Indian Readers discussion
E Books and E Readers
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All e-reader related queries...
congrats, Aacharya! Hope you enjoy it- I really love my Nook color, and I never thought anything could replace real books! I too loved the feel of a book in my hand, but now wouldn't trade my Nook for 100 new books.
Nook color? How is it for reading? I understand it's not an e-ink display..
Aacharya Didn't wrote: "Just placed an order for my All new Nook Simple Touch - wifi Expecting to get it within a couple of weeks, via a human courier from the States! Excited!"
Congrats Aditya.. :)
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Am yet to lay my hands on it guys, expecting to get it by next monday :-)
Am getting one too, but I am sure we'll get a great review from Aditya way before mine reaches me :)Havent been so excited about a toy in a long long time
Got my nook today, had a few anxious moments when i saw that it can't be used until i connect to the internet and register it first, but was able to do it later on by using my mobile's 3G as a hotspot. Relieved!Not much time to review it properly at office now. Only thing i can say is it fits in the pocket, my formal trousers' side pocket! So sleek!
I have to choose an ereader for myself that a friend in the US is going to bring. I'm leaning towards the Kindle Touch, though I've heard good things about the Nook and Sony Reader too. One concern I have is georestriction policies of ebook stores. Many ebooks in major ebook stores apparently do not sell to buyers outside the US.
Payment at these stores is another concern. Are there Kindle owners out there who use Indian credit cards to buy ebooks from Amazon? Did you have to register on Amazon with a US address? I think the B&N bookstore accepts only US credit cards. The Sony ebook store also seems to be restricted to the US and Canada. Does the Kindle's Wi-Fi work here in India?
First post, so be kind :-)
Thank you!
can answer some of ur qstns: the older gen kindles cudn't connect to Wi-Fi networks in india, but now they are able to, suggest u confirm with another member 'Claussius', a kindle user...B&N - i heard the same as u did, but didn't care about it as.... am all for a free world ;)
I have a first generation Kindle. Buying on the Kindle store is painless. Once you register your card (Indian card as well), you can buy at the click of a button. HOWEVER, an extra charge of USD 2 is levied since its an address outside US (convenience has its costs). Kindle allows you to try a sample of a book before ordering. So Kindle's whispernet works like a charm. These books can be read online as well.
B n N might not have that problem as they don't allow an indian billing address, but not sure if they allow an indian card to be registered
Aacharya Didn't wrote: "B n N might not have that problem as they don't allow an indian billing address, but not sure if they allow an indian card to be registered"BN dont allow Indian Cards.. Thats why I couldn't come to a conclusion on which one to buy.. Kindle or Nook. I liked the Nook more..
B&N told me yesterday that a US credit card is needed to buy ebooks from them. Aacharya, that doesn't seem to bother u. I suppose u can still buy from Amazon, convert the format, and sideload onto the Nook. But is it easy to break the DRM? The Nook has an expansion slot; the Kindle doesn't. From the reviews I've read, the Nook Touch is better than the Kindle Touch.
Alrighty..Its a Nook!!!!Just got my Nook today and I have been busy with it ever since. First thoughts its just the cutest little gadget
Yes Aditya-- maybe Sleek is a better term, however from my XX dna perspective, its CUTE!!!!
The reading experience is better than my old Kindle (which shall be retiring soon). Allows one to change fonts, size. It makes a Crisp read.
Can't talk about the battery etc yet. Easy to upload any ePub format document. its small enough that I can carry in my purse comfortably. Since the memory is extendable (doesn't come with an SD card), one can increase it to whatever the requirement.
Haven't tried registering a credit so would't know about that. Will try and post on that later.
For the price point, I am extremely happy with the the Nook Touch. Xmas has come in early this year :)
The Nook Touch will be available at $79 only, coming Friday. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/NOOK-...
An amazing offer! It's a pity that B&N does not accept Indian credit cards. I hear that they're planning to open an international store withing the next few months, but there could be many a slip between the cup and the lip.
But B&N does accept PayPal. So does Kobo, but not Amazon I think. I have a PayPal account that is linked to my bank account. Does anyone know if I can use it to buy ebooks from stores like B&N that accept PayPal?
Thanks!
Claussius wrote: "Alrighty..Its a Nook!!!!Just got my Nook today and I have been busy with it ever since. First thoughts its just the cutest little gadget
Yes Aditya-- maybe Sleek is a better term, however from..."
HI Claussius
Advance Christmas wishes for u..where did you buy the nook from and for how much??am so confused between nook and kindle.as you have been using a kindle and now using a nook , can you rate both.the pros and cons..Yes i can find lots of blogs which compares many E book readers.but they compare only the specs and i don't think its done from the user's perspective
@Aacharya Didn't: eagerly awaiting your review ......
I think Nook touch for $79 is the best deal in town. Kindle touch is for 99$ and with the increasing dollar rate its not going to be cheap in india.
Is the 9" or 6" display better for e readers. Well 6" displays are cool and fit into one's pocket and all but the 9" displays look good on first glance. The total dimensions may be max of 1 A4 size paper.
Sorry guys for the delay.The device is sleek and looks cool, but if i remember correctly it's not as thin as the kindle, not a big deal though. Readability part - i put in a 2gb sd card and loaded e-books into it by putting them under diff folders. But when i switched on the device, in a typical android fashion, it showed up all the books together, and realized that i can create something called 'shelves' which is ok! I tried reading pdf and epub and both are quite gud - am able to change font sizes in both formats - i was skeptical as someone misinformed in a review that pdf font size cant be changed.
I even loaded a couple of MS word documents, here i was unable to change the font size if i remember correctly, but no issues, the default size looked decent enough.
Brightness controls - i was unable to find out where they are...i tried reading the books on my bed with the tubelight behind me. I noticed some amount of reflection on the screen and wanted to change the brightness, but was unable to.
I didn't try logging my credit card data in, will do that tonight.
Social networking: It allows you to share ur reads and other data with facebook/twitter/gogle friends, didn't try it out yet. From what i read on other reviews, seems u can share only content bought from B&N and nothing else.
How i wish Goodreads App is also provided along with FB/twitter etc!
Compared to kindle, the grouse would be there is no browser and audio jack, am fine with it as i can do them on my mobile and anyways music does take up a lot of the battery!
@Ajay, initially my thoughts were also somewhere along those lines, but realized later that a 9" screen sort of defeats the purpose of portability. And as long as the screen is e-ink and the font size is adjustable i don't mind even if it is a 2.5" screen! Still if u insist on 9" screen, i think kindle does have one, but nook doesn't. Nook has a larger e-reader (1st gen) but the screen size there is still 6", with the remaining part of screen being an LCD color touch screen. It's selling for $89 now - it weighs almost double than the one i have
I read in a review that the Nook Touch has three cons: no landscape, no browser, and no user-replaceable battery (unlike the earlier models). The first can probably be fixed with a firmware update, maybe even the second. But I can live without those.However, what happens when the battery dies? I know I'm getting a bit anal about ereader selection, but it's an important decision for anyone who reads a lot.
Does the Kindle Touch have user-replaceable batteries? Sony?
Abhishek wrote: "I think Nook touch for $79 is the best deal in town. Kindle touch is for 99$ and with the increasing dollar rate its not going to be cheap in india."If somebody from US can buy it for u, then yes.i don't think the rate has been reduced in India.cos i checked.its the same...:-(
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Does anybody have any idea about the rooting which is being talked about in the bolded text??..Is it true that other android apps could be loaded onto the new nook touch???Since launch, the Nook Simple Touch received generally positive reviews, As an Android device, the Nook Simple Touch can be modified to run Android applications through a process called rooting, which grants users root access to the Nook Simple Touch’s file system.
Source: http://icomtechy.com/gadgets/review-o...
The $79 rate for the Nook Touch is a special price for the coming Friday only. Thanksgiving, you see. I do have a friend who will buy it in the US. But who will change the battery when it dies? With the iPhone there are local "experts." I'm yet to get used to the modern use-and-throw culture.
Aacharya Didn't wrote: "Sorry guys for the delay.The device is sleek and looks cool, but if i remember correctly it's not as thin as the kindle, not a big deal though. Readability part - i put in a 2gb sd card and loade..."
I found in a blog that only 250 mb of the internal memory is available for us to load e books.is it true??
"The Nook Simple Touch Reader can store an estimated 1,000 books; Nook Simple Touch has 2 GB of internal memory of which only half is available for content. Of the 1GB of content, 750 MB is reserved for content from Barnes & Noble’s e-book store, which leaves approximately 250 MB for other files. As with the original Nook, microSD and microSDHC memory cards can be inserted to expand the Nook Simple Touch’s memory up to 32 GB."
Source: http://icomtechy.com/gadgets/review-o...
Vinoth wrote: "Aacharya Didn't wrote: "Sorry guys for the delay.The device is sleek and looks cool, but if i remember correctly it's not as thin as the kindle, not a big deal though. Readability part - i put in..."
The answer is in your statement only: Use the SD card to enhance the memory to 32gb..dats what i did. It's better than having a fixed memory of 2 or 4gb like the kindle...
Vinoth wrote: "Does anybody have any idea about the rooting which is being talked about in the bolded text??..Is it true that other android apps could be loaded onto the new nook touch???Since launch, the Nook ..."
It's true nook can be rooted as it's based on android platform and also bcoz it has an sd card slot. In fact if u search on the ebay u can see that there are some sd cards on sale which are preloaded with android 2.2 for nook color. But remember there is no fun installing android apps in a device with e0ink screen that supports only b&w and whose screen refresh rate is terrible. Nook color is an IPS LCD screen and hence makes sense to have it rooted or use the sd card loaded gingerbread. For the b&w nook, just doesn't make sense to go looking for rooting. It makes sense if u r looking for some minor changes in terms of format support etc, but donot expect anything more.
Cochin wrote: "The $79 rate for the Nook Touch is a special price for the coming Friday only. Thanksgiving, you see. I do have a friend who will buy it in the US. But who will change the battery when it dies? Wit..."
iphone can not be an e-reader.period. haven't seen a battery die on an electronic device since my motorola 5 years ago when i took it for a 30min long bath in the rain! I felt the positives (support for epub n pdf n doc) of Nook outweighed this minor negative.
Vinoth wrote: "Does anybody have any idea about the rooting which is being talked about in the bolded text??..Is it true that other android apps could be loaded onto the new nook touch???Since launch, the Nook ..."
Here's a rooting guide for the Nook Touch:
http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/nook-...
Aacharya, surprisingly I find the iPhone with it's iBooks app to serve as a fairly capable ereader. I can highlight, make notes, search, etc. I've read close to a quarter of Anna Karenina on my iPhone. It travels with me everywhere.Still, nothing like a dedicated ereader. I'm reassured that you feel the non-user-replacable battery of the Nook Touch is a minor negative. Who knows what kind of battery the other devices use anyway.
yes, the apps are pretty good, they got as many features as the regular e-reader, but the USP of an e-reader is it's e-ink screen. When compared to the IPS LCD screen of the iphone or any android smartphone, u will see the difference. The long term effect on ur eyes is definitely negated when u use an e-ink screen. I can vouch for it as i have spent countless hours on my defy reading up in the nights! And not to say the way battery drains when we read on our smartphone. Display is the biggest consumer of power in LCD devices while the e-ink takes far less power and hence gives u better battery back-up.
Aacharya Didn't wrote: "yes, the apps are pretty good, they got as many features as the regular e-reader, but the USP of an e-reader is it's e-ink screen. When compared to the IPS LCD screen of the iphone or any android s..."Where did you buy your Nook from and for How Much???
i ordered it online from india using an indian debit card and shipped it to a colleague of mine who was in US for a couple of weeks.he brought it back for me. It costed $99 plus another $9 in taxes. And the exchange rate for that day (2 weeks ago) was 50.98INR, so it would total to ~5500 INR
Aacharya Didn't wrote: "i ordered it online from india using an indian debit card and shipped it to a colleague of mine who was in US for a couple of weeks.he brought it back for me. It costed $99 plus another $9 in tax..."
Thats cool aditya(if i may call u so..)...I dont have anyone in US and thats the problem for me...It costs around 8000 INR if i buy it online..no other go..have to buy one online here i in India itself:-((((
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Smitha wrote: "Aditya, can you just give the full name of the Nook you bought, including series no. if any. My husband is off to US next month."You are onto a E reader buying spree or what??? if am right the forthcoming nook will be ur 4th e reader.planning to open a e-reader library or a museums maybe??
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u r absulutly rite my mother na without reading e reader atleast 5 times a day she cant rest
Vinoth wrote: "Aacharya Didn't wrote: "i ordered it online from india using an indian debit card and shipped it to a colleague of mine who was in US for a couple of weeks.he brought it back for me. It costed $9..."
Ofcourse u may!
I don't think they will ship it to india, last i checked the shipping address didn't allow 'India'. Or are you saying buying online thru ebay?
Smitha wrote: "Aditya, can you just give the full name of the Nook you bought, including series no. if any. My husband is off to US next month."
"All New Nook Simple Touch with Wi-Fi" (no 3G). Dnt think there was any series number, will check later tonite and let u know...
Gautham wrote: "u r absulutly rite my mother na without reading e reader atleast 5 times a day she cant rest"u r so lucky man...u live amidst a e-reader library..u can choose any reader whenever u want and shuffle among them without having to pay for anything:-P
do u like reading in a e-reader??
Aacharya Didn't wrote: "Vinoth wrote: "Aacharya Didn't wrote: "i ordered it online from india using an indian debit card and shipped it to a colleague of mine who was in US for a couple of weeks.he brought it back for m..."
ebay/20north.com..the later seems to be cheaper..but am a little hesitant cos this is the first time i am hearing about the site.
it costs Rs 9,249 in Ebay.in and Rs 8,327 in 20North.com.
Hi Vinoth, how are you shipping to India? There are freight forwarders like comgateway etc which ship to India. CGW will give you a US address to ship your packages. Amazon doesn't have any card restriction and you can ship it to the address you got from the freight forwarders. But I think the shipping to India is costly. I live in Singapore and this is how I get e-readers from US. Given that tomorrow is Black Friday, you should definitely check out Amazon.
Vi wrote: "Hi Vinoth, how are you shipping to India? There are freight forwarders like comgateway etc which ship to India. CGW will give you a US address to ship your packages. Amazon doesn't have any card re..."i had plans to buy it here in India itself(check previous post)..i checked comgateway. looks like it will cost me an additional 25$..looks good.have to check further..thanks
Gautham wrote: "u r absulutly rite my mother na without reading e reader atleast 5 times a day she cant rest"LOLLL!!!
Smitha wrote: "am addicted to E Readers. My husband, with great hopes, encouraged me to buy the first one, thinking I will at least stop getting new books and save shelf space for himself. But then I got into thi..."as u are the authority here in e-readers , Does the refreshing in e-readers get to you when reading for long periods of time..
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One negative point is, for all touchscreens, there is minimal amount of glare, which improves if you change the angle of viewing. Non touch screens have more clarity
Expecting to get it within a couple of weeks, via a human courier from the States! Excited!