Ipad or Kindle

douglashyde

Hey Guys,

I am normally a nerd when it comes to technology and I also work in a phone store so am fairly up to date on new technologies, however I am now at a very questionable cross road.

I have decided so to invest in either an Ipad or Kindle 3 as I will be going into my 4th year of study Uni and will have very little class time, so a massive amount of my time will be consumed with reading books, articles and journals, I am also wondering what other ways either one of these devices can assist me in 4th year – I wont however be using to take note.
I am at a crossroad because each device offers specific advantages to me. The Ipad will allow me to access both the Ibook store and Kindle store. It has a much bigger screen which will always help and it is also a mini PC and not just a reader and might offer added benefit to me. However I am a little worried about eye strain as I will be spending alot of time staring at it, also I am unsure if paid ibooks are avalible in Ireland(can you guys clarify for me?)

The Kindle is lightweight and easy to transport, the battery life is much longer and eye strain will not be a problem. However I am unsure if it will be suitable as I'm not sure how easy it will be to access online notes and journals, I also read that it is free to use their 3g signal, is this case in Ireland? Also, because it is just an ereader I will be deprived on all the apps - however this will only be a problem if any of these apps could be a benifit for me in 4th year.

I am not really worried about the price; more importantly to me is that the device will assist me in 4th year, namely reading books, journals etc.

Any suggestions?

bp1989

You've more or less outlined the pros and cons of each yourself. It all comes down to what you need. If you just want to read, get the Kindle. It does reading better. If you want all the general fancy pants stuff, get the iPad.

If I was in your position, and I wanted both for different reasons and money wasn't a problem, I'd get both. They're both good for what they are primarily designed to do: the Kindle to read, the iPad to surf the web.

What I do know is that reading on the iPad is a b!tch.

_Whimsical_

I have no experience of the Kindle so I'm not really equipped to answer this question in full.

However if I was you I would get the ipad. I love to read and I love the feeling of a book in my hands. I never thought that I would get used to using the ipad to read but after giving it a go once I was hooked. I can't believe how quickly I've become used to it and I regularly forget I'm not actually reading a book. The ipad lets you highlight passages with ease and ad notes on them and they are all then stored for you at the beginning/index of the book. I find myself using that quite a bit just for general reading and it's incredibly handy.I'd say it would be fantastic for study. Among the many reasons why it would be great for this is the ease with which you can close an ibook if you come across something you want to research more and be looking it up online only a second later.

There are also word processing and spread sheet apps that you can get for the ipad that allow you create documents and export them to your PC and also import them. I find typing on the ipad quite comfortable but that might be down to the joy of having small girly fingers.Apps like that could be handy to copy and paste things you read online into even if you never took notes on the ipad.

I don't think there is much of a selection of books available from the Irish Ibook store unfortunately. However the ipad does offer you the greatest range of format compatibility and you aren't limited to buying just from the Kindle and Ibook store for books. Most formats, other than Kindle, are easy to convert anyway with a free program called Calibre and other stores do offer epub books which you can use in the iBooks app. You'd really need to check and see if your text books are available anywhere in a format the ipad uses before you decide though.

The biggest con in my eyes is that it is an attractive device and probably more likely to be stolen than a kindle because of it's size etc.That said there are good covers available to disguise it somewhat. The battery life on the ipad gives you a good 12 hours of use. I usually only need to charge mine every 2 days or so and atm I'm sharing mine with someone else so between us we keep it very busy!

It's also great fun to be honest. If you need five or ten minutes escapism every so often you have a world of entertainment at your finger tips with an ipad. You even have the ability to watch a film while your stuck on a bus or play a game etc. It's very hard for me to imagine the Kindle could compete.

I think you need to go to a store where they have them on display and see if you feel the screen would bother your eyes and if you like the feel of it.

Oh and did I mention that I LOVE my ipad ?

bp1989

I think the features the iPad has is the problem - if you're buying a reading device, do you really want to be distracted by having the internet literally two clicks away?

When I read, I take my book to a quiet place and shut myself away from the rest of the world, and that includes the internet.

_Whimsical_

bp1989 wrote: »

I think the features the iPad has is the problem - if you're buying a reading device, do you really want to be distracted by having the internet literally two clicks away?

When I read, I take my book to a quiet place and shut myself away from the rest of the world, and that includes the internet.

Yeah I know what you mean but I find it fantastic that every time I come across something that makes me wonder "what's the about?" I can google to find out immediately and then return to the book in one click. I think it enhances the experience.

Skyuser

Kindle for reading, it's made for reading.

brianhickey

I haven't used either but I've read that PDFs don't work easily with the Kindle 3 due to the small size of the screen. If you're going to be reading PDF journals I'd say the iPad probably. If you're going to be reading a lot of PDFs perhaps have a look at a Kindle DX.

pogsick

Surfing the net and receiving books on the kindle is free worldwide

Cyrus

brianhickey wrote: »

I haven't used either but I've read that PDFs don't work easily with the Kindle 3 due to the small size of the screen. If you're going to be reading PDF journals I'd say the iPad probably. If you're going to be reading a lot of PDFs perhaps have a look at a Kindle DX.

was going to add that, your biggest issue with any e reader is representation of pdfs, none of them can compete with the ipad in that regard and if pdfs will be part of what you read id be plumping for the ipad

douglashyde

Thanks for the reply guys and girls,

Bit of an update, I bought one of my core texts as an ebook from the publisher last night and it was saved as DRM(Digital Rights Management) PDF - this basically means that I can only view it on one PC and defo not the IPAD or Kindle. Howver after hours of research and messing around I have managed to remove the DRM.. I am now left with a basic PDF. I have converted this to MOBI using Calibre(thanks for the recomendation) and am unsure how it will look on the Kindle.

I am almost sure I am going to go for the Kindle for a few major reasons:

An Ipad could become a distration which I dont need when Im reading.

The Ipad might become an eye strain after a few hours.

And the small and sleek design of the Kindle.

Cyrus

douglashyde wrote: »

Thanks for the reply guys and girls,

Bit of an update, I bought one of my core texts as an ebook from the publisher last night and it was saved as DRM(Digital Rights Management) PDF - this basically means that I can only view it on one PC and defo not the IPAD or Kindle. Howver after hours of research and messing around I have managed to remove the DRM.. I am now left with a basic PDF. I have converted this to MOBI using Calibre(thanks for the recomendation) and am unsure how it will look on the Kindle.

I am almost sure I am going to go for the Kindle for a few major reasons:

An Ipad could become a distration which I dont need when Im reading.

The Ipad might become an eye strain after a few hours.

And the small and sleek design of the Kindle.

a converted pdf, esp if it includes any tables or diagrams will look cack, you can take a look at it with calibres viewer.

i havent had any eyestrain reading from the ipad as of yet but i do keep the brightness down