This Holiday season, consumers have a few different choices of quality e-readers. With this year’s readers being much more technologically advanced, you have some pretty nifty devices to choose from! In this review, we will compare the major features of Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook Tablet computer and Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire:
Price: The Nook Tablet costs $249; the Kindle Fire, costs $199.
Screen size: Both tablets have displays that measure 7 inches diagonally. That’s about three times the size of an iPhone screen and half the size of an iPad screen.
Connectivity: Both tablets connect to the Internet only through Wi-Fi.
Software: Both run modified versions of Google Inc.’s Android software. Neither one has direct access to Google’s Android Market for third-party applications; Amazon and Barnes & Noble run their own stores.
Apps: Barnes & Noble says there are about 1,000 third-party applications available for the Tablet. Amazon has nearly ten times as many.
Storage: The Nook Tablet has 16 gigabytes of storage plus a memory-card slot. Of the built-in memory, all but 1 gigabyte is reserved for content bought from Barnes & Noble. The Kindle Fire includes 8 gigabytes of internal storage and no memory-card slot.
Battery life: Barnes & Noble claims up to 9 hours of video on the Nook Tablet, Amazon says 7.5 hours on the Kindle Fire.
Thickness: the Nook tablet is 0.48 inches thick, while the Kindle Fire is 0.45 inches.
Weight: Lightweight, and less than a pound, the Nook Tablet weighs 14.1 ounces, the Kindle Fire half an ounce more.
Movies: Both come with apps from Netflix and Hulu, which provide streaming movies and TV shows to subscribers. The Kindle Fire also provides access to downloadable and streaming movies from Amazon.
Tagged: Ereader, Kindle, Nook
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E-book readers are wonderful electronic devices for people who love to read a variety of books and periodicals. Also known as electronic books, e-book readers allow people to read books and other media digitally from a flat screen instead of from a traditional paper-back book.
E-book readers allow users to store a large number of books and periodicals in one digital device. So instead of carrying your favorite book around in your book bag, an e-book reader will let you carry all of your favorite books in one electronic device. For many, the e-book reader is both lightweight and versatile as it can hold about 1,000 books from a variety of genres.
Many e-book users enjoy the ease of being able to find the book they are looking for in just a few digital clicks instead of browsing through their public library. For some, reading books on an e-book reader is simply more convenient and even more pleasurable. E-book readers use e-ink technology to promote portability, which means you can read anything you want and anywhere since it runs on a long battery life. Some e-book readers allow users about one week of uninterrupted reading time. In addition, e-ink technology promotes readability in bright light, including sunlight.
E-book readers can do more than store one thousand books, which is why e-book readers are becoming very popular, especially in today’s fast-paced, growing digital market. Many e-book readers provide global coverage, allowing users to read information they need or want wherever they are. Some e-book readers have a built-in pdf reader useful for students or business people needing to read a specific document before class or an important business meeting. Other features include a read-aloud feature available on some e-book readers and select digital books.
What’s interesting as well is that there is a greater selection of book choices digitally than in print. Not only are the book prices low on digital books, but many books are also impossible to find in print. Pre-1923 books can be found digitally and many sellers offer free book samples to readers daily. This way readers can read the first few chapters and decide whether or not they want to purchase the book.
E-book readers are simply electronic books that can house a large store of information. From books to newspapers to documents, e-book readers promise instant access to the information you need and allow readers to indulge in their favorite book interests such as cooking, fashion, and romance. E-book readers are key to storing all of your book interests in one single electronic device.
Reading electronically has become a trend because of the growing amount of information on the World Wide Web and e-book readers are on the rise consequently. E-book readers are just another portable venue to access digital information as well as your favorite books.
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Amazon’s Kindle was the first e-book reader to find mainstream popularity, but today it is hardly the only contender in this burgeoning market. Barnes and Noble, already in competition with Amazon for sales of physical books, entered the fray with its own e-book reader: the Nook. Which one is better? Depends what is important to you. Here is a break down of their different features to help you decide.
The Screen: Both the Kindle and the Nook feature black and white screens, designed to emulate the easy to ready black print in a printed book. The Nook has a small color touchscreen at the bottom of the page though, so you can browse for other materials.
The Cost: Both the Kindle and the Nook cost approximately the same – now well under $200, and depending on the sales at Best Buy, Target, or their own websites, different accessory bundles may make one more or less economical than the other.
3G Wireless: Both have wi-fi capabilities, as well as free 3G wireless, though only the Kindle includes Wikipedia as a feature, for easy referencing.
Keyboard: The Nook is entirely touchscreen for inputting information, but the Kindle continues to stick to the traditional, physical keyboard, and side buttons to “turn” the virtual pages.
Battery Life: The Kindle wins this round, hands down. With the 3G wireless and wi-fi turned off, the Kindle can last for weeks between re-charges. The Nook’s maximum battery life is ten days, with the wireless turned off.
How Expensive Is It To Own: Beyond the initial purchase of the e-book reader, the cost and availability of e-books is likely an important factor in your decision to purchase a Kindle or Nook. Amazon has a larger e-book store, for the Kindle, than Barnes and Noble does for the Nook – though Barnes and Noble’s store is growing every day. The cost of the e-books from Amazon and Barnes and Noble is comparable, but the Nook has two features that lower its ownership cost. First, it has a “Lend Me” feature, wherein one Nook owner can lend an e-book to another Nook owner for two weeks (though you cannot access an e-book when you have lent it to someone else). Second – and more importantly, the Adobe ePub file format that the Nook uses is the same format used by libraries nationally, so you will be able to read free e-books from your library (including current bestsellers), on the Nook, but not on the Kindle.
Bonus Features: Barnes and Noble offers free access to e-books to Nook owners in their stores (as well as free Wi-Fi access. Amazon has partnered with publishers to make e-books available for free download for a limited period of time to build buzz about new books and authors.
Whichever you choose, make sure you consider the whole cost of owning one of these devices, as well as how you plan to use it.
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Book reading is becoming more than going to a store and purchasing a hard copy of the book. Now with all the e-book readers that are available, such as the Kindle Wireless Reading Device, there are tons of ways that you read a book anywhere you want without having to lug around multiple copies of paper books. One of the best things about the new Kindle is that it is designed much slimmer and lighter. The whole idea behind this device is that it takes up less room than a traditional book, but also allows for the book to be readable. Keeping this in mind, Amazon was able to change the screen slightly in order to make it easier to read, which is something that many people complained about when using previous versions of the Kindle. Currently there is no back-lit screen (although I expect this soon with today’s technology!), however the current screen CAN be easily read in bright daylight conditions (if you enjoy reading outdoors). Probably one of the best benefits of the Kindle is the Wi-Fi that is available. Downloading e-books or other materials is much faster than it was with past Kindles. This is going to allow it to compete nicely with the other e-book readers that are on the market. There are over 600,000 books that are available through the Kindle book store, which is competitive with other e-book readers. However, as many have pointed out, browsing with the Kindle is still just mediocre since the colors are in black and white on the screen, instead of color like other devices can offer. However this is common with e-book readers. A few people have pointed out that using the Wi-Fi with the Kindle is not a very fun experience, as pages across the Internet are still taking a while to load onto the screen. However, I personally have not encountered this experience, and my Kindle is super fast and efficient! One of the BIGGEST advantages is the super-long battery life, which reaches upwards to ONE MONTH (with the wireless feature turned off)! One disadvantage with the Kindle is that it uses it owns file format. Currently the Kindle uses the AZW format, which is fine if you always get your books from the Kindle bookstore. However, with more libraries starting to lend books in the e-book format, the Kindle will not yet support the file format that is being lent out. This is a huge issue with some people, and the reason why many people are still sore at Amazon for not making these changes that they deem necessary as more people want to have the opportunity to use other file formats that are more common that other e-book readers offer. Though there are some minor drawbacks to the Kindle, for the price, most people are giving this e-book reader their pick for the year. With it being lighter and slightly smaller than other e-book readers, the new Kindle Wireless Reading Device, in my opinion, is definitely the e-book reader to go with. I use it daily, and it has all but replaced most of my paper book reading.
Tagged: Featured
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This Holiday season, consumers have a few different choices of quality e-readers. With this year’s readers being much more technologically advanced, you have some pretty nifty devices to choose from! In this review, we will compare the major features of Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook Tablet computer and Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire:
