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Kindle or Nook?
I'm trying to decide between a Kindle and a Nook. The Nook seems to win on all issues important to me, but, and this is the biggest thing against it: it's not available locally, and I can't get it even with a credit card because it only accepts US billing addresses. (the second biggest issue: I'd have trouble exchanging it in case I ran into warranty issues)
I can, however get the Kindle. My biggest reason for avoiding the Kindle is that it doesn't support epubs. And yes I know that I can use Calibre to convert, but that's a bit like telling me I can run a program by compiling it from source. I appreciate the possibility is there, and sometimes I may even want to use it, but I don't want to have it as my first step. (this is the same reason I avoid DRM'd ebooks)
Besides, I'd rather support the book publishers selling epubs already, and then just drop it in, not have to fiddle with dog-slow conversion each time.
But my issue now basically is: international support or epub support? And if I get the Nook can I use it without registering anyway? And if I get the Kindle, will I ever get past my annoyance at its nonsupport of epubs to ever use it? Which is the lesser of two evils? Oy.
I can, however get the Kindle. My biggest reason for avoiding the Kindle is that it doesn't support epubs. And yes I know that I can use Calibre to convert, but that's a bit like telling me I can run a program by compiling it from source. I appreciate the possibility is there, and sometimes I may even want to use it, but I don't want to have it as my first step. (this is the same reason I avoid DRM'd ebooks)
Besides, I'd rather support the book publishers selling epubs already, and then just drop it in, not have to fiddle with dog-slow conversion each time.
But my issue now basically is: international support or epub support? And if I get the Nook can I use it without registering anyway? And if I get the Kindle, will I ever get past my annoyance at its nonsupport of epubs to ever use it? Which is the lesser of two evils? Oy.
no subject
Is there a reason you aren't considering other e-book readers such as Kobo, Sony, or BeBook? Do they also refuse to sell to the Philippines?
One thing: no matter what e-book reader you get, get an e-ink one, not a colour one. E-ink is so much more readable, and the battery lasts a lot longer with E-ink.
Me, I have a BeBook Neo, which I love using, but wouldn't actually recommend to anyone, because it was very expensive. Various features that I thought would be really nifty and useful turned out not to be: Wi-Fi is a waste of money; the annotation features are pretty useless if one can't get the data off the device, and the annotation only works for PDF and EPUB anyway.
But from my experience with the BeBook Neo, perhaps a BeBook Club might be worth looking at. Or, even more to the point, an Onyx Boox, which is the original Bebook Neo device before BeBook re-branded it and doubled the price... (googles around; here's the Boox 60: http://www.onyxboox.com/product_info.php?products_id=28 - they claim to have free shipping anywhere in the world!) If only I'd found out about the Boox before I bought my BeBook!
Okay, why do I love my BeBook Neo?
* the E-ink is really readable
* really light (as most EBook readers are) easily held with one hand.
* SDHC card slot means that I can have
hundredsthousands of books without any problems.(*) Just copy them onto the card and plug the card in.* The interface for looking at the books is basically a directory browser, which has advantages and disadvantages. Advantage: you can organize your books however you darn well please. Disadvantage: you can't search for a particular book, you have to browse for it.(**)
* LOTS of formats that it supports. I mainly use EPUB, PDF and HTML.
* one can use the touchscreen with stylus, or one can use the control buttons at the bottom, or both. It's nice to have a choice. I tend to use the buttons for page-turns (which one can do one-handed) and the touchscreen when I am browsing for books.
* Which means that one can read one-handed, which is an advantage that physical books don't have.
* one can zoom the fonts pretty easily (three clicks: menu -> font-size-window -> font-size)
* one can set the device to always open up your current book on the current page when you turn it on.
* unexpected fun with the "scribble" app, which basically allows you to make doodles with the stylus. You can export them as JPG files.
* the PDF support is good; a lot of ebook readers nominally support PDF but do a crappy job; I've had no problems with this one.
On the downside:
* the Wi-Fi isn't really very useful. Trying to browse the internet on a slow tiny black-and-white screen is a painful experience. And I've never tried to use the WiFi to update the content on the device; it's easier to just drop things onto the SDHC card.
* the annotation isn't as useful as I thought it would be; that could be because I use Linux and therefore can't run the Official Windows App which could quite possibly export the annotations, I don't know. As it is, I can make annotations, but they stay on the device. The actual annotations aren't bad; one can highlight a passage, write a note, and it is saved as a bookmark. Mind you, trying to type the notes is also a bit painful, since it's basically hunt-and-peck-with-the-stylus on a "soft" keyboard. As I said, not as useful as I thought it would be.
* one can't set the default font size; for each new book one has to set the font-size anew. Since I prefer reading at 150% rather than at 100%, it is a bit annoying.
* sometimes I accidentally hit the "back" button while browsing, which kicks you out of the current book to the browse-for-books screen... and there isn't a "forward" button to undo that.
I can't comment on the pain or non-pain of using the device with DRM, because I never buy DRMed ebooks.
I also can't comment on the MP3 playing, because when I listen to MP3s I'd rather use an MP3 player, so I haven't tried it with the BeBook.
I tried their text-to-speech function a couple of times but decided I would rather use espeak to make my own text-to-speech files instead(***). Which I play on my MP3 player. While doing crochet.
(*) 1085 books in my "profic" folder, 1746 stories in my "fanfic" folder. Ah, Project Gutenberg, how I love thee. (+)
(**) I solved that by writing my own searcher, a HTML page which has the whole catalogue on it, and does the searching with Javascript. Since the device has a web-browser (WebKit based) it has no problems with HTML and Javascript. I built the whole thing with IkiWiki and lots of custom plugins written by me.
(+) I also wrote my own script for downloading fanfic and converting it into EPUB. WWW::FetchStory on CPAN.
(***) Yes, I wrote a script for that as well. Me geek!
no subject
I am sad to say that no one here seems to have heard of the other ebook readers; the Nook and Kindle were the only ones I could find information on that didn't need to be special-ordered, and that cut down my options considerably.
I heard from a friend of mine who also has it that the Boox is awesome :D
Completely agree re: e-ink versus not. There are a lot of things I love LCDs for, and I can read a book on one in a pinch, but the Nook (simple touch -- e-ink) has basically gotten me to acknowledge how much I was compromising reading on my phone/tablet screens before.
no subject
8-D
I am sad to say that no one here seems to have heard of the other ebook readers; the Nook and Kindle were the only ones I could find information on that didn't need to be special-ordered, and that cut down my options considerably.
Well, I'm glad that you're enjoying your Nook.
Completely agree re: e-ink versus not. There are a lot of things I love LCDs for, and I can read a book on one in a pinch, but the Nook (simple touch -- e-ink) has basically gotten me to acknowledge how much I was compromising reading on my phone/tablet screens before.
I was really amazed at how crisp and clear the e-ink was.
no subject