The Glade 4.0

They lock things down because Apple is all about user experience. They want everyone to have the exact same experience. We aren't happy with that, because we're used to being able to tweak every little thing. The average consumer does not use electronics like we do, so the majority of people don't care. This is obvious by Apple's success in the market.

As far as being savvy enough, that's not an issue. As it stands, you literally click a single button to crack your phone and you have access to a second app store. Everything works the same.

The iPad will never be what I want it to be. I do believe, however, that it can be an amazing e-book reader and multimedia device.

As for, specifically, why traditional multitasking is something that Apple locks down, I'm 99% sure it's so their average user doesn't get dozens of background-running apps clogging up their processing power, and then complain that "my phone is too slow." Can you imagine, for instance, if there was (is there?) a SETI crunching app, that could run in the background?

Now, have somebody who isn't very techy, but wants to help search for life... and they totally tank their iPhone user experience, don't know why, and thus blame the phone.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

For me no backlight would be a deal breaker. I enjoy reading while Lisa is asleep and I would want to be considerate and not have a light blaring into her eyes when a bazcklight would suffice.

I would wait for the iPad.

_________________
Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

I guess I don't see how a small reading light would be more disturbing than the glow of a backlight.

_________________
Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

stathol; for me... because I can turn to lay another way and the light is no longer an issue.

_________________
Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Dark:



There ya go!

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

LOL

_________________
Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Who voted for the nook, and why? Just curious. I didn't see anyone spell out a reason in the comments.

Due to the price and lack of availability, the iPad will need to wait. I want an iPad very very badly, but I've little illusion that I'll be picking one up on launch day. As far as the e-readers that are out now, the Sony had some very nice features, but the bookstores and word-of-mouth really sold me on the Kindle and the nook. They were looking to be my top two choices, and I went ahead and ordered the Kindle today (yay e-books tomorrow!).

I tried the Sony Reader (touchscreen), and I was not impressed, at all.

And the book selection was HORRIBLE. Some of the books were more than twice as much as a paperback at Barnes and Noble.

If you have barnes and noble close to you, I would go with that, purely because you can read any book, for free, while you're in a store.

I'm still leery of Amazon and the Kindles.

I think I'll probably wait on a 2nd gen iPad, when someone has gotten stylus support programmed for it. Then I can use it for work/school (to read and annotate papers), as well as for pleasure.

_________________
Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I got my girlfriend a Kindle last year and it really is a kick *** book reader. She has some college textbooks on it too and there are tons of free books and whispernet is a nice addition.

With the Sony Reader, you are not bound to one bookstore. You can purchase books from any non-proprietary ebookstore. While that means you can't purchase from Amazon's Kindle store, it does mean that you can purchase from Sony or Barnes & Noble, or download for free from Google books or Gutenberg Project. Given that, the "book selection" is really sort of a non-comparative issue, as is the pricing.
Out of curiosity, what title(s) did you find that were "more than twice as much as a paperback at Barnes and Noble"? I did pricing comparisons before buying my Reader and found a few disparities in digital pricing between Amazon, Sony and Barnes & Noble, but nothing that extreme.

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

All of Butcher's books were 12-13$, and a paperback at B&N is about 6.

From what I saw in the time I had it, the Sony Reader will not read e-books from B&N- I downloaded a few samples and tried. I can certainly download free books, but there are not nearly as many of those that I wan't to read- so while it's nice, it isn't something I would pay for.

Weird- now that I check, all the prices of the Dresden books have come down.

_________________
Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Confirmed.Way to go, guys. IMO, having a proprietary format is reason to avoid your reader, not a reason to embrace it.Funny thing. The Reader Pocket Edition is $199.99, while the Kindle and Nook are both $259.00, so I didn't pay extra for the ability to download free books. As to whether or not there's anything on the "free" list you'd care to read: perhaps not, but I like the fact that I can do so; and I've already read a few classics that I otherwise wouldn't have, because I simply wouldn't purchase a copy or go to the library for them. One other feature I'd forgotten about, since I haven't yet made use of it: e-lending from public libraries. Nook & Reader can, Kindle can't.

FWIW: I've said several times, although I might not have mentioned it on the Glade, that if the Nook had been an option when I was in the market for an eBook, I might have bought it instead of the Sony Reader. It seems to me to blend the best features of the Reader and the Kindle, while leaving out some of the biggest drawbacks. Having handled both devices, however, I'm pretty comfortable with the one I've got. I prefer the more solid feel of the Sony over the slightly plastic-y feel of the Nook, and the smaller dimensions of the Reader are also a plus.

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

I purchased the Kindle, and have been using it the past couple of days. I also ordered a nook.

The Kindle is an exceptional machine, but it's got some drawbacks, lack of wi-fi (I'm not in a Whispernet coverage area, despite Amazon's coverage map insisting so), less e-ink screen contrast than the nook, etc. I'm going to try out the nook and see how it goes; unless it's just unusably slow or buggy (I'm going to make sure the firmware is updated, which apparently fixes many/most of those issues), I may very well keep the nook instead of the Kindle.

Shel:

Absolutely true- I went for the Reader 600, however, which is $299. I have considered getting the pocket since, due to it's price.

But then, it's all more expensive than what I decided to pay, which is nothing- none of the current models are what I want, so I'm waiting.

The library thing is really cool- however, I recommend making sure your local library actually had e-books. I was really excited about it, and found out the New Orleans parish library system had a grand total of 3 e-books....

_________________
Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Denver library system has more than 3, but I haven't yet found any of the titles I specifically wanted to read.

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

I got stanza for my iphone so I could download something I was wanting to read. I'm rather enjoying that.

I must admit I was kind of skeptical of the whole idea of e-reading at first, but this is nothing like being "on the computer" It's simple elegant and at hand.

_________________
I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

You'll take the Nook back when you realize how abysmal the book store is compared to the Kindle, both selection and price.

I am beginning to think there is truth here.

So, I finished up book 7 of The Dresden Files last night (Dead Beat, which, awe. some). So I went to purchase book 8 (Proven Guilty) this morning from the B&N store.

And they don't offer it as an e-book.

Which is really odd, as Amazon does. So does Fictionwise. Which is owned by Barnes & Noble.

So I purchased it from Fictionwise and sideloaded it onto my nook. This was stupid, and a pain in the ***, but hey, I've got my book. Just a fluke. And the price differential doesn't matter much. I don't mind a span of $0.50 or so.

Well, later in the morning I ran across something that looks to be made of pure win: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the latest from Seth Grahame-Smith (he of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies). There's a kickass book trailer viewable here, by the way.

So I go over to bn.com to check it out. They want $15.70 for it. Amazon, on the other hand, is charging a relatively paltry $9.99.

The kicker in this is that B&N, while charging nearly $16 for something with no production costs associated with it, is hocking the hardcover version for a mere $13.19 (and further on sale for a little over $11).

As a piece of hardware, I really really like the B&N nook. I do. It feels much more solid and sturdier than the Kindle. I can't really fault the device; the wifi is a necessity, even the disparity in battery life doesn't make much difference to me, and I greatly prefer the general design and aesthetics. But Barnes & Noble, as an e-book seller, has to pull its head out of its *** to make a go of this.

Dead Beat is the one with the Museum of Natural History, right?

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Yup. <3 Sue.

Yeah, I started to say "the one with the T-Rex" but editted myself in case I was wrong and you hadn't gotten there yet.

It just occurred to me that you haven't seen the rise in series prominence of the Carpenter family yet, even. For Shame! (get reading!)

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I'm trying! (See stumbling block above)

Hey, uhh ... FarSky? Have you noticed that the B&N page to which you linked, for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, lists the price as $9.99 and not $15.70?

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

Yeah, they changed it the day after I sent an email complaining. I rather doubt that my email had anything to do with it, mind you; most likely they just finally got around to changing their pricing, as they seem to do frequently to keep pace with Amazon. But who knows; maybe I saved a few fellow nook owners a few bucks.