Interesting piece in the GN Times about the popularity of iPads. My (technically-savvy) neighbour showed me one last week and I was most impressed.
I had been on the verge of buying a Kindle ebook reader for travelling, but can see the much wider uses provided by the iPad.
Can any GNs comment on how easy it is to download ebooks to the iPad? While I am relatively computer savvy, things like downloads need to be user-friendly, or else expensive toys are at risk of physical harm!
Cheers, Tony
Travel Bug said
03:37 PM Aug 27, 2011
Hi tonyd. I have an e-reader...but my kids all have iPads...
I just asked my daughter about book downloads and she said that because she has a Kindle app on her iPad, she can download an entire book from Amazon in less than 20 seconds.
Cheers. Pam.
villatranquilla said
06:49 PM Aug 27, 2011
inquired at Dick Smith yesterday about the 'Kindle' - was told book downloads can cost betwene $0 and $20 per book - add the price of the Kindle and I think I will just keep going to garage sales, libraries and caravan park book swaps cheers Barry
shazartist said
09:31 AM Aug 28, 2011
Hi Tonyd,
I have an ipad and a Kindle, I am not answering your question about cost.
Just incase you have not thought of these points, You may want to consider somethings I was interested in when comparing the Ipad and Kindle.
I often will read for hours and days. So I was very interested in the fact that The Kindle is very eye friendly and not a computer screen like the ipad. The ipad is back lit like a computer so can be read at night (a plus), the kindle is not, but has such a beautiful book like page you forget you are not reading a traditional book, Although, you need the light on to read at night.
Also I wanted a small light weight kindle not the large format like the ipad as I am often a lazy reader and use one hand to hold it up while lying down, you may read differently and this will not be important.
I love my Kindle, and really like my ipad too, although I use them differently.
Some Australian books are not available on the Kindle, not sure about the ipad. I still use the library sometimes.
I just gave away 200 books..some of them only a couple of years old, and reordered some favourites on my kindle. I have been so disgusted by the paper and reader quality print in new books the last few years, as most new books are at least $30.00 you expect more.
Traveling and reading with the Kindle is so easy. Sorry I could not help concerning the cost comparison.
Cheers Sharon
Elle on Wheels said
01:59 AM Sep 2, 2011
Hi my thoughts are similar to Sharon's. I don't yet have an ipad because i don't like apple but i will eventually succumb to the enthusiastic ravings of my friends one day and get one. I have a kindle and I think it is well worth the price. It can store something like 3000 books and if you need more storage there is some sort of 'limbo' system where you can park them out in the ether and recall if desired. It is a great solution for people on the road who love to read.
Kindles or equivalent are easy to use, physically lightweight, and user friendly. Handling a kindle is similar to handling a paperback. It is really easy to use the kindle to browse the store and purchase new ebooks - funny about that.
I am an addicted reader and although widely read have a very selective range of favourite contempory authors. Unfortunately not many of these are on kindle yet. But I downloaded the entire works of Mark Twain for something like $5 or so. And also things I would not have thought to read like the autobiography of Ben Franklin for free. And there is a treasure trove of stuff like that. Many of the old classics are free.
I currently have a collection of around 5000 actual books which i guess will have to be sold or put into storage. Like Sharon I am really fed up with the crap quality of books you buy these days - unless you buy hardcover they fall apart. It used to be a real pleasure to open a new book (always a paperback because hardcovers were too exxy) and I was always careful not to crack the spine. But the quality of books these days is so bad they fall apart.
You can get some good bargains. I paid about $180 for my kindle - make sure you get 3G free wifi - and probably prices will come down. That's the price of about 10 3rd release paperbacks so well worth it I reckon.
cheers Ellen
shazartist said
11:27 PM Sep 2, 2011
Elle on Wheels wrote:
I downloaded the entire works of Mark Twain for something like $5 or so. And also things I would not have thought to read like the autobiography of Ben Franklin for free. And there is a treasure trove of stuff like that. Many of the old classics are free.
cheers Ellen
Ellen,
I could not buy any Henry James and got them on the Kindle for a great price..........
The Classics are so easily available on the Kindle...and so much more affordable.
I found out if you have "KIndle's" in one name you can share the books on all the KIndles. I realised this when My Husband purchased me the small Kindle when he realised his gift of the larger Kindle was not really what I wanted, I found out I could share my books on both ....So a family...put the Kindles in one name..then you can share the books....
PS, Ellen I adore my Apple Mac's....My Sweety is a Microsoft engineer and Loves his Apples...
We both changed over years ago because of the horrid anti virus soft ware.
Cheers Sharon
-- Edited by shazartist on Friday 2nd of September 2011 11:32:12 PM
Elle on Wheels said
10:18 PM Sep 3, 2011
Hmmm my best mate swears by her ipad. I had a horror experience at work several years ago where half the organisation operated on apple and the other half on pc's and it made my high pressure job impossible. At that time the apple was shocking and there were all sorts of glitches in sharing files. I am slowly becoming more open to macs.
shazartist said
11:03 AM Sep 4, 2011
Elle on Wheels wrote:
Hmmm my best mate swears by her ipad. I had a horror experience at work several years ago where half the organisation operated on apple and the other half on pc's and it made my high pressure job impossible. At that time the apple was shocking and there were all sorts of glitches in sharing files. I am slowly becoming more open to macs.
I think your situation would have turned you off all computers!....Yes Apple is a lot more compatible now, and the iphone captured the world. I don't have one, but everyone I know does...ha ha. I Love all my techie stuff but really am not interesting in a phone.
I use my ipad when I travel...it does everything that the iphone does but ring...lol
cheers Sharon
Hydeeeho said
05:13 PM Sep 22, 2011
My wife has commandeered my iPad and uses it as an e-reader, she has all the e-reader apps including Kindle etc and she can also access the Gold Coast Library and dowloads any book she likes for FREE, and she is more than happy with it
Hi tonyd. I have an e-reader...but my kids all have iPads...
I just asked my daughter about book downloads and she said that because she has a Kindle app on her iPad, she can download an entire book from Amazon in less than 20 seconds.
Cheers. Pam.
cheers Barry
Hi Tonyd,
I have an ipad and a Kindle, I am not answering your question about cost.
Just incase you have not thought of these points, You may want to consider somethings I was interested in when comparing the Ipad and Kindle.
I often will read for hours and days. So I was very interested in the fact that The Kindle is very eye friendly and not a computer screen like the ipad. The ipad is back lit like a computer so can be read at night (a plus), the kindle is not, but has such a beautiful book like page you forget you are not reading a traditional book, Although, you need the light on to read at night.
Also I wanted a small light weight kindle not the large format like the ipad as I am often a lazy reader and use one hand to hold it up while lying down, you may read differently and this will not be important.
I love my Kindle, and really like my ipad too, although I use them differently.
Some Australian books are not available on the Kindle, not sure about the ipad. I still use the library sometimes.
I just gave away 200 books..some of them only a couple of years old, and reordered some favourites on my kindle. I have been so disgusted by the paper and reader quality print in new books the last few years, as most new books are at least $30.00 you expect more.
Traveling and reading with the Kindle is so easy. Sorry I could not help concerning the cost comparison.
Cheers Sharon
my thoughts are similar to Sharon's. I don't yet have an ipad because i don't like apple but i will eventually succumb to the enthusiastic ravings of my friends one day and get one. I have a kindle and I think it is well worth the price. It can store something like 3000 books and if you need more storage there is some sort of 'limbo' system where you can park them out in the ether and recall if desired. It is a great solution for people on the road who love to read.
Kindles or equivalent are easy to use, physically lightweight, and user friendly. Handling a kindle is similar to handling a paperback. It is really easy to use the kindle to browse the store and purchase new ebooks - funny about that.
I am an addicted reader and although widely read have a very selective range of favourite contempory authors. Unfortunately not many of these are on kindle yet. But I downloaded the entire works of Mark Twain for something like $5 or so. And also things I would not have thought to read like the autobiography of Ben Franklin for free. And there is a treasure trove of stuff like that. Many of the old classics are free.
I currently have a collection of around 5000 actual books which i guess will have to be sold or put into storage. Like Sharon I am really fed up with the crap quality of books you buy these days - unless you buy hardcover they fall apart. It used to be a real pleasure to open a new book (always a paperback because hardcovers were too exxy) and I was always careful not to crack the spine. But the quality of books these days is so bad they fall apart.
You can get some good bargains. I paid about $180 for my kindle - make sure you get 3G free wifi - and probably prices will come down. That's the price of about 10 3rd release paperbacks so well worth it I reckon.
cheers
Ellen
Ellen,
I could not buy any Henry James and got them on the Kindle for a great price..........
The Classics are so easily available on the Kindle...and so much more affordable.
I found out if you have "KIndle's" in one name you can share the books on all the KIndles. I realised this when My Husband purchased me the small Kindle when he realised his gift of the larger Kindle was not really what I wanted, I found out I could share my books on both ....So a family...put the Kindles in one name..then you can share the books....
PS, Ellen I adore my Apple Mac's....My Sweety is a Microsoft engineer and Loves his Apples...
We both changed over years ago because of the horrid anti virus soft ware.
Cheers Sharon
-- Edited by shazartist on Friday 2nd of September 2011 11:32:12 PM
I think your situation would have turned you off all computers!....Yes Apple is a lot more compatible now, and the iphone captured the world. I don't have one, but everyone I know does...ha ha. I Love all my techie stuff but really am not interesting in a phone.
I use my ipad when I travel...it does everything that the iphone does but ring...lol
cheers Sharon
My wife has commandeered my iPad and uses it as an e-reader, she has all the e-reader apps including Kindle etc and she can also access the Gold Coast Library and dowloads any book she likes for FREE, and she is more than happy with it
Cheers
Dave