Why? The $139 Kindle has a better screen for ebook reading and the price is a lot more attractive. It's still a very viable alternative to the iPad. I'd buy a Kindle for $139 over an iPad any day for ebook reading.
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Amazon Announces New Kindles: $139 Wi-Fi, $189 3G
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Why? The $139 Kindle has a better screen for ebook reading and the price is a lot more attractive. It's still a very viable alternative to the iPad. I'd buy a Kindle for $139 over an iPad any day for ebook reading.
Likewise here. Purely as an ebook reader, this new improved Kindle wins hands down & at an attractive price to boot. I'm buying one later this year.
Maybe an iPad too for other purposes later, much later. For now though, I'm strictly a Mac guy. No need here yet for the expense of an iPad & I don't see that changing for a long time to come.
The iBooks is just another feature of the big iPod touch we call the iPad. You would not buy the iPad for the sole purpose of an ebook reader. If you wanted that, you would buy something else.
I'm really glad ebook companies (especially Amazon) are playing it smart. When iPad was nearing launch there were plenty of histerical people screaming that Kindle is dead and that Amazon needs it's own iPad-like device. In the end they did smarter thing, they know that they have a product that has bassicaly one use (reading novels), but does it better than any competition could ever hope to. So instead of packing in new features nobody would use they just went for price drops. In couple months (propably before christmas) they will drop the price to 99$ and they will get crazy sales with it.
Amazon doesn't need to compete with iPad. They're not hardware company, they're ebook store and on this front they have been dominating. What Amazon always wanted was not to have "iPod of reading", but instead to be "iTunes of Ebooks" and it looks like they will achieve that goal. Some people don't mind reading on LCD screens, but for those people Amazon has Kindle apps for computers and tablets anyway.
At 130-100 dollars Kindle is a great purchase for every book lover, even if they have a tablet pc or iPad already. Just like people still buy hand watches and alarm clocks despite having cellphones
Amazon doesn't need to compete with iPad. They're not hardware company, they're ebook store and on this front they have been dominating. What Amazon always wanted was not to have "iPod of reading", but instead to be "iTunes of Ebooks" and it looks like they will achieve that goal. Some people don't mind reading on LCD screens, but for those people Amazon has Kindle apps for computers and tablets anyway.
At 130-100 dollars Kindle is a great purchase for every book lover, even if they have a tablet pc or iPad already. Just like people still buy hand watches and alarm clocks despite having cellphones
Cellphones make useless alarm clocks. People need a loud BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP mixed with a good old scshhhhhhchshshcshhsshshhsh of radio static to wake up.
At the same time though it's not like a $500 tablet can be a direct competitor to $139 dedicated e-reader and I think that's the whole point actually
Personaly I find them useless for different reason: you can grab them half asleep and cuddle them into oblivion. With big alarm clock full of pointy edges..well it's much less confortable to sleep on it
Personaly I find them useless for different reason: you can grab them half asleep and cuddle them into oblivion. With big alarm clock full of pointy edges..well it's much less confortable to sleep on it
Lol.
Well it looks like ebook readers have become a race to the bottom (finally).
At 130, I am really thinking about making a jump the kindle. I don't own and iPad yet and like all i-products I like to wait until the second generation for them to make improvements and figure out what worked best and what didn't.
iPad = Browser, games, email and a movie watching device. As an ebook reader ... meh? That is just something apple added because it was going to be a revenue center for the device and they wanted in on it.
Kindle = a pure reader. At 130 it is finally within range of someone who doesn't read 10 books a month lol.
The reality of the situation is this. In American we have this wonderful invention call the "library" where you can go and get books for free. If ebook readers are ever going to go truly mass market, they have to use the subscription model. Mom reads a lot of books but our home library is very small. Why ... she goes to the library; where books are free lol.
People who buy books, buy books to put in there personal libraries. I think Amazon needs to work a deal with publishers where you buy the hardcover you also get the ebook version too for your kindle for a small premium. Or say if you buy the ebook version you get the option to buy at a discounted rate.
This would be great for amazon as it would help "lock-in" customers to their store by bundling them together.
At 130, I am really thinking about making a jump the kindle. I don't own and iPad yet and like all i-products I like to wait until the second generation for them to make improvements and figure out what worked best and what didn't.
iPad = Browser, games, email and a movie watching device. As an ebook reader ... meh? That is just something apple added because it was going to be a revenue center for the device and they wanted in on it.
Kindle = a pure reader. At 130 it is finally within range of someone who doesn't read 10 books a month lol.
The reality of the situation is this. In American we have this wonderful invention call the "library" where you can go and get books for free. If ebook readers are ever going to go truly mass market, they have to use the subscription model. Mom reads a lot of books but our home library is very small. Why ... she goes to the library; where books are free lol.
People who buy books, buy books to put in there personal libraries. I think Amazon needs to work a deal with publishers where you buy the hardcover you also get the ebook version too for your kindle for a small premium. Or say if you buy the ebook version you get the option to buy at a discounted rate.
This would be great for amazon as it would help "lock-in" customers to their store by bundling them together.
or
^^ thats a good idea I'd be cool to have a discounted book price, if I read an ebook and then love it, I like to have a copy as well. If it was crap then *delete* never to be spoken of again.
and you know what could be cool? library could have free ebooks on a loan basis I presume, though how that would work... they could just have many kindles to use at the library, or loan ebooks to your ereader.
^^ thats a good idea I'd be cool to have a discounted book price, if I read an ebook and then love it, I like to have a copy as well. If it was crap then *delete* never to be spoken of again.
and you know what could be cool? library could have free ebooks
on a loan basis I presume, though how that would work... they could just have many kindles to use at the library, or loan ebooks to your ereader.
I see you're still talking for everyone else.
My cellphone was my alarm clock for the longest time. Never had a single problem waking up.
Go to bed early so that you wake up refreshed instead of miserable.
Its a bit hard to feel refreshed with a staphylococcus aureus infection in your lymphatic system and sinuses...
The symphony of BEEP BEEP BEEP schsssh at 8-9 in the morning at the youth hostel begs to differ.
Don't be fooled. Just because the Kindle does only one thing but the iPad does several things, it doesn't necessarily mean the Kindle does that one thing better. I've tried both and for me the iPad is the better ebook reader. It's what I use it for the most.
That it can also play games, movies, music, take notes, browse the web, run any app I could possibly want, is a bonus. The ebook functionality is what makes me love it. There's nothing, absolutely nothing "meh" about it.
Its a bit hard to feel refreshed with a staphylococcus aureus infection in your lymphatic system and sinuses...
OMG, man I feel for you. I had a Staff Aureus in my elbow contracted during surgery to repair the 6 fractures from the injury. I took me a year to recover. 15 weeks of that on IV Cephalosporins.
Wishing you well. Peace.
Well, If publishing houses would push for it, I can see one area on the iPad really taking off. Which is basically like a cross between a news program, video game, and a book but in a very short format. Mostly all non-fiction.
The iPad has one advantage (and a big one) over kindle-type devices because it has a colour screen and a pretty decent processor. Already we are starting to see more "interactive" content pop up in iBooks.
The think about the iPad is that as an eBook reader, for most people it works best in short spurts. What I can really see here is something like a 2.99 30 min to an hour interactive reading activity. I don't know what exactly the final form of this would take but something liek this could be the next "big thing" because they would take books to places they could never go and computers to places they couldn't either.
The iPad doesn't have some sort of innovative screen, it's just a plain LCD/LED. Anyone who's curious can just load up an ebook and read it on their monitor to see if they're OK with LCD reading. Personally, my eyes sort of glaze over after a few pages and I start skimming and missing details.
Back in college, I remember writing 20+ page essays and getting a headache reading it on the screen. I always ended up printing them on paper to proofread. E-ink is pretty much the only technology that I've used where I can read novels with essentially no strain whatsoever. The K3's screen is even better than the ones that are available now. For me there is no contest. The Kindle is the chef's knife to the iPad's swiss army knife.
OMG, man I feel for you. I had a Staff Aureus in my elbow contracted during surgery to repair the 6 fractures from the injury. I took me a year to recover. 15 weeks of that on IV Cephalosporins.
Wishing you well. Peace.
Thanks man, this is nearly my 2nd year.
Though how I got it doesn't sound nearly as impressive.
Not true at all. I am the same way about monitors. I am not the same way about the iPad screen. It is better. It makes it easy to read, and it's restful to the eye. At least to my eye.
I would hate to read novels on my monitor. I've now read about 25 of them on my iPad and I can't get enough.
I think that you raise an important point. We're dealing with version 1.0 of the iPad, and the content being produced for it is barely at the 1.1 stage.
Remember the original iPod from 2001? Compare it to today's iPod touch. We simply cannot imagine what will be on our iPads in nine years, or what iPads will look like, but I can well believe they will have ebooks that put paper books to shame in many ways.
Propably better comparision would be laptop screen, as monitors tend to be much bigger, plus you experience them while sitting on a chair.
However there really is no difference (for your eyes) between reading on laptop screen and iPad. Of course people browse for 5 hours a day and don't complain about reading from lcd, so all the "eye strain" complains are propably overblown.
Personaly I like e-ink simply because it recreates the feeling of reading an actual book, which iPad and any other lcd or OLED screen just can't provide. To me it's just a preference and nostalgia for paper, I've read hundreds of books of lcd and had no problem with it.
I'm the same way about laptop screens, actually: I wouldn't want to read novels on them.
It's not the technology that makes a difference with the iPad, but the iBooks software. They found a look that just works well on your eyes.
My advice, all through this thread, remains very simple: Try each product for yourself in person. See what works for you.
It's not the technology that makes a difference with the iPad, but the iBooks software. They found a look that just works well on your eyes.
My advice, all through this thread, remains very simple: Try each product for yourself in person. See what works for you.