Kindle vs the N800
 

So my wife bought me a 1st generation Kindle. I was pretty pumped but after a bit I was afraid that my poor n800 would become neglected and sad. So the fight begins!!

Kindle makes a quick jab with it's easy to read in broad daylight screen

Kindle follows up with a haymaker from it's rather convenient "whispernet".

N800 is staggering a bit but responds with a pair of jabs from GPE calendar and GPE todo

Kindle responds impressively long battery life

N800 moves in unabated and swings a crushing blow of THE ENTIRE SECOND SEASON OF THE OFFICE ON AN 8 GB SD CARD!!!!

Kindle just drops to the ground for the ten count.


So yeah, honestly, there isn't really any point to compare these two devices. They are both good for two separate things. I use the N800 for listening to music, watching videos, keeping track of my appointments and to do list, writing lesson plans, and occasionally using maemo mapper with my BT GPS. I used to read ebooks but now the Kindle has taken over that responsibility.

Two devices, two different purposes, and they both get along just fine. Moral of the story: the N800 is pretty handy device in it's own niche and will probably always keep a spot in my bag.

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

When you say The Office do you mean the US version? If so, I salute you :D

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

LoL, that made my day.

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

Yes I mean the US version. :D

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

imho kindle would never get into the ring. No backlighting, what were they thinking.
I know - battery life probably, but still - no backlighting !

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

Backlighting? Dude, why would you want a backlighted device when you can have This ?

http://www.kotulas.com/wcsstore/KOTS.../274888_lg.gif

:D

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

I walk around with one of those on whether I'm reading or not... It's...just...cool. :p

Tim

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

Tim, remember that talk we had? You're mixing up cool and dorky again.

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

I agree with the "2 devices - 2 uses" mentality.
I have both a Kindle2 and an N810. I use them for two totally different uses, with very little overlap. I use my kindle for reading ebooks during the day at my kid's activities, because it is simply easier to read in the daylight. I use it to listen to music while I read my books. I also use the built in web browser to quickly check emails and activitiy schedules/updates.

I use my N810 as a PDA, to hook up to m car stereo for music on trips, as my GPS, and as a ultra portable computer.

To expand even further, I use my netbook for surfing while watching TV and carrying to conferences and the like so that I always have Internet.

I use my desktop when I need real computing power and multitasking.

I use my Blackberry to keep me informed of my WORK schedules and email.

So the moral of the story is that each device has its own use and NO, I do not carry all of them with me all of the time, but even when I travel, all except the desktop fit in my sachel and away I go......

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

And yet if the tablet was designed more like the Nintendo DS (two screens with one of them being enabled with haptics); then we'd not be having this discussion...

...though we would be trying to shoe-horn two batteries into each half of the device so that the Kindle's battery life wouldn't look that much better.

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

Personally, I prefer one of these.

But as to the backlight issue, e-ink is opaque, which is pretty much why it's so much more readable when there's light. But that also means backlighting doesn't work, and there's no real good way of front-lighting a huge display without adding significant depth. So, disregarding battery life, there's a technical obstacle to putting effective illumination in a marketing-compliant form factor.

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

I didn't see a mention of the Kindle price drop -- it's $300 now, which puts it in eligibility range for me. The big wow factor is of course wireless delivery anywhere in the US, and it appears from my research that you can get the kind of books available from Gutenberg delivered wireless for free as well -- can anyone confirm that?

You can definitely have zillions of free books on your Kindle, which is important to cheapskate me. And if you hear about an interesting book, you may easily be able to buy a copy for $9.99 and be reading it five minutes from now. As with much of the best tech, it speeds up a person's whole lifestyle, by eliminating the wait between wanting to read something and reading it.

The no-backlight issue is not a biggie for me. I have a lot of regular books that also don't have backlights, yet I use them. And I have a special feature in my house -- it comes with switches that allow one to turn on electric lights anywhere, instantly! That is very handy, and I recommend it. I also have one of those portable bookreader clip-on lights that I imagine would work.

So, I'm considering getting a Kindle.

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

You can "push" ebooks to your Kindle by emailing Amazon at $0.15 per MB, but there are a couple of ways to "pull" ebooks over Whispernet without paying any charges. Both FeedBooks and MobileRead have catalogues of MOBI ebooks that can be browsed and downloaded from their mobile-compatible sites using the Kindle's web browser (or the browser on a N8X0/770 for that matter). They also both have a "download guide" which is a MOBI ebook that contains their catalogue - click on a link when reading the catalogue to download the ebook. This also works with FBReader on a N8X0/770. These two sites have hundreds of customized ebooks, but ManyBooks.net has the entire Gurenberg catalogue (not as well formatted as FeedBooks or MobiileRead) available via their mnybks.net mobile portal.

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

Thanks for the tech update - didn't know the limitations.

Re: Kindle vs the N800
 

I did buy a Kindle, and 100% of the Project Gutenberg books are available for free on it, and you.get them via Whispernet just fine. In fact, you can use Whispernet for lots of things; in some ways it is like purchasing a lifetime free Internet connection -- free except for the initial cost, of course.

Viewing newspapers on the Kindle is far drabber than on the N800 I'm typing on now. It makes me wish for a hybrid that uses epaper for some things and regular color for others.

The great thing about the Kindle is that there are virtually zero frustrating delays, which I encounter frequently on my N800 and N810.

Text-to-speech on the Kindle works well; the available voices completely outclass any voices you can use on a tablet. I wish I could purchase even more excellent voices on the Kindle -- I miss Serena, with her very cute British accent, which I use on my Win7 PC.

I previously used my tablets for doing a lot of reading and web browsing that I will now do on the Kindle, so that massively impacts how much I will use my tablets. I have purchased subscriptions to the New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly for reading on the Kindle, and am trying out the NY Times on it as well.

You can subscribe to The Economist on the Kindle, but I already subscribe, so I probably won't use the Kindle for it.

I am already half way thru Four Days in November, a book on the JFK assassination I started yesterday after buying it for $9.99 -- fascinating. I am also reading Little Women, one of the free Gutenberg downloads I also have on my tablets.

Clarification: the browsing I say I will be doing above refers to reading the NY Times, not 'real' browsing, which I think the Kindle wouldn't handle well, though I did manage Tweeting on it.