The Good e-Reader Buyers Guide 2011
Michael Kozlowski
Copyright 2011 by Good e-Reader
Smashwords Edition
The Good e-Reader – eReader Buyers Guide for 2011 attempts to explore the myriad of e-readers in the market right now. Many devices have hit the market this year and it can be overwhelming to make the decision on what device is right for you. We explore over 25 e-readers that are widely available in the United States and Canada and give you a comprehensive review on each device.
The Holidays are quickly approaching and you might be keen on upgrading your own e-reader or maybe just buying one for the first time. You even might be considering a gift for that special someone and want to make sure you are buying the right e-reader for them.
We at Good e-Reader consider ourselves the definitive source on e-readers, digital publishing, ebooks and tablets. Our tech blog is visited by over 5 million people to get the latest industry news and look at all of the new releases. We extensively review every new e-reader that hits the market and often do a series of videos that give you tutorials on how to setup and manage your device. If you are the type of person that loves to load in their own ebooks or borrow them from the library, our videos also assist you in showing you how to do it, step by step.
If contests are your thing we do giveaways almost every few weeks for new e-readers and tablets that companies send us for reviews. Entry is free and it’s our way of saying thanks for stopping by our site.
During 2011 at Good e-Reader we started our eBook of the Week feature, so if you love to read, it’s worth checking out. We have been doing a series of author interviews, giving you an introspective on their writing process and give their book away for free, for one week. This is a great way to discover new authors and even speak with them, during one of our live chat events.
Finally at Good e-Reader we visit all of the key events that happen every year to provide the best news possible. We visit CES, Computex, the London Book Fair, Book Expo New York and many other industry events. When things happen in the industry we are there and we want to thank everyone for all of the love and support. You can visit our news site today and join in on the fun at http://goodereader.com/blog/
Table of Contents
Amazon Kindle with Special Offers
Barnes and Noble Simple Touch Reader
Aluratek Libre Air
Aluratek showed off two new e-readers at CES this year; the Libre Touch and the Libre Air. The main question we are attempting to explore is whether or not the company is issuing relevant products in 2011 to compete with other popular e-readers such as the Kobo Touch or Nook Simple Touch?
The Hardware
The Aluratek Libre Air features a 5 inch reflective light LCD screen with a resolution of 640×480 pixels. It does not have a backlite screen like most LCD devices and feels like the full e-ink experience. One of the benefits of going for an LCD based e-reader is that you do not have the lingering flickering and refresh issues like you do on most entry level readers.
You have 200 MB of internal memory that will store your books, pictures, and music files. You can expand on this via the MicroSD card up to 32 GB to store tons more.
You connect up to the internet via the built in WIFI and you can enter password protected networks via the numbered keys on the side of the device. The numbered keys feel like a smartphone in the respect that you have to press the 2 button 3 times to get the letter C. This keyboard layout gets very tedious at times because any symbols involving periods or @ symbols for emails require you to hit extra keys to call up different symbol lists. One of the more unintuitive aspects of the keyboard layout on the side of the device is the unversial symbol key is the number 0. There are no visual cues letting the user know that the number key is what you need to press to call up symbols.
The
Aluratek Libre Air has a Mini USB port in order to connect it up to
your computer to copy ebooks, music, or pictures to your device. It
also comes with a wall charger with a USB port on it, so you can use
the cable that came with your device to also wall charge your unit.
It seems also you can charge your device via the Micro USB cable as
well.
Since this is a device does not feature a touchscreen, it
has many buttons for different functions. On the left hand side of
the unit it has a magnifying glass and page turn buttons. These
buttons do different things depending on what application you are
viewing. For example, when you are in the picture or music apps, they
allow the user to perform different functions. On the bottom of the
e-reader is a D-Pad that has 4 different directions to move around
the various menus. It has has a mouse in the center which helps you
scroll around the Kobo Book store. Underneath the DPAD is a HOME,
Back, and Settings button. These quickly help you access advanced
settings and feel like an Android device in terms of their overall
functionality. There is also a power button on the top of the unit
and a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the bottom.
There is an built in accelerometer with the Libre Air that gives you the ability to switch from landscape to portrait mode. It order to switch perspectives you have to activate the function in the settings menu.
This
e-reader feels very light and you should get around 20 hours of use
between charges or about 2 weeks in standby mode. The device is made
of a durable plastic shell and feels flimsy, but the company does
give you a carrying case to protect it.
Software
The Aluratek Libre Air is running a Linux based operating system and it really feels like there is only 128 MB of RAM on it. Navigating menus and settings feels clunky and slow and internet browsing is a harrowing experience.
There is an internet browser on the Libre Air, but you have no ability to visit various websites on the internet. When you load up the browser it defaults you the Kobo bookstore in order to buy books. The e-reader does not allow you to register your own Kobo account so you will need a PC to do one first before you can download books. You have a wide selection of books via Kobo and can buy books in EPUB format.
Navigating the Kobo store is intuitive, albeit very slow, menus and different pages take around 15 seconds. If you want to download free ebooks from Kobo you need to also register with Adobe to get an account to read DRM content. It seriously took me 35 minutes to use the abysmal keyboard with the symbol keys to type in my user name and password and then my Adobe login name and password. The store experience with the hardware layout of the e-reader was easily the worst experience reviewing this device.
Hopefully via the WFI and internet that the Libre Air has, it will support pushed updates. We saw an update feature in the settings menu but there has been no firmware updates since the company has released it.
Lets talk about ebooks, since that is the bread and butter of any electronic reader. This model reads different formats such as ePub, RTF, TXT, PDF, MOB, FB2, and PRC. Different ebook formats give you different options when you are reading a font. For example when you read TXT books which come preloaded on the e-reader you can edit the font size and margins. If you load up an EPUB book you cannot change the size of the font, instead you have a clunky ZOOM function and no ability to edit margins. Also when you read EPUB there is no ability to make your device switch from landscape to portrait mode but you can do it with TXT formats. It seems reading TXT files gives you the most freedom in a solid ebook reading experience but EPUB books and other established formats such as PDF and PRC do not.
When
you open and close books they are accessible under a Recent Reading
application that lists the most recent 9 books you are reading and
will put you right were you left off. To access them you can hit one
of the number keys on the side of the unit instead of tediously
navigating with the DPAD.
The Libre Air has added functionality
such as a music player and picture app. You can load in your own MP3,
WAV and WMA into the music player and even setup a playlist. There
are no speakers on the device but you can easily listen to audio
books or music via the headphone jack. If pictures are your thing you
can load them in PNG, GIF, or BMP, but none of the pictures I loaded
looked crisp or well rendered at all.
In order to access any media
on your e-reader you have to manage your device via Windows Explorer.
By default their are no folders other than the free books from Kobo.
So I recommend recreating separate ones for your music, pictures, and
books or your device will be cluttered very quickly.
Our Thoughts on the Aluratek Libre Air
What do you get when you cross the Jetbook Mini and the Augen Gentouch 78? The Aluratek Libre Air. This is a woeful e-reader that certainly does not do the company any favors with releasing a new product in 2011.
Firstly the company promotes the fact that you do not get any glare from being outside in the sun and I dispute this evidence, I found it was near impossible to read on the beach. Even in the studio under direct light it was horrible.
The
entire Internet and Kobo store experience felt like a nightmare that
would never end and there was nobody to wake me up. The built in keys
that allowed you to call up different letters was tedious at best. If
I only had to use the numbers it would not be so bad, but I had to
physically press 3 different buttons on the device to switch between
lower case and capital letters. If you want to delete letters if you
mess up there are another 2 buttons you need to press, but keep in
mind one of them would magically erase everything.
Buying books with Kobo was a daunting experience, I hope never to repeat on this e-reader and just thinking about it is making me cringe in utter and complete horror. The mouse wheel in the center of the DPAD is fine, but navigating menus and load times between screens made me want to fall asleep. Not only did it take forever to enter my Kobo ID, but then I had to enter an Adobe ID, for FREE BOOKS! If the Libre Air had a virtual keyboard used by clicking on things via the scroll wheel that would have been fine. They way they do it now feels like you are using a cell phone from the early 90's to type things.
The core e-reading experience was not that bad, page turn speeds were fine for an LCD based device. Since most ebooks on the internet are mainly available in EPUB and PDF formats, this device did not support them very well. It seemed like most of the effort in making this gadget shine from an ebook prospective went into making TXT files look great and everything else look weak. I found it terrible I could not adjust font sizes in EPUB files or edit my margins or line spacing. I could zoom sure, but all the text was centered and looked gruesome. I am sure if I wanted to convert all of my EPUB books to TXT files, it would be the only way I could ever seriously use this device to read anything. Finally when you read anything but TXT files you cannot really switch the device from landscape to portrait mode.
In the end, if you see this device in the stores RUN AWAY! The nicest thing about this e-reader is the box that it comes in and the carrying case. Once you take it out and load it up and spend ten minutes with it, you are doomed. The only redeeming factors is that it plays audiobooks and the TXT experience is decent. This e-reader felt like it could have done well in 2008 but in 2011 it already looks like a relic from the past.
Thank goodness Aluratek has better products then this such as the Aluratek CiniPad Android 2.3 Tablet due out soon. I would recommend a number of e-readers over this model for the price of $139 such as the Kindle with Special Offers, Kobo Touch, Nook Simple Touch Reader, or even the Jetbook Lite.
Finally
what does Aluratek need to do to make this viable e-reader and not
warrant our “head for the hills” forecast on this device? They
need to implement a virtual keyboard to type. Take a look on how
Pocketbook does this successfully with their e-readers. This unit
needs a better, dedicated web browser. There is one in it, but it
defaults too fast to the Kobo bookstore. Allow the users to check
email and visit websites, this eventually can allow users to
purchase audiobooks or music. The Libre Air needs more support for
the industry standard EPUB; this unit NEEDS to get proper font
changing, line spacing, margins, and the ability to increase the font
size without having to magnify it. Many of the Libre Air’s woes are
software based and can easily be fixed if management was serious
about updating this e-reader to actually make it work. It faces some
hefty competition at this price point and needs to develop its own
ecosystem and build proper brand identity to make their budget
e-readers succeed in the current market climate. Aluratek needs
to focus on their e-readers as community members and not a customer.
There is no Aluratek portal, no community, and no way for users to
talk to each other. The social fabric on these e-readers is nil.
This
concludes our review of the Aluratek Libre Air! If you would like to
see full video and pictures of the device check out our website -
http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/review-of-the-aluratek-libre-air-e-reader/
Aluratek Libre Color
The Aluratek Libre Color is a full screen color device that gives you the advantages of being able to read magazines, manga, kids books and other content that shines in full color. How does this stack up against other rivals such as the Barnes and Noble Nook Color?
Hardware
The Aluratek Libre Color features 7 inch Color TFT active matrix display with a resolution of 480×800 pixels. The display itself is vibrant and the colors tend to pop out when the brightness setting is turned up to the maximum.
You have around 2 GB of internal memory to store all of your videos, pictures, and ebooks. If this is not enough, you can further enhance it via the SD card up to 32 GB.
One
of the great aspects of the device is that it features a rear facing
speaker and you can balance the audio with some equalizer presets. If
you want to keep things quiet you can plug your headphones into the
3.5 mm headphone jack.
The Aluratek Libre comes with a Mini USB to
USB cable to facilitate a data connection with your computer. This is
important to transfer ebooks you have purchased from other stores to
your device. This USB cable is also used in conjunction with the
charger that comes with it to power your unit. One of the drawbacks
of this e-reader is that the battery indicicator is pure white and
it’s hard to gauge exactly how much battery life you have left.
Speaking of battery life, you can get a solid 8 hours of it before
you have to recharge.
The build quality of the e-reader is not as
solid as I would have liked. It seems to be comprised of a hardened
plastic that draws parallels to the Ectaco
line of ebook
readers. There are built in page turn buttons on
either side of the device. Many e-readers have both the forward and
back page turn keys above and below each other. This unit has the
page turn forward on the right hand side and the back button on the
left hand side. It also has a D-PAD in order to select menus and
options, with a center button that functions as your enter key.
Finally, the Aluratek Libre Color switches orientation from landscape to portrait mode in a full 360 degree orientation. This is useful when you are reading books, watching videos, or looking at pictures. You can even lock the orientation when you want to make sure you don’t accidentally move the unit into a different position.
Software
The Libre Color runs a Linux based operating system and is more or less closed, so it ruins the fun of trying to root the device. For an entry level e-reader this unit is brimming with many options and features. It has a video, music, and dedicated ebook reading application. One of the most exciting features is the wide array of formats that it reads.
Let’s talk about the e-book reading experience, since we at Good e-Reader do love our books. The unit reads PDF, EPUB, TXT, and FB2. It also features the capability of being compatible with Adobe Digital Editions. This is important because the e-reader cannot shop for books on the unit and you need your PC in order to purchase books and then transfer them to your unit.
The eBook reading experience with the Libre Color was very solid compared to its other recent e-reader, the Aluratek Libre Air. This gadget has all sorts of ways you can edit your reading experience. You have around 6 different levels of magnification to make the fonts larger and smaller. You can also change the color of the fonts and the background color. There are no advanced options, though, that allow you to change the margins, line spacing, or fonts. One aspect I liked was in the ebook library it tells you the formats of the books you have in a neat and orderly fashion.
The Video player is the most advanced aspect of the Libre Color and it supports a multitude of formats that are sure to impress even the most jaded. It can easily read MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG 4(Xvid), Divx, H.263, H.264, RM/RMVB, WMV7/9, MKV, MOV, VOB, and FLV formats. You can change the video to play in fullscreen mode and video looks solid. Naturally, it also supports landscape and portrait mode.
The
last major aspect of the ebook reader is the audio player. It may not
support as wide an array of formats, but you should be able to get
by. You can import MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, and OGG formats, and it even
displays the cover art of the albums you listen to. One feature I
enjoyed was the equalizer, which is lacking in most e-readers that
have audio functionality. It has over 6 different presets which will
help with both audiobooks and music.
Finally as far as software goes you can view pictures in JPG, BMP, GIF, and PNG formats, and create your own slideshows. So it can even function as a digital photo-frame if you can somehow get it standing up correctly. It also has a File Explorer that allows you to navigate all of the contents on your reader.
Our Thoughts
This device provides plenty of bang for your dollar in the respects that it easily does music, videos, pictures, and ebooks. It lacks the advanced functions that most e-readers on this price point enjoy, but it does provide a full color experience.
Some of the things I liked was the sheer amount of formats it supports, which means I do not have to spend time converting content from one format to another. The e-reader is also fast and does not lag very much. Programs open and close quickly and I never have to wait long for pages to turn. It also does kids books! Being a full color e-reader means that full color books look really great.
There are a number of drawbacks with the Libre Color that I found may be deal breakers. First of all there is no way to purchase content on the device. It does not have WIFI and the box it comes in is plastered with Kobo logos, giving you an indication that the company is providing you with the content. In reality they are just giving you the ebooks that come with the device. There is also no internet browser, which means you cannot surf the internet or do anything online. Partly the absence of internet connectivity helps bring down the price to the end user and keeps Aluratek competitive in an increasingly saturated market.
In
the end, this e-reader is for the intermediate or advanced user. Many
new users may not know how to shop for ebooks on the PC and then
transfer them to their ebook reader. It makes the entire process of
buying ebooks a little bit more trouble than its worth. Aluratek does
deserve some credit, though, they do package the reader with
instructions on how to shop for books online and then transfer them
to the device. It would have gone a long way to film video tutorials
documenting the entire process. Speaking of video tutorials we have
our own tutorials on how to load ebooks onto the Libre Color, so make
sure you check out our YOUTUBE
Channel.
Be sure to check out our website for video, pictures and
more content;
http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/aluratek-libre-color-e-reader-review/
Amazon Kindle Special Offers Edition
The ubiquitous Amazon Kindle 3rd generation got repackaged with a device this year that services advertisements to subsidize the cost. Many people are apprehensive on this new method that company has taken and we give you our full review of this new device.
Hardware
The
Amazon Kindle WIFI with Special Offers and Sponsored Screensavers is
the new darling of the Amazon e-reader portfolio. It gives you a six
inch e-ink pearl display with 600 x 800 pixels at 167 ppi. It is
powered by a Freescale i.MX353 processor which quickly speeds up most
tasks. One of the best aspects of the device is that it has a full
QWERTY keyboard to navigate the e-reader. Your storage is limited to
4 GB of data and there is no expansion to increase it further.
The
new Kindle with Special Offers slimmer and weighs less than previous
iterations of the Kindle e-reader. It also has a increased battery
life, giving you about a solid month if WIFI is turned off.
The Amazon Kindle with Special Offers has a Micro USB port in order to facilitate a data connection with your computer. You can easily copy over music and ebooks using Windows Explorer or Calibre to manage your collections. It also has two speakers on the device and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. This allows you to listen to music or audio books right on the device.
The Amazon Kindle with Special Offers has two different models right now a WIFI only and a 3G variant. Both models cost significantly less than their non-advertising brethren.
Software
The
Amazon Kindle with Special Offers includes advertisements to make the
device cheaper to purchase. The only way you see the ads is if you
are on the home screen or the screensaver, that’s it. There are no
adverts when you are reading books, surfing the internet, or browsing
various settings and menus in the device. Many people, when they
initially heard of this more cost effective e-reader, had some
trepidation about intrusive advertisements. I was very happy that the
ads never permeated to the overall book experience.
The
Advertisements are displayed when you initially configure your device
and setup your internet connection. The adds change over time thanks
to various facets of the advertising backbone. The term “Special
Offers” is where customers can get access to weekly deals. Current
and future offers include; $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card, $6 for 6
Audible Books (normally $68), $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3
Store, and more.
Amazon in the coming weeks will also be showing off their new program called “AdMash” – the free Kindle app and website where customers choose the most attractive and engaging display advertisements that will become Kindle sponsored screensavers. Kindle’s sponsored screensavers are specially-designed display advertisements that take advantage of Kindle’s high-contrast, no-glare electronic-ink display. Before these advertisements can be presented to Kindle customers, they are first previewed by customers using AdMash. Users are presented with pairs of sponsored screensaver candidates and asked to select which one they prefer. Screensavers with the most preferred votes qualify to become sponsored screensavers.
This
advertising project centered around the approving of screensavers
from a community point of view is the fruit of the recent Amazon
purchase of coupon site Living Social. They spent 178 million on this
Groupon competitor and the company hopes that the quality of the
deals it offers will end up being a welcome intrusion rather than a
nuisance.
The Kindle is a closed ecosystem which means if you buy
the Amazon Kindle with Special Offers you are locked into buying
books only from Amazon. They use a proprietary format called AZW and
a new encryption system called TOPAZ. These book formats are only
compatible with books purchased directly via Amazon. Although the
Kindle will not let you shop at other book stores and copy your books
to your gadget you can download books that do not have DRM (Digital
Rights Management) and easily convert them to PRC or MOBI which is a
format the Kindle does read. We have made tutorial videos that show
you how to do this if you need assistance.
The Amazon bookstore currently has over 600,000 books, many of them bestsellers and quality books. Their store is intuitively laid out and you can easily to buy books with one click. Many of the books range in price from .99 to 12.99. Amazon also has an independent publishing program that allows authors to write and submit books to the store, giving you a chance to discover new indie authors.
Reading books on the Kindle is a great experience the Pearl e-Ink display makes the text very vibrant. There are options to increase the font size 8 different levels and 3 different Fonts to choose from. You can also change the line spacing, words per line and even text to speech. The last option you can employ when reading a book is the screen rotation. You can switch it from landscape to portrait mode. Regrettably there is no way to change the margins on this unit.
Finally, Amazon instituted a new program that allows you to share select books you have purchased from their store with your friends and family with a lending program. Books can only be lent out once and many websites have sprung up to connect users with each other. Amazon also is planning a new library lending service soon that will allow you to borrow books from a public library.
Our Thoughts on the Amazon Kindle Special Offers Edition
The Amazon Kindle line of e-reader continues to be overall the most popular e-reader in the world due to its high availability in most countries. It is easy enough to order a Kindle online in most major countries and to buy content. The Kindle has come under fire recently with higher quality touchscreen e-readers issued by Kobo and Barnes and Noble. The Kobo Touch enjoys a wide availability as well, but Barnes and Noble only works in the USA.
The advertisements that the Kindle serves are not as intrusive as I originally thought when I first heard about this new e-reader. Since they are only limited to the homescreen and the screensaver they are easy to manage. Most of the adverts are relevant as well if you are locked into the Amazon ecosystem. You get a chance to buy some audiobooks and save some money and ebooks too.
I highly recommend the Amazon Kindle Special Offers edition to anyone looking to buy a new e-reader. Page turns are very fast, the internet browser is well refined, and buying books is very easy. It retails in the USA for around $114.00 and is not available online outside the USA. So if you want to get your hands on this new gadget you will have to buy it from our retail partner www.shopereaders.com. Also be sure to check out our website for video and a photo gallery of the e-reader; http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/review-of-the-amazon-kindle-with-special-offers/
Amazon Kindle DX 3rd Generation
Welcome
to another Good e-Reader Review! Today we take a look at the new
Amazon
Kindle 3 Graphite DX E-Reader! This little
guy has a 9.7 inch screen, full keyboard and tons of features for all
of your e-reading adventures.
The Amazon Kindle DX Graphite
edition continues the trend of being Amazons largest e-reader to
date. Featuring a 9.7 inch screen and 50% better contrast and
resolution from previous models, it is certainly worth the $379
pricetag. Its screen displays a 1200 x 824 pixel resolution at 150
ppi, features 16-level gray scale, and a new 10:1 contrast ratio.
The
Page turns on this device are lightning fast and only increase with
some of the latest firmware updates. There is no lag turning the
pages, and even accessing some of the menu functions is quick and
easy.
This e-reader towers over the competition. Most electronic readers are only 6 inches or so, having a 9.7 inch e-reader is like reading a magazine, it is also as slim as one. It currently reads e-ink with greyscale which means you get a complete e-reading experience, with no eye strain. Maintaining the tradition of e-ink, means there is no glare in the direct sunlight. For a great comparison of the Amazon Kindle DX VS. the Apple iPad in direct sunlight, click here.
Menu Features
Now lets talk menu features, the Amazon Kindle DX has tons of menu features that allow you to access a dictionary, highlight and bookmark pages. There are also many options to adjust the size of the font, and even change it altogether. There are many stand alone options such as a web browser, to visit websites such as Facebook, Twitter and others. You have the entire internet available to you. Other menu features include being able to register your device with Amazon, so you can start purchasing books right away. The menu system is intuitive and robust, it is one of the most stable, in terms of refresh rates out of most e-readers.
Connectivity
Menu Features are all quite well enough, but what about the Connectivity? You can access 3G from any AT&T hotspot and offers global WI-FI coverage. HSDPA modem (3G) with a fallback to EDGE/GPRS; utilizes Amazon Whispernet to provide wireless coverage via AT&T’s 3G high-speed data network in the U.S. and partner networks outside of the U.S. See Wireless Terms and Conditions
Battery Life
The Battery life on the DX is great, dispite the fact that it uses 3G and WIFI you can litterary leave this unit on for 2 to 3 weeks, with WIFI turned off, if you leave the WI-FI turned on, you get about 1 week of constant use.
eBooks and Reading
The Amazon DX has a built in PDF reader, traditionally PDFS are meant to be read on large screen displays, such as netbooks and computers. Most e-readers only have a six inch screen and do not have the ability to show PDF’s out properly. With the 9.7 inch screen, you get the full PDF experience being able to read ebooks. It will also read Kindle (AZW), PDF, TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion. If you are looking for audio books or to listen to MP3's you can certainly copy your own to the device, or purchase it from other stores. The device itself has 4 GB of internal memory, so its enough to store thousands of books. If you choose to buy your eBooks or Audio Books from other stores, other then Amazon, you have to use Adobe Digital Editions to copy it to your device. If the content you bought does not have DRM (Digital Rights Management) You can simply just copy and paste it directly to your E-Reader, using Windows Explorer. If you are having trouble with copying eBooks to your device, check out our Amazon DX eBook Video Tutorial.
It also has the Read to Me function, this is basically a text to speech function. It will read blogs, newspapers, ebooks, and more out loud to you. You can switch back and forth between reading and listening, and your spot is automatically saved. Pages automatically turn while the content is being read, so you can listen hands-free. You can speed up or slow down the reading speeds or choose a male or female voice. In the middle of a great book or article but have to jump in the car? Simply turn on Text-to-Speech and listen on the go.
Other Features
Some of the other hardware features the Amazon Kindle DX has is, a mini USB port, Stereo Speakers, and a headphone jack. The Kindle DX also features a Accelerometer, which means you can switch it between horizontal and landscape mode.
Our Experience
We have played with MANY different e-readers, and this one is a giant Mount Smurfs. It takes a few days getting used to such a large screen display. We have played with the Barnes and Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle 2, Kobo E-Reader and many more. This one is big, but after awhile it does not feel that big, and really feels natural. With such a large display, more words fit on any given page, and you can get through books a lot faster. Because this unit is the lightest Kindle DX, it weighs hardly anything and you can easily hold it in one hand for marathon reading sessions.
Many
people compare the Kindle DX to the Apple iPad. I would say, the
Amazon Kindle 3 DX Graphite is currently the large screen e-reader to
beat. Amazon has been making e-readers for 4 or 5 years now. They
really have the science down pat. Buying books is a breeze, and
so is shopping for ebooks on other stores. If you know how to convert
ebooks from one format to another, you can literally shop anywhere
for ebooks and then load them on your Kindle. If you have trouble
converting ebooks, check out our Video tutorial.
It’s our
estimation that although the price is a little bit more expensive
at $395, it is worth the price if you want the best of the best.
Although this will not fit in your pocket or purse as easily as a 6
inch e-reader will, if you are reading in the home, cafe, beach, or
on vacation, pick this up. Reserve your Kindle 3 DX Graphite 3G
today at our retail partner Shop
E-Readers. With every e-reader they sell, you
get 100 free ebooks, will ship anywhere in the world for a low cost,
and you even get a free DVD Video Tutorial disk, that walks you
through the entire process of setting up your e-reader. This is
perfect if you are buying it from someone who is new to technology or
e-readers and needs a helping hand! You also get 24/7 technical
support via our own Good
e-Reader Forum.
Be sure to visit our website for
videos, pictures and bonus content -
http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/review-of-the-kindle-3-dx-graphite-wifi3g-e-reader/
Barnes and Noble Nook Color
We just got our hands on the latest offering from Barnes and Noble just in time for the holidays, the new Barnes and Noble Nook Color e-Reader. Is LCD worth it, when until now the company has only offered e-ink ebook readers?
Hardware
The Barnes and Noble Nook Color is a 7 inch capacitive color touchscreen with a resolution of 1024×600. It has a built in accelerometer that will switch the screen between landscape and portrait mode. One of the things we noticed straight off is how some ebooks will open in landscape mode, such as children books, and most adult ebooks will only open in portrait mode.
The Nook Color comes with around 8 GB of internal memory, but you only really have 5 GB to work with, because the operating system and key programs take up a fair amount of space.
This device comes with WI-FI but no 3G, but it does allow you to connect up to open networks and closed networks. While online, you can surf the internet, send email and more in full color.
Like previous iterations of the Nook e-Reader, this model supports both DRM ePub and PDF and NON-DRM. Which means you can load ebooks onto the device that you download from the internet, if you do not just want to do business with Barnes and Noble. It also supports Microsoft Office formats such as XLS, DOC, DOE, PPT, PPS, TXT and more.
This model supports lots of multi-media content, audio, video, images and more. Audio formats are relegated to AAC and MP3, you can either listen to music through the built in Stereo speakers, or you can plug in headphones o the jack on the top of the unit. If images are your thing, you can load in JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF, you can also use these images to customize your wallpaper. Video formats are lacking, and only plays MP4 formats, which means you will have to do a fair amount of converting using 3rd party tools in order to convert your existing videos to an accepted format.
The
unit weighs as about as much as the Barnes and Noble Nook, around 449
grams. The dimensions of the unit is around 8.1 inches x 5 inches x
0.48 inches and the battery life lasts around 8 hours of moderate
use. It does have a standby feature though that allows you to put the
unit into stasis to get more life when you are not using
it.
Software
The Barnes and Noble Nook Color runs on Google Android 2.0, but do not expect to get any access to the Android Market. You can expect more games and applications to be released in future firmware updates that are normally done over the air via WI-FI, but you can also manually load them in as well.
The Nook Color comes with a fair amount of applications right out of the box, you get access to Pandora, but only if you live in the USA, or register your device with a USA based address. Speaking of such, that is the only way non-USA based customers can get access to ebooks, magazines, newspapers and more, dispite the fact you can register the device in MANY countries, you cannot actually buy any content on it.
Along with Pandora, you get a media player, contacts list, a picture gallery, as well as games such as Chess, Crossword, and Sudoku.
The
Nook Color takes advantage of the new Barnes and Noble “Lendme”
feature that’s been out the last four months, that allows you to
share bought ebooks from Barnes and Noble with friends, and family.
When you share your books with other people, it disappears from your
device during the two week lending period, to prevent users from
sharing the same book with many different people.
Many new
software and menu systems have undergone a radical shift from people
who have used the original Nook 3G or Nook WI FI e-reader. First of
all, all options are interactive via touching icons. Many programs
are new and unique to the Nook Color.
First of all, let’s look at the Shelves, it allows you to customize different book shelves and name them. So if you share your device with other people, each person can customize their own shelf, from wallpaper, to the books that appear. So if you have a small child, you can populate their shelf, with rich colors and just have their own ebooks there. For the more adult reader, or people who share you can have your books visible on your shelf, and theirs on other. This is a great feature because although your device may have MANY books on it, they are not visible unless you manually add them to your shelf. They do show up though on the main shelf, along with all of your other content.
The
main Library allows you to sort content more effectively than ever
before, vs. B&N previous offerings. They have sortable tabs that
allow you to segregate Magazines, Newspapers, Shelves, personal files
and Lendme books.
You also have access to a whole ton of different
device settings, some great new features include security and being
about to share across social media platforms.
Let’s
look at the new Security settings, they allow you to block waking up
the unit with a password, or allow you to just password lock access
to the Barnes and Noble Store, to prevent other people from making
purchases on your device.
Social Media is very evident in this
device; it allows you to share book passages, via Facebook, Twitter
and Google. This is a great feature to promote books and getting more
people inspired to read.
Other
settings you can configure of note is locking portrait and landscape
mode, changing WI-FI on the fly, and dimming your screen depending on
your environment.
Finally, when you power the device on for the
first time, there is a multi-step process to get you familiar with
the Nook Color. It allows you to watch a bunch of getting started
Video Tutorials that walk you through most common steps of getting
your device setup for the first time.
Content Distribution and eBooks
The Nook Color main focus is Barnes and Noble own eBook store. The store itself loads lightning quick, and has access to a ton of content.
You can easily browse between New Releases, Bestsellers, New York Times Bestsellers, kids’ books, newspapers and magazines. This new version of the store is only available via the Nook Color.
Say
you have a child and you are interested in kids books. There are
allot available and most have the options to have the book read aloud
to them, or they can read it by themselves.
Newspapers are
magazines are available in a subscription; the price depends on the
publication. For example, Popular Science monthly subscription is
only $2.99 and to buy just one issue costs around $4.99. You can take
out free trials on magazines, but you need an active Barnes and Noble
account with a USA based address. We found so far, they have lots of
tabs when you are looking at the magazine for reviews, editorial
reviews and so on, but most of it has no content at all. If
newspapers are your thing, you can for example take out a
subscription to USA Today, for $11.99 a month, or one issue for $.75,
free trials exist for that as well.
Most
of this content such as Kids Books, Newspapers and Magazines are
exclusively available to the Nook Color, and are oozing full color
goodness. We really like how you can view kids books in full color
and swipe for the next page. One of the draw backs that we noticed
with the kids books, is if you are zoomed in, on a specific picture
or bit of text, you cannot turn the next page unless you zoom out.
Hopefully this problem will be addressed in a future firmware
update.
Although the Nook Color is in essence tailored to the
Barnes and Noble store, you can load ebooks you get from other
sources, or have downloaded from the internet. The Nook Color
supports Adobe and ePub DRM, which means you can purchase books from
Kobo or Smashwords and then load them onto your device via Adobe
Digital Editions. If you download ebooks that do not have DRM you can
load the ePub books directly on your e-reader via plugging it into
your computer via USB cable.
The Nook Color, offers users to really self-manage their content really well, the directory structure offered by Windows Explorer, makes it so everything is neatly in its own independent directory. It makes it very intuitive right out of the box to be able to manage your content. They have directories for audio, pictures, music, video, and ebooks. When you load content into your device, you actually on the Nook Color have an Explorer based Tab called “My Files” you basically have a graphical view of all of the folders on your device, so you can create your own folders, and they will show up under My Files. When browsing content you have uploaded to your device, via My Files you can tap on say a video, or a music file and it will automatically load, which is very good.
Our take on the Nook Color
The Nook color is one of the best LCD based e-readers we have seen to date. We have played around with many, including the Sharper Image Literati e-reader, but the Nook Color is the best of the lot currently.
You
can tell that they put a ton of time into the development of this
little dandy and it looks really polished. The unit itself is sleek
and black and all of the buttons are almost sunken into the frame, so
nothing needlessly sticks out. Ascetically it’s a very well
designed unit, and the Vividview LCD screen really makes it a viable
e-reader to read out in the sun, or under direct light without
getting the glare as you would on an iPad.
What we really like
about the unit, is that its head to toe almost one giant touch
screen, all of the icons and menu items are easily clicked one, with
rarely any accidental clicking. Even the small tabs built into the
GUI of the Nook Color, respond to touches very well. The one drawback
with clicking is browsing the internet. There is only one degree of
zooming, so when you double tap the screen to zoom, it often does not
really zoom all that much. The device constantly implores you to
visit the B&N website to configure your Nook Color, and it’s an
arduous endeavor to say the least. This is mainly due to the fact,
that internet browsing is not really indicative to the Nook Color,
especially if there are user fields for you to enter, we missed
clicking fields many times, because even when we were totally zoomed
in, they seemed small and feeble. We almost were wishing they
included a Stylus to be able to interact with the device while
internet browsing.
Although some websites that mainly written content, such as our own Good e-Reader Blog, were easy to navigate while surfing the internet, websites that had lots of fields, or complex websites did not look so good, and were a nightmare to navigate.
From beginning to end, this device is great! The one feature I would say is going to create a ton of controversy is the LCD aspect of it. Many e-ink purists may knock this device, saying LCD is not conducive to a proper e-reading experience. E-Ink shows things in sharper contrast, and shows between 16 and 24+ levels of greyscale. It comes down to a matter of preference. Some peoples prospective, is LCD is actually better, mainly because how saturated we are with LCD based devices. From Televisions, to MP3 Players, to Smartphones and computer screens LCD dominates our lives; some people find adapting to e-ink this late in the game is something they are not willing to do. Most people, who find themselves reading in lowlight conditions or reading at night, find e-Ink is not the best option for their environment. With LCD it does offer a back-lite screen so you can read in most circumstances, and with Vividview the new proprietary anti-glare system Barnes and Noble is employing, it actually reads better outdoors. It will be interesting to compare Pixel-QI screens with VividView technology to see how they both rate.
When
it comes down to it, this unit is not as expensive as an Apple iPad,
which is the device of choice for LCD based e-reading, if sales
numbers do all the talking. Both screens are made with the same IPS
screen technology, minus the Vividview, which allows for 178 degree
viewing angles of the screen. Also both devices fail to play Adobe
Flash content, where as Apple never will do it, maybe a firmware
update will allow the Nook Color to do it, it would certainly give it
a LARGE edge over the iPad. Also the unit plays Youtube videos,
although the resolution over WI-FI is not that great, it makes up for
it when you load your own videos into it.
I think Barnes and Noble
scored a total win with the Nook Color. After a few days of playing
with it, it has been stable and easy to manage. I have encountered a
few bugs and drawbacks of it, but nothing huge.
For example, if you are on a website that has image bases Google Adds, they do not display well, it seems like the Nook Color has a hard time loading the animations that are built into them. While browsing Youtube videos we have had some troubles getting higher quality, even with 1080P videos. Also, there is an ongoing problem with the USB cable and various versions of windows. Apparently some of the cables that have shipped with the Nook Color are defective, and I had to use my Blackberry cable in order to even work the device. Other users report troubles with 64 bits of Windows 7 and Windows Vista and recognizing the device as a valid USB device. I also had this problem, and had to use my Laptop which only has Windows 7 32, and it had no problem recognizing the device with my Blackeberry USB cord, but the one supplied from Barnes and Noble did not work at all.
In the end, the pros outweigh the cons, and if you are looking for an e-reader to give to someone for the holidays, I cannot recommend this unit enough! I have reviewed over 30 e-readers just this year, and this one is at the top of my list for color based electronic ebook readers. I would even say, for its price, it is the most viable device you can get with your money, followed by the iPad, and there is a huge gulf in price between the Nook Color and even the lowest end iPad.
I can really see this device catching on, if they lower the price a bit, it retails from $254 to $299. You can purchase this device if you live outside the USA, since Barnes and Noble does not ship e-readers outside of the USA from our retail partner Shop e-Readers. They currently have the Nook WI-FI, Nook 3G and Nook Colors in stock.
If you would to check out bonus video content and tons of pictures to see how this device performs in real world tests check out our website - http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/review-of-the-barnes-and-noble-nook-color-e-reader
Barnes and Noble Simple Touch Reader
Today we give you a comprehensive review on the newest e-reader from bookstore giant Barnes and Noble. The Simple Touch Reader, or the Nook 2, is the first touchscreen e-ink reader the company has released. We first saw this new gadget when we were at Book Expo in New York and got a spontaneous invite to the big unveil at Union Square. We were one of the first sites to give you a preview on the new device and now that it is officially released we give you the highs and lows of this brand new e-reader.
Hardware
The Barnes and Noble Simple Touch Reader features a six inch e-ink Pearl display. The new display that the Nook 2 uses is similar to the Amazon Kindle 3rd generation, Kobo Touch and Sony PRS-650. The screen gives you a solid resolution of 800×600 pixels and displays 16 levels of greyscale. One of the benefits of the new screen they use is that it has 50% sharper contrast than previous versions of the Nook WIFI or Nook 3G.
Underneath the hood is a 800 MHZ CPU processor and 2 GB of internal storage. The storage is where all of your ebooks and pictures are housed and if that is not enough you can increase it via MicroSD up to 32 GB.
The
Nook 2 employs WIFI in order to surf the internet and has a built in
web browser in order to visit webpages. It has the ability to display
your password as you are typing in, but we found it does not have
support for wireless N routers.
When you look at the hardware in
general, the e-reader is smaller and lighter than the Amazon Kindle
and other competing devices. This is partly because the
keyboard and all of your buttons are virtual and not built into the
device. Another reason is because there is no audio functionality
which makes it lighter to carry around and helps reduce the cost to
the end user.
On
the device is a simple “N” which is your homescreen button that
can be pressed from any menu or while reading a book. It also
has a power button and MicroUSB. The USB port is used to facilitate a
data connection to your computer to transfer content to your device
or to charge it.
In the end, the Simple Touch Reader is lighter
and is a tremendous upgrade from previous iterations of the Nook
e-ink based e-readers. One of the drawbacks is the lack of audio,
which may be a deal breaker for some people. There is also no
accelerometer or gyroscope so you cannot switch the device from
landscape to portrait mode.
Software
The
Nook 2 – Simple Touch Reader runs Google Android 2.1 as the
backbone to the device. Barnes and Noble was the first company offer
a pure e-ink based reader running this OS. Normally, most readers run
Linux. Additionally, past iterations of the Nook, such as the 3G and
WIFI, both ran Android 1.5.
The ability for the Simple Touch
Reader to run an updated version of Google Android gives advanced
users a little bit more flexibility in “rooting” or adding
alternative apps and games. Older versions of Android do not
have the type of support to run modern day games and applications,
but the new version allows it. We have even seen Angry Birds ported
on the STR, although it suffers from some frame-rate issues.
One
of the features on this new device that did not officially get
announced, but is available for the e-reader, is the web browser. The
browser is only available via the Search button, but then you can
access webpages if you write a proper website address in the search
field. For example you can write http://goodereader.com and you will
open the internet browser to our website. Once you visit a few
websites you can really tell the app is unrefined and lags while you
scroll up and down a website. It also does not render the entire
website when you load one up, instead only loading a certain area,
such as the top right hand corner. Whereas the Kindle e-reader will
render the entire website customized to the six inch display.
Hopefully in the future they will fix the internet browser and make
it more stable for regular use. The fact that they did not announce
it as an official feature of the STR is probably a result of its
tremendously sub-par performance.
The
Barnes and Noble Store is a very solid content delivery network and
there is no shortage of new books to read. When you load up the store
application you get a small home screen that shows you the current
New York Times Bestsellers, Magazines, and Newspapers. You can also
expand these listings for a more comprehensive listings, such as book
genres and so on. The nice thing is that you never need to really go
beyond 2 sub menus to find anything that you want. You can also
preview books for the first chapter or two to get a sense of what the
book is about before you buy it. Although newspapers and magazines
look way better on the Barnes and Noble Nook Color, they are indeed
readable on this e-reader.
Reading ebooks
on the Nook 2 is a great experience and I liked it better than then
the Amazon Kindle. The device has manual page turn buttons sunk right
into the unit, but I found it was easier to just tap on the left or
right hand side of the screen to flip forward or back. Page turn
speeds are also tremendously robust and suffered from no e-ink
refresh problems that plague other ebook
readers.
When you read books you have a ton of customizing options! You can choose between six different fonts and they change in real time. You can also scale the font size up or down, which is handy if you need bigger fonts to read. The ability to change line-spaces and margins is also tremendously handy and something most other e-readers lack.
I love the ebook reading experience with the Nook 2. Making notes and highlights was super easy! All you have to do is tap a specific word with your finger and you are good to go! If you make a ton of highlights and notes on specific words and passages you can hit the menu button and get a uniform list of all your edits on the book. This is perfect if you are in a bookclub or reading a textbook.
One thing that the Simple Touch Reader does very well is allow you to load in ebooks you have purchased from other stores via Adobe Digital Editions. Since the new Nook reads EPUB and PDF files you can easily shop at other bookstores such as Borders, Kobo, Smashwords, and Bookbaby, and then load those books into your e-reader.
Download this book for your ebook reader.
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