I'd love to get a ipad, the kindle is great as a dedicated e-reader with the e-ink display. if you like sc-fi, Baen Books has their own e-book store which supports many e-book formats with many free books (to get you hooked on a series;). and the battery life for e-ink is like a week of daily use with 3g turned off.
"e-ink"? What is that?
foxtrapper wrote: Right now, we're still at our infancy with this stuff. Imagine someone writing a repair manual made for an ereader. One that doesn't simply have static pictures, but shows the motion and the disassembly. A manual that thoroughly cross links itself, so you can find that other image of the fuel filter and its secret location. Shezam! Now go further and integrate it to the camera and the likes, so you can point it at the problem area and have it tell you say, which relay is the fuel pump relay, or tell you if you're in the wrong area of the vehicle.
That would be cool!
dyintorace wrote:heyduard wrote: kindle here. though I'd love to get a ipad, the kindle is great as a dedicated e-reader with the e-ink display. if you like sc-fi, Baen Books has their own e-book store which supports many e-book formats with many free books (to get you hooked on a series;). and the battery life for e-ink is like a week of daily use with 3g turned off."e-ink"? What is that?
That's what e-readers use to produce such crisp text. It's basically electrically charged ink particles that are manipulated to switch white or black to make an image.
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