Tag: Technology

Product Review: nook vs. Kindle

Posted March 17, 2010 by Holly in Reviews | 12 Comments


When the announcement first came out that B&N was releasing nook, I have to admit to being pretty excited. I’d been waiting for another e-reader to come on the market that was comparable to the Kindle, and the nook seemed to be the answer.

My two year wedding anniversary was last week and my husband surprised me with a nook…and a Kindle. He wasn’t sure which one I wanted, so he bought both (have I mentioned lately how much I love my husband?). Initially we decided I’d play with both and see which one I wanted to keep. Now I think we may keep them both. He’s been wanting one of his own, so this could be the perfect solution.

He gave me the nook in the car on the first day of vacation. We had just left home on a week long road trip to Northern California. We’d had a conversation the week prior to and I was telling him I preferred the nook to the Kindle on paper. So he left the Kindle at home and gave the nook first. I had about a week to play with it before checking out the Kindle. I’d say that gives the nook an unfair advantage, but the truth is I didn’t have much time to play with it while we were on vacation.

Look: My initial impression of the nook is that it’s very thin. I’ve been using an eBookwise ereader for years, so the lack of bulk surprised me. Comparing it to the Kindle, I’d say they’re about the same size. The nook is just a tad thicker than the Kindle and might be a little heavier, but not so much that I really notice it. I think the screen on the Kindle is smaller than the screen on the nook. Or that could just be an illusion because the case surrounding the Kindle screen is bigger.

Screen: Both devices feature e-ink screens. The eBookwise has an LCD backlit touchscreen, so this is a huge change for me. The color touchscreen on the nook really makes the e-ink standout. I kept expecting the reading screen to light up and getting frustrated when it didn’t. I can’t say if my problem stemmed from using the backlit eBookwise for so long or if it’s the screen itself. More than likely the issue is mine (though it could also be that my other e-devices – cell phone, laptop – are backlit as well). The background of the nook screen seems a tad lighter than that of the Kindle. The gray is a shade lighter, I mean. It doesn’t change or effect the reading experience.

Setup: I don’t have an iPhone or iTouch, so I’m not used to using a touchscreen. I had some trouble inputting my account information initially on the nook because of this. I kept hitting the wrong letter and having to backspace to try again. it was pretty frustrating. I also had trouble getting it to accept my password. I had the same issue when I tried to register the B&N eReader app on my Blackberry, so I don’t know if it was me or a B&N issue.

Registering the Kindle was easy in comparison, but I have to qualify that with two things: 1) I’m not used to the touchscreen keyboard and 2) I was playing with the nook in the car while my husband was driving. 2 is a huge qualification for several reasons, the main being that I get extremely car sick if I try to read in the car. So I wasn’t able to give it my full attention. I don’t know if it would have been any easier had I been stationary, but I’m going to assume it was.

It’s hard using your thumbs to type on the Kindle because it’s so wide. I keep wanting to use it like I would the keyboard on my cell phone, then becoming frustrated when I can’t. I find myself hunting and pecking because of it.

Downloading: Once I had registered the devices I tried downloading a free sample from each store. I like that the prices are shown while browsing the nook. If I want to see the price of a Kindle book I have to select the title and wait for the page to load. It tales anywhere from 10-25 seconds for the separate pages to load on the Kindle. It was pretty close to the same for the nook. The color touchscreen on the nook makes it a lot easier to see the covers of the books. They’re hard to see on the Kindle.

To start I downloaded the free sample of Too Good To Be True by Kristan Higgins. I’d say it took about 30-45 seconds on both devices to complete the transaction and have the book show on my bookshelf.
Reading: The sample shows as 14 pages on the nook. (side note: Something interesting about the nook: When a book loads it shows the actual number of pages. But the page count only turns about every 3 page turn. So essentially it’ll say I’m on page 10 for 3 pages. :end side note) The first page is the book cover, then the title page, acknowledgments, dedication, review pages and etc..all the normal pages you have to flip through in a paperback book. I had to flip through 10 pages to get to the actual story.

Page numbers don’t show on the Kindle (instead it shows a percentage) – which incidentally I find very annoying – so I can’t say how many pages it is, but it does go on quite a bit longer than the sample on the nook. If I want to read the acknowledgments or dedications I have to page back. I like that better than having to page through them to get to the story.

The text is very clear on both screens. I don’t see a noticeable difference between them. I’m able to change the font size easily on both devices, though it took me awhile to figure out how to do it on the Kindle. I kept looking in the menu options for it, when there’s actually a keyboard button. The nook has the options listed on the touchscreen while the book is open. I like that I can change the font type on the nook, besides just the size.

There is a slight delay between page turns on both devices. I’d say 1-2 seconds. It doesn’t seem to be better or worse with either device.

Sideloading: Personal content can be added to both devices via USB cord. It’s easy enough, you just plug it in then drop and drag your documents. The nook takes PDF, ePub and Adobe Digital Editions. The Kindle takes Mobipocket, PDF and HTML. I have a ton of PDF files, so I loaded a few to see how they translated.

They transferred to the nook without a problem. The text was normal size and the font easy to read. The spacing seemed to be a bit off on a couple of the files, but otherwise there wasn’t an issue. I can still adjust the font type and size, but I can’t make notes or highlight text in documents I sideload. That’s kind of frustrating.

They didn’t transfer as well to the Kindle. The text size is tiny and isn’t adjustable. I can’t make notes or highlight text on this device either. Files can be emailed to the Kindle (the nook doesn’t have that option) for $.15 per document. According to Casee, if you email a file in it automatically converts, but it didn’t work when I tried. The PDFs I emailed still loaded the same way – with tiny font. The .doc file I emailed didn’t show up at all, though I was charged for it (I’ll take that up with Amazon later).

I like the idea of being able to email files, but I don’t know if it’s worth paying for. It might be worth it to avoid having to convert files, but I’m not convinced yet. I haven’t tried converting my PDFs to Mobi files and loading them that way yet. I’m told they load perfectly though.

Connectivity: This isn’t going to be entirely fair, because as I stated above I had the nook on vacation with me, but didn’t have the Kindle. We stayed in a variety of places and I had some major issues getting the nook to connect. This was a concern for me with both devices when they were first released. The wifi settings don’t allow you to connect to password protected wifi (such as hotels and etc) and I didn’t have 3G service in many of the places we visited.

Audio: I tried loading music files on both devices without success. I haven’t really had a chance to play around with them to find out why it didn’t work, however. I’ll try to remember to check back once I do.

As for audiobooks, I know Renee has successfully loaded them from Audible, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Other stuff: The Kindle froze up for about a minute when I turned the text-to-speech on, changed the settings or turned it off. The nook doesn’t have a text-to-speech function, so I couldn’t compare.

Apparently the nook used to freeze up all the time, but it only happened to me once when an update was installing.

The cord for the Kindle is quite a bit longer than the nook’s.

Conclusion: At this point I’m leaning toward the nook, mostly because of the way PDFs load onto it compared to the Kindle. Plus, I think the touchscreen menu is easier to use. This is based on using my nook for almost two full weeks while only having used the Kindle for a few days.

I plan to do several more posts about both devices in the following weeks to come. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have questions about either device and I’ll be happy to answer them if I can.


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For Potential Nook Customers

Posted February 24, 2010 by Holly in News | 0 Comments

If you’re thinking about buying a Nook (the new B&N e-reader) but wanted a real reader’s take on it, author Shannon Stacey has offered one.

She’s blogging about the Nook today and answering basic questions. I’ve been putting off buying one until all the kinks were worked out and Shannon’s has been really helpful!

Go forth and check it out:

The nook: using it.

Also:

The nook: Shallow first impressions


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eBook Prices AKA Books on Board is the way to go

Posted October 12, 2007 by Holly in Miscellaneous | 4 Comments

I recently read Sea Swept by Nora Roberts. After seeing Ween’s Hero of the Month post, I was curious about this book, so I decided to buy it. I wanted it right away, so that meant buying in eBook format. When I first started purchasing eBooks, something like a year ago, the prices were quite a bit less than regular print price. For some reason, in recent months, that has changed. eBook prices are now sometimes twice what print prices are…and that kind of pisses me off. Although I truly enjoy eBooks and love the instant gratification I get when I buy one online and can immediately download it, I draw the line at paying $10.00 for a book I could buy at Borders for $7.99.

The first place I checked was Ebookwise, because I have their reader and it’s easiest to download directly from them. The price at Ebookwise? $7.49. Since the regular list price in print is $7.99, $7.49 isn’t so bad. But still, I’ve been used to paying sometimes $1.50 less for eBooks and I decided to shop around. Fictionwise, Ebookwise’s parent company was $7.99 the same as the print price. Since I wasn’t going to have the actual book to add to my library, I didn’t really want to pay that.

I decided to Google it and see what was available from where. eBookMall was the highest at $9.49. WTF? Almost $10? That’s $2.00 more than the print price. Soooo not paying that.

The price from Penguin direct was also $7.99. Resigned at this point, I decided to check one last place, Books on Board.

The BoB price? $6.27. That is a reasonable price, IMO. Yes, it’s only $1.72 less than the print price, but I think, as I’m not actually getting the book to add to my personal library, and since I can’t share it with my loved ones, it makes more sense to not pay as much as the print price. Right?

Since then I’ve done some research and BoB is considerably less all the way around. Daphne and I were talking about this last night. She was looking for BloodFever by Karen Marie Moning. Amazon has it listed, in HB, at $14.96. Diesel has it at $16.54 in eBook. Fictionwise and Ebookwise don’t even have it listed yet, something I noticed is pretty much the norm for them. They rarely have eBooks on or before the release date. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it often takes them a full week to two weeks after the release date to show them as available.

The Books on Board price? $13.31.

The moral of this story? Buy from BoB, and not Fictionwise, eReader or Ebookwise.

Ridiculous.


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eBook Readers – Finding the one that’s right for you

Posted October 1, 2007 by Holly in Discussions | 7 Comments

The running theme lately here on BB seems to be eBooks. Chantal talked about sharing them in her guest blog, Casee and I reviewed one, Rowena and I announced the new Video eBook technology from Harper-Collins (Avon) and she reviewed Lady Amelia’s Secret Lover and I mentioned that Harlequin is releasing all new books in eBook format.

A lot of you expressed interest in buying an eReader, but you had a lot of questions. So I thought doing a post about various eReaders might be in order.

I’m just going to tell you now, I’m lazy. Which means when I was shopping for an eReader I wanted something extremely user friendly. I’m not at all stupid, but why waste energy learning new programs if I don’t have to?

Of course, when I first bought an eReader, I didn’t really think about that. Nor did I think about other important things, like the format of the eBooks, the ease with which you could transfer and upload books, the fact that having a backlight is extremely important, or any other number of things.

The only thing I really thought about before I bought my first reader was…I hate reading on the computer. Seriously. I spend more than 8 hours a day in front of a computer screen at work. I do NOT want to spend another 4-6 staring at it in the evenings so I can read eBooks. I was doing it anyway, however (buying eBooks that is). As I mentioned before, Instant Gratification. No brainer, right?

Prior to getting an eReader, I printed all my eBooks. And you know, that just didn’t make sense. Why not just buy it in paperback if I was going to print it anyway? It would cost me less than spending all the money on paper and toner, right? But then I had to WAIT for my books to come in the mail, or until I could get to the store.

But I digress.

The first eReader I got (MM bought it for me for my birthday 2 years ago, in 2006, along with EVERYTHING on my Amazon wish list..I’m telling you, the boy is a keeper) was an Ebookman EBM-900. I checked it out on Amazon and saw all the features it came with, but didn’t do enough research before I ordered it (or had MM order it).

Although there are several drawbacks the two biggest ones are the battery life and the fact that there’s no backlight. The screen itself is a light gray and the font is a light black, so reading on it is almost impossible. I suppose I could have bought a booklight and used it to light the screen, but I didn’t. Honestly, I didn’t really take the time to learn to use it properly.

Besides, after reading the owners manual, I was dismayed to realize it operated on 2 AA batteries. That in and of itself isn’t such a bad thing. The problem was, if you let the batteries die, and didn’t change them out within five minutes of being told they were going dead, you lost all content. Yes, ALL CONTENT. Every eBook you’d downloaded, all music files, all contacts in your address book. Although I backed everything up on the computer, it was still a major issue for me.

There were also smaller issues. Such as the size of it. The reading screen is tiny. It’s the size of a blackberry or a PDA. I suppose for using the other functions that wasn’t so bad, but for reading eBooks it was just a pain.

After a couple months of straining my eyes and having a constant headache from not only eye strain but also pure frustration at how difficult the technology was to figure out, I gave up.

Not long after I emailed Jane and asked for a recommendation. I told her I wanted something user friendly and with a price tag under $200. She told me to buy an Ebookwise.

Although I trust Jane explicitly when it comes to technology (really, she’s much more knowledgeable than I am) I still did my homework before buying it. I read customer reviews and checked out all the features before I made the decision to buy it. Then I shopped around to find the best price. Eventually I found a seller on eBay that got good ratings and bid on one. I ended up getting it for less than the list price on ebookwise.com, even with shipping.

I have to tell you, I love it. It has a lot of basic functions that seem small but make a huge difference in the reading experience. Just to name a few:

It’s backlit, which means it’s easy to read no matter where you are. And it doesn’t hurt my eyes like reading on the computer does, or like trying to read on my Ebookman did.

The contrast and font sizes are adjustable, which means you can dim or brighten the screen as necessary, and can change the size of the font to suit your personal preferences.

It has a grip on the right side, which makes it easy and comfortable to hold at all times. Plus, the screen can be rotated. So if I’m lying on my left side and want to switch hands or positions, I just rotated the screen so the grip is in my left hand, not my right.

It’s just a bit bigger than a mass market paperback, so the reading screen is almost exactly the same size as reading a regular paperback book.

It’s rechargeable, and the battery, when fully charged, gives you about 11 hours of reading time.

Although the easiest format to upload content is directly from ebookwise.com (you just connect your reader to your computer and it automatically d/l’s the content from the site), it also has a Personal Content Server, which allows you to display your own personal content in the following file formats: plain text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf), Microsoft Word documents (.doc), HTML (.htm or .html), and Rocket eBook Editions (.rb). I’ve also found that you can convert Microsoft Reader and PDF files with free online programs, then upload them to your reader. Ebookwise also offers a downloadable program called the Ebookwise Librarian, which allows you to upload content to your reader while you’re offline. It also has a built-in modem, so you can connect directly to your online bookshelf from a phone line.

You can choose how much memory you want. The basic reader only includes 8MB of memory, which will allow you about 10 eBooks. But for about $30 more, you can include a 64MB removable memory card that will give you space for an additional 100 eBooks. You can also upgrade to a 128MB card for $70, which will give you space for over 200 eBooks. So really, no matter what your budget, you can pretty much get what you need. You may have to start out small, but you can upgrade at any time. For example: If you bought the reader with no memory card ($109.95) you can buy a Smartcard at a later date (they’re sold pretty much everywhere) and just pop it into the external drive. Easy-peasy.

I highly recommend this particular device for those of you who are in the market for your first eReader.

For those of you who are more tech savvy and want something a little more complex, Jane at Dear Author has made some wonderful suggestions. I can’t comment one way or the other on them as I haven’t tried them, but she’s the expert and I’d trust her recommendations.

You can start here:

2007 Midterm Report
In Which Jane Commits Adultery
Don’t Buy Adobe’s eReader
A Romance Buyer’s Guide to eBook Readers

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me. I’ll be happy to help in anyway I can. Just so you know I’m not alone. Daphne, Lori and Chantal have the Ebookwise and love it. You can double check with them to see if they’ve had any issues I don’t know about.

Also, in case you’re interested, Casee recently purchased a Sony eReader. I haven’t really had a chance to talk with her about it at length, but as far as I know she’s been very satisfied with it. She might do a separate post about it later (I’m not sure), but in the meantime if you’re curious, leave her a comment or email us.

I hope this helps those of you who are in the market for an eReader. I just can’t tell you how much I love mine. Naturally there are drawbacks, such as not having the actual book to add to my collection and there are strict copyright laws which prevent you from sharing with friends and family, but despite those I haven’t regretted once buying my Reader. I’m sure you’ll feel the same if you decide to purchase one.


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