Digital Reading: e-books discussion

[corona]

Congratulations, SweetKay. These are really cool devices.

Kate, e-books purchased from B&N will only be available for the Nook, and e-books purchased from Amazon will only be available for the Kindle. They will embed some form of Digital Rights Management into the purchased e-book so it can only be read on their device.

As an example, suppose you purchased 20 e-books from B&N to stick on your Nook, and then you decided you liked the Kindle better after someone gifted you one. You couldn’t simply move those 20 e-books over to the Kindle – if you really wanted them on the Kindle you would have to purchase them again.

As long as DRM isn’t present, however, you should be able to read an e-book on a variety of devices. You may need something like the freeware program Calibre in order to convert an e-book to the native format for your device, but this is an easy thing to do.

I can grab free e-books in the EPUB format from Google books and read them directly with my Nook. You can’t do that with the Kindle, but using Calibre it takes just a few moments to convert the e-book to the Kindle format.

[Kate]

Thank you Corona! That was exactly what I was trying to understand!

[BlueStarEgo]

Corona, I know that you've mentioned that you don't use your Nook to play music, but, have you ever put any on it anyway just to have it? If so have you ever noticed any distortion or quality drop in your music? I'm asking because even though I have my iPod, I still put some of my favorite songs on my Nook but they play slow and the voices become a little distorted.

Does anyone else have this problem?

[corona]

I did not notice any distortions or slow-down when I first got the device, but then I was also on version 1.4. Perhaps the latest update may have introduced some issues? I’ll give it a listen tonight, as it has been a long time since I tried reading and listening at the same time. Is it a continuous issue, or only when browsing around or turning pages?

The first thing I did when I got my Nook was purchase the original Twilight, and then I loaded it up with the Twilight soundtrack. Very cool, no? Except…uhhh…I couldn’t concentrate anymore on what I was reading. Mozart concertos, yes. Supermassive Black Hole, no.

[Fighting fate]

Im thinking about finally caving in and getting either an e-reader or a kindle, does anyone have any opinions on which they think would be the better choice, and on average how much does it cost to download a book on one of these devices? any input would be much appreciated!!

thanks~Fate

[BlueStarEgo]

Corona, Yes, it's always been slow. So slow it makes the voices way deeper than they're supposed to be.

Does your Nook randomly turn on? I noticed mine had been doing it the other day. I had it lying on my bed and as I was coming up my stairs it suddenly blinked on. I'd also had it fully charged one day and once I got to my destination it was completely dead! I don't know what happened. Maybe it had been turning on and off in my bag. I wish it had hold button.

The audio player thing is sort of a let down. I don't depend on it to play my music often, but when I do need it the way it plays and distorts the quality pisses me off so much I just turn it off.

Sometimes my Nook blinks so much during a wake up or page change that it doesn't know what it wants to display. Sometimes I turn it off and the display will go off but not the touch screen or the touch screen will go off but not the display. By the time it corrects itself I have to unlick it just to turn it off again. ANNOYING!

I'm a bit bummed I'm past my 30 day deal. I'd so trade this in for a Kindle.

Fate, I think most books around the $10 range. Not all eBooks are priced the same though.

[Fighting fate]

^^thanks!!! i think im gonna go with the kindle...

[Edwards Ragazza]

I like the idea of the e reader but for me it seems so expensive. Hopefully I can make this make sense. When cd's first came out you had to buy the whole cd or pay 3.00 for a single if they came out with the single and how many times did I only like one or two songs. Then they came out with itunes and I love it cause I only buy songs I like.

I am a huge reader however I never kept any books because I would read them once and never want to read them again until of course Twilight came along.Plus in the past when I did buy books that I read. I would get halfway through and thought they where horrible that I didn't finish them and thought it was such waste of money. That is when I started going to the library. Since then I own HP, HG, & Matched in all hardback that are on my book shelf but that is it.

I still am in undecided because I see people while traveling but I just don't know .

[corona]

BlueStarEgo,

Try powering the Nook down completely, and then starting it back up again, this will give it a reboot and may solve some of your issues.

The MP3 player on the Nook is very basic. I prefer my iPod. The Nook player sounds a little more washed out in the sound than the iPod, not as dynamic. I timed SBH on both at what should be 3:29 seconds. The Nook went to 3:35, so it actually did play the song slightly slower, though not enough that it should be an issue. My version was 256 kbps. Maybe if I used 128 kbps I would get a different result? Are you using variable bps MP3s?

I have had a few occasions where the Nook began acting erratically, but the shut down and reboot solved my issues. There is also a hard reset process that might work for you, but it resets the Nook to the original version 1.1 and wipes out your library, so you have to reload your books. If you continue having problems I would talk to tech support first, and then pursue an exchange, regardless of whatever the warranty is.

Edwards Ragazza,

One advantage of e-readers is that you can load them up with non-copyrighted works, pre-1920's, somewhere around there, for free. Google books has a large library of these books available for a free download.

[BlueStarEgo]

I've turned the power on and off on numerous occasions. It just still plays a little slow. I won't worry about it though. i don't use the audio player much.