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If you buy a LOT of Kindle books...

I read books using the Kindle app on my iPad 3 at home, but I have a Kindle touch for holidays (we don't have the Fire in the UK BTW), as it's impossible to read a book on the iPad in the sun, whereas the Kindle is spot on.

Best of both worlds IMO.
 
If you are doing a lot of reading I would never a consider LCD based reading device. The eyestrain is huge while e-ink is really easy on eyes.

Maybe one thing nobody considered here - the backlighting. I know it's very convenient thing to have but it is definitely not natural. When you're reading regular books and magazines, you automatically adjust your light so you feel comfortable (sitting close to window, turning on a lamp etc.) Ambient diffused light feels more natural and with E-Ink display, you have the best of both worlds - the portability of electronic device and natural feeling of regular paper.

I personally own keyboard kindle with 3G and it's by far the most used gadget in our household. Battery life is great, I usually charge it once or twice a month. One thing the old kindles have that the new ones don't is the web browser. While it's not great it was really useful for past few weeks. You see, you don't pay for 3G connection and it works anywhere in the world - I was on my vacation in Indonesia and I could write emails and read Google reader with no problems and didn't have to pay for any data plan or what so ever.

Just one thing to consider.
 
I use a Kindle Touch for most of my reading - and sometimes read on my Retina iPad. I love the quality of the screen, but the eyestrain from being so backlit, portability, and heavy weight of the iPad make it a backup reading device at best. That being said, it gets about 15% of my reading hours - and its slowly increasing.
-Shaown
 
comatory said:
If you are doing a lot of reading I would never a consider LCD based reading device. The eyestrain is huge while e-ink is really easy on eyes.

Maybe one thing nobody considered here - the backlighting. I know it's very convenient thing to have but it is definitely not natural. When you're reading regular books and magazines, you automatically adjust your light so you feel comfortable (sitting close to window, turning on a lamp etc.) Ambient diffused light feels more natural and with E-Ink display, you have the best of both worlds - the portability of electronic device and natural feeling of regular paper.
Click to expand...
Actually, studies have shown no difference between e-ink and LCD displays when tested over a group sample.

Personally, I did not like reading on my old iPad 2 at all, which led to me buying a Kindle 4. What I found was causing me eyestrain was not the fact that it was an LCD, but rather the grid over the screen caused by it being a low resolution LCD.

Despite being a low resolution device as well, the Kindle avoids this because e-ink doesn’t have this structure on the display.

However, the iPad 3 display doesn’t have this grid over the screen either, and text looks considerably better than it does on the Kindle due to the higher resolution. I even went so far as installing custom fonts on the Kindle, because I wanted something that resembled printed books (I settled on Minion) but it just doesn’t look as good as iBooks. I’m disappointed you can’t install custom fonts there, but the selection in iBooks is pretty nice.

As long as I watch the brightness of the LCD (too bright and it leads to eyestrain) and use the sepia tone, I can read on the iPad just as long as I could with the Kindle, without getting eyestrain.

In fact, I actually find that I am getting less eyestrain with the iPad now, because it’s backlit, and I don’t need to be under a very bright light to have good page contrast, as I did with the Kindle.

If you need pocketability, and plan on reading outdoors though, you need a Kindle. I pretty much only have a chance to read books when I am at home, and prefer to do so in the evenings with some dim background light on the iPad.
 
actually have quite a number of books on the ipad via the kindle app (last count was around 300 or so) so at least with the current updates i've had no issues with the app or dropping books or files etc.
i've also stripped drm and converted over to epub to use ibooks; which i think gives better options than the current version of the kindle app

no a bit off topic, i have the kindle keyboard, the touch, and up till recently the fire...now after seeing the nook with glowlight all i gotta say is i want one. for reading in bed, on planes, in cars, and while eating my green eggs and ham
 
As much as i love my iPad, if you read A LOT of books i couldn't recommend a Kindle with an E-ink display enough. Its much easier on the eyes, its lighter and the battery life can last weeks.

I also found when reading a book on an iPad that its easy to become detracted by notifications or an urge to check your email or something. You don't have that issue with an e-ink Kindle
 
I agree totally with PaulyWauly..

The iPad is great, but when it comes to reading a book, the kindle is my device of choice. I have the non-touch 4th gen kindle. It's thin, light, easy on the eyes and (imho) significantly better than a real book.
 
Paulywauly said:
As much as i love my iPad, if you read A LOT of books i couldn't recommend a Kindle with an E-ink display enough. Its much easier on the eyes, its lighter and the battery life can last weeks.

I also found when reading a book on an iPad that its easy to become detracted by notifications or an urge to check your email or something. You don't have that issue with an e-ink Kindle
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I agree wholeheartedly. The iPad (3rd gen) display is quite amazing for ready books, but I find it too easy to be distracted by other things and the ability to quickly access them.

With the basic Kindle that I have, I can read with little temptation for distraction and I'll leave the iPad and iPhone in another room if I can.
 
If you do extensive reading, just get a kindle or kindle touch. I have the kindle touch and brought it to the beach. Loaded some music on there and did some reading. It was great. No screen glare or anything, plenty of space for all your books. The e-ink is really great for reading. And besides, I wouldn't want to bring my iPad out in the sun/the beach or anything like that just for reading. I think a kindle is great to have. Use your iPad for other stuff.
 
old-wiz said:
The Kindle screen is not really that good compared to the iPad3.
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Depends on the situation. For example, go sit outside in full sunlight trying to read a book and tell me the ipad3 screen is better... :cool:

I have both a Kindle2 and iPad3. They each serve different purposes and complement eachother reasonably well. The kindle is a great one-trick pony; it's very good for reading text based books, especially in brightly lit conditions. The ipad is much better at everything else, and does a good job of handling ebooks via the Kindle app in moderately to low-lit conditions.

With that said, I got my kindle essentially for free. I wouldn't spend the money on a Kindle Fire, and I'm not sure I'd go out and buy a monochrome Kindle if I had to pay full price.
 
Night Spring said:
I don't like the Kindle iPad app, so I buy from Amazon, de-drm the books, and convert them to epub. Then I can read them in any ebooks reading app of choice. For now, it's iBooks.
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What are some of the advantages of going this route? I've never even considered it...

I use the Kindle iPad app and don't really have any issues with it - although - I just got my iPad and have only read 3 books on it so far. Also, my reading is pretty much restricted to an indoor environment (usually on my train rides to/from work).

If I had to use the thing in the sunlight - it would be a definite no-go...

But regarding the epub route - what are some of the reasons you choose to do this? Do the other readers offer some other features?
 
I think it all comes down to the ambient light you read in. I read in dim to dark rooms and the ipad is an awesome ereader in this context. Also--the ipad 1 and 2 are not "low res" screens. Its a 133 dpi, which is fine, imo. If you read in brightly lit areas, the screen reflection is a problem. My biggest compaint is that kindle formatting of technical books is often awful.
 
I'd get a generic tablet if I were you. On my iPad, I have apps for Kindle, Nook, Overdrive, Safari To Go, iBooks, and more. This way, I have access to the widest possible selection of books/prices.

I bought a Nook Tablet for my wife because she wanted a 7" tablet. It was great for reading B&N stuff but the Nook app store sucked with very little selection. I had to root it to be able to get to the Android market and then it ran flaky and I had to spend lots of time tinkering with it. I finally sold it and just bought a Galaxy tab 7.0 and she now has all the same apps as I do on my iPad.
 
TheKricket said:
But regarding the epub route - what are some of the reasons you choose to do this? Do the other readers offer some other features?
Click to expand...

Kindle app on the iPad only offers one font, has no option to left-adjust the text. I hate reading books with full justification. I also don't like the column view in the Kindle app -- I prefer the two-page layout of the iBooks app. Other ePub reading apps offer even more customization options. But for now I'm satisfied with iBooks.
 
Get a kindle. The e ink screen is far better for reading, and the battery life is amazing.
 
i sold my iPad 2 a while ago (just didn't need it), but i bought a kindle touch and love it. it is definitely better on the eyes; i actually read faster than on a paperback book. i didn't think i would be for ebooks, but i'm converted. the best part is not owning all those dead tree books and finding a place for them in the apartment.
 
Mindy60 said:
...would you buy a kindle? Or do you think the iPad Kindle app is sufficient enough to handle it? Thoughts, suggestions?
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I buy only kindle books, probably 2 or 3 every week and 2-4 textbooks per month. I love the kindle app, it has certain features which I couldn't live without like white text on a black screen. The kindle is certainly very cool and probably easier on the eyes, but I'd rather not carry around 2 devices.

edit: I see you were talking about the kindle fire, in that case definitely not. Just seems like I'm settling for too much versus the ipad, unless you really need the smaller screen, which in that case I'd definitely go for the nexus 7. I like my tablet screens large though.
 
I have a Kindle3 which I never use, a Kindle Fire which I use some of the time and an iPad3 which I use all of the time. I have hundreds of Amazon ebooks (mostly free or special deals), the 20k Mobile-Reference collection, endless CDrom comic collections (Archie & Friends, Spiderman, FF, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Hulk, hundreds of Public Domain comics...), CDrom magazines (M.A.D., Rolling Stone, etc..), National Geo, Zinio subscriptions which all look best on the iPad.
 
pagansoul said:
I have hundreds of Amazon ebooks (mostly free or special deals), the 20k Mobile-Reference collection, endless CDrom comic collections (Archie & Friends, Spiderman, FF, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Hulk, hundreds of Public Domain comics...), CDrom magazines (M.A.D., Rolling Stone, etc..), National Geo, Zinio subscriptions which all look best on the iPad.
Click to expand...

Not if you were sitting on a beach in bright sunlight (as I am currently! :D ) though.
 
I've got a Touch. Wouldn't be without it. iPads feel heavy in comparison, and I spend so much of my working life staring at backlit screens it's nice to read on something after work that doesn't do your eyes in. Also reading outside is much easier.

For the price you can't go wrong IMO, if you do a lot of reading that is.
 
I bought a Kindle Keyboard 3G for use on the beach this summer and must say that I have really enjoyed it. My daughters and I all have Kindles on the same account and have bought a ton of books this summer. I've been using my iPad Kindle app for years on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gen iPads but I do love the e-ink reader; it's light, compact, and much easier on my eyes for e-reading. It's also a much less expensive device than my $829 iPad 3 so I don't hesitate to drag it to the beach and elsewhere as it eliminates bulk, clutter, and weight and makes for better sunlight reading. I still use the iPad on black with white text for dark or night-time (insomnia) reading but prefer Kindle's e-ink and light form factor for general reading. The Kindle's easy synching means you can always start off at the right spot in your reading no matter which device you're using at the moment. It's a great luxury to have both.
 
Night Spring said:
I buy from Amazon, de-drm the books, and convert them to epub. Then I can read them in any ebooks reading app of choice. For now, it's iBooks.
Click to expand...

I agree that Ibooks is much superior to the Kindle app. If you want to know how to read your Amazon purchased books in Ibooks, here is a quick guide. http://www.cultofmac.com/173945/how-to-read-kindle-books-in-ibooks-and-keep-your-library-in-the-cloud-how-to/

Unless the e-ink, smaller size, and lower price are big issues for you, I'd not buy a Kindle (and definitely not a fire). Why limit yourself to Amazon? With the Ipad, you can buy from all the on-line retailers.
 
Night Spring said:
I don't like the Kindle iPad app, so I buy from Amazon, de-drm the books, and convert them to epub. Then I can read them in any ebooks reading app of choice. For now, it's iBooks.
Click to expand...

I see DNAppleGold's link to Kindle DRM removal, but that link was for Mac's. I have a PC and while I tried this successfully once, about a year ago, it was a very complex process.

Do you, or anyone else, have a simpler process or utility for Kindle DRM removal?
I'm not into any type of pirating or sharing scheme, I just want to be able to read Kindle books with other non-kindle readers.
 
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