eBook Formats and Readers ?'s

[Venardhi]

^ That was definitely the experience I had when I got my Kindle. In my experience, just about everyone that has either a Kindle or a Nook is completely satisfied with it, and tends to prefer it over the other one.

To me, when I played with it, the Nook felt kind of cheap, and heavier, and I don't think the LCD screen is worth the weight and lower battery life. But I'm glad you're happy with it.

The weight difference is about an ounce and a half.
The benefits of the touchscreen are really in navigation and when using the secondary features like the music player and games. I also use the screen as my primary way of turning pages (swipe your finger across the screen when it is dormant). With the screen calibrated to turn off quickly and all the wireless features turned off you can pretty easily get a week of just reading (for a few hours a day), usually more. If you really need that 11th day of reading, there isn't much argument on either side that the battery will last longer on the Kindle but that seems a small boon to me.

Cheap is not a word I hear said about it often though, most people I talk to say it looks and feels like a mac product. I wouldn't go quite that far, but they were certainly trying to ape a bit of that style in both the product design and the UI.

The "Nook Lite" has just passed FCC testing, which means we will probably start seeing it by the end of next month and the dedicated iPad app is now out(as opposed to the previous iTouch/iPod one from last year that worked on the iPad also), which is getting rave reviews from the gadgeteering web sites out there.

 

[Thrawn]

^ Either way, the differences are miniscule, and I don't understand why all the Nook people here are so annoyed with me saying I prefer a Kindle. In my experience, everyone that has a Kindle is 100% satisfied and happy with it, and so is everyone that has a Nook. They are two equally valid products.

 

[Judith Sisko]

and I don't understand why all the Nook people here are so annoyed with me saying I prefer a Kindle.

For the record, I've never been annoyed with you (or anybody else for that matter!) for your preferences. Throughout all the DTB vs. eBook, nook vs. Kindle, Sony vs. whatever, eReader vs iPad debates, I have always said something akin to "do the research and get what best fits your needs."

For instance, I love having the nook page swipe feature. But that's me. To someone else, it might not be so important. They'd rather have a better filing or synchronization system. I like the e-ink. Others want backlighting. Personally, I wish my nook had the Kindle's text-to-speech feature, but it wasn't a deal breaker for me. That's my point. Different devices for different priorities.

 

[Thrawn]

Fair enough; sorry for mis-characterizing you. I do like the synchronization system a lot; I read on PC all the time, too.

 

[JWolf]

So given that the Star Trek eBooks (new and fairly new) are now more expensive then the paper versions, who is going to buy the eBooks and who is going to go back to the paper editions?

 

[ATimson]

So given that the Star Trek eBooks (new and fairly new) are now more expensive then the paper versions, who is going to buy the eBooks and who is going to go back to the paper editions?

Neither. I've dropped them entirely until the ebooks are again rationally priced.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

So given that the Star Trek eBooks (new and fairly new) are now more expensive then the paper versions, who is going to buy the eBooks and who is going to go back to the paper editions?

I'm still buying eBooks. From iBooks.

It's convenient, and I consider the prices reasonable. That's the end of it, really.

 

[JWolf]

So given that the Star Trek eBooks (new and fairly new) are now more expensive then the paper versions, who is going to buy the eBooks and who is going to go back to the paper editions?

I'm still buying eBooks. From iBooks.

It's convenient, and I consider the prices reasonable. That's the end of it, really.

So you think that charging the same or more for an eBook that costs S&S less to make is reasonable? Why?

 

[JWolf]

So given that the Star Trek eBooks (new and fairly new) are now more expensive then the paper versions, who is going to buy the eBooks and who is going to go back to the paper editions?

Neither. I've dropped them entirely until the ebooks are again rationally priced.

I'm on the fence about eBooks. What I can do is see if the library has what I want and if so, I don't have to decide what to do.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

So given that the Star Trek eBooks (new and fairly new) are now more expensive then the paper versions, who is going to buy the eBooks and who is going to go back to the paper editions?

I'm still buying eBooks. From iBooks.

It's convenient, and I consider the prices reasonable. That's the end of it, really.

So you think that charging the same or more for an eBook that costs S&S less to make is reasonable? Why?

They're reasonable because I can afford them.

 

[garoo1980]

I'm still buying eBooks. From iBooks.

It's convenient, and I consider the prices reasonable. That's the end of it, really.

I don't have an iPad or Touch so I'm locked out. How much are books on there? Same as most other ebooks?

 

[Thrawn]

It's an economic fact that prices do not even come close to exactly correlating to the cost of production.

Do you occasionally buy a fountain drink at a restaurant? I don't know about you, but here in LA, they're creeping up towards $2 a pop at a lot of restaurants, and more at movie theaters. I can get that same amount of Coke for like 40c at a grocery store. But I spend waaaay more, because it's convenient.

The fact is, regardless of production costs, I'd rather have the eBook than the normal book. So I'm willing to spend more for it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'm still buying eBooks. From iBooks.

It's convenient, and I consider the prices reasonable. That's the end of it, really.

I don't have an iPad or Touch so I'm locked out. How much are books on there? Same as most other ebooks?

I paid about seven bucks for Seven Deadly Sins. That's definitely less than what I would have paid for the print version.

 

[ATimson]

Do you occasionally buy a fountain drink at a restaurant? I don't know about you, but here in LA, they're creeping up towards $2 a pop at a lot of restaurants, and more at movie theaters. I can get that same amount of Coke for like 40c at a grocery store. But I spend waaaay more, because it's convenient.

See, I pay the $2, but I get refills, to where it sometimes ends up cheaper per volume than at the grocery store, even on sale.

 

[Ktrek]

So given that the Star Trek eBooks (new and fairly new) are now more expensive then the paper versions, who is going to buy the eBooks and who is going to go back to the paper editions?

Where do you see that the ebooks are more expensive than the paperbacks? B&N still lists all recent titles at $7.99, which is still up about a $1.00 from what they were four months ago.

If they go higher I'll just stop buying Star Trek books altogether. Even $7.99 I think is way too high for an electronic file. Especially considering what we have been getting since the first of the year. I have not read one Trek book in six months that I felt was worth what I paid for it.

Kevin

 

[BrotherBenny]

It will normalize just like it did with the music industry. It will probably happen later this year as there are at least 5 new eReaders coming out in the next six months, and that means more people buying and reading on them.

Hell, the Kindle is now available at Target stores across the US from today, so it won't be long until it is discounted I'm sure.

 

[JWolf]

I'm still buying eBooks. From iBooks.

It's convenient, and I consider the prices reasonable. That's the end of it, really.

So you think that charging the same or more for an eBook that costs S&S less to make is reasonable? Why?

They're reasonable because I can afford them.

I can afford say $20 for a Star Trek book. But just because I could afford that price does not make it reasonable.

 

[JWolf]

So given that the Star Trek eBooks (new and fairly new) are now more expensive then the paper versions, who is going to buy the eBooks and who is going to go back to the paper editions?

Where do you see that the ebooks are more expensive than the paperbacks? B&N still lists all recent titles at $7.99, which is still up about a $1.00 from what they were four months ago.

If they go higher I'll just stop buying Star Trek books altogether. Even $7.99 I think is way too high for an electronic file. Especially considering what we have been getting since the first of the year. I have not read one Trek book in six months that I felt was worth what I paid for it.

Kevin

I have a Borders Rewards card and I get discount coupons via email for 20-40%. So that $7.99 paperback is going to cost me less then that $7.99 eBook that allows no sales or discounts.

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

Went to look at the Nook last night. I like it more than the Sony PRS300 Pocket Reader. The 3G was not very reliable, but I was in a downtown building. Going to check out at another store which has a better trained sales rep. The reps downtown tried, but they had not had much training on the device.

I was wondering if the publishers were going to follow a trend I've seen with DVD's. a number of new movies have a digital download when you by the DVD. I wonder if publishers will do that with books. Anyone heard if they're thinking about something like that?

My wife has a Nook and she loves it. Takes it everywhere. She reads constantly, and I haven't seen here with an actual book since she got it.

 

[ares93]

i simply took an old casio pda and soldered a battery pack on it. 25-30 hours of reading. i have no intention of spending $200+ on something i built in two hours. not as sophisticated but it does the job.