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As a result of moving house, I have to have a massive cull of the boxes of paperbacks I've accumulated over the years. To soften the blow, I'm going to buy an ereader to replace some of the books that I'll be sending on their way. First off, is the kindle still king? Secondly, are there any decent multipublisher websites around, rather than giving those taxdodging scumpuppies at amazon any more of my money? Edited by Immaterial at 16:57:45 07-04-2012 |
EBook adventures.
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Immaterial 2,626 posts
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Registered 14 years ago -
mal 29,326 posts
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Registered 20 years agoIIRC the Kobo is worth checking out, and Sony readers are still pretty decent. Kindle will (IIRC) only read Amazon stuff and stuff you email amazon to convert, while the others generally take ePub stuff amongst others. Oh, and there's also the Nook from Barnes and Noble which I think is available outside the US, though I've never seen anyone on the tube using one, so I wouldn't know.
As for buying ePub books, never done it, so I wouldn't know, but I'd assume you can get them off Smiths or perhaps overseas retailers like B&N. -
Kindle will take aby epub you throw at it. It's the best of the lot. -
mal 29,326 posts
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Registered 20 years agoI stand corrected. Seems they've relented and will allow ePub on Kindle as of a year ago. A quick google seems to be throwing up lots of old information though, so how does it work? Do you still need to convert them? -
I think so using Calibre, that's what I use anyway. It's a quick minute job. -
mal 29,326 posts
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Registered 20 years agoAh okay, same as what I found via Google from 2010, so perhaps the situation hasn't changed. Still, if your sync software does the conversion for you then I accept it's not much of a hassle. -
Yeah it's well easy, Calibre has a Kindle button that does it all for ya.
I was just saying epubs will work, despite the extra step.gif)
I trird that Kobo reader in Smiths. It is quite poor compared sadly. -
mal 29,326 posts
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Registered 20 years agoHow so, out of interest? Screen or general usability? -
I don't know really, they had three models on show. Heavier, not as nice to hold, felt clunky to use.
I love the little non-keyboard Kindle though so I am a bit biased. -
Ginger 7,256 posts
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Registered 19 years agoLexx87 wrote:
I have the kobo and have never used a kindle so can't comment on better or worse, bit the kobo seems pretty good to me.
I don't know really, they had three models on show. Heavier, not as nice to hold, felt clunky to use.
I love the little non-keyboard Kindle though so I am a bit biased. -
wobbly_Bob 5,162 posts
Seen 7 months ago
Registered 15 years agoThe kobo touch is regarded well in reviews. It's pretty much up there with the kindle. It's user interface is a little nicer and also has reading stats and... achievements, which is a nice touch.
Kindle still wins on a having a larger more varied book collection to buy from and also bolder crisper fonts and display. A few reviews I read described the kobo fonts as "thin" of the 2 of them I personally like the kindle but then it's what I own so I am probably biassed lol but if you really dont want to go with amazon then the kobo is probably your best choice.
You can find 1000's of free books Here at many books. They are out of copywrite classics. They are available for dowload in various formats including kindle. They also link on the main page to reviews of all the major ebook readers -
Immaterial 2,626 posts
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Registered 14 years agoWell, having bought a non-technical relative a kindle at Christmas and had a play with it, I was impressed. If that calibre software will let me load whatever books I want onto whatever device I want, I might just go for a kindle touch.
Edited by Immaterial at 19:40:58 08-04-2012 -
philreeduk 548 posts
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Registered 13 years agoIf you already own any apple devices try a free app called stanza, granted its not as good as the new kindle but I feel it does an admirable job! -
philreeduk wrote:
iStuff doesn't have a good enough battery life to function as a decent e-reader. Plus the screen will absolutely murder your eyes after a while of reading black text on a white background on a high-gloss screen.
If you already own any apple devices try a free app called stanza, granted its not as good as the new kindle but I feel it does an admirable job! -
yegon 6,511 posts
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Registered 18 years agoExtremely minimal battery usage using ebooks on the iPhone, be it Stanza, iBooks or Kindle app. Sepia and low brightness isn't too harsh on the eyes either. -
Kindles are the defacto leader, though much like iStuff they're not necessarily the best made. I hear the Nooks have higher build quality, but regardless of what you get you're going to be tied into something somewhere (unless you root). But the Amazon store is by far the larger market, and as others have opined you can use Calibre to flawlessly convert the ePubs you can get elsewhere, and it's worth getting a Kindle just for the utter amazingness of Amazon Support, to be honest, you can stamp on it and pour vinegar into the jagged shards of the screen and they'll still send you a new one, for free, and collect the old one, paying for the courier themselves.
Kobos are not brilliant from what I've heard though, dodgy contrast and slow page turning. Though you'd only really notice them if you have two different readers side-by-side, so really just go for whatever's cheapest (or has the features you want) out of Kindle, Nook or Kobo. Anything else is not really worth bothering with. -
Immaterial 2,626 posts
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Registered 14 years agoKindle Touch is now on its way... -
mrpon 37,366 posts
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Registered 15 years agoI held a Kobo the other day. It's a nice bit of kit. -
Immaterial 2,626 posts
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Registered 14 years agoImmaterial wrote:
... and was waiting for me when I got home from work last night. It's lovely- going to be very hard to stick to my guns of only using it to replace the books that are being sent on to a new home.
Kindle Touch is now on its way...
Wish I hadn't gone slightly mad when ordering it and bought an overpriced cover with a light though- I can see the light arm snapping off in a couple of months. -
damagedinc 3,104 posts
Seen 19 hours ago
Registered 10 years agoCarrying my gorgeous lord of the rings hardback to read on train starting to seem a bit stupid. Along with books taking up to much space decided ereader way forward.
I have a samsung galaxy s2 for my traveling internet, social and viewing time killing so dont think i really need a tablet.
So thinking about a simple kindle e reader. Worried the kindle fire hd will kill my eyes for long reading sessions. Although does open possibility of digi comics (blasphemy)
Any tips? -
D_arkTrooper 1,492 posts
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Registered 19 years agoYes.
Buy it. -
damagedinc 3,104 posts
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Registered 10 years agoHaha thanks.
Anyone know much about paperwhite and when its over here? -
Carlo 21,801 posts
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Registered 16 years agohttp://us.txtr.com/beagle/
£10 ereader that runs on AAA batteries, has books delivered to it via bluetooth off your mobile.
Edited by Carlo at 20:43:31 10-10-2012
Edited by Carlo at 20:46:17 10-10-2012 -
jellyhead 24,355 posts
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Registered 18 years agoInteresting. I've subscribed to their mailing list, cheers. -
Armoured_Bear 31,233 posts
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Registered 10 years agoI have a Kindle Paperwhite which I love, going to buy my other half an eReader, probably the new Kindle Voyage.
The KOBO ones look good too but the lack of landscape mode for novels will be a deal breaker.
Has anyone compared them? -
Unhelpful post because I haven't seen the KOBO, but the Voyage is lovely, lovely, lovely.
You'll upgrade your Paperwhite once you've seen it... -
UncleLou wrote:
Thanks UncleLou.
Unhelpful post because I haven't seen the KOBO, but the Voyage is lovely, lovely, lovely.
You'll upgrade your Paperwhite once you've seen it...
.gif)
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