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Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Berkeley, CA
Posts: 126
S/C/G: 229/185/155
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BornToFly, I chose the Kindle over the Nook because it was cheaper and offered more features for the price. It is also compatible with Blackboard which is hugely important to me since I do so much of my readings for classes online. From what my friend told me, the ipad smashes the kindle. I figured that the new ipad is being announced in February and will likely come out in March, and that the prices will drop by the end of the summer-ish. I can't afford an ipad anyway, but if I do get one I'd like to wait for the newest model. Also, with the ipad, you have to pay a monthly fee to connect via the 3G network, and on the kindle it's free. That was a huge deciding factor!
This is the e-mail that my friend sent me about the two:
"Truth is that since my Kindle fell into the bathtub (and no, I wasn't in the bathtub -- long story), I have converted over to an iPad. My iPad has the Kindle application on it, so I still read Kindle books, but it also can display beautiful PDF docs, as well. I have no idea if the price of the iPad puts it out of your reach, or if the fact that you can have a bazillion games on the thing counteracts any productivity you might produce with it, but you might put it on your potential list. Better job with color, rendering, more pixels for reading docs, and most importantly, more programs, so you can do more with it.
BTW, hubby just walked up and said that he has read PDF docs on his Kindle. According to his high expectations, the quality was low. "In terms of utility, Kindle is better than paper, but iPad is far better than Kindle."
Keep in mind that, on top of paying extra for the 3G-enabled device, you will also have to pay for the mobile service when you use it (as in a monthly bill). P says that you only pay when you use it, and you pay for what you use. I can find out more about costs, if you're interested.
And on the PS, yes -- you can read documents at either aspect ratio (portrait or landscape). It switches according to how you hold the device, or there is a toggle to turn off the auto-switch if, like me, you sometimes lie down in bed to read and want the picture to stay put even though your head is horizontal. (Hope THAT made sense!)
Which brings me to my two favorite things about reading on an iPad:
1. It's lit, so you can read in a dark room with the lights out -- great for reading yourself to sleep. (Perhaps not so great if you're trying to stay awake!)
2. And this one is true for Kindle, too: it is very easy to read while eating. There is no need to hold the book open on a certain page -- it just stays there. Even when the wind blows!
My least favorite thing about reading on a Kindle/iPad (though I cannot imagine that it is much different from reading PDFs on your computer):
I find it difficult to navigate around in the text. It is possible to highlight (better in iPad than Kindle) and take notes, but if you simply need to refer back to something you read before, it is hard to find your place. There is a search function, so you can find specific words ... but if, like me, you sometimes just want to remember what a specific character said, there's not always a term to search for. And because there are no "pages," it's hard for me to find my place.
In a physical book, I can remember if it's at the beginning of the book or towards the end, if it's at the top of the page or near the middle. These things don't really exist in digital documents. You can change the font size, so there's no real page numbers or page location and flipping through pages is kinda slow. There's an indication at the bottom of the page for what percentage of the book you're in, but it's not so subconsciously obvious, like holding the book, so I never notice it. For an old broad, this is very disorienting. I suspect you young chicks will find a way to work around this ..."
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