May 2010 Weddings
MadeOfAwesome
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Kelly...
Can you give me a basic rundown on e-readers? Like, do you have to pay a monthly fee? How do you download the books? You mentioned that you can get books from the library, how does that work?
Re: Kelly...
Sure thing!
The big boys right now are the Kindle from Amazon and the Nook from Barnes & Noble. There are also a bunch of other, lesser-known readers like Sony's eReader and the Kobi and such from Borders.These all have the "e-ink" screens, which look like regular paper pages. They have a light gray background, like cheap paper, and they can only display black "ink." You need to be in a lighted area to read them (no backlighting, so it's much easier on the eyes than a computer screen).
There are 3 different models of the Kindle. There is a big one, called the DX, and two versions of the smaller size: one has both WiFi and 3G connectivity, while the other has just WiFi. You pay a little more for the 3G model up front ($189 vs. $139), but using the Sprint network to browse, buy, and download books is free from that point on-- no contracts or anything. If you happen to have the just-WiFi version, you can browse and buy books anywhere that you can connect to a WiFi signal. If you can't get a signal, you can still buy books on your computer and transfer the books over to the Kindle by hooking it up with the charging cable (it's like putting files on a flash drive). The Kindles all have real buttons that you push to turn pages or type.
The B&N Nook is very similar in most respects. There are two versions right now-- WiFi + 3G ($199), as well as just WiFi ($149). Same deal as the Kindle as far as connecting goes-- I don't know which cellular network it uses, but I do know that there are no additional charges. (I have the just-WiFi version.) The main difference, physically, is that the Nook has a little color touchscreen at the bottom instead of a teeny keyboard. The touchscreen turns into a little keyboard if you need it to, but if you're just reading, it goes dark and you can turn pages back and forth with a finger swipe instead of always having to use the side buttons.
I think most of the other ones are either just WiFi or need to be physically hooked up to a computer to get books. I'm not sure, though.
The main thing that sets the Kindle and Nook apart, in my mind, is the type of files you can get. If you get the Kindle, you are pretty much locked into buying all of your ebooks through Amazon-- unless you "jailbreak" it, or hack it so it will accept files from other sellers. Doing that is supposed to be really easy, but I believe it also violates the warranty and service terms (like that kid who hacked his iPhone so it would work on the Verizon network a while back).
The Nook (and those other ereaders) accepts files from B&N but also from a lot of other places. I could buy books from Borders.com and put them on my Nook, for instance. I would have to do that from my computer and transfer them to the Nook with the cable, but I could do it.
A lot of public libraries are also starting to offer ebook collections that you can borrow, and the Nook makes that very easy. If you have a library card, you just get on your library's website and log in with your card number; you can browse, check out, and download ebooks. Once they're on your computer, you plug in your ereader and transfer the file onto it. Again, you can do this with a Kindle if you jailbreak it, but it's automatically supported by the Nook and the rest. I have a couple of library books on mine right now. You borrow them for a set period of time, and when that time is up, they expire and automatically "go back" to the library, so no late fees.
In a couple of weeks, Barnes & Noble is also releasing a new "Nook Color," which is a different beast entirely. It looks like more of an iPad than the other e-readers. It's all color touchscreen, which also means that it's all backlit. They're hyping it as great for electronic magazine subscriptions and stuff. It looks like an iPad without all of the apps, basically. It doesn't interest me, but it's half the price of an iPad ($249), so I'm curious to see how it sells.
Either the Kindle or the Nook would be pretty good in sunlight. I would assume the others would be, as well. The iPad completely SUCKS outside (if you're sitting in warm sunlight, it will overheat and turn off, aside from the not-being-able-to-see-the-screen thing, which is bad enough). Maybe that's what they were talking about?
And, yes, the ereader will come with a USB cable and probably an adapter to charge it from a wall outlet, too. You should be able to use your netbook to download and transfer books with no problem.
And no monthly charge if you just get the wifi one, right?
(I hope you don't mind, but I just officially named you our resident e-reader expert!!)
How would you and I be able to share books if I get the nook???
No monthly charge with any of them.
If the publisher has given the okay, you can lend an ebook to someone else for 14 days. You type in their email address and hit "share." While they have it on their Nook, you can't read it on yours (after the 14 days, it disappears from theirs and you can read it again). You can only ever lend a given book one time, though, and, like I said, you can't do this with every book.
The Kindle has just announced that you'll be able to do the same thing, but you wouldn't be able to share from a Kindle to a Nook or vice versa, as I understand it (because of those file types being different).
STU.. I just have to say that the Nook is probably one of the best things I have ever gotten. I've had mine for almost a year and I absolutely LOVE IT!
Anyone else have one and wants to share books?
thanks kelly, what a good easy to understand explanation!! Someone at work had their kindle so i was looking at it. I want to go to B&N and check out the Nook, i'm so retarted when it comes to technology so i appreciate your explanation.
Generally how much do the books cost to download?
I would say the book prices are pretty comparable to each other (Amazon vs. B&N vs. Borders for ebooks). Borders tends to be the highest, with Amazon and B&N neck-and-neck. Amazon seems to come in a few cents cheaper about half the time.
It really varies as to how much ebooks cost, though. I've gotten some for super-cheap (like $5 or less) or even free, and then I've paid nearly $20 for a couple of others. Some ebooks cost almost as much as the printed version, and once in a while, it's actually a few cents cheaper to buy the paperback than it is to buy the ebook! Most of the time the e-version is a little less than print, but not enough to blow you away. The biggest savings is on a new release that hasn't come out in paperback yet; the digital version tends to be a good bit cheaper than the hardback book.
You can usually get older stuff (pre-1923, and thus out of copyright) for free if you look around on sites like Project Gutenberg. Most of the better sites have files formatted for both the Kindle and everybody else. Amazon and B&N also have free downloads on some of the classics sometimes as a promotional thing.