Friday, February 18, 2011

Kindle? Nook? iPad?

I was sure I was going to be the last one to ever buy an e-reader and from what I've seen of blog reviews lately I truly am.

Once I heard about the Kindle upgrades and that it was wireless I was intrigued. But the price was too much and hey, Canadian so not great.

Then all hell broke loose and lots of readers kept coming and things just kept getting better and better. Including availability and pricing.

I was just getting ready to take the leap when Nook came out in color.

Like, wow. That is snazzy and I'm thinking the Kindle will have to respond at some time but tonight I got all itchy and went looking at the pros and cons from their ads.

Basically the Kindle is light, holds battery life longer than any other gadget I have in the house and that matte looking screen looks like it's perfect for reading.

The Nook colour meanwhile has some of the same stuff but the battery life is only 8 hours (and that's how long it can take me to read a book I've been all agog for for months and I couldn't imagine my wrath if the battery died 30 pages before the end of the book)

BUT, I love the option of sharing books with friends. Now that's the best feature I've seen yet. It doesn't go into how that works (cause I imagine there's some catch) but for an extra 100 bucks, if I can share books with Nath and Ames and Kristie and Amy and everyone else well, wouldn't we all save some serious cash?

And I think you can go online with it. Which is nuts cause that feels even bigger than just a reader.

As to the iPad - until tablets come way down to earth in price I'm not buying. I've heard there are some great upgrades coming so I'm waiting. An electronic that you can only read on seems like a bit of a waste if you can get something that you can read, surf the net and do your taxes on.

All that to say I'm still in the bushes. Waiting for the right time but boy, all those reviews of romances I can't buy because they are e-pubbed? Yeah, yeah, I can read on my computer.

No. Thanks.

7 comments:

nath said...

Hmmm, I gotta ask. Is the Nook even available in Canada? Because it's from Barnes & Nobles and we don't have any here...

Amy said...

Cindy, I'm in the same boat here, trying to decide which to buy. I was going to wait and buy by year's end if I succeeded in paying down my Visa card to a certain amount. BUT, I think I'm going to jump earlier and buy now. Personally, I'm liking the Nook and for me that is mainly because my local library has an ebook program that only supports the Nook and I think the Sony ereader.

I'm leaning towards the base model ($149 here in the States) which will allow me internet and buying options anywhere there's WiFi access. Friends of mine adore this one as well and don't feel the need to get the Nook Color or even the slight upgrade from $149 to the $199 version.

~ames~ said...

Hey Cindy,

I just bought a Kindle like two weeks ago. I really like it!! It's so easy to use. Also, like Nath said, the Nook is through B&N and that's an American store. Not sure it would work here.

We also have an ipad and personally, I don't like it for reading. Yeah the colour stuff is nice, but I don't need colour for reading books.

Something to think about too - the kindle/kobo/sony readers use e-ink technology. The ipad and the nook colour screens are like looking at computer screens.

C2 said...

I asked Twitter's hive mind (and made sure they knew you were in Canada) - Jane from Dear Author (THE authority on such things) said Kindle or Kobo.

I only have my iPad which I LOVE! I'm reading on it more, lately, but that wasn't my reason for getting it. I'm just a gadget lover. :D

CindyS said...

Nath and Ames - ohh, hadn't thought about the nook not working here. Good catch.

Amy - okay, so I'm not the last one yet ;) What's kind of pushing me is I have a GC from Amazon which means the full 139 wouldn't be out of my pocket. Much. Bob thinks I'll still want paperbacks and I can see that but for e-books it's a no brainer now.

C2 - hive mind - love it! And I love gadgets as well but it's 800 bucks up here for an iPad and that's the price of a computer so we're waiting till all the 'woooowoooo' is over and they are like anything else we want to buy.

So I'm leaning towards the Kindle what with the GC and all.

Hmmm.

CindyS

Amy said...

It would make more sense for you to go with the Kindle because of the GC, sure...but mainly because of the services in Canada. I didn't realize that B&N isn't up there. (I'll take a clue for $1000, Alex)

C2 said...

Yup, Kindle is probably your best best. Amazon has the widest overall selection plus lots of freebies. Yay! Jane said later that she knew several of the Canadian Harlequin Inc folks have Kindles and really like them.