Tag Archives: Amazon

community, debates, technology

Kindle Fire or Nook Color?

E-readers are the new hot thing, in case you’ve been living under a rock.

But there are a billion choices. Which, puts me in a conundrum. But I’ve looked through a few and narrowed (for the moment) down to 2 choices that seem like they will be the best fit.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

They seem pretty similar, at least on paper.

What I like about the Nook Color – It’s available now; it’s epub compatible along with more file types (which means it’ll be more useful for my desired field of study); it seems easier to make my own outside of the app store.

What I’m not so much a fan of – The store isn’t the first with books; it’s a little heavier than the Kindle Fire; it has a slower processor.

What I like about the Kindle Fire – It’s more of a tablet without belonging to Apple; it’s got a faster processor; it has more books in it’s bookstore.

What I’m not so much a fan of – It’s got Amazon’s wonky DRM without a plausible workaround; it’s not as versatile in its file reading; it’s not available yet (which means that there’s no regular person reviews and I have to wait).

I’m leaning toward a Nook Color, and taking the hit on the hardware, because it comes with less technical annoyances than the Kindle Fire. But I’m not decided, because they aren’t particularly cheap, and I’m looking for a reader that will be the most versatile and provide the most help for trying out new media formats for reading.

So I’m posing the question to you, the readers. Which e-reader/tablet will be the best bet for the money? Leave your thoughts, including other readers I may have overlooked, in the comments! Thanks!

books, rant

Not a UK customer

2 Comments

Not a UK customerI frequent BoingBoing when I have some spare time, because they post articles that interest me. One of the last times I was there, they had Cory Doctorow‘s review of Heather Brooke‘s The Revolution will be Digitised.

His review intrigued me, so I followed the link to her site for the book. Where I realized that this is a book I should probably read because of its connection to my scholarly interests. So I take the next logical step to buy the book; I follow the link.

This sends me to Amazon’s UK store where they have print copies for a reasonable price, along with a Kindle version. (The UK store completely makes sense as both the author and reviewer reside in the UK.) I don’t particularly want to pay for UK shipping, so I check the US store. They only have copies from authorized sellers, and they are more expensive than the UK edition.

So I head back to the UK store, because I have the Kindle App on my phone, and decide to try a sample of the e-book, just to be sure I want to go through the exchange rate to ultimately purchase said edition.

And that’s where I hit the Catch-22 circular logic of frustration. Continue reading Not a UK customer →