3 Popular E-Readers: The Pros, the Cons, and the Bottom Line

~Guest Post from Amber Paley~

With so many e-readers out there, it’s difficult to know which one to choose. Here are the facts on some of the most popular.

The Kindle Fire
Price: $199
Operating System: Android
Weight: 14.6 oz
Size: 7.5 inches
Storage: 8 GB (or 6,000 books)
External Storage: Incapable
Battery Life: 8 hours of continuous reading

Made by Amazon, this inexpensive tablet works flawlessly not only with Amazon's impressive e-book selection, but also with all of Amazon’s media collections. Users have access to magazines, music, and video. Additionally, because it works on the Android OS, users have access to the Amazon market place, i.e. app market, which includes widely-used apps like Netflix and Hulu.

The iPad 2
Price: $475 - $630
Operating System: Apple iOS 5
Weight: 21.2 oz
Size: 9.5 inches
Storage: Starts at 16 GB (or 12,000 books); can pay more for more space
Battery Life: 10 hours

Everyone’s heard of the iPad 2; it is after all the leader in the tablet market. Offering access to iTunes, the iPad 2 allows users to buy books, movies, music, and popular apps (like Netflix or Angry Birds). This tablet isn’t just an e-reader; it’s an all-out entertainment electronic. Users can also video chat, take pictures with its front and rear cameras, and browse the internet quickly through its 3G option.

Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet
Price: $250
Operating System: Android
Weight: 14.1 oz
Size: 8.1 inches
Storage: 16 GB (or 12,000 books)
External Storage: SD capability.
Battery Life: 11.5 hours of continuous reading.

This e-reader is one of Barnes and Nobles products. Though technically on the Android OS, users do not have access to the Android market. Instead, users can download eBooks, eMagazines, and apps through Barnes and Nobles’ Nook. It comes internet ready and is “optimized for Netflix and Hulu Plus video playback.”

The Bottom Line


Before deciding between these e-readers, you must ask yourself what you want out of your product. Are you looking specifically for an e-reader, without all of the bells and whistles? Or are you looking for a media tablet, where you can download games, movies, and browse the internet?

If you’re looking specifically for an e-reader: Go with either the Nook or the Kindle Fire; they are less expensive than the iPad 2, and both have glare-minimizing screens as opposed to the iPad 2. The Nook offers more in the way of storage and battery life. But the Kindle Fire offers more in terms of apps.

If you’re looking for something beyond just an e-reader, go ideally with the iPad 2, or if your budget doesn’t permit it, go with the Kindle Fire. Barnes and Nobles’ app store is very new and pales greatly in comparison to the access Kindle Fire and iPad 2 users have to apps.

Thank you Amber for this guest post!
-CYM

Amber Paley is a guest poster bringing us a comparison of some of the highest ranking e-readers. Though the tech world is a hobby of hers, Amber is first a writer and she spends much of her professional life writing about nursing home abuse.

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Will Great Literature Survive the E-Pocalypes?

Welcome Layton Green, author of The Summoner. Layton is guest posting today and tomorrow I will be posting a review of The Summoner. So stay tuned!

(source)

When the digital music revolution hit, I wondered how great new artists would get discovered with anyone able to upload a song to I-tunes. That turned out rather well, at least from my perspective: I find more great new artists than ever, I love uploading samples and trying songs for a buck, and I think the advent of I-tunes and company definitely brought the world more, and arguably better, music variety.

I wonder, however, if it will be the same with e-books? I’m curious as to how many self-published books have flooded the new e-market, versus how many songs hit the Internet once music went online? I am an e-published author myself, so I have a vested interest in the outcome, but I am also a reader, and I have a vested interest in that outcome as well.

Will it be impossible, as a reader, to sift through millions of books to find the modern classics that the publishers bring to our attention, or will we be stuck with those works that have the best online promoters behind them?

Don’t get me wrong: there are plenty of subpar works published, and there are plenty of self-published authors that can write and market the pants off many published authors. Talent, luck, timing and perseverance all play a part in this story. When it comes to popular books, I think the publishers are a little lost: they get a hit now and then (Davinci code, Harry Potter), but they lose money on most of their choices. The Internet will be a great proving ground of public consumption and, I think, a good producer of commercially successful novels.

Publishers are better, however, at selecting good literature. Not perfect by a LONG shot, mind you: in my opinion NY publishing is too incestual, and tends to publish works that look like all the other modern classics (although there are a lot of really great books out there). I also see a definite lack of voices from other cultures in the award-winning novels. My question for this post, then, is this: will the Internet produce great literature as well as bestsellers? Will readers and Internet forums and blogs help undiscovered gems rise to the top, or will the hard-to-read but important works get more lost at sea than they already are?

I’m stumped on this one, and of course the questions arise: what is the definition of a classic? Who decides? Can an unpopular novel even be a classic? I always wonder what beautiful works are languishing on the computer of some misanthropic genius, or locked forever in the bowels of an unopened crypt.

My gut tells me that, somehow, the Internet will help us gain access to more great works, but my gut also tells me that it will take some time before the successful public “filtering” systems are in place.

I’d love to see your opinions in the comments!

-Layton Green
www.laytongreen.com
Layton Green Facebook

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