4 ms·
That is one ugly-looking device. But if we're trying to compete on e-ink readers, I think the device to compete against now is the Nook Simple Touch. I loved
by acabal 15y ago
That is one ugly-looking device. But if we're trying to compete on e-ink readers, I think the device to compete against now is the Nook Simple Touch. I loved my Kindle when I had one, but after using the NST I realized how rough a lot of the edges on the Kindle are. It really is a clear and solid step above the Kindle, and it's the device you need to compete with for e-ink. Wifi vs 3g doesn't matter; nobody buys books often enough to really truly NEED 24/7 connectivity across the globe. The NST touchscreen is shockingly responsive and totally obviates the need for a physical keyboard.
As for integration with Google Books--while I haven't used GB myself, I read a lot of Project Gutenberg books, and I'm assuming the two are similar platforms. The problem with PG books is that the formatting is just awful for a lot of the ebooks. Sometimes the person compiling the book will slavishly stick to a print edition, going so far as putting page numbers in or other print ephemera; or sometimes the internal coding is so bad that it only looks good on a small subset of readers; or sometimes the book is OCR'd and thus riddled with typos. What I'm saying is, you get what you pay for--and a lot of the free public-domain ebooks are just awfully compiled.
Hell, even some books I've bought from the Amazon store have been very obviously OCR'd with no second thought to ebook presentation or editing--a big example is one of Stephen King's Dark Tower books, which are huge sellers that you'd expect to have been ported to digital with at least a little attention to detail. Not so: the one I bought from the official publisher was obviously OCR'd and so riddled with typos and errors that I returned it to Amazon without finishing it.
So I guess what I'm saying is, I'm not impressed with this device. It's a generation behind the Nook Simple Touch, and integration with Google Books isn't enough to interest me given the awful or non-existent editorial oversight in most public-domain ebooks.
- merryandrew 15y ago"Wifi vs 3g doesn't matter; nobody buys books often enough to really truly NEED 24/7 connectivity across the globe." Totally agree, personally. Some people use the 3G for other stuff, but I only read books. Btw, purchased Google eBooks are not like PG, though, they are formatted like purchased Amazon and B&N eBooks. "It's a generation behind the Nook Simple Touch, and integration with Google Books isn't enough to interest me given the awful or non-existent editorial oversight in most public-domain ebooks." I'm interested in the new nook too. I saw it in the store, but didn't bother with checking it out. Next time I will. Integration with Google is also irrelevant to me, but access to Google eBooks (and all the other ePUB books with DRM via Adobe) totally matters to me, and this is why I won't buy a Kindle, yet. When it comes to well-formatted public domain eBooks, I like Feedbooks.
- moskie 15y agoI used to have a 3G Kindle, but it was stolen, and now I have a WiFi Kindle. I agree with what you guys are saying, but without the 3g, my impulse purchases have really gone down. For example, I used to buy periodicals while on the train with some regularity, but now I hardly ever do. So providing 3g on an e-reader might be a good investment in that sense.