<p>Jeff Bezos just announced officially the $199 Kindle Fire tablet. Sounds like a great deal. Also, the Kindle e-reader line has also just been expanded in its new 4th generation to include a few smaller, cheaper, and touch-screen e-ink devices that are still as function as before. Seems tantalizing for those of us who are gadget geeks - but as someone with already a previous Kindle and an iPad 2, it’s going to be hard to justify another toy!</p>
<p>I don’t get the whole e-book thing. I work at a University. I have 30 or so libraries available to me. I want to read something I go to the library. I don’t have to pay to buy a reader and a book.</p>
<p>I love reading books on my iPad, especially when I’m on a plane. I think the new Kindle looks great, but I am perfectly happy with the iPad Kindle app.</p>
<p>My Kindle is my most precious possession and I am considering getting the Fire for my daughter. I commute at least 3 hours a day and would be lost without my Kindle now. It’s so great when stuck in traffic to be able to purchase something new to read if I’ve just finished something.</p>
<p>I have both the Kindle and Nook apps on my Ipad. I haven’t quite figured this all out yet but I’m sure I will. I’m not buying a separate ereader…enough is enough.</p>
<p>^ You read while driving…?</p>
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Of course not. You’ve heard of buses?</p>
<p>Ah, ok. xD
I was confused; I do sometimes see people reading while driving. I become irrationally irritated at them.</p>
<p>[Amazons</a> Kindle Gets a Library Card | Epicenter| Wired.com](<a href=“http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/09/how-to-check-out-library-books-for-kindle/]Amazons”>Amazon's Kindle Gets a Library Card | WIRED)</p>
<p>I read on my iPhone, but I have been thinking of getting a Kindle/ipad-</p>
<p>I have generally disliked my first-generation Kindle, but my wife (who travels constantly) completely fell in love with Kindle v.3 after some friends gave it to her for her last birthday. (I had offered her mine, and she had refused it before.) Now, I am using the Kindle a lot, too, because we can share books on it. My son can get a Kindle app for his phone, and he wants to join the account as well.</p>
<p>If I am really going to be using it all the time, I will be tempted to upgrade to the new generation, because I STILL hate my first-generation device.</p>
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You’re kidding. What goes through people’s minds?</p>
<p>I got a Kindle in March, and I do like it. But I have to say, I’m tempted by the new Kindle Touch ($99 or $149), because I really dislike the keyboard and would prefer a touch screen. </p>
<p>All the news stories seem to be focused on the Amazon Fire, but I think what’s more amazing is there is a Kindle now that costs $79.</p>
<p>True Kindle Story. Earlier this year I was flying through Frankfurt Main on a connecting flight, but you still have to go through security again. I had a computer and my Kindle. I got pulled aside with the Kindle and it took not 1 but 3 bomb inspection teams to decide it wasn’t an explosive device. Evidently, false positives are an issue with these devices, not sure why?</p>
<p>I am not buying anything new for a while, not because of this, but because I am tired of whatever I buy being updated 6 months or a year later… I have patience and will wait until whatever I have is not functional… I took a really long time to give up my old phone and get an Iphone…I like letting things get old.</p>
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<p>I am completely with MOWC on this one. To me, there’s no point in having a Kindle if you have an iPad. The iPad is fabulous for travel, or even just reading at nighttime when your spouse is sleeping. And then you have all your music right there, too. I’m currently reading some books about the Beatles and I put my Beatles playlist on at the same time. I want to migrate some magazines to the iPad as well.</p>
<p>I got the Kindle before I got an iPad, but I don’t regret it. I prefer it over the iPad in certain situations – for example, on the beach, where I would not want to risk having the more expensive iPad stolen or damaged.</p>
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tsdad:
How useful or appealing an e-book reader is depends on the user and the situation. </p>
<p>For people who travel much or even who go on vacations the e-reader is great because it can hold enough books (actually far more than enough) to last the duration in a small, very lightweight, convenient form. I actually was stuck on a flight from Europe to the West coast once (about a 10.5 hour flight) settled in with my newly purchased paperback, only to discover after reading the first few pages that I’d already read it before and was thrown off by the different covers used for books in different countries. I was scrounging the plane for anything to read.</p>
<p>I also read in bed every night and for that reason always used to prefer paperbacks to hard cover books since they’re smaller and lighter and I don’t keep most books long term anyway and paperbooks are usually cheaper. However, the Kindle is even smaller and lighter than a paperback and I don’t end up with a stack of them on the table collecting dust until I get around to reading them. It’s really nice when I finish a book I can, while still laying in bed and within a minute or two, connect wirelessly to Amazon, find another book I feel like reading, download it, and be reading another book. I’ve found this to be a great feature multiple times - i.e. not having to ‘buy ahead’ or scrounge the house in the middle of the night for another book.</p>
<p>The e-reader also opens up a new source of material in being able to have access to books that otherwise wouldn’t have been published at all. Now almost anyone can ‘publish’ their book and rather than convincing a publishing house to take the risk of investing in printing and distributing it can simply have it not printed at all (saves trees and fuel) and distributed electronically with no investment risk. I think someone on CC even did this (can’t remember the moniker).</p>
<p>Add in that the Kindle (I have the generation prior to this announcement) goes almost forever on a battery charge, a month or so, and that potential issue becomes a non-factor.</p>
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<p>In addition to the “beach” issue with glare and readibility, some people consider the battery life and the lower cost to keep the Kindle online. </p>
<p>My mother and sister would not switch their Kindle for an iPad. This said, they do not find it strange to travel with an iPhone, a Kindle, and a light Mac. </p>
<p>Fwiw, I wonder how long it will take for the iPad to develop battery issues.</p>
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<p>YES. I’m into instant gratification that way. </p>
<p>So much technology just frees you from having to think ahead, IMO.</p>
<p>Remember the old days when you had to plan to watch your favorite show at Wednesday at 9 pm? The VCR changed it so that you could watch it afterwards at a time of your liking … the TiVO made that even easier … and now with Hulu and similar sites, you can watch it in several different ways (smartphone, iPad, computer) at your leisure.</p>
<p>In the old days if you wanted to rent a movie, you had to plan to physically do so when the Blockbuster was open, and remember to return it. Netflix made that easier, but you still had to wait for the physical DVD. Now with streaming, you can rent a movie at a moment’s notice.</p>
<p>In the old days if you wanted to go someplace you hadn’t been, you had to map out your route. Now with smartphones / GPS, you don’t have to get directions til you’re on your way.</p>
<p>This is the greatness of the Kindle / iPad type of technology. I don’t have to go to a library unless I want to, I don’t have to go to a bookstore unless I want to – I can hear about a book I might like and poof, I have it in less than a minute. At the risk of sounding like an old person, it’s really something.</p>
<p>^^ Instant and complete gratification to everything, anytime, anywhere!</p>
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You can also browse more efficiently a larger selection of books that might never have crossed your path. I’ve found, since I got my Kindle, that I have a real interest in sociology. I would never have thought that.</p>