Article: Kindle versus iPad

BloemGuy said:
Costing too much, at the moment, but prices are bound to fall from now on. Remember when we paid R300 for a DVD a few years ago. But just like your solar geyser it has a payback period which could be anything from a year to 3-4 years depending on your profile. And you save trees. And you have all your books (in my case references, technical texts,dictionaries, etc) in one small thingy instead of having to lug around cases full of books. (Kindle is also more expensive than it could have been because it has free a 3G data plan included for the life of the device - although in South Africa we are currently limited to wikipedia access only in addition to the Kindle online store.)

Availability in SA ... problematic. Most are not on sale in stores yet, as far as I know.

But Amazon ships the Kindle to your door for $25, so it's hardly a problem. One or two other of the other device manufacturers also courier to SA. Or you can use importers like take2, have2have or wantitall. But beware their prices are crazy. If you are interested in the Kindle, order directly from Amazon.
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Amazon takes a loss on shipping this thing to SA. That's one thing, but a device which is not ideal for me, no matter how cheap will not make me buy it.

The competitors either ship directly to SA or you can purchase the device through 3rd party services or shops. The Kindle is tailor made to read Amazon ebooks. It does that very well. However, it is not designed - purposefully to do other things because that does not contribute money to Amazon. If any open features emerge it will only be because the Nook and other readers have them and Amazon will be afraid of competition. However, there is a clear conflict of interest between being a hardware manufacturer and a content provider - if you're the same company. This exists in Apple products. It exists in Sony products. It also exists in the Kindle.
 
BloemGuy said:
Mine was here in 3 days, doing a trip from Pheonix, Arizona to Cincinatti, on to Leipzig, German, then to Amsterdam and Johannesburg, and at my door in Bloem by 9am the 3rd day.
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I ordered over Christmas... spent 4 days in JHB before being shipped to me :p
 
ToxicBunny said:
BloemGuy.. I personally have a Kindle, after doing alot of research it ended up being the device that had the best product value chain overall...

PeterCH just gets on his soap box when he doesn't like a product, and he'll bash it incessantly even though he's never even touched one.
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I have read the spec sheet and read reviews and opinions. How do you want me to touch one? BUY it first?

Let's keep not get personal, btw.
 
How is what I said about you bashing a product incessantly being anything other than the truth?

If the product doesn't suit you thats all well and good... but I have a feeling that there isn't a product out there for less than $500 that even BEGINS to come close to having the specs you feel they should... and my guess is that the product probably would cost $1000 if it did.
 
PeterCH said:
I have read the spec sheet and read reviews and opinions..
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That's a good way to get the basic information. However, reading a bit more than the spec sheet, you will find that many of the issues you touch on are not issues at all, especially for tech savvy users like I would assume you are.
 
PeterCH said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_readers
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I've looked at that site... doesn't list prices...

The Kindle is up there with the number of shades (nothing has more than 16)...
Its up there in terms of number of supported formats... only 1 other reader has more.. and the cheapest version of THAT reader is damn nearly 500 Euros.

Sonys range.. the smaller 5" screen is $180, the same screen size as the Kindle is $50 more... and there flagship model is $400 and only has a 7" screen as compared to the Kindle DX which has a 9.7" screen for $90 more...
 
BloemGuy said:
That's a good way to get the basic information. However, reading a bit more than the spec sheet, you will find that many of the issues you touch on are not issues at all, especially for tech savvy users like I would assume you are.
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We're now talking in circles. Before you jumped on me and started to bite me, please go back to what I said. I said that the Amazon is tailor made for the Amazon book format and that you have to go jump through hoops to get what you want. Basic users will be locked in to Amazon formats. People like me, who need an ereader for textbooks, journal articles, comple HTML, complex diagrams, notes etc won't.

For example, the Kindle does not have expandable memory, it has 4GB but it you can't plug in a 16GB CF/SD card and get your data that way. Ideally the Kindle expects you to buy books online from the Amazon store -so it doesn't need those other features - like expandable storage. A manufacturer which does not have a shop which sells ebooks will put such a feature in, for example. He couldn't care either way what you view on your display as long as there are enough formats and options to get you to buy it.

The Kindle like the iPad is a media consumption device tailor made for Amazon (and Apple) and made to pull users into the Amazon/Apple purchasable content ecosystem.
Some people like that, others who want more freedom, don't. That's all I said.
 
ToxicBunny said:
I've looked at that site... doesn't list prices...
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Ballpark figures R2500 for Kindle 6" and R4400 for Kindle DX. Other devices, take $ price, add 15.4% for VAT (ask if want to know why not 14% I can explain), add shipping and multiply with the current exchange rate +1.5-2% depending on your credit card issuer.

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Sorry, got confused between all the posts ... you were referring to the list prices. Oops. There are a few other sites that makes that comparison, but they tend to only include the devices that makes their first choice look good. <grin>
 
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ToxicBunny said:
Sonys range.. the smaller 5" screen is $180, the same screen size as the Kindle is $50 more... and there flagship model is $400 and only has a 7" screen as compared to the Kindle DX which has a 9.7" screen for $90 more...
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You have to take into account that you get free (albeit limited) 3G with the Kindle devices for the lifetime thereof. e-Reader comparissons are quite complex because it is not always easy to compare apples with apples, and price is but one of the criteria. Your main criteria should focus on whether the device can do for you what it should at a price point that you can stomach.
 
PeterCH said:
Some people like that, others who want more freedom, don't. That's all I said.
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Not quite how I interpret a lot of your statements, but I agree with you that not everyone wants the same thing. I think where we disagree is what "freedom" means. I personally do not feel limited by the Kindle device at all.

There is a good reason a large proportion (I assume ... do not have stats) of Kindle users buy their ebooks from Amazon only ... that is where they bought most of their printed books in the past. They have a good relationship with a compnay that gives excellent customer service. It is easy to buy your books if you don't have a computer or don't want to use it to load up your device. And Amazon's ebook prices are some of the lowest on bestsellers.

I am a customer of Amazon (and Barnes and Noble) since 1997. Amazon has given me sufficient reason to support them with 70% of my onliine business for books, DVD, blu-ray, etc, by providing consistently good service, good prices and the goods/content I want.

As far as the issue of expandable memory is concerned, it might be an issue for a small percentage of people. I have around 3500 ebooks and 800 PDF books and technical documents on mine and I'm currently using less than 1G of the 3.3GB available. It is more than enough memory. On the other hand, if I get the iPad (and I just might because it looks cool), I suspect that the 64GB will not be sufficient within a very short space of time.
 
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have to agree with peter.
i'm tired of hardware vendors pushing their drm/non-sharable media, with their proprietary formats and paying lip service to open standards.
i feel a global hangover coming on...
 
murraybiscuit said:
have to agree with peter.
i'm tired of hardware vendors pushing their drm/non-sharable media, with their proprietary formats and paying lip service to open standards.
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I hear your concern about open standards, but we live in a largely proprietary world. Luckily we are blessed (or cursed) with an abundant variety of devices and formats and it is only really a problem if you consistently cannot get the content you want in a format that you can use.
 
Since Sony have adopted the ePub standard they are much more open and you aren't shackled with propriety formats for their readers anymore.

When I had to decide on a reader device last year Sony didn't offer ePub support and the international Kindle release just happened with a very limited selection of books available through the Kindle store. That had me investigate the alternative readers out there and unlike common perception there are loads of very worthy readers aside from the Kindle. This year it's actually like a kid in a candy shop. There's almost double the amount of readers available, with new devices coming to market almost every month.

Some alternative readers that you can obtain in SA (through having them imported in most cases):
Bookeen Cybook Opus - R3011
Pocketbook 360 - R3660
Cybook Gen3 Gold Edition - R3720
Bebook - R3500
Bebook Mini - R2530
 
Crusader said:
unlike common perception there are loads of very worthy readers aside from the Kindle. This year it's actually like a kid in a candy shop. There's almost double the amount of readers available, with new devices coming to market almost every month.
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Exactly. There is enough out there to suit most people's needs.Were we to have this thread in 12-24 months from now, the discussion will in all probability look totally different.

Luckily the discussion wasn't about which is the best car to drive...

BTW, my personal feeling is that Amazon will eventually offer ePub capability. (With Calibre you can anyway already convert ePub to MOBI). What not everybody knows is that Kindle format is in fact essentially MOBIpocket format which is one of the big 3 formats. The main problem with the Kindle is that is does not read protected titles in other formats (MOBI / PDF) without what amounts to significant effort for the average user.
 
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Crusader said:
Since Sony have adopted the ePub standard they are much more open and you aren't shackled with propriety formats for their readers anymore.

When I had to decide on a reader device last year Sony didn't offer ePub support and the international Kindle release just happened with a very limited selection of books available through the Kindle store. That had me investigate the alternative readers out there and unlike common perception there are loads of very worthy readers aside from the Kindle. This year it's actually like a kid in a candy shop. There's almost double the amount of readers available, with new devices coming to market almost every month.

Some alternative readers that you can obtain in SA (through having them imported in most cases):
Bookeen Cybook Opus - R3011
Pocketbook 360 - R3660
Cybook Gen3 Gold Edition - R3720
Bebook - R3500
Bebook Mini - R2530
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You didn't mention the eSlick!
 
I cannot understand why people keep comparing kindle and nook ebook readers to the ipad ? These devices have nothing I was looking for a line like "it like comparing x with y" but could not manage one lol.

The IPad has a led screen and is a multimedia device the kindle/nook is only for reading it does not pretend to do anything more.. the Ipad has a backlit screen the kindle/nook has EInk that is what makes it an ereader and not a tablet ?

As to difficult getting content on kindle its not its a breeze if you want illegal content mabey it is an issue lol...

I really don't see how this comparison started if you want to compare compare the kindle and the nook or sony ereaders, as to what to compare an ipad to well an oversize ipod touch and or a phoneless iphone lol...
 
Ok so something to add If you want PDF with alot of graphics or graphs or read newspapers get a IPad it will work best if however you tend to read books not one with pictures ha he then get a dedicated ebook reader.
 
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