"Beautiful Large Display: 9.7" diagonal e-ink screen reads like real paper; boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and sharp images"
16 ! GRAY ! WahHOOO...no more monochrome!!!
Oh wait...I just checked...it's not 1985. Sorry. *blush*
Keep your one second page turns eInk. I read on a two pound netbook that costs half as much, has a bright color screen with no lag, reads a huge selection of native formats, can surf the web, and has a nine hour battery.
"Keep your one second page turns eInk. I read on a two pound netbook that costs half as much, has a bright color screen with no lag, reads a huge selection of native formats, can surf the web, has a nine hour battery, is awkward to read books on anyplace but at a table, and makes my eyes water and gives me a headache if I use it for any extended amount of time."
Well, personally, I use a netbook in bed routinely to read books with no problems at all..and I can also read books with color graphs, charts, emphasis...and read MS word documents from work without having to mail them somewhere...and can surf the web...and can watch videos...including netflix streaming.
I accept that kindle is smaller, but it is just too limiting for me. I also reject that it is as easy as a book. I can loan a book to friends. I can borrow a book. If I lose a book, I have lost just the book...not a $500 device. I also like to bring books to places like the beach. You really bringing that kindle to the beach?
Personally, I like using a netbook instead of a more expensive one-trick pony. The netbook is more versatile, more powerful, and its clamshell design protects the screen. Yeah, the kindle is thin...and it's thin because it has absolutely no screen protection. Thus, pretty much *no one* just throws one in a bag because the screen would be toast...so it's then wrapped in a protective cover that doubles its width.
9 days? Great. Next time I decide to go on a trek on the Appalachian trail, I'll bring a kindle...but normally, I don't even need 9 hours of battery.
You really need to be an avid reader and actually use an e-paper device to "get it". I used to not see the point either until I actually used one. There's just no comparison with laptops/netbooks/whatever. E-paper just makes for a fantastic replacement for books. If you're happy using your netbook, great... but for me personally, I'd never sit around and read on a device like that.
And why wouldn't you bring a device like the Kindle to the beach? Obviously you wouldn't want to get it wet, but the same applies to a book. One of the benefits of e-paper is that the screen looks fantastic in bright light, unlike netobooks and other LCD based displays which washout. About the only additional concern is you wouldn't want to just leave it lying out in the open by itself while you out swimming or something, but the same could be said of cell phones, mp3 players, watches, or just about any other gadget you may bring with you to the beach.
these things are mostly a gimmick, there are only a few very unique situations where something like this would make sense, and in the majority of those cases, a computer is a better alternative
and you can keep bringing up the college kid example, but i knew very few college kids that were able to afford a $500 device that's only function was to mimic a text book - plus the stupidest part of that argument is that anyone who has ever studied for anything should know that a large part of it involves flipping back and forth between multiple pages - or needing to see multiple pages at one time, which is definitely a pain in the ass to do on these, and personally i like making notes in my books, which is also a pain in the ass on this
Obviously you haven't been to school in a while. Books for this quarter ran me $300. That was for 2 text books and a Kindle edition ($10) of the third.
That's $300 for 3 classes. The buy back on the 2 physical media books is probably around $100. that's a cost to basically rent those 2 books for 12 weeks of about $190, and I no long will have them for reference.
If I could have purchased them all on Kindle for say $100 total, I would be saving around $100 for the quarter versus purchasing physical media and reselling at quarter end (assuming they don't change editions making the resale value 0), and have the books for reference going forward.
Given the number of times you buy books and are unable to resell due to edition changes, books that they won't buy back "just because", and the poor resale of those books they will buy back, you are looking at a ROI of less than 1 year for a college student. over the course of a 4 year degree, they typical student will actually save $1200+ in book costs, not to mention still retaining all the books for future reference if desired.
@todd - or you could not be a moron and buy the book 2nd hand on amazon, then sell it back for the same price, instead of being ripped off by your campus book store - like i did, and spend maybe $200-300 on books for the entire 4 years of undergrad
@Josh: You must have took courses in school that were either very popular or on subjects that don't change much. Like business or math. If you take any science or engineering, finding the books used on Amazon isn't as easy. Or if your courses require CURRENT texts, then yeah, same thing. I guess undergrad can vary from school to school, like if you're in CC then it's different from an Ivy League school.
Typical of engadget responses though, the comments mostly reflect people who can only see their own situation and can't understand how anyone's different. Kind of reflects the problem with the US.
Wow, I want to know what school you went to where you can spend 300 bucks for 4 years worth of books on Amazon. Apparently they don't use any new editions, and only use simple little paperbacks. I've bought my books off Amazon for school for a while now, and they still run me at least 200 bucks a semester, usually more. And your original point was such a strawman argument. I've seen very little people arguing that it's ideal for college students, pretty much no one besides Jeff Bezos. And for reading books, which is what it's designed to do, it's pretty much better in every situation than a netbook.
I've brought my kindle to the beach a few times with no problems, and no screen protection? It comes with a case that has a very hard front and rear cover, I just toss it in my backpack and have very few concerns about it. And sure it doubles the width, but it's still smaller than most hardcover books. I've tried reading on an acer aspire one, and it's just impractical. Maybe it's ok in bed, when you could rest it on your chest or something, but with the horizontal screen you either have to boost the font till you only get one line of text on the screen, or hold it up to your face. It was less than ideal.
The biggest downside is the cost, but like I've said before, if you buy a lot of books it's totally worth it. The kindle store tells you how much you saved over the normal version, and for any new book it's generally around 12 bucks. So after buying 30 books (which I have around 40 now), you actually start saving money.
Who CARES about 16 grey? It's for simulating a book reading experience, and most books are all text, or include greyscale images and charts. You and everyone else kvetching about the lack of colour just don't get it.
I've done reading on my netbook as well, and it's certainly not ergonomic. Even with screen rotation it's irritating to hold like an open book. The Kindle 2 (have tried a friends place in Jersey), is awesome for someone who does a lot of reading, plain and simple. It's WAY less eye strain as well.
Over time it does become cost effective to use a Kindle.
That being said, I basically read to and from work, and a bit in the evening, so I'm holding out for the Asus T91 convertible netbook, since battery life isn't an issue around the house, though I'd certainly consider a Kindle (the smaller one) if it were available in Canada.
For whatever it's worth, I was a business student, I went to a tier 1, top-ranked private school. Yes, I guess I did take a lot of "popular" courses where publishers didn't print new editions every semester, so a lot of my books were online, but I think between Amazon, Half.com, the rest of the Internet, and my school's own student run textbook exchange site it was fairly easy to find most of the books at way under their new cost, and I'm pretty confident under the Kindle version cost as well. That doesn't even include the 1 or 2 books a semester that you can just borrow from someone else that already took the course (which you can't do with the Kindle). So for your $200/semester or whatever you paid, you can easily sell at least half of that cost back (which you can't do with the Kindle)...and if you are saying your science and engineering books are so rare to find used, then selling your own copy back should be extra easy.
Let me put myself in a med student's shoes...heaven forbid I sell back my Junior year undergrad anatomy book, there is no chance of me ever being able to find that information in say a medical library. Good thing I had my Kindle to whip out and reference during that appendectomy I just performed...that guy might not have made it off the table...
Give me a break, the main benefit of this thing is not getting newspaper ink on your fingers after reading it, and that's a service I'd gladly pay $500 for...
The Galaxy Tab 10.1, much like its Limited Edition sibling that we reviewed last month, is ever-so-slightly thinner than the iPad 2, a slate that most sane individuals (and competitors, for that matter) would confess is the market leader today.
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"Beautiful Large Display: 9.7" diagonal e-ink screen reads like real paper; boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and sharp images"
16 ! GRAY ! WahHOOO...no more monochrome!!!
Oh wait...I just checked...it's not 1985. Sorry. *blush*
Keep your one second page turns eInk. I read on a two pound netbook that costs half as much, has a bright color screen with no lag, reads a huge selection of native formats, can surf the web, and has a nine hour battery.
Of course, the eInk reader should be still going strong after 9 days, not just a few hours....
"Keep your one second page turns eInk. I read on a two pound netbook that costs half as much, has a bright color screen with no lag, reads a huge selection of native formats, can surf the web, has a nine hour battery, is awkward to read books on anyplace but at a table, and makes my eyes water and gives me a headache if I use it for any extended amount of time."
Fixed.
Well, personally, I use a netbook in bed routinely to read books with no problems at all..and I can also read books with color graphs, charts, emphasis...and read MS word documents from work without having to mail them somewhere...and can surf the web...and can watch videos...including netflix streaming.
I accept that kindle is smaller, but it is just too limiting for me. I also reject that it is as easy as a book. I can loan a book to friends. I can borrow a book. If I lose a book, I have lost just the book...not a $500 device. I also like to bring books to places like the beach. You really bringing that kindle to the beach?
Personally, I like using a netbook instead of a more expensive one-trick pony. The netbook is more versatile, more powerful, and its clamshell design protects the screen. Yeah, the kindle is thin...and it's thin because it has absolutely no screen protection. Thus, pretty much *no one* just throws one in a bag because the screen would be toast...so it's then wrapped in a protective cover that doubles its width.
9 days? Great. Next time I decide to go on a trek on the Appalachian trail, I'll bring a kindle...but normally, I don't even need 9 hours of battery.
$0.02
You really need to be an avid reader and actually use an e-paper device to "get it". I used to not see the point either until I actually used one. There's just no comparison with laptops/netbooks/whatever. E-paper just makes for a fantastic replacement for books. If you're happy using your netbook, great... but for me personally, I'd never sit around and read on a device like that.
And why wouldn't you bring a device like the Kindle to the beach? Obviously you wouldn't want to get it wet, but the same applies to a book. One of the benefits of e-paper is that the screen looks fantastic in bright light, unlike netobooks and other LCD based displays which washout. About the only additional concern is you wouldn't want to just leave it lying out in the open by itself while you out swimming or something, but the same could be said of cell phones, mp3 players, watches, or just about any other gadget you may bring with you to the beach.
+1 to scuba steve
these things are mostly a gimmick, there are only a few very unique situations where something like this would make sense, and in the majority of those cases, a computer is a better alternative
and you can keep bringing up the college kid example, but i knew very few college kids that were able to afford a $500 device that's only function was to mimic a text book - plus the stupidest part of that argument is that anyone who has ever studied for anything should know that a large part of it involves flipping back and forth between multiple pages - or needing to see multiple pages at one time, which is definitely a pain in the ass to do on these, and personally i like making notes in my books, which is also a pain in the ass on this
@Josh
Obviously you haven't been to school in a while. Books for this quarter ran me $300. That was for 2 text books and a Kindle edition ($10) of the third.
That's $300 for 3 classes. The buy back on the 2 physical media books is probably around $100. that's a cost to basically rent those 2 books for 12 weeks of about $190, and I no long will have them for reference.
If I could have purchased them all on Kindle for say $100 total, I would be saving around $100 for the quarter versus purchasing physical media and reselling at quarter end (assuming they don't change editions making the resale value 0), and have the books for reference going forward.
Given the number of times you buy books and are unable to resell due to edition changes, books that they won't buy back "just because", and the poor resale of those books they will buy back, you are looking at a ROI of less than 1 year for a college student. over the course of a 4 year degree, they typical student will actually save $1200+ in book costs, not to mention still retaining all the books for future reference if desired.
@todd - or you could not be a moron and buy the book 2nd hand on amazon, then sell it back for the same price, instead of being ripped off by your campus book store - like i did, and spend maybe $200-300 on books for the entire 4 years of undergrad
@Josh: You must have took courses in school that were either very popular or on subjects that don't change much. Like business or math. If you take any science or engineering, finding the books used on Amazon isn't as easy. Or if your courses require CURRENT texts, then yeah, same thing. I guess undergrad can vary from school to school, like if you're in CC then it's different from an Ivy League school.
Typical of engadget responses though, the comments mostly reflect people who can only see their own situation and can't understand how anyone's different. Kind of reflects the problem with the US.
Wow, I want to know what school you went to where you can spend 300 bucks for 4 years worth of books on Amazon. Apparently they don't use any new editions, and only use simple little paperbacks. I've bought my books off Amazon for school for a while now, and they still run me at least 200 bucks a semester, usually more. And your original point was such a strawman argument. I've seen very little people arguing that it's ideal for college students, pretty much no one besides Jeff Bezos. And for reading books, which is what it's designed to do, it's pretty much better in every situation than a netbook.
I've brought my kindle to the beach a few times with no problems, and no screen protection? It comes with a case that has a very hard front and rear cover, I just toss it in my backpack and have very few concerns about it. And sure it doubles the width, but it's still smaller than most hardcover books. I've tried reading on an acer aspire one, and it's just impractical. Maybe it's ok in bed, when you could rest it on your chest or something, but with the horizontal screen you either have to boost the font till you only get one line of text on the screen, or hold it up to your face. It was less than ideal.
The biggest downside is the cost, but like I've said before, if you buy a lot of books it's totally worth it. The kindle store tells you how much you saved over the normal version, and for any new book it's generally around 12 bucks. So after buying 30 books (which I have around 40 now), you actually start saving money.
Who CARES about 16 grey? It's for simulating a book reading experience, and most books are all text, or include greyscale images and charts. You and everyone else kvetching about the lack of colour just don't get it.
I've done reading on my netbook as well, and it's certainly not ergonomic. Even with screen rotation it's irritating to hold like an open book. The Kindle 2 (have tried a friends place in Jersey), is awesome for someone who does a lot of reading, plain and simple. It's WAY less eye strain as well.
Over time it does become cost effective to use a Kindle.
That being said, I basically read to and from work, and a bit in the evening, so I'm holding out for the Asus T91 convertible netbook, since battery life isn't an issue around the house, though I'd certainly consider a Kindle (the smaller one) if it were available in Canada.
For whatever it's worth, I was a business student, I went to a tier 1, top-ranked private school. Yes, I guess I did take a lot of "popular" courses where publishers didn't print new editions every semester, so a lot of my books were online, but I think between Amazon, Half.com, the rest of the Internet, and my school's own student run textbook exchange site it was fairly easy to find most of the books at way under their new cost, and I'm pretty confident under the Kindle version cost as well. That doesn't even include the 1 or 2 books a semester that you can just borrow from someone else that already took the course (which you can't do with the Kindle). So for your $200/semester or whatever you paid, you can easily sell at least half of that cost back (which you can't do with the Kindle)...and if you are saying your science and engineering books are so rare to find used, then selling your own copy back should be extra easy.
Let me put myself in a med student's shoes...heaven forbid I sell back my Junior year undergrad anatomy book, there is no chance of me ever being able to find that information in say a medical library. Good thing I had my Kindle to whip out and reference during that appendectomy I just performed...that guy might not have made it off the table...
Give me a break, the main benefit of this thing is not getting newspaper ink on your fingers after reading it, and that's a service I'd gladly pay $500 for...