You would have to be living in a cave somewhere if you have not yet heard about the Kindle ereader. This electronic reading device that is sold by book giant Amazon makes use of an e-ink screen so that you can read downloaded e-books with ease. The e-ink technology that is used on the screen makes it super easy to read for several hours at a time without straining your eyes. Kindle is not the only ereader that uses e-ink as Sony, Barnes and Nobel and many other manufacturers such as BeBook, iRiver, Bookeen, Ectaco and many more.
The Kindle is considered by many to be the best ebook reader available today. However, the present Kindle owners tend to be the most vocal backers of this claim who say that their reader is the best. The Barnes and Noble Nook owners think their device is best as well but Kindle has more people on its side as it has been on the market much longer than the Nook so we must find another source before simply agreeing with the enthusiastic Kindle owners. So, what does the world’s leading technology experts think? By taking a look around the web at some of the most popular tech and gadget blogs online you will soon discover that there is quite a heated debate circulating on the net regarding which device is indeed the best ebook reader that you can buy.
Many tech blogs have complied all of the various specifications, prices and usability factors and have come up with rating system comparison tables to determine which of the dozens of ereaders represent a good solid value. If you take a few minutes to check out these sites you will find that the Kindle 2 is considered by many to be the best ebook reader on the market as it offers global wireless capability, sixteen grayscales on the screen and the support of many file formats. The Nook from Barnes and Nobel tends to run neck to neck with the Kindle 2 on most of these comparison tables but it seems to have fallen a tad bit short overall, probably due to the fact that early owners complained of screen freezes – which was quickly remedied by B&N.
Some people will argue that the iPad should be included in comparisons of the best ebook reader findings but in all fairness, the Apple iPad is not a dedicated ebook reader but rather a tablet computer that has an ebook reading application. The iPad is simply far too heavy and bulky plus it features an LCD screen and does not make use of e-ink technology. The iPad vs the Kindle debate has been going on ever since the iPad hit the market earlier this year, but it really is like comparing apples to oranges when you try to compare a tablet computer to an ereader.
To answer the question as to whether or not the Kindle the best ebook reader really depends upon what you are looking for and how much money you have to spend. The newest version of the Kindle is now selling for just $139 although it has not shipped yet. Assuming that this third generation e-reader from Amazon is like its predecessors, it will most certainly do everything you would expect a good ereader to do. On the other hand, you can find ebook readers that are very capable and priced a bit lower, such as the Ectaco Jetbook-lite so it all depends upon your personal preferences and budget at this point in time.
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Kindle is merely the cheapest available and selling on the back of Amazon who has the notoriety of being cheaper than Barnes and noble as per the price of it’s books. It is hardly the best. The nook offers many features kindle doesn’t. Unlike the nook the kindle can be used in numerous libraries to check out books. Barnes and noble still have their stores and they do supply reading materials to the nook if you go to their stores. Amazon only has online store and doesn’t do anything for you if you go to a library. Though the nook uses a proprietary format so does the kindle and hell it’s questionable why they don’t have the library options. It seems to me that though it costs more the Alex reader stomps the heck out of the kindle and nook. It wouldn’t be far off base to think the kindle android and nook android apps could be put on the alex reader. It wouldn’t be far beyond thought to see the kindle app put on the nook. Personally i’d recommend if you have the money get the alex reader..
The best ereader is the one that displays the material in your library as it was meant to be displlayed. Unfortunately neither the Kindle nor the Nook are capable of displaying PDF, DOC, CHM, HTML, RTF or other formats commonly used to store reading material.
These devices favor proprietry formats used by publishers whose main objective is to sell books. My main objective is to be able to carry the reading material I already own in it’s freely downloadable format. So these devices don’t meet my objectives, no matter how handy they are otherwise.
You hit the nail on the head. I absolutely agree with you that I would NOT buy an e-book, if it is proprietary-locked.
I am hoping that someone, somewhere would design a truly open-source (perhaps powered by Android?) ebook reader and accepts all document-related formats, including HTML. If such device exists and has expansion capability, i.e. SD cards, then I will definitely buy one.
Proprietary stuffs are the 80′s, 90′s and 00′s, this is the 21st Century, for goodness sake, bring on Open Source technology.
You miss the entire point of the “nail”. Because the books are proprietary, they are cheaper.
You can buy a regular paper book, read it, and then give it to someone else, and thus it could read by dozens of people. I know the books I buy are usually read by at least 3 other people that are in my group of family and friends that share my tastes in books.
Basically, for every book I pay for, I end up reading about 4 others that I didn’t pay for.
The proprietary aspect of eBooks changes all this. And thus reduces the price of books by as much as 50%, especially when it comes to new hardcovers.
With the Kindle 2, you can also have up to 6 Kindles on one account (so you can share books within a group of 6). I think it is supposed to be limited to a household, but I not so sure how strict they are at enforcing this. Actually, I don’t think they have made up their minds yet about how strict they want to be. They seem to be waiting to see how it plays out. (The Kindle 2 does have GPS. So considered yourself warned.)
If you want to read for free and aren’t looking for convenience, go to your library.
This is one of the most poorly-written and least helpful articles I’ve come across in some time. Kudos to those who have posted here, as your analysis is clearer, more helpful, and more factual than Blesford’s.