This serendipitously solves another, heretofore unrelated problem of mine - my fucking $100/mo Verizon cell+data plan that I pay for my smartphone. My storm is great but jesus christ $30 for a mandatory data plan, Verizon? That's nearly as much as I pay for my home internet. I weep when I look at my monthly 1-5% usage.

Yes it will surf the net, no it will not do it over WiFi unless you root the unit and install a different (read: your own) sim card. The guys who are doing the mod work for the Nook refuse to allow access to the AT&T sim on the grounds that "BN doesn't let you do this and we don't wanna piss them off." Same for stripping the BN purchased epubs of their DRM layer.

It surfs the 'net, but honestly I'd rather grab my phone. (1) Color. (2) Ease of use. (3) My phone does support some dynamic content, the EReader supports HTML only.

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BN also realized that the markets where 3g access is properly distributed are also markets that have Kindle and iPhone users in existence. They don't want to pay extra to AT&T to allow data (given that they probably expected the Android-based device to have a custom build made) and have people bitch and complain about the access speeds and such.

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Anyone own a Kindle? Positives? Negatives?

Anyone own something better?

quote:

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Gadani wrote this then went back to looking for porn:
...
Anyone own a Kindle? Positives? Negatives?
...

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I have all my D&D/Pathfinder books on it along with an app called Dicenomicon, which is a physics-based dice roller (as opposed to a simple random number generator) that allows custom macro programming (i.e. 1d20+6 for my Warlock's ranged touch attack or 1d20+18 for her Diplomacy roll). I've also got two spectacular news aggregators (Flipboard for Facebook and Twitter but is not usable yet due to their epic failure; Pulse News for RSS feeds), a decent productivity suite (Pages and Numbers for word processing and spreadsheets; 2Do for a task list), and Netflix for entertainment.

I strongly recommend the wifi only version, particularly in 16gb because anything else just costs too damned much. Arguably, the iPad is too expensive to begin with but whatever, quit crying like a little bitch and fork out the money.

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Peter stopped staring at Deedlit long enough to write:
Kinda queered on the kindle after hearing some issues with rights management. And not fond on the looks.
The Sony readers seem nice, played with a few at target, But the viewing area is a bit smaller. Probably gonna give in and get one.

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The rights issue was the same problem all publishers have had with Amazon for ages now: they drive the prices down so low that they put other booksellers out of business. Sucks, but it's been resolved...for now.

The Kindle is...alright. It's good for instant gratification and for long trips. But I don't know. It just doesn't have the same feeling as an actual book.

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Maradon! was listening to Cher while typing:
This serendipitously solves another, heretofore unrelated problem of mine - my fucking $100/mo Verizon cell+data plan that I pay for my smartphone. My storm is great but jesus christ $30 for a mandatory data plan, Verizon? That's nearly as much as I pay for my home internet. I weep when I look at my monthly 1-5% usage.

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pretty sure you can activate your Blackberry's IMEI on Metro service or something after unlocking it

might want to look into that if you're gonna bitch about cell pricing

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Over the mountain, in between the ups and downs, I ran into Damnati who doth quote:
Get a fuckin' iPad and quit bitchin'.

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You can buy three kindles for the price of the cheapest iPad.

Aside from that I'd rather donate $600 to Barack Obama himself than spend it on a shitty apple product.

No eink screen, bulkier, expensive, no hard keyboard, and it STILL has a fucking $30 monthly fee. If I were going to get an iPad I'd get a Droid instead and it'd have flash support and read fucking SD cards. The iPad is basically good for nothing except proving that you're a frothing apple fanatic.

Frankly, though, my iPad has replaced it as my reader of choice. The form factor isn't as optimized as Kindle in terms of book reading, but the software is better and I've gotten used to the weight without any trouble. It's like when I first got the Kindle, the delay turning pages annoyed me no end, but now it's transparent.

Just sort of depends on how much you're willing to spend. The Nook seems like a nice device, but I'm not a big fan of BN's approach to their store. The Kindle is a great electronic book, and I like Amazon's store setup. iPad has some form factor issues as a book [the form factor is pretty awesome, though, taken as a whole], but the iBooks model is pretty nice, though not as easy to find things as Amazon, and reading books on it is not bad at all...and there's so much else available.

If you've got the money, I'd say iPad hands down. If you're happy with your phone as your primary mobile internet and just need a book reader, Kindle...and hold off until the next version.

As always, YMMV.

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Maradon
-I would like a device to fill the mobile book reading and internet browsing niche in a more robust fashion than my phone. I was thinking of the Kindle, how is it for this purpose?

Damnati
-I own two Kindles and they do not handle this niche anywhere near as well as the iPad I recently procured. I recommend the iPad in its wifi-only iteration as the best solution for your situation.

Maradon
-<insert mindless rant against Apple and insult to the person suggesting the device, regardless of its merit>

Bloodsage
-The iPad has supplanted my Kindles in all respects and I, too, recommend this device as it fills your requested niche with great efficacy!

Maradon
-<insert slightly subdued repeat of above rant>

Conclusion: Maradon does not really want a suggestion for how to fill his particular niche in an effective fashion, he just wants somebody to validate his choice of an inferior device for the purpose.

Get this through your head: whatever Apple's flaws may be in the laptop and desktop computer market, their mobile devices set the industry standard and all other worthy brands imitate Apple's form, if not necessarily the function. I've used the Droid OS, I've usde the Kindles in question, and I did quite a lot of research on tablet alternatives before settling on the iPad; for watching movies, reading books, surfing the internet, and handling light duty productivity work (i.e. email, scheduling, todo, and a few other bits of miscellany) the iPad is a truly amazing device and it trumps all the others by several orders of magnitude (the Droid OS attempt at matching the iPhone's functionality is truly hilarious).

It's not a computer on the scale of a laptop but that's not what it's designed to do. High price? Oh yes, it's why I don't recommend anything more than the 16gb wifi-only version. If you want crappy, barely functional Wikpedia access, use the Kindle; if you want a truly robust internet and reading device, use the iPad. Bitching about brand or thin arguments about design is just stupid.

Damnati fucked around with this message on 07-29-2010 at 07:26 PM.

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x--DamnatiO-('-'Q) :
Outline of this thread:

Maradon
-I would like a device to fill the mobile book reading and internet browsing niche in a more robust fashion than my phone. I was thinking of the Kindle, how is it for this purpose?

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That right there is your first mistake. I wasn't looking for anything "more robust", I was looking to save money. I specifically mentioned how expensive smartphone plans are and the free 3g internet on book readers, but because you're such a zealous apple zombie you missed all that and started ejaculating up a totally inappropriate product that very specifically fails to meet any of my needs.

The ipad is an oversized smartphone that can't make phone calls, read SD cards or display flash content. If I wanted something that filled the niche that the ipad attempts to, I'd get an Android phone that does everything the ipad does, everything it doesn't but should, costs less and still fits in my pocket.

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Get this through your head: whatever Apple's flaws may be in the laptop and desktop computer market, their mobile devices set the industry standard and all other worthy brands imitate Apple's form, if not necessarily the function.

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Yeah this is pretty much completely untrue, everything the ipad does netbooks had been doing for less money for ages. Asus were the ones innovating when they came out with the eeepc and discovered the untapped netbook market. The ipad is apple's late bid at scooping off the trendy upper crust of that market, which is why all the keynotes on the ipad compared it so extensively to netbooks.

Apple actually rarely innovates at all. Even when they released the iphone, all they were doing is congealing ideas that smartphone developers like RIM and Palm had already been trying.

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I've used the Droid OS, I've usde the Kindles in question, and I did quite a lot of research on tablet alternatives before settling on the iPad; for watching movies, reading books, surfing the internet, and handling light duty productivity work (i.e. email, scheduling, todo, and a few other bits of miscellany) the iPad is a truly amazing device and it trumps all the others by several orders of magnitude (the Droid OS attempt at matching the iPhone's functionality is truly hilarious).

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Everything you posted here is subjective opinion and rather obviously biased so I can't really comment on it either way. I have never wanted a tablet PC so I don't know what else is available and this is just wild speculation, but if tablets are like every other market that involves apple, I'm willing to bet that there's a 40% cheaper windows- or linux-based option with flash support and handfuls of other features that Apple left out.

In conclusion, I know you like your ultra expensive little netbook, I don't really care, it's totally inappropriate for the needs that I clearly indicated in my original post, so we can stop talking about it.

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Nobody really understood why Damnati wrote:
I've used the Droid OS .... (the Droid OS attempt at matching the iPhone's functionality is truly hilarious).

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Please be more specific. Motorola hates their customers with a passion I haven't seen in a while. Their latest offerings (Incredible, Droid X) show that they consider their customers to be hostile entities.

Android as an OS plays RADICALLY different depending on the hardware it's installed on and what features are enabled. The G1 and the Nexus One are the only platforms I'm aware of that were released as "Android", all the others are using Android as a base and adding/crippling things on top of it. The way you've stated things above makes it sound like you'd hate Windows if someone replaced Explorer with Litestep or some other custom shell. It's not the OS that's the issue, it's your interface with it.

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Maradon! had this to say about Robocop:
He hates Android because it's an apple competitor.

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That's like hating you for being a Karnaj competitor....

Or given the avatar image, Parce..

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Maradon! impressed everyone with:
He hates Android because it's an apple competitor.

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I hate Android because, on the Incredible, it feels clunky and requires the use of Start Menu-like interface that just doesn't fly on a phone. The two things I did like were the HTC Sense widgets and the Navigator app (automatic rerouting definitely trumps the iPhone's Maps app). I didn't care for the web browsers that were available (stuff not where I expected, generally not as friendly as my iPhone's Safari), the music app is not as readily navigable as the iPod app, the mail widget irritated the hell out of me because there was no centralized list of mailboxes that I could look at to see which had new mail, and the battery life sucked rocks.

I know you really want to think I have no better reason for liking Apple merchandise than a strong desire to suck Steve Job's cock, Maradon, but it's just not that way. I've favored the iPod for ease of use over other players (and familiarity later on, which is all that kept me away from the Zune), I really came to love the iPhone after bad experiences with Windows Mobile phones and it's a smoother experience for me than Android, and the iPad, which I initially hated, has turned out to be a great way to get around carrying my heavy ass laptop around (it's also a vastly better PDF handler than a Kindle, handles the internet identically in most respects to my laptop, and offers me what amounts to a digital clipboard with the Penultimate app and a Boxwave stylus).

Honestly, you can do better than this.

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maradon - i want an ebook reader because they can surf the internet for free and it would save me money on my phone plan (because i only use the internet for instant information)

damnati - how about a $700 iphone

maradon - no thanks im trying to save money

damnati - RAGE

I, too, misread your initial post to mean that you were looking for a better mobile browsing solution rather than simply cheaper. Yep, Kindle is cheaper. If that's your only criterion, have a nut.

On the other hand, back off on the stupidity of labeling anyone who buys anything Apple as a mindless drone mesmerized by the label and blind to the facts. It's not true. Some day, when you grow up, you'll have to realize that just because someone disagrees with you, or likes something you don't, it doesn't mean they're stupid. Given your uninformed ranting on so very many subjects, it's often quite the opposite.

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I like my HTC EVO though.

And my Kindle.

Kinda happy with my stuff. Why isn't Maradon ever happy?

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ATT Nation 450 Individual Plan $40 a month + $35 activation (one-time) + tax; get a free phone or a some cheapo one.

Apple iPad 16gb wifi + 3g $629

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-plans/data-connect-plans.jsp $15 a month; should be more than enough to handle times when you're not near a wifi hotspot (ATT has them at every store and Starbucks; there are many others as well)

Call it about $800 to get started then $60 (give or take for taxes, fees, and any discount you might manage to get) a month for your phone and data bill; around $40 savings over your current solutions and a far better mobile experience than any currently available smart phone or e-reader

Changing your phone plan with Verizon to exclude data and using a Kindle for your limited browsing will cost the price of a Kindle ($189 for the nice new one that can use both wifi and ATT 3g; $139 for the older one that relies wholly on ATT) and will save you about $30 a month on your phone plan.

Bearing in mind the loss of functionality from smartphone data plan to sole reliance on the Kindle (no email, no apps, even more limited internet access than the phone, no color, etc), the iPad is far more effective solution. The iPad offers a net gain in functionality over both the phone and the Kindle while retaining a comparable form factor. In addition, the App Store is extremely robust, offering many options for productivity and pleasure; just for example, Flipboard is an iPad only app that parses Facebook and Twitter (and up to 7 other premade feeds) into a sort of magazine format (this especially awesome for Twitter as it mines links posted and uses those to produce the artice instead of 140 character tweet).

If you're willing to wait until this time next year or possibly until the Thanksgiving/Christmas season, there will be a slew of Android and Windows 7 tablets hitting the market that may or may not be compelling competitors for the iPad.

Damnati fucked around with this message on 07-30-2010 at 03:56 AM.

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Greenlit's account was hax0red to write:

Kinda happy with my stuff. Why isn't Maradon ever happy?

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Peanut butter ass Shaq Damnati booooze lime pole over bench lick:
Call it about $800 to get started then $60 (give or take for taxes, fees, and any discount you might manage to get) a month for your phone and data bill; around $40 savings over your current solutions and a far better mobile experience than any currently available smart phone or e-reader

Changing your phone plan with Verizon to exclude data and using a Kindle for your limited browsing will cost the price of a Kindle ($189 for the nice new one that can use both wifi and ATT 3g; $139 for the older one that relies wholly on ATT) and will save you about $30 a month on your phone plan.

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Oh cool, so in a mere 43 months the ipad pays for itself!

Let me count the ways that this scheme won't work for me; for one, I can't change providers until january anyway. Two, I already have a cheapo verizon phone that I can activate after I downgrade my data plan, three, the ipad doesn't even resemble the kind of product I'm looking to buy, four I'm not ready to front almost $1000 just to buy a fucking tablet pc that I don't even want.

Why can't you get it through your tiny skull that I do not want a fucking ipad? Not only is it objectively the wrong product for what I'm trying to do, not only is it drastically too expensive for me, but I also just plain hate apple.

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Greenliting:
There's always the Dell Streak coming out sometime later this year in the US. Looks like a nifty gadget.

I like my HTC EVO though.

And my Kindle.

Kinda happy with my stuff. Why isn't Maradon ever happy?

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Who the hell says I'm not happy?

That said, Damnati, the $100/mo figure for my smartphone includes taxes, texts, and insurance that you didn't include in your AT&T total. All told the ipad would cost me an additional $400 up front and about $15/mo over a kindle and a basic phone, features notwithstanding. I couldn't afford that even if I wanted an ipad which, as I mentioned, I don't.

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Captain Hagrid Starcrust III said this about your mom:
I admit that if I hadn't jumped right into being a huge asshole over apple,folks probably wouldn't have gotten all defensive. On the other hand, if folks had read more than the title of the thread before advertising a wildly inappropriate product, I wouldn't have been so pissed off.

That said, Damnati, the $100/mo figure for my smartphone includes taxes, texts, and insurance that you didn't include in your AT&T total. All told the ipad would cost me an additional $400 up front and about $15/mo over a kindle and a basic phone, features notwithstanding. I couldn't afford that even if I wanted an ipad which, as I mentioned, I don't.

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I probably should have thought of this when I posted but I'm not out to convince you at this point; it was simply that I thought of a more effective way to present my argument and posted it just for shits and giggles.

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quote:

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Tarquinn said:
I have come to the conclusion that I prefer physical books

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So do I.