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Kindle--opinions?

Chuck(G)

Chuck(G)

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I've been thinking about pre-ordering the Kindle Touch to hold my manuals in PDF.

Anyone care to contribute their experiences with the $79 plain Kindle?

Thanks!
 
I'd say compare it to the Nook. I did the research a while back and decided that the Nook was way better for my needs, admittedly this was before the $79 nook.
 
I use my PC and Notebook to read both Kindle and Nook products. And that also means that I don't need a stronger pair of glasses. :) Hey, if you really want to test your eyesight you could always use your Droid or other iphone device.
 
my mrs has got a kindle, she thinks it's brilliant and as easy to read as a book. Although I would be less inclined to use one for diagrams etc as many are difficult to read even on A4 ("letter" ish). I appreciate it's possible to zoom in, but following a trace across a partial page is horrid.
 
My son has a nook and I also wanted to be able to view PDF's easily. So, I tried a couple PDF's on his Nook but my eyesight isn't good enough to be comfortable with that. As Nige said, the zoom in for reading, and then to navigate is a pain. Also with the type of PDF's I mostly read, I really want a full page view. For me this necessitated a full size 10" tablet turned vertically. That is the only thing that works for me. If you have good enough eyesight for the Kindle 6" screen then you may be happy, especially with the $79. price. You need to demo one to make sure it's right for you. But you don't want to buy on price alone then find out function is not up to what you want or need.
 
Chuck, get out your notebook, put Foxit Reader on it and you'll have the best PDF device you can get. If you're not already using Foxit you should be anyway. I haven't used Acrobat in ten years and I'm still smiling. :mrgreen:
 
I've used Foxit as my standard reader for years.

The e-paper aspect of Kindle and the 1-2 month battery charge I find fascinating. But my eyes aren't good enough for the small Kindle screen. Plastic Logic has apparently been showing a full-size (8.5x11) version of their display as well as gearing up sales of their textbook. I think I'll wait a bit longer to see what develops.

Edit: Whatever happened to the Skiff Reader with the big screen? Did Rupert buy out the firm with the idea of killing the technology?
 
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I just read a test in the German C't magazine, where it seems that the Sony PRS-T1 has a very nice PDF handling.
 
The general consensus I've heard is the Nook and Kindle were pretty much the same as far as the black and white e-ink version. (they non color nook is also e-ink btw, although one thing I didn't realize is for some reason the older version has a color lcd screen at the bottom of it which I would think would cause some glare and battery drain.. the newest Nook is just the e-ink). It's supposed to not have glare and be better for your eyes however no backlighting so you need to use a book light or other source if you're reading at bedtime. I believe both have pdf support, the Nook I think has some e-reader support that the kindle didn't at the time (some opensource standard from what I recall) but the way they're both coming out with stuff constantly I'd be surprised if there's much of a difference between the two.

The color versions are a glass LCD screen which everyone says has lots of glare outside and in bright light scenarios. I kinda wonder (besides the smaller screen) if there's much difference in that vs an old Palm with a pdf viewer.

I do think it's an interesting offer for the free 3g for the Kindle though. I heard it's of course restricted to just amazon/sync access.
 
I've got a Nook Color and love the thing!

Tried the original Nook b/w and hated it. Not having the main screen touchable was annoying as heck to me.

Rooting a NC is pretty simple. Download the image and install it on a microSD card and you're in pure Android Gingerbread. Then the world is wide open.

Plus, with the Nook Tablet coming out, you can pick up a refurbished NC from B & N's website for $149!

Glare can be a bit problematic, but the anti-glare screens are pretty good. A pain in the backside to install, but worth the effort.

Curtis
 
Guys, I'm really after a large-format, lightweight e-paper reader. I don't want to surf the web, watch videos, or shop. Just something to keep PDFs on for reading.

Eyesight is a concern, so we're talking about something 10" or larger.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Eyesight is a concern, so we're talking about something 10" or larger.
Click to expand...

I am not too sure you will find anything that size. The damn things seem to be getting smaller and not larger. They also seem to be morphing into tablet like devices with LCD screens.

To me the whole point of an e-reader is the e-ink display, if I wanted to read things on an LCD I'd just use my laptop, or tablet PC.

Maybe this will help you choose one: http://ebook-reader-review.toptenreviews.com/
 
Then on the surface, either the nook or the kindle would work just fine.

Save $20 and get the kindle or spend the extra $20 and get the microSD expandability.

Another advantage of the Nook would be the ability to take it into a store IF you have problems.

Otherwise, given your paramenters, either one would probably do quite adequately.

Your choice!

Chuck(G) said:
Guys, I'm really after a large-format, lightweight e-paper reader. I don't want to surf the web, watch videos, or shop. Just something to keep PDFs on for reading.

Eyesight is a concern, so we're talking about something 10" or larger.
Click to expand...
 
Chuck(G) said:
I've used Foxit as my standard reader for years.

The e-paper aspect of Kindle and the 1-2 month battery charge I find fascinating. But my eyes aren't good enough for the small Kindle screen. Plastic Logic has apparently been showing a full-size (8.5x11) version of their display as well as gearing up sales of their textbook. I think I'll wait a bit longer to see what develops.

Edit: Whatever happened to the Skiff Reader with the big screen? Did Rupert buy out the firm with the idea of killing the technology?
Click to expand...

So what's wrong with the Plastic Logic? Aren't they for sale?
 
Chuck(G) said:
Guys, I'm really after a large-format, lightweight e-paper reader. I don't want to surf the web, watch videos, or shop. Just something to keep PDFs on for reading.

Eyesight is a concern, so we're talking about something 10" or larger.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the Kindle DX. But the price is not as nice as the smaller ones.

The little Kindle is great for reading ebooks, where you can enlarge the font and the text will reflow to fit the page. It's light weight and the battery lasts forever.

For pdfs, I usually do a lot of zooming in and panning around the page. This doesn't work well with e-ink, which does a noticable "flash" to redraw the page when anything changes.

For this reason, pdfs on the iPad are nicer, since panning and zooming are easy.

Of course if the screen were big enough you wouldn't need to zoom. But for me, even a 24" monitor is barely big enough to read a full page pdf. I guess it would be OK if I turned the screen in portrait mode.
 
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