My wife wants an e-book reader for Christmas and her mother has come to me for some advice. I know nothing about these. I have an IPad but the new mini is more than dear old mom wants to spend. So, any advice either way from you guys would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Mike

Originally Posted by Mr. Wiz

My wife wants an e-book reader for Christmas and her mother has come to me for some advice. I know nothing about these. I have an IPad but the new mini is more than dear old mom wants to spend. So, any advice either way from you guys would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Mike

I'd go for the Kindle Paperwhite!

It's an E-Ink display, so it gets better contrast (although it's great anyway) as the external light gets brighter - unlike the illuminated displays (which I think the Fire is). It also comes with a built in light for reading with the light off.

I have a standard pre-paperwhite Kindle, and think it's brilliant.

please be aware of the differance between some readers...ie...some use what is called e.ink this is an eye freindly syztem which looks good and has 2 BIG advantages over a lcd display reader, namely one charge will last a bout 7 to 8 thousand page turns, as it only uses power during the page turn...also you can read it in full sunshine, but for night reading you need a light source as it is not back lit!!!
A lcd screen is backlit and can be read in the dark but this useses the baterise much quicker but it also meens photoss , video ect can be played on the same device. also beware that a e-ink reader such as the kindle is a pain to put some e-book s on as it wants you to stck to their system and pay a lot for doing so.......
Thyings are changing very fast in the e-reader scene , prices comming down...just decide on how the much the device will be read ie outdoors only indoors and please dont get an i-pad as a reader its far too good for that and lcd limited, for your interest if you like clasical books the GUTENBERG library has thousand of copyright (another bone of contention ) free e-bboks in differant formats to fit most readers...do a bit of research and enjoy...I havent red a : real : book in years.

uirs (switzerland)

ps if you have any other ?s just e-mail me

there are so many models of these things out there - what does she want it for (besides reading if anything?)

All of these are based on Android tablet designs - so they have the potental to do more than reading.

considerations:

- weight/comfort
-battery life
-need to use in bright light vs. dark rooms
- Apps/ games
- internet/email
-source of books - amazon/B&N, library
-SD card transfers

we have gone the Nook route (around 14 in our family)
both monochrome and color ones - the new backlit monochrome are very nice to address the inside poor light and outside usage.
Nook uses epub - which is the most common format and used by libraries.

Originally Posted by Mr. Wiz

My wife wants an e-book reader

Does she want to read books or play angry birds?

For books, get the Kindle Paperwhite 3G because it's an e-ink reader (easier on the eyes too) and you can buy/download books from Amazon without any data charges or without needing to find a wifi hotspot.

For angry birds, get her an iPad. IOS has more apps for <whatever you want to do> than the kindle fire.

There are minor differences in the e-Readers, but a primary point to consider is the marketing of the e-Books. Sure, Barnes and Noble (Nook) is a major bookstore, but I think that Amazon (Kindle) has a better online infrastructure. I've not checked in a while, but each e-Readee brand has it's proprietary file format and it'd be best to go with the most "universal" format.

--Bill

My wife reads books a lot but she also watches netflix on her old laptop. I'm imagining she might like to do that with this new tablet if she could.

I agree with some above. If it is ONLY for reading, get the paperwhite.

If she want's a small tablet for reading and other stuff... I would get a Google Nexus 7 instead. The Kindle Fire is an android tablet but heavily modified for Amazon's purposes. The Nexus 7 is more pure. You load up the Kindle app and you are good to go. If she works and has company email I can 100% recommend the Nexus.

For either device, I never felt the need for the 3G. WiFi always worked good for me. But I have a phone that I can enable wifi quickly when needed.

My daughter has the original Kindle fire. It's a decent device, but I think the Nexus is better. Amazon's app store is weaker and it's more trouble to load non store apps. Nexus does not put up those minimal roadblocks.

Originally Posted by CrazyLittle

Does she want to read books or play angry birds?

For books, get the Kindle Paperwhite 3G because it's an e-ink reader (easier on the eyes too) and you can buy/download books from Amazon without any data charges or without needing to find a wifi hotspot.

For angry birds, get her an iPad. IOS has more apps for <whatever you want to do> than the kindle fire.

Good advice.

I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and love it. It can do the android app market games, including angry birds, and my current fave, "Where's my water"

The kindle reading app is actually quite nice on the tab 2, and the only drawback is that I can't send my Kindle Owner's Lending Library borrowed books to anything except the Kindle 3.


I am fairly certain that the ipad w/retina display is better, but the tab2 is excellent at the price I got it. ($299.99).

Originally Posted by Bill Harris

There are minor differences in the e-Readers, but a primary point to consider is the marketing of the e-Books. Sure, Barnes and Noble (Nook) is a major bookstore, but I think that Amazon (Kindle) has a better online infrastructure. I've not checked in a while, but each e-Readee brand has it's proprietary file format and it'd be best to go with the most "universal" format.

--Bill

Not necessary, Bill!

Just install Calibre (a free and brilliant prog) and convert between the formats!

Alright, this is getting confusing...very fast. If she got the iPad Mini would it do just about everything and do it decently.

Originally Posted by Norman Adlam

Not necessary, Bill!

Just install Calibre (a free and brilliant prog) and convert between the formats!

IIRC you can't convert purchased/encrypted content.

Originally Posted by CrazyLittle

IIRC you can't convert purchased/encrypted content.

Errr... you certainly can! There are plugins available....

Originally Posted by Mr. Wiz

Alright, this is getting confusing...very fast. If she got the iPad Mini would it do just about everything and do it decently.

The first question to answer is :- dedicated E-Book reader, or want to run progs?

(I think the dedicated E-book readers are better at their single job that the progs on tablets etc - in my opinion. Also they tend to have longer lasting battery usage - no need to power illumination etc).

Well, I guess I'd better do some more hinting around about it to find out that answer.