SWMBO's announced she'd like one of these things - she won't be getting one for crimble.
I haven't a clues as to the difference between pads, tablets, kindles etc.
Any recommendations or reading matter of comparison sites appreciated.
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Is it just a book reader she wants, or would she like to be able to use it as a computer, web browser etc. etc. ?
As a general guideline, the more something does the more it compromises on those things. The less things it does, the better it tends to do them.
Where is she likely to get the stuff she reads? Amazon?
There are loads of comparison websites, but I think you need to consider more of how and when it will be used, and what it will be used for first.
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If she will want to download free books, heed this warning:
www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Kindle_Fire_Review/
I have an older Kindle and use Gutenberg a lot - but it only has books more than 50 years out of copyright. Fire is locked own other than for items ordered from Amazon, although this has a few free books. The review comes out in favour of Nexus 7.
There are other sources of free books e.g.
mnybks.net/
but I guess Fire is locked out of all of them.
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NoFM2R has asked some key questions. If it's for reading electronic books and a tablet is not needed then I'd say an eReader with an e-ink display is best. But if I was getting one I'd pay the extra and get one with an inbuilt backlight as reading in low light conditions is not possible on an e-ink display. It was for this reason I now have a Nook HD tablet (running stock Android instead of the Nook Android variant).
On holidays the ereader wins though - better battery life (weeks instead of hours) and the display is visible in bright sunlight.
But if using it for browsing the Internet etc would also be useful then go for a tablet. Which you get depends on budget and where you want to get books from. I've not looked into whether a Kindle Fire tablet will allow you to install other eReader apps. The Nook HD lets you install any apps including Kindle. There's also Kobo too.
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You can download the Kindle app for use on Smartphones or tablets - you don't have to have a Kindle...:-)
www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000493771
or from Google Play etc.
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Of course you can. And there's other apps too like B&N and Kobo. Whether these can be easily installed on a Kindle Fire tablet is another matter.
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>>Link only works for me without the last '/':
Sorry about that. It works from my posting but I will leave it off in future.
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>> Of course you can. And there's other apps too like B&N and Kobo. Whether these can be easily installed on a Kindle Fire tablet is another matter.>>
True.
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I should have mentioned that books can be borrowed from some public libraries via e- readers. The service is advertised for my library but I haven't yet worked out how to download them. As they are on loan only, I suppose the copyright problem is sidestepped and enables recent titles to be downloaded.
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Some lending schemes for libraries ebooks are ePub only - rules out the use of a Kindle. It's all about how DRM is handled.
As an aside, an ebook can only be lent so many times from a library before it needs buying again.
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I suppose that is a case of Amazon locking the Kindle down.
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It's a case of Amazon using it's own DRM for eBooks on a Kindle. All eBooks are locked down - e.g. ePub uses Adobe's DRM. And it was that DRM database that was hacked recently and all email addresses stolen, including mine.
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You don't seem to make much saving if any on ebooks, from what I've seen anyway. With no printing costs surely they should be a lot cheaper than they are?
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>> You don't seem to make much saving if any on ebooks, from what I've seen
>> anyway. With no printing costs surely they should be a lot cheaper than they are?
>>
New products fetch premium prices.
Wait a few years ...
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Some Amazon Kindle titles are actually more expensive than the print equivalent.
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Not helped by VAT, electronic books have VAT, real ones don't.
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Publishers would tell you that printing and distribution is only 12% of the cost of a printed bookand that Ebooks actually have cost of thier own like re-formatting and you have to remember that ebooks attract 20% VAT whereas there is no VAT on physical books.
Having said that I have done a little research on the current top ten fiction titles at Amazon. I have compared the prices of Kindle editions compared to their paperback equivalent or hardback if the paperback format not yet available.
The results are actually quite surprising, at least to me.
1 Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy Kindle £1.99 Paperback£7.05
2, Ceceila Ahern How to fall in Love Kindle ££5.99 Paperback £6.08
3. Tolkien The Hobbitt Kindle £0.99 Paperback £3.50
4. Dan Brown INferno Kindle £1.99 hardcover £9.50
5. Donna Tartt The Goldfinch Kindle £1.99 Paperback £7.59
6. Jonas Jonasson The Hundred-Year- Kindle £3.99 Paperback £5.28
Old Man Who
Climbed Out of the
Window and
Disappeared
7. Liane Moriaty The Husband's secret Kindle £2.99 Paperback £3.80
8 Robert Galbraith The Cuckoo's Calling Kindle £1.99 Paperback £6.99
9. Diane chamberlain The Courage Tree Kindle £0.99 Paperback £3.50
10. Ian Rankin Saints of the Shadow Bible Kindle £ 2.99 Paperback £7.18
So you see ebooks are not more expensive that paperbacks. At least as far as best selling non fiction they are actually now much much cheaper!
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>>So you see ebooks are not more expensive that paperbacks. At least as far as best selling non fiction they are actually now much much cheaper!
If this is addressed to me, I said *some* books.
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It was addressing the assertion made by Robin that you don' t seem to save much on ebooks. In the past this was indeed the case and ebooks were usually more expensive than their paper equivalent. As you will see from my earlier post this is not now the case, at least for popular fiction, with many ebooks being sold at a considerable discount over their paper versions.
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Looks like I'm out of date on pricing, then. Possibly I'll consider one now, though it might not survive the cup of tea I spilled over my paperback yesterday.
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>>With no printing costs surely they should be a lot cheaper
If you are under the impression that book prices have anything to do with the cost of production of the physical book, then yes. But they don't.
Anymore than a CD does.
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>> >>With no printing costs surely they should be a lot cheaper
>>
>> If you are under the impression that book prices have anything to do with the
>> cost of production of the physical book, then yes. But they don't.
>>
>>
That's true of course, but if Amazon want to push the Kindle surely lower book prices would make it more attractive? itunes seem to do alright selly music downloads for less than the hard copy.
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"If Amazon want to push the Kindle surely lower book prices would make it more attractive? "
They do and they have - see my post above
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>> You don't seem to make much saving if any on ebooks
You do if all you download is free ones :)
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Electronic book reader thingmy - No FM2R
