Kindle Books reviews: November 2010

28.11.10

Kindle gets praise. State of e-ink color, Book sales vs Ebook sales. Publishers vs library remote-lending. Amazon e-book furor

MORE NEWS BITS
The image at the left comes from a Wikipedia entry in Poland on the Kindle(s).

I also came across a Sept. blog entry by Andrew Bolster referencing this blog's article on software update v3.0.2 (which is still the current version, as v3.0.3 is still in 'early preview' state), and that update has also solved quite a few initial problems for some who have tried the early preview.

" In short, I have never had such an aptly timed update; Its as if Amazon have psychically heard me over the Whispernet and fixed more or less everything.

" Oh, did I mention? The e-ink screen renders advanced latex-style math perfectly! This frankly amazed me. But the best thing I can say about the screen is the oft-proclaimed readability is, if anything, understated. " He adds:

' The iPad is a jack of all trades; ebooks, games, browsing, social media, media viewing and generation, and more stuff that I could never think of. The Kindle is an ebook reader, literally born and bred, with a infant browser incubating along side. When I’m reading something in an e-paper or an e-book that I have no idea about, I can pop over, spend 5 minutes familiarising myself with the wikipedia article, and go back.
I can comfortably read google reader (save for the videos) at a bus stop or on the train. If I come across a truely inspiring piece of prose, I can share it with my social network in situ. '

He's describing almost-anywhere 3G wireless when he mentions what he can do at a bus stop or on the train. Not a day goes by when I'm not asked about the WiFi-only vs 3G/WiFi Kindle. He describes pretty well what is possible with the latter -- and on a global basis. I've emphasized the feature, since 2008 when I got my first Kindle, but until the last month, most reviews or comparison articles have not mentioned a feature (now international) that normally costs so much (web-data access on demand) but which is actually available on the Kindle (UK: K3) for free now in large areas of the world.

CNET: "Why the Kindle is the Greatest Gadget of the 21st Century"
Yes, that sounds like advertising hype, but it's written by the often tough CNet folks, in this case Jason Jenkins in the UK, and this kind of headline or story is not that unusual anymore.

' In the past decade, we've seen gadgets that subsume others, products that are devilishly shiny and widgets that are superbly simple to use. But there's only one that feels like the work of magic -- the Amazon Kindle. '

Wait, there's that word again. And there's also credit given (below) for something not often mentioned in the comparison reviews:

' Initially only available in the US, when the time came to launch it to the rest of the world, Amazon could have done what every other electronics company would have done and taken years to painstakingly negotiate a data deal with a different phone network in every country, releasing it in each territory as they went.
But that would have taken too long, so Amazon said "Screw it" and launched an international Kindle that worked everywhere and piggy-backed AT&T's American network. The risk of incurring ruinous data roaming costs must have been huge, but that one bold step catapulted the Kindle into book-reading hearts across the globe. '

The CNet website is holding a 'tournament' in which people are asked to 'vote' for their favorite gadgets of the century, and this is just one of the gadgets being matched against other ones.

That Color E-Ink Reader Demo'd in Japan
While there was a commercial photo released the other day that looked fairly nice but ultra subdued in color (and those trying it said it was quite slow and the color layer over the E-Ink caused a loss in contrast and was not as sharp or clear as an LCD image), I saw some pics today, at Nate's TheDigitalReader blog, from the FBD 2010 trade show in Japan this week. The Hanvon Reader from China is the first reader to use the new "Triton" e-ink technology.

At best, one of them looked like the old hand-painted color postcards we used to see at the beach. Most of them did not show clearly that there was color. Also see more at netbooknews.com. No surprise then that Jeff Bezos had considered e-paper type color not ready, judging by these and even by the considerably more 'colorful' picture at the right from RegHardware.

While E Ink demo staff mentioned the "thousands of colors," we are used to seeing millions on our computer monitors and in the best tablets. The resolution on the Hanvon's 9.7" screen is only 800x
RegHardware's Tony Smith adds, "Even so, E Ink marketing chief Lawrence Schwartz said that the company didn't believe Triton was an e-book reader component so much as a technology that will enable e-newspapers. Of course, there aren't going to be separate e-newspaper, e-magazine and e-book devices - they'll all become one, 5, 7 or 10in tablet. Since newspaper color photos are notoriously substandard, that could be a match. At any rate, few have mentioned that the technology won't be ready for an ereader in China until March 2011.

BOOK SALES DECREASE IN SEPT, ALTHOUGH E-BOOK SALES INCREASE
The Association of American Publishers reported yesterday that their tracking for September showed decreases over September of last year and that "book sales decreased by 12.1 percent on the prior year to $1.1 billion and were up by 3.8 percent for the year to date."

While Hardcover Children's/YA sales were down 17% in September and the YTD down by 15%, the paperback sales decrease was not as large. The Adult Hardcover category was down 40%! in September and YTD sales of these down by 8%. While Adult Paperback sales was down 15.8% for september, YTD rose 1.5% so far.

"E-book sales continue to grow, with a 158.1 percent increase over September 2009 ($39.9 million); year-to-date E-book sales are up 188.4 percent."

There's a lot more detail at the website release.

PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION IN THE UK SETS OUT RESTRICTIONS ON LIBRARY LENDING
The Publishers Association has "set out an agreed position on e-book lending in libraries that will see library users blocked from downloading e-books outside of the library premises. Faber c.e.o. Stephen Page announced the new guidelines this morning (21 October) at the CILIP Public Library Authorities conference in Leeds."

Apparently the Overdrive library e-book lending system was seen as being too lax. So this is what the Publishers Association there wants:

' Under the new scheme, library users would have to come onto the library's physical premises to download an e-book at a computer terminal onto a mobile device, rather than downloading the book remotely.
The scheme would also see the fee paid by a library to buy a book covering the right to loan one copy to one individual at any given time, and would require "robust and secure geographical-based membership" in place at the library service doing the lending.
"Unfortunately recent activities by some library authorities have only confirmed how potentially damaging e-book lending can be if allowed to operate without controls," he said.
"Some services were lending for remote downloads, without geographical restrictions. This was in breach of contracts between the library and aggregator, and between the aggregator and publisher, and was advertised to the general public as 'free e-books, wherever you are, whenever you want'. Under this model, who would ever buy an e-book ever again?" '

NookColor reviews - a look at several of them

NOOKCOLOR E-READER REVIEWS

Paul Biba of Teleread had the first blog and Twitter alerts I saw on the various reviews, and three of the big gadget blogs came out about the same time. By the way, I've had email and comments that some Kindle owners don't like to see blog entries here about other e-readers as they come here for Kindle information, but the blog is about a Kindle world and in that world, there are competing devices and other aspects of all this, which have their effect, and many seem curious about the other readers even when delighted with what they/we have. I'll report today on what's been said in early reviews, as it involves a large change in the dynamics of the e-reader arena.

Bear in mind that the NookColor is an LCD-screen reader rather than an eye-calming but slow monochromatic e-Ink one, but even for those of us who have e-Ink readers which will remain our primary readers, many of us are interested in a secondary reader that is color-capable for shorter-term reading (magazines, travel books, photography) and for children's books, not to mention comics. Also, some of us want a DRM'd ePub reader and the ability to use the library if we want though I can understand why Amazon might not want to latter feature. I saw a posting from someone today who mentioned that in a year of using the Nook, she'd never had to buy an e-bok. Not the best news for e-book-selling companies and understandably sensitive publishers :-)

As I wrote in several postings to this Amazon forum thread last week, I've thought Barnes and Noble made a very smart move with an LCD reader, going for "the rest of the story/audience" (those who are not interested in an e-reader unless it's in color) and that I would be interested in getting the NookColor as a secondary reader for color-focused travel and photography books as well as for magazines if it's easy to use -- and it appears it has a very good start.

Those who ordered early will probably start getting them tomorrow but B&N has said the quantity is limited, and orders made today are due to ship Nov 26..

Since Paul's early alert (on Crunchgear, Engadget, and Gizmodo reviews), other sites have weighed in, including Wired, Laptop Magazine, Network World, with hands-on reviews. Here are notes I took for interested Kindleworld readers. They look like lengthy quotes but I left out usually 65 % of what was said, so please read the full reviews for a much better handle on it all if seriously considering a purchase.

Engadget's Joshua Topolsky

' As far as the web browser goes, the experience is pretty standard Android 2.1 fare, though as with the homescreen and general navigation on the Nook Color, the fun of using the device is hampered by touch response and refresh rates that seem way behind the curve. The team working on this software really needs to clear up some of these lag issues to make the Color a more viable choice for those considering this instead of a dedicated Android tablet. Of course, this price point helps to make a powerful argument.
...
Videos were another issue -- we couldn't get anything besides M4Vs to play, and even then we had trouble with some HD trailers. Obviously this isn't a crucial task for this device, but having a strong set of codecs and some decent video support would be really nice (and should cost next to nothing for this platform).
...
Dealing with galleries and PDFs, on the other hand, was a joy. We jumped into really large PDFs with no trouble whatsoever (though it is weird that you don't flip through them like books, rather swipe up and down). Galleries loaded up reasonably quickly and the included image viewer gives you a healthy amount of options (along with pinch zooming). The Nook Color also does Microsoft Office documents, and we were able to view DOCs and PPT files with a reasonable level of success. Just like most things on the device, it wasn't the fastest experience in the world, but it worked well.
...
We really liked reading with the Color, and even though the device doesn't sport animated page turns (a la the iPad), it does offer great options for notation and word or phrase discovery (you can do dictionary, Google, and Wikipedia searches right from a contextual menu).
...
We hate to beat a dead horse, but as with the rest of the interface, the magazine experience is hampered by the sluggishness of the UI.
Score: 7 out of 10
THE GOOD
Beautiful industrial design
Clear, crisp display
Lots of quality content available
THE BAD
UI is buggy, sluggish
Android 2.1 is dated
No apps or app store yet '

CrunchGear's John Biggs
"...The newspapers are a real dud, at least right now. The New York Times appears just as it has on the Kindle and Nook for years now – a list of headlines and then a series of long articles. There is no interface for tapping articles in a newspaper layout right now although this is expected soon along with the article view in the magazines available in the Kindle store..."

Biggs says that it won't run Angry Birds, but Engadget tried a development model that did run it.

' Another problem is that there is no visible “back” button for returning to screens you’ve just visit[ed]. It is a one-way system and very rarely is there a visible way “back” to the main pages for each of the features. If this sounds confusing it’s because it is. The persistent menu always keeps you on an even keel, though. However, you must forget everything you think you know about mobile OSes and allow for the Nook’s own special interface.
...
The trade-off, then is clear – absolutely clarity vs. eye-soothing e-ink.
While devices like the Galaxy Tab and the iPad do many things adequately, the NookColor does one thing very well. Many may be put off by the idea of a single-purpose device like this and I don’t blame them.
...
While the screen is surprisingly bright and clear, I took this outside hoping I’d be able to read the screen under an overcast sky. Nope. It was as washed out as the iPad in direct sun....
...the $249 you’d spend for a NookColor may be better spent on a more capable Android or iOS device. But if you’re looking for a color e-reader for reading a few black and white books as well as some color enhanced e-books and kid’s titles, this incarnation of the Nook is hard to beat. '

Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan
(who makes so many good, often unique, points I've probably included too much) :

"This is a capable little thing, potentially the first of a new kind of cheap tweener tablet with functionality that's both broad but limited."

' It's dense. As in, deceptively heavy—15.8 ounces, despite being legitimately thin. ... I hope you don't mind glare when you're reading.
At 7 inches, this Technicolor Nook is ironically still best for reading straightforward ebooks. And it's about as good as reading can be on a backlit glass screen (more pixels and less glare would be more better, but it actually bests the Kindle 3's pixel density, 169ppi to 167). Reading stuff other than ebooks is an interesting set of tradeoffs, largely because of the constraints of a 7-inch screen.
Magazines are presented as full-page, unreadable facsimiles of the real thing, which you can zoom in and pan around. Or you can use Article View, which pops the text out from the page and reformats it in a narrow column—exactly like Safari Reader. It's more readable, but completely breaks any fidelity to the magazine experience. Newspapers go through similar contortions to fit: B&N reformats them so that they're presented the same way as ebooks: page by page.
[ which seems to me a good choice on a small screen ].
The web browser works, but it generally tells sites it's a desktop browser instead of a mobile one, so you sometimes get weird formatting (like with Gmail) or a site that's too big for the Nook's tiny ereader britches (new Twitter wreaks havoc). Mobile YouTube and Vimeo videos work, but they come in super low-res. Still, it's important to note that it can do these things.
Reading text is totally comfortable on the 1024x600 IPS display, which is the ideal size for ebooks. And how can you not love the price? It overrules nearly every tradeoff and compromise.
Interaction is more chunky peanut butter than butter smooth. Animations, touch response and transitions all feel slow, even when they're not exactly lagging, which happens a fair bit—whether you're opening books or pinch-zooming in magazines. It's like they were animated without enough frames.
... Online video experience is often crummed out with super low-res video. I couldn't get any of several correctly encoded videos that I loaded up through the SD card to run either (pictures and music worked fine).
[The Verdict]
...It's not quite a tablet, but it's more than a simple ebook reader. It can do things that an e-ink reader simply can't -- even if it doesn't excel at them -- but it's nearly as cheap at $250. At half the price of the Tab or iPad, if you're looking for a super portable tablet thing primarily for reading, it's hard not to give the Nook a serious look, even if you might wanna wait 'til the B&N app store opens and it gets its first major update early next year. '

WIRED/Gadget Lab's Tim Carmody

"I was expecting tradeoffs. I wasn’t expecting its advantages.
...
...text entry on the NOOKcolor may [be] the best experience I’ve had using a software keyboard on any device. It’s light-years ahead of the Kindle’s shrunk-down hardware keyboard."

' ...full-color children’s books and magazine subscriptions. The storefront and reading implementation are better here than anything offered by Apple or Amazon.
...
Magazines are nearly exact copies of printed issues, with full-color illustrations and advertisements.
...
Article Mode is also just flat text: if a magazine Q&A distinguishes between interviewer and interviewee by using different-colored text, all that formatting is stripped out in article mode.
In general, everything about transitioning between vertical and horizontal, landscape and portrait on NOOKcolor is probably more awkward than it needs to be...
...
...Magazines, children’s books and the web are all more exciting and more readable at ten inches. So are textbooks, if [the 7"] Nook ever gets there... '
...First, there is something ingenious about the 7? form factor. It fits naturally in a coat pocket or purse. It’s easy to hold, as I mentioned above. And it works really, really well for most books
.
... It doesn’t have the 3G connectivity or battery life of the Kindle, which makes it harder for road warriors. Even though it’s an Android tablet, it doesn’t have full access to the Android market.
... [The audience?] Millions and millions of people — who have a phone and a PC, who don’t scour the web for tech news, and for whom a device that costs $250 that does a little bit of everything pretty well and a subset of things extremely well is [an] extremely compelling proposition. '

Much more by Tim Carmody at the Wired/Gadget Lab

PC Magazine
Similar points to the ones made above and worth reading those; however, there are a couple of detailed caveats here that new owners should be aware of

' The Amazon Kindle will run for a week with its 3G radio on, and as long as a month without it disabled. That is certainly not the case with the Nook Color. The company says it will last up to 8 hours, and my testing confirmed that number. After a day of heavy reading, about 3-4 hours, I went to bed to find the device dead in the morning. The next day, I got the Nook Color to survive the night by turning off Wi-Fi. If you read for more than a few hours a day, you should plan on charging daily. This is much better than the color-screened Sharper Image Literati's ($159, 2.5 stars) measly 4-hours of battery life.
Make sure you bring your charger wherever you go. Although the Nook Color looks like it has a standard micro USB port, it will only charge with the Nook AC adapter. I tried both 5V and 10V adapters, with no luck. Nor can you charge the device by connecting it to a PC...'

Here are more photos.

Laptop Magazine
One of the two most thorough reviews, with a full section on functioning of study-features such as annotations, search, dictionary, etc. There are 8 separate detailed sections in the report, so do read the full report. Their summary:

' you get a first-class color screen, a robust content ecosystem, and reader-friendly features, but not as much freedom as a full-fledged tablet. On the flip side, the Nook Color costs $100 more than the Wi-Fi only Nook and $110 more than the Kindle Wi-Fi, both of which are easier to hold and view during longer reading sessions.
Overall, the Nook Color is an excellent choice for consumers who want color, web browsing, and a focus on reading. '

Network World's Melissa J. Perenson
"...a superbly integrated, largely satisfying, and (for now) unique e-reading experience."

' The NookColor's display and its intuitive interface form an extraordinary one-two punch. The display employs an in-plane switching (IPS) panel, just as the iPad does, to provide a wider viewing angle and better color reproduction than standard TN LCDs. And like the iPad, it supports 16 million colors. The NookColor's 1024-by-600-pixel display carries a pixel density of 169 pixels per inch
...
Under conditions where the Galaxy Tab or iPhone 4 were essentially unreadable mirrors, the NookColor could, at least, be seen. I wouldn't have read the final volume of Harry Potter on it, but I could see well enough to navigate around, and to read for short stints.
And in most circumstances, I found the screen dramatically easier to read than other touchscreen devices I had on hand. Again, it's not as good as E-Ink, and Barnes & Noble has by no means eliminated the concept of glare on an LCD; but the screen goes far toward mitigating the effects of glare, and this is a critical accomplishment for a device designed for reading.
...
Barnes & Noble says it plans an update to NookColor to an Android version that supports Adobe Flash via the Web browser "sometime next year." For now, YouTube videos will play via the browser, but they look choppy and full of artifacts.
By launching with 100-plus strong collections for its periodicals and children's books, NookColor makes a strong case for the color e-reader, and it does so in a far more compelling way than any other device has so far. Still, for all of its screen enhancements, I wouldn't suggest an LCD e-reader like NookColor if you will primarily use it outside in direct sunlight. But for anyone else, NookColor is a worthy contender-especially for those who want to consume books, periodicals, kids' fare, and PDFs...'

CNet's K.T. Bradford
...what you have is an eReader that excels at its primary purpose while offering enough extras to justify the price."

' "While this [heavier weight] definitely made the Nook Color feel very solid, it became an issue during long reading sessions. We found ourselves switching hands more often than we normally do to alleviate wrist fatigue and much preferred to prop the eReader on our body or against a nearby surface whenever possible. Thanks to the rounded edges and soft-touch back, it's at least comfortable to hold.
Traditional LCDs aren't as reading-friendly as ePaper displays, and if you're looking to get away from bright screens beaming light into your eyes when you settle in for your reading session, the Nook Color isn't going to be your thing. However, for those who've found reading on a smart phone satisfactory or have eyed the iPad or Galaxy Tab, Barnes & Noble's offering is compelling.
...
Orientation switched automatically, though landscape view wasn't available on all screens or applications. We couldn't flip books, for instance.
...
The times we noted the touch sensitivity falling off were after we'd left several smudges on the glass. Users may want to keep a cleaning cloth handy or buy a screen protector.
...
The individual keys are nice and large, so we were able to type accurately while holding the Nook Color with two hands. Like the rest of the eReader, we didn't notice much lag.
...
Plus, users can adjust the margins and space between the lines to fit whatever they find most comfortable. There's also a screen brightness slide accessible within books or periodicals, which helped minimize eye strain.
...
...in a darker room, the light annoyed us, and even the Night theme didn't make reading easier.
...
Though notes sync to most of the apps in the Nook ecosystem, there's currently no way to export them.
There's not even a text file with all notes and highlights, as with the Kindle, that users can extract. We hope B&N adds this functionality in a future update, as it would be extremely useful for students.
...
You get a first-class color screen, a robust content ecosystem, and reader-friendly features, but not as much freedom as a full-fledged tablet. On the flip side, the Nook Color costs $100 more than the Wi-Fi only Nook and $110 more than the Kindle Wi-Fi, both of which are easier to hold and view during longer reading sessions.
...
Conclusion: "As long as you don't expect full tablet functionality, and you keep your Barnes & Noble-approved AC adapter handy, the Nook Color makes a perfectly amiable reading companion if you want to see your books in full color. '

ZDNet's Michael Miller
This reviewer is a nice guy who is "a huge fan" of the first Nook, stating it was the Kindle Killer before trying one and then later showed us his video of the first Nook taking 25 seconds to open a book and thought that was fine.
If you'd like to read all pro's and no cons, you should catch this one, and there are a few more hands-on pictures of the NookColor also.

That should do it for the roundup of first-day reviews, a much happier set than the one for the first Nook. One of these reviews credited the designer and I'd say he did a very good job.

But now some will wait for the 'real world' reports by those who spend a lot of time with it. I think it sounds very good though, and is priced particularly well if it functions smoothly long-term, and again I MAY get one as a secondary reader, though I'm also tempted to wait for a regular Android 7" tablet because ALL the online stores will have their buying apps on those and then we can buy from Amazon, B&N, and Sony rather than have another device that uses a somewhat proprietary digital-rights method (so that Sony cannot read Nook books although it works in the opposite direction), and certainly B&N wouldn't be using a Kindle app just as the Kindle wouldn't be used for selling B&N's books.
An independent Android tablet would run all Android apps rather than just the ones allowed by an online-bookseller.

View the original article here

27.11.10

Consumer Reports releases new ratings report on E-readers - Update

Consumer Report has released its latest survey of e-readers, and they have the Kindle at the top again.
Click the image at the left to see the video.

The video linked to at the left explains that the iPad was not included because they were testing the category of dedicated e-readers and the iPad is essentially a multimedia tablet and computer that also functions as an e-reader.
They add that it's considerably more expensive while having an LCD screen which "is fine, though it is slightly less crisp than that of the best e-book readers" and is also quite a bit heavier than the dedicated readers they test and portability was a feature important to the set. "Consumer Reports recommends buying the iPad for e-books only if consumers are willing to compromise to get a multifunction device."

Consumer Reports has its full story and ratings behind a paywall, but KABC's story on the CR report has a few quotes:

' "I'd say the color screens are almost impossible to read outdoors," said Rich Fisco, Consumer Reports. "On the other hand the e-ink screens are almost like reading a real book."
In the end, Consumer Reports gave top ratings to the 3G Kindle, which costs $189.
"It's the best reader we've ever tested," said Paul Reynolds, a tester with Consumer Reports. "The type is crisp and easy to read. The battery life is outstanding, as is the speed of the page turns."
But you can save money buying the $139 Kindle, which is identical to the 3G except you can only download content via Wi-Fi.'

Amazon Kindle forum regular Fool for Books points out that the Amazon Kindle Community Forum has had many notes from customers who had to upgrade their $139 WiFi only models almost immediately because they had not understood that in order to use 'wireless WiFi' in the home when one doesn't have the 3G cellular wireless feature (which all past Kindles have had), they had to have set up a WiFi network in their home -- which itself also brings expenses, while the top model with 3G cellphone-type wireless carries no additional costs for even the added feature of looking up info on the web, in about 61 countries) from almost anymore.

See the blog article on differences between 3G/WiFi and WiFi-only access.

Consumer Reports also recommends the Barnes and Noble Nook. "It doesn't score quite as high as the Kindle, but you can use it to download free library books. The Kindle doesn't accept library books," said Reynolds."

I subscribe to Consumer Reports online and it's really worth the $26 or so per year as you can search it. On the Recommended readers, there were these interesting comments and scores (excerpted):

' Best choices for use everywhere:
Amazon Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi -- 72
The best e-book reader we've ever tested, and one of the lightest and slimmest. Superior page turns and the most readable type we've seen. A jumbo font size and text-to-speech capability are boons for the sight-impaired. Among the few models that doesn't support library rentals, however...
Barnes & Noble nook 3G + Wi-Fi -- 56
Though among the more challenging devices to use, due in part to its dual screens, it's also among the highest-scoring models that allow e-book rentals from public libraries, a potential cost-saver...
Best values
...you can load new content wirelessly only via Wi-Fi. These versions are better buys than their pricier siblings, unless you expect to frequently need new content when you're out of range of a Wi-Fi network.
Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi -- 68
[Same description as for the 3G-included model above]
Barnes & Noble nook Wi-Fi -- 53
[Same description as for the 3G-included model above] '

Consumer Reports always neglects to mention that the 3G on a Kindle allows you to use Wikipedia or to look up info anywhere on the Net, from your book, when on a bus or at the park or beach or at the dentist's office :-) etc...and that the now 3-yr experimental Free 3G Web Browser that does not confine you to the company store (nor carries a charge for web lookups) differentiates it from the other models to a considerable degree ... not to mention that it's WebKit based and faster than the earlier browsers.

Also, this 3G instant downloading of Kindle books is available to you in other countries when you're traveling -- in about 100 countries -- a unique feature of the Kindle since no other e-readers offer this -- and allows you free web access in over 60 countries. I suppose this is considered a non-feature. It amazes me that a serious comparison of e-readers is done without mentioning this.

' If you need a big screen:
This newest DX is suitable mostly for those with a large budget who plan to read a lot of textbooks, with large diagrams etc. it's a fine performer, with very readable type and page turns are only slightly slower than its fleet 6-inch sibling.
[Other e-reader scores in descending order]
[The new Sonys were "In testing"]
enTourage eDGe -- 54
Pandigital Novel -- 50
BeBook Neo -- 50
Spring Design Alex -- 49
Aluratek Libre eBook -- 46
ViewSonic VEB620 -- 44
Kobo eReader -- 40
Augen The Book -- 40 '

The Kindles are the only ones with full red-circle 'Excellent' ratings for Readability. For Navigation, they share that with the Pan Digital Novel.

From what I've seen in the news, the new Sonys will, after testing, wind up with best marks for Navigation due to its touch screen -- also, for flexibility of annotations, except that the Kindle annotations are backed up, and all your highlighting and notes are available to you on a private, password protected Amazon webpage, ready for not only viewing easily but also copyable for editing in a separate text file on your computer.

That's invaluable for those studying a subject and needing to make reports. It's also great for just reviewing the aspects of a book that were important to you or for use in discussing the book in a book club. (You can also choose to disable backups of annotations.)

The Sony with comparable features (though not free 3G web lookups) and the touchscreen carries a price about $100 more than the Kindle and Nook and is said to be very well made.

View the original article here

NookColor reviews - a look at several of them

NOOKCOLOR E-READER REVIEWS

Those who ordered early will probably start getting them tomorrow but B&N has said the quantity is limited, and orders made today are due to ship Nov 26..

Engadget's Joshua Topolsky

' As far as the web browser goes, the experience is pretty standard Android 2.1 fare, though as with the homescreen and general navigation on the Nook Color, the fun of using the device is hampered by touch response and refresh rates that seem way behind the curve. The team working on this software really needs to clear up some of these lag issues to make the Color a more viable choice for those considering this instead of a dedicated Android tablet. Of course, this price point helps to make a powerful argument.
...
Videos were another issue -- we couldn't get anything besides M4Vs to play, and even then we had trouble with some HD trailers. Obviously this isn't a crucial task for this device, but having a strong set of codecs and some decent video support would be really nice (and should cost next to nothing for this platform).
...
Dealing with galleries and PDFs, on the other hand, was a joy. We jumped into really large PDFs with no trouble whatsoever (though it is weird that you don't flip through them like books, rather swipe up and down). Galleries loaded up reasonably quickly and the included image viewer gives you a healthy amount of options (along with pinch zooming). The Nook Color also does Microsoft Office documents, and we were able to view DOCs and PPT files with a reasonable level of success. Just like most things on the device, it wasn't the fastest experience in the world, but it worked well.
...
We really liked reading with the Color, and even though the device doesn't sport animated page turns (a la the iPad), it does offer great options for notation and word or phrase discovery (you can do dictionary, Google, and Wikipedia searches right from a contextual menu).
...
We hate to beat a dead horse, but as with the rest of the interface, the magazine experience is hampered by the sluggishness of the UI.
Score: 7 out of 10
THE GOOD
Beautiful industrial design
Clear, crisp display
Lots of quality content available
THE BAD
UI is buggy, sluggish
Android 2.1 is dated
No apps or app store yet '

Biggs says that it won't run Angry Birds, but Engadget tried a development model that did run it.

' Another problem is that there is no visible “back” button for returning to screens you’ve just visit[ed]. It is a one-way system and very rarely is there a visible way “back” to the main pages for each of the features. If this sounds confusing it’s because it is. The persistent menu always keeps you on an even keel, though. However, you must forget everything you think you know about mobile OSes and allow for the Nook’s own special interface.
...
The trade-off, then is clear – absolutely clarity vs. eye-soothing e-ink.
While devices like the Galaxy Tab and the iPad do many things adequately, the NookColor does one thing very well. Many may be put off by the idea of a single-purpose device like this and I don’t blame them.
...
While the screen is surprisingly bright and clear, I took this outside hoping I’d be able to read the screen under an overcast sky. Nope. It was as washed out as the iPad in direct sun....
...the $249 you’d spend for a NookColor may be better spent on a more capable Android or iOS device. But if you’re looking for a color e-reader for reading a few black and white books as well as some color enhanced e-books and kid’s titles, this incarnation of the Nook is hard to beat. '

Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan
(who makes so many good, often unique, points I've probably included too much) :

"This is a capable little thing, potentially the first of a new kind of cheap tweener tablet with functionality that's both broad but limited."

' It's dense. As in, deceptively heavy—15.8 ounces, despite being legitimately thin. ... I hope you don't mind glare when you're reading.
At 7 inches, this Technicolor Nook is ironically still best for reading straightforward ebooks. And it's about as good as reading can be on a backlit glass screen (more pixels and less glare would be more better, but it actually bests the Kindle 3's pixel density, 169ppi to 167). Reading stuff other than ebooks is an interesting set of tradeoffs, largely because of the constraints of a 7-inch screen.
Magazines are presented as full-page, unreadable facsimiles of the real thing, which you can zoom in and pan around. Or you can use Article View, which pops the text out from the page and reformats it in a narrow column—exactly like Safari Reader. It's more readable, but completely breaks any fidelity to the magazine experience. Newspapers go through similar contortions to fit: B&N reformats them so that they're presented the same way as ebooks: page by page.
[ which seems to me a good choice on a small screen ].
The web browser works, but it generally tells sites it's a desktop browser instead of a mobile one, so you sometimes get weird formatting (like with Gmail) or a site that's too big for the Nook's tiny ereader britches (new Twitter wreaks havoc). Mobile YouTube and Vimeo videos work, but they come in super low-res. Still, it's important to note that it can do these things.
Reading text is totally comfortable on the 1024x600 IPS display, which is the ideal size for ebooks. And how can you not love the price? It overrules nearly every tradeoff and compromise.
Interaction is more chunky peanut butter than butter smooth. Animations, touch response and transitions all feel slow, even when they're not exactly lagging, which happens a fair bit—whether you're opening books or pinch-zooming in magazines. It's like they were animated without enough frames.
... Online video experience is often crummed out with super low-res video. I couldn't get any of several correctly encoded videos that I loaded up through the SD card to run either (pictures and music worked fine).
[The Verdict]
...It's not quite a tablet, but it's more than a simple ebook reader. It can do things that an e-ink reader simply can't -- even if it doesn't excel at them -- but it's nearly as cheap at $250. At half the price of the Tab or iPad, if you're looking for a super portable tablet thing primarily for reading, it's hard not to give the Nook a serious look, even if you might wanna wait 'til the B&N app store opens and it gets its first major update early next year. '

WIRED/Gadget Lab's Tim Carmody

' ...full-color children’s books and magazine subscriptions. The storefront and reading implementation are better here than anything offered by Apple or Amazon.
...
Magazines are nearly exact copies of printed issues, with full-color illustrations and advertisements.
...
Article Mode is also just flat text: if a magazine Q&A distinguishes between interviewer and interviewee by using different-colored text, all that formatting is stripped out in article mode.
In general, everything about transitioning between vertical and horizontal, landscape and portrait on NOOKcolor is probably more awkward than it needs to be...
...
...Magazines, children’s books and the web are all more exciting and more readable at ten inches. So are textbooks, if [the 7"] Nook ever gets there... '
...First, there is something ingenious about the 7? form factor. It fits naturally in a coat pocket or purse. It’s easy to hold, as I mentioned above. And it works really, really well for most books
.
... It doesn’t have the 3G connectivity or battery life of the Kindle, which makes it harder for road warriors. Even though it’s an Android tablet, it doesn’t have full access to the Android market.
... [The audience?] Millions and millions of people — who have a phone and a PC, who don’t scour the web for tech news, and for whom a device that costs $250 that does a little bit of everything pretty well and a subset of things extremely well is [an] extremely compelling proposition. '

Much more by Tim Carmody at the Wired/Gadget Lab

PC Magazine
Similar points to the ones made above and worth reading those; however, there are a couple of detailed caveats here that new owners should be aware of

' The Amazon Kindle will run for a week with its 3G radio on, and as long as a month without it disabled. That is certainly not the case with the Nook Color. The company says it will last up to 8 hours, and my testing confirmed that number. After a day of heavy reading, about 3-4 hours, I went to bed to find the device dead in the morning. The next day, I got the Nook Color to survive the night by turning off Wi-Fi. If you read for more than a few hours a day, you should plan on charging daily. This is much better than the color-screened Sharper Image Literati's ($159, 2.5 stars) measly 4-hours of battery life.
Make sure you bring your charger wherever you go. Although the Nook Color looks like it has a standard micro USB port, it will only charge with the Nook AC adapter. I tried both 5V and 10V adapters, with no luck. Nor can you charge the device by connecting it to a PC...'

Here are more photos.

' you get a first-class color screen, a robust content ecosystem, and reader-friendly features, but not as much freedom as a full-fledged tablet. On the flip side, the Nook Color costs $100 more than the Wi-Fi only Nook and $110 more than the Kindle Wi-Fi, both of which are easier to hold and view during longer reading sessions.
Overall, the Nook Color is an excellent choice for consumers who want color, web browsing, and a focus on reading. '

Network World's Melissa J. Perenson
"...a superbly integrated, largely satisfying, and (for now) unique e-reading experience."

' The NookColor's display and its intuitive interface form an extraordinary one-two punch. The display employs an in-plane switching (IPS) panel, just as the iPad does, to provide a wider viewing angle and better color reproduction than standard TN LCDs. And like the iPad, it supports 16 million colors. The NookColor's 1024-by-600-pixel display carries a pixel density of 169 pixels per inch
...
Under conditions where the Galaxy Tab or iPhone 4 were essentially unreadable mirrors, the NookColor could, at least, be seen. I wouldn't have read the final volume of Harry Potter on it, but I could see well enough to navigate around, and to read for short stints.
And in most circumstances, I found the screen dramatically easier to read than other touchscreen devices I had on hand. Again, it's not as good as E-Ink, and Barnes & Noble has by no means eliminated the concept of glare on an LCD; but the screen goes far toward mitigating the effects of glare, and this is a critical accomplishment for a device designed for reading.
...
Barnes & Noble says it plans an update to NookColor to an Android version that supports Adobe Flash via the Web browser "sometime next year." For now, YouTube videos will play via the browser, but they look choppy and full of artifacts.
By launching with 100-plus strong collections for its periodicals and children's books, NookColor makes a strong case for the color e-reader, and it does so in a far more compelling way than any other device has so far. Still, for all of its screen enhancements, I wouldn't suggest an LCD e-reader like NookColor if you will primarily use it outside in direct sunlight. But for anyone else, NookColor is a worthy contender-especially for those who want to consume books, periodicals, kids' fare, and PDFs...'

CNet's K.T. Bradford
...what you have is an eReader that excels at its primary purpose while offering enough extras to justify the price."

' "While this [heavier weight] definitely made the Nook Color feel very solid, it became an issue during long reading sessions. We found ourselves switching hands more often than we normally do to alleviate wrist fatigue and much preferred to prop the eReader on our body or against a nearby surface whenever possible. Thanks to the rounded edges and soft-touch back, it's at least comfortable to hold.
Traditional LCDs aren't as reading-friendly as ePaper displays, and if you're looking to get away from bright screens beaming light into your eyes when you settle in for your reading session, the Nook Color isn't going to be your thing. However, for those who've found reading on a smart phone satisfactory or have eyed the iPad or Galaxy Tab, Barnes & Noble's offering is compelling.
...
Orientation switched automatically, though landscape view wasn't available on all screens or applications. We couldn't flip books, for instance.
...
The times we noted the touch sensitivity falling off were after we'd left several smudges on the glass. Users may want to keep a cleaning cloth handy or buy a screen protector.
...
The individual keys are nice and large, so we were able to type accurately while holding the Nook Color with two hands. Like the rest of the eReader, we didn't notice much lag.
...
Plus, users can adjust the margins and space between the lines to fit whatever they find most comfortable. There's also a screen brightness slide accessible within books or periodicals, which helped minimize eye strain.
...
...in a darker room, the light annoyed us, and even the Night theme didn't make reading easier.
...
Though notes sync to most of the apps in the Nook ecosystem, there's currently no way to export them.
There's not even a text file with all notes and highlights, as with the Kindle, that users can extract. We hope B&N adds this functionality in a future update, as it would be extremely useful for students.
...
You get a first-class color screen, a robust content ecosystem, and reader-friendly features, but not as much freedom as a full-fledged tablet. On the flip side, the Nook Color costs $100 more than the Wi-Fi only Nook and $110 more than the Kindle Wi-Fi, both of which are easier to hold and view during longer reading sessions.
...
Conclusion: "As long as you don't expect full tablet functionality, and you keep your Barnes & Noble-approved AC adapter handy, the Nook Color makes a perfectly amiable reading companion if you want to see your books in full color. '

That should do it for the roundup of first-day reviews, a much happier set than the one for the first Nook. One of these reviews credited the designer and I'd say he did a very good job.

View the original article here

Amazon finally does Kindle-book gifting - UPDATE

AMAZON FINALLY DOES GIFTING OF KINDLE BOOKS

I'll just quote the press release while providing my earlier version of of the portion in this press-release that highlights again the Editors' choices for the best Kindle books of 2010. Amazon starts it off with this:

"For the First Time, Give the Gift of Kindle Books (No Kindle Required)
Kindle Store the first major bookstore to offer eBook gifting"

Well, in fact, Kobo offered eBook gifting a day earlier (Thursday), and since the Kobo is sold at Borders and other stores, I think that qualifies -- Amazon nodded off at the wheel there but they're awake now and ready :-)

Here's the press release with my modifications that include links to the books they have recommended for 2010.

' SEATTLE, Nov 19, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
(NASDAQ: AMZN) - Kindle is the most gifted item in the history of Amazon.com and millions of people around the world are reading Kindle Books on Kindle devices and free Kindle apps. Beginning today, just in time for the holiday season, customers can give Kindle Books as gifts to anyone with an e-mail address -- no Kindle required. Kindle Books can be read on Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices.
For more information or to give a Kindle Book as a gift, go to amzn.to/givekindlebooks.
"We are thrilled to make it easier than ever for our customers to give their favorite Kindle book to a friend or family member as a gift," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "We're making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress free holiday shopping option for anyone - not just Kindle owners."
To give a Kindle Book as a gift, customers simply choose a book in the Kindle Store, select "Give as a Gift" and send their gift to anyone with an email address. Notifications of Kindle Books gifts are delivered instantly via e-mail and the recipient redeems the gift in the Kindle Store to read on any Kindle or free Kindle app.
Just in time for holiday gift-giving, Amazon editors' picks for the best books of the year are:
[ CAUTION: A small change for this list only:
These won't open a new window, so don't close the book-browsing window
but instead use the Back button to get back to this page --
otherwise, it would be hard to get back here. ]
1. "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
2. "Faithful Place: A Novel" by Tana French
3. "Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War" by Karl Marlantes
4. "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand
5. "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration" by Isabel Wilkerson
6. "Freedom: A Novel" by Jonathan Franzen
7. "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" by Stieg Larsson
8. "To the End of the Land" by David Grossman
9. "Just Kids" by Patti Smith
10. "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine" by Michael Lewis
[And here's the usual press-release paragraph that I `normally omit, but some new to the Kindle may be interested.]
With over 725,000 books, the U.S. Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore) has the largest selection of the most popular books that people want to read - including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases from $9.99. Kindle lets you Buy Once, Read Everywhere - on Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices. Amazon's Whispersync technology syncs your place across devices, so you can pick up where you left off. With Kindle Worry-Free Archive, books you purchase from the Kindle Store are automatically backed up online in your Kindle library on Amazon where they can be re-downloaded wirelessly for free, anytime. '

As I said, finally !

UPDATE - For convenience, here's the tiny FAQ at the givekindlebooks page linked earlier above:

'
• Do I have to own a Kindle to give or receive a Kindle ebook as a gift?
No. Kindle ebooks can be given and received by anyone with an e-mail address. Kindle ebooks can be read either on Kindle or on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, or Android Phone using one of our free reading apps.
• What if the recipient doesn't like or want their gift?
Kindle ebooks received as gifts can be exchanged for Amazon.com gift cards.
• Are all Kindle ebooks eligible to be given as gifts? All ebooks available for purchase in the Amazon.com Kindle Store can be given as gifts. '

Also, here is the November 5 blog article on other Amazon best-book links for 2010 so far.

View the original article here

Students' use of Kindles increases reading and collaboration (Pennsylvania)

Students' use of Kindles increases reading, bringing recognition to Chambersburg Area School District libraries.

Public Opinion Online's Keith Paradise writes that "e-readers in Chambersburg schools [Pennsylvania] are increasing time spent reading and creating new reading enthusiasts among students, drawing the attention of school libraries nationwide."

Chambersburg Area School District library leaders Joanne Hammond and Susan Berrier gave a presentation to the school board Wednesday and explained that "the electronic devices were purchased as a way to interest students in reading books and provide them technology to work with. The school has 30 Kindles and a cart to charge and store them in.

"The devices have increased the number of minutes students have spent reading and also the number of books that have been read."

' Chambersburg's experiences with reading devices were featured in this month's Library Media Connection magazine, in a three-page article written by CASHS librarian Melissa Engel-Unruh. She is now fielding calls and questions from school librarians around the country about the club.
"We really are on the cutting edge on what libraries are doing with technology," Hammond said. '

The Kindles were purchased in early 2009 "as a way to encourage some of the school's lowest readers as determined by test results."

' "This generation is so gadget-centric and with the Kindle we thought we could get them to read in a gadget-centric format," Hammond said.
The students participate in Kindle clubs, where they would meet in the library and use the devices to read books. Since the club was started, there has been a 12.1 percent increase in the amount of time the students have spent reading. Students, when asked, estimated that they've read 31.2 percent more books this year over last year.
How students present the information they are taking from books is also changing, thanks to technology.
In the past, students would write book reports and critiques and turn them in to a teacher. Now, students are posting the critiques on online blogs that other students can view and comment on. Additionally, students are also creating and narrating video book reports that involve pictures and graphics. '

More at the Public Opinion Online site.

View the original article here

Amazon Kindle 3 out of stock outside the U.S. and UK / Black Friday sales

2-3 MONTHS DELAY TO SHIP OUTSIDE USA AND UK
per Kindle 3 product pages

This situation came without warning, except that about 2 weeks ago, one could order up to five Kindle 3's (UK: K3's) at a time, and then it became only three at a time "due to strong customer demand."

While Kindle 3's are still available for immediate shipment in the U.S. and UK for now, a look at the product page for deliveries outside those two areas shows the following estimated ship date: "Expected to ship in 2 to 3 months."

Even Canada and Australia, two areas very much represented in Amazon Kindle Community Forum discussions, have this shipment delay shown.

At the Kindle forum thread about this today, a posting by Rod Govers reports:

' This is Amazon's reply to a query regarding the 2-3 months delivery on K3s to **international** addresses:
"Due to strong customer demand, Kindle (Latest Generation) is temporarily sold out. Order now to reserve your place in line. Orders are prioritized on a first come, first served basis. We will ship your Kindle to you as quickly as possible and will keep you informed by e-mail as we get more precise delivery dates." '

WAIT MAY BE CONSIDERABLY LESS THAN STATED 2-3 MONTHS THOUGH
From some experience with past temporary stock shortages (some longer than others), the DEFAULT time period is given as 2-3 months, but more often than not, in the past year, the factories seem to catch up much sooner than later and the wait is not as long as mentioned in the alert.

However, that long a period covers Amazon in case, I imagine, they don't get more in stock soon enough. But I remember this happening with the Kindle 3's when new, also, and the estimated shipping dates with temporary shortages were way off.

Amazon is now sold (in dribbles and as fast as the stores stock the VERY LIMITED supplies for some reason) at Target, Staples and Best Buy, but in the U.S., the Kindle 3's are still available online. I tend to prefer to buy these at Amazon online due to their very fast, flexible handling of returns if you don't want the Kindle after all (within 30 days) and of replacements if needed, usually within a day or two.

Interestingly, the far more expensive, less portable Kindle DX Graphite ('KDXG'), better for PDFs, textbooks, and sheet music) is not seeing similar shortages that affect international shipment. An entire Kindle 3 fits in the screen of the KDXG and it's 1.2 lbs, so is quite a bit heavier. These are due to be in the stores for holiday shopping, and some of us wonder if there'll be any changes that have kept them from going to stores sooner. Remember that Amazon has a 30-day full-refund return policy on Kindles for any reason, such as just not wanting it after all.

They seem very secure with this unique policy on e-readers. Amazon also has 30-day price protection, returning the difference if a product's pricing is reduced within 30 days of purchase. That's along with the 30-day full-refund return policy for any Kindle that is just not wanted.

At any rate, I expect that the Kindle 3 shortages will not be the stated 2-3 months. That would indicate poor planning or far-higher-than-expected demand, and there are a lot of competing products these days even if Consumer Report gives the Kindle highest marks again this week.

BLACK FRIDAY Specials - U.S. and U.K.
While we're on the topic of the online store, both Amazon U.S. and Amazon UK have started their Black Friday week alerts, with some pre-Black Friday specials also..

Bookmark these for significant sales from approximately the 22 through the day after Thanksgiving and probably beyond to some extent:

U.S. Black Friday specials page: Shortcut: http://bit.ly/blackfriday-2010

U.K. Black Friday specials page: Shortcut: http://bit.ly/blackfriday-uk

View the original article here

Kindle Books And Kindle eBooks Make Money Sell On Amazon

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V.Reader Animated E-Book System - Pink

Kindle is our #1 bestselling item for two years running. It’s also the most-wished-for, most-gifted, and has the most 5-star reviews of any product on Amazon.

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