Kindle vs iPad

The Kindle was only released in Europe a few months ago.
Truth is that prices on the UK site and the US site differ sharply, as does the list of available titles. It may be possible to download ebooks from the US site in the UK, but if so, then why two sites?

I also note most ebook prices seem comparable with hardbacks, rather than paperbacks. Given the things are essentially free to "reproduce", why are they not cheaper? Much cheaper.

I just spent an hour hunting titles I'd like to have on ebook at Amazon and Waterstones (one of the biggest booksellers in the UK). I'm extremely disappointed by the choice at both.
I also see many long-out-of-copyright titles on both- stuff downloadable free from Project Gutenberg.

I reckon I'll be holding off a while yet.
 
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I've had a Kindle DX since Nov09 and love it. The bigger screen presents about a real page worth of text at reasonable font size for my eyes. I've compared directly to my friend's Kindle2, and I'm pretty sure its much smaller display would spoil it for me.

If you want to read text, the Kindle's hard to beat IMO. It's a portable library you can update on the fly.

The LONG battery life is a real plus. It's ready to read whenever you are, even if you're pretty forgetful about plugging it in or turning it off. It uses almost zero power when you're not paging... if the wireless is turned off. The only good reason to turn the wireless on is to receive new content, which only takes a couple minutes and is easy to do when you care. My Kindle provides lunchtime and bedtime reading every day but hasn't seen its cable for over two weeks.

The need for external lighting is only rarely an issue, and one easily addressed by a cheap LED lamp that stores handily in the same cover.

I don't see how a backlit color touchscreen could add enough functionality to offset the reduced battery life, but YMMV. I'm just not a big fan of personal multimedia devices like iPhones or Blackberries; they don't offer anything I really want (more precisely: anything I'd miss). Even if they did, however, I still think I'd want the KindleDX for my reader, and let the other gadgets do the jobs they do well.
 
Soapy Sam said:
The Kindle was only released in Europe a few months ago.
Truth is that prices on the UK site and the US site differ sharply, as does the list of available titles. It may be possible to download ebooks from the US site in the UK, but if so, then why two sites?

I also note most ebook prices seem comparable with hardbacks, rather than paperbacks. Given the things are essentially free to "reproduce", why are they not cheaper? Much cheaper.
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The previous post was correct. You are signed into all Amazon sites and as far as I know you can order anything from any of the sites no matter what country you are in. Prices differ greatly depending on the item. I got the Trailer Park Boys set on the Canadian Amazon site because it was half the price compared to the same set on the US site (a $60 difference). As for the prices of ebooks the publishers are resisting the change. They are "afraid" that the cheaper ebook prices will cannibalize the hardbook sales if the discrepancy is too great. I would think though that you could buy ebooks from the US site unless Amazon has disabled that.
 
Policenaut said:
The previous post was correct. You are signed into all Amazon sites and as far as I know you can order anything from any of the sites no matter what country you are in. Prices differ greatly depending on the item. I got the Trailer Park Boys set on the Canadian Amazon site because it was half the price compared to the same set on the US site (a $60 difference). As for the prices of ebooks the publishers are resisting the change. They are "afraid" that the cheaper ebook prices will cannibalize the hardbook sales if the discrepancy is too great. I would think though that you could buy ebooks from the US site unless Amazon has disabled that.
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That was my understanding as well. With our current exchange rates ebooks are about a third the price of a new release paperback. I'll make my money back in no time.

And publishers are right to be concerned. Music CD shops are starting to close over here and I think that in 10 years bookshops will be a rarity.
 
Policenaut said:
The previous post was correct. You are signed into all Amazon sites and as far as I know you can order anything from any of the sites no matter what country you are in. Prices differ greatly depending on the item. I got the Trailer Park Boys set on the Canadian Amazon site because it was half the price compared to the same set on the US site (a $60 difference). As for the prices of ebooks the publishers are resisting the change. They are "afraid" that the cheaper ebook prices will cannibalize the hardbook sales if the discrepancy is too great. I would think though that you could buy ebooks from the US site unless Amazon has disabled that.
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mp3s, for instance, one CANNOT buy from foreign Amazon sites. Even if the exact same song/album/recording is available on both sites. I would assume that ebooks have similar DRM restrictions.
 
elgarak said:
mp3s, for instance, one CANNOT buy from foreign Amazon sites. Even if the exact same song/album/recording is available on both sites. I would assume that ebooks have similar DRM restrictions.
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I wonder if this is successful or just pissing people off so that they pirate the books instead of buying them.
 
Well- I'm as natural a target customer for an ebook reader as anyone I can imagine. But I'm not going near them till I'm reasonably sure I can buy the books I want to read on it. And I certainly won't buy them as a file if they are cheaper on paper.
I'm not taking an ebook reader costing $250 into the bath in a hurry either.
 
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lionking said:
That was my understanding as well. With our current exchange rates ebooks are about a third the price of a new release paperback. I'll make my money back in no time.

And publishers are right to be concerned. Music CD shops are starting to close over here and I think that in 10 years bookshops will be a rarity.
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I don't see how this could possibly be. First, the exchange rate is not that different. One USD equals about 1.14 AUD. Second, as far as I can tell there is no Australian Amazon site so you would probably be buying from the US site. Three, the average price for the top ten selling paperbacks on Amazon US is 11.15USD. Fourth, the price for most for sale ebooks on Amazon is 9.99USD.

Maybe I am missing something? Maybe Australian book retailers rip the hell out of people and sell paperbacks for ~33USD/47AUD?
 
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HarryKeogh said:
lionking, here's a pretty good video comparison of the Kindle and the Nook from CNET

http://reviews.cnet.com/2722-3508_7-537.html

They gave the edge to the Kindle mainly citing better battery life, navigation and speed.
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I own both, so I'll comment on those three issues:

Battery life: The battery of the Kindle does last longer than the Nook, because the Nook has the little color LCD touchscreen at the bottom. I will say, though, that my Nook can still go 2-3 days between charges with moderate to heavy use.

Navigation: This is a question of personal preference. The Kindle is slightly more intuitive with its "joynub" but the Nook has greater versatility of interaction thanks to the combination of Android and the touchscreen. When it comes right down to it, I'd call it a draw.

Speed: The Nook was much slower on things like page-turning when it was first released. Since the most recent update, it has been as fast as the Kindle. This isn't an issue anymore.

I don't think I could honestly recommend one over the other. The prices are about the same and their capabilities are too similar for the choice to be obvious. Until we get a device that will easily interface with any digital book service (which will obviously cost more since book sales currently subsidize the relatively low costs of the Kindle and Nook), I consider both the Kindle and Nook the best you can get for eInk reading.
 
dtugg said:
Maybe I am missing something? Maybe Australian book retailers rip the hell out of people and sell paperbacks for ~33USD/47AUD?
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This is absolutely correct. Don DeLillo's 100 page "Point Omega" was $A33, and some go up to $A40.
 
imjohn said:
Another option is the Kobo from Borders.

At $150 it seems like a good deal.
http://www.borders.com/online/store/MediaView_koboereader?sc_eid2=bannerkobo-51710
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I like the price, but what a weird feature set. Not having at least WiFi is a huge bummer (Bluetooth does not count). An even bigger flaw is that it doesn't appear to have page-turning buttons on both sides.

Still, if it can provide competition and get more people on the eInk train (it surely should at $150) I'll be rooting for its success.
 
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