Electronic book thingy

[kerry]

I'm thinking about buying my daughter an electronic book thingy for her birthday. Which one is best? Amazon Kindle or Barnes and Noble? Any one better for college textbooks? Are they interchangeable or are you limited to buying books from either Amazon or B&N with their readers?

[powerpig]

Get her an ipad and you'll have all bases covered.

I currently use an iPad with applications for the kindle store, the B&N store, and apple's iBook store. OTOH, the stand alone readers are less expensive and are better outside in the sun. The kindle reader has dropped it's price recently and the kindle store still seems to have the best selection.

It comes down to whether you want the additional cost and features of the iPad or if you just want a reader.

[TheDon]

iPad with wifi... If I was going to drop money on something like a kindle I'd consider the ipad because it does offer more than just being an ebook reader. At least with the ipad you can scribble notes and watch educational videos.

I'd be all over an ipad for class if I could run windows on it for my classes or even a real apple OS like snow leopard. Since I need a real OS

The iPad is definetly not a computer, it's an appliance. I thought about replacing my daughter's old laptop with a iPad and decided it's not capable enough so I'm buying a MacBook for her instead.

[smharr4]

My wife has been considering getting either a Kindle or a Nook. I've suggested she gets neither, and instead get an Asus T91MT.

Why? You can get Kindle readers for Windows, and you can convert the T91MT to a tablet-form if you want a book-like format. The T91 is also a fully-fledged netbook with a keyboard so you can do some real work on it if you want to.

Don't bother with the standalone Kindle or Nook readers, you can get the software readers on a variety of other platforms and read the same books.

[Phil]

I just read something about B & N having financial troubles, I don't know if that would affect availability of material for this kind in the future or not.

[Ara T.]

Get her a Kindle, very affordable and the new one is coming out. Battery life is about a month!

You can read ebooks on any computer, the whole point is they're very portable, cheap and easy on your eyes and have insane battery life.

[sixto]

Originally Posted by smharr4

My wife has been considering getting either a Kindle or a Nook. I've suggested she gets neither, and instead get an Asus T91MT.

That Asus weighs four times what a kindle weighs. It would be tiring to hold it at arm's length like a book for an extended period. It can't have anything close to the battery life of a dedicated device or the optimized display, either. But that's half an argument leading to a lifestyle decision - are you better served by an all-in-one or separate dedicated devices?

Sixto
87 300D

You don't want a netbook, that's the worst of both worlds. If you don't want a single use device, either buy an iPad or wait six months for all the clones to hit the market.

[Ara T.]

What clones? There have been tablet PCs long before the Ipad came along.

Originally Posted by Ara T.

What clones? There have been tablet PCs long before the Ipad came along.

I've tried them, you definetly don't want one. I assume there will be a bunch with a decent OS (maybe android) in a few months.

[smharr4]

Originally Posted by Craig

I've tried them, you definetly don't want one. I assume there will be a bunch with a decent OS (maybe android) in a few months.

I would have suggested that my wife get an Android tablet instead of the T91MT, however there are rumours that Android tablets will not be allowed to use the Android Marketplace, so app availability could be very limited.

Originally Posted by smharr4

I would have suggested that my wife get an Android tablet instead of the T91MT, however there are rumours that Android tablets will not be allowed to use the Android Marketplace, so app availability could be very limited.

We'll have to wait and see how they work. I like the iPad, but they are almost as expensive as a full computer ($830 for my 64GB, 3G). I really just comes down to what you need/want.

[smharr4]

Originally Posted by Craig

We'll have to wait and see how they work. I like the iPad, but they are almost as expensive as a full computer ($830 for my 64GB, 3G). I really just comes down to what you need/want.

I really cannot see the point of the iPad, I really don't know what market segment it's aimed at (other than the Apple Fanboi one.)

I would love to have an Android tablet - I really love my Android phone - provided that access to the marketplace is allowed.