ebook readers and price drops

[sad_winslow]

I coulda sworn I'd replied earlier but maybe I forgot to hit submit.

Steve: too late, I got a Kindle, see the rest of the thread. Thanks for the input, though. I do like the android nature of the nook, and wish the kindle had an SD slot. plus I have a B&N membership so the tie-in would get me some more discounts. But the kindle price was too good to pass up that one day. I don't think I'm sorry that I got it, overall, though. i could've gotten a wifi-only nook for the same price, but the 3g is what sold me.

I didn't like the nook touchscreen one bit from when I played with it in the store a couple times. The kindle keyboard isn't too bad, though a bit slow to update. it's definitely not for speed typing. and i think i would have absolutely detested the keyboards on the older models, they look horrid. the new DX looks downright sexy, I have to admit, but is waaay too pricey.

Agreed that the ipad is a totally different beast. it's a nice beast, though. i have an previous-gen ipod touch already and i have to admit that i really, really like it. reading on it or an ipad, though, isn't the easiest thing. i've played with several book apps and they're.. ok, but the kindle is a thousand times easier on the eyes. ibook is painfully slow on my older itouch. stanza is nice but again the backlight thing just makes it hard to read for long periods of time, whereas i sat down and read an entire book (admittedly a shortish one) on the kindle with no eyestrain like a regular backlit display at all.

i also discovered that target is selling kindles now. i was checking out the cases that they sell, but the ones at the local store were all crap and overpriced to boot, plus none of them even had a hard front to protect the screen. cases for the damn thing are awfully expensive in general. i think i'm going to save up my pennies and get the moleskine one off amazon as soon as i can. it's only a little bit more than the cost of a really crappy one from target. probably shell out for a silicon skin and screen protector, too. i'm nervous about carrying the thing around without a case and don't think i will til i have one.

i am also admittedly a bit jealous of the apps on nook comparatively. amazon just isn't thinking in that direction so far, to their own loss. i am shocked at the so-called 'functionality" of their twitter integration.

and friggin' minesweeper, man. It's just plain insulting. Gomoku is slightly less so, but sudoku and chess are just plain more stimulating to me.

i also wish that amazon had an alternate payment system besides one-click, like a store credit system where i can charge it up with some dollars. it'd help with budgeting so that i don't, eheh, overspend on books, because good grief i do read a *lot*. i am almost never without at least one book or at least a magazine. and it'd be waaay too easy to drain my bank account by going "oo i wanna read that *click*" and bam, money from bank account straight out gone. i wonder if i can buy an amazon gift code and tie the one-click to it, that might be a workaround.

and nobody seems to have any of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books in ebook format yet i lost my print copies ages ago and would dearly love to have them to read again. I've read the Hitchhiker's series literally about 20 times over in my life.