E-Readers with Web Browsers, and WiFi vs 3G cellular access

At the right is a photo of my Kindle being used to look up reviews at Costco before any purchasing decisions.

  (You can click on the picture to see the larger image.)

 Now that Spring Design's $360 Alex is out and the Barnes and Noble Nook has been updated to enable web-browsing (I tried it out the other day), it's a good time to review what the differences are between those units' web-access and the Kindle's.

  A good example is from an email sent me two days ago by a woman whose son is in Spain with his Kindle (Int'l version sold since Oct '09) and who had just sent her an email from his Kindle --

" He is riding on a bus in a very rural area between Madrid and their destination city in northern Spain. "

 As a U.S. resident with the International Kindle, his cellular wireless web browsing is enabled also, when travelling abroad, at no added cost (as Amazon's wireless costs in the U.S. are said to be considerably less expensive for the company than is possible in other countries right now, though Jeff Bezos has said he hopes to make web-browsing available globally eventually).
  The speed of access of the Kindle's experimental browser has improved in the last few months.

  I have tips on speeding up the access and a downloadable file with links to mobile-device optimized sites and a guide for that.

Almost two years ago, I was riding in an Airporter going across the San Francisco Bay Bridge and used the older, original Kindle to send an email to someone.  With the shallow keyboard, you will not want to send a long email, but you can send short notes.

  Many gadget sites don't know that this almost-anywhere web-browsing is possible with the Kindle but not for the Nook, Alex, Sonys, Kobo or iPad (although the latter's web access when you're near a WiFi hot spot is a lot more pleasureable and colorful).

A LISTING OF THE DIFFERENCES
  1.  Cellular Wireless access from anywhere - That's 3G cellphone-type access from anywhere you happen to be if there is a cellphone tower nearby (AT&T or Sprint for the Kindle, depending on the model).
  The bookstore can be accessed wherever you are while reading a book.
  For the Kindle, that's true globally as well, and residents of the U.S., Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico have general, unlimited web-browsing enabled, at no additional cost.
  Non-USA residents not in those 4 areas have 24/7 free 3G wireless access to Wikipedia on the Kindle.  The other devices are limited to accessing only their stores with that 3G access for downloading.

  The Kindle, Nook, and Sony Daily Edition all use cellular wireless for book-downloads from their bookstores and at no added cost to the user.  Book downloads are doable essentially anywhere.

  That is not doable with the Alex, the Kobo, most Sonys or the current WiFi-only iPad.  I've read that many current iPad owners are trading up to the later 3G model due in May.

  The $629 iPad coming out officially on May 7 will use 3G and that will also require an additional $15-$30 for any month that this type of access is used on the iPad.

 The Alex will not have this type of access either, on its first, current model, but it's planned for a later model.

Web-browsing (in addition) using the 3G cellular network access
Only the Kindle has this (in the 4 geographic areas listed above), and it's at no added cost.
I'll indent the next part so that it's clearer as it's about a unique feature.

This particular cellphone-style access to the full web instead of just to the bookstore means you can access Google or ESPN or NY Times, etc. (preferably in their mobile-device versions for speed) almost anywhere you happen to be, whether in a bus, in your dentist's waiting room, in the car (as a passenger or stopped), in any restaurant, etc.

  The portability factor is large with many.
You can also download books directly to the Kindle from a few other online book sites this way, detailed at the free-books page.

  What's unique about the Kindle's access is that if you're sitting, waiting somewhere (almost anywhere in the world) reading a book on the Kindle International, you can begin a highlighting of a word or phrase on the page, finish it with a spacebar and the Kindle copies that word or phrase into the search bar -- and then you can press the 5-way navigation button to the right until you see and click on "Wiki," which will take you to the Wikipedia pages that match the search phrase (your Wireless feature would have to be turned On of course).

 When finished, press the Back button, and you're back where you started on the page in the book.  The Wikipedia feature works for any Kindle International model, globally, with wireless access available in their area (most).

  2.  WiFi wireless access - This works when you are set up to use a WiFi network that is in your home, your office, or in certain hotspots you might find such as Starbucks or McDonald's.  You'll normally need to do a special connection to the network the first time, and if it has the minimal security recommended, you'd need the private code for it.  Sometimes it requires a log-on screen.
  Barnes and Noble Nook users would be able to use it at that store.

 This is the type used by the current iPad, and Alex. (Turns out the Kobo uses only either bluetooth or the simple USB cable method to get e-books onto it._

 The cellular-wireless iPad ($130 extra, or $629 total) will be ready late April for those who pre-ordered it, and the official release is May 7.  As mentioned, there are web-access fees ($15-$30) charged for any month you use that type of wireless for an iPad.  AT&T will provide the web-access.

  SPECIAL NOTE:  Apple has identified a WiFi problem in some iPads and they readily replace the iPad when you contact them.

  WiFi networks, although limiting you to local areas, are faster, generally, than cellular networks, for web-browsing.

NOOK web-browser upgrade
When I was at Barnes and Noble, a very helpful customer support person named Amanda (El Cerrito, Ca) took me through quite a bit of it.

  The Nook's newly enabled web-browser, although limited in where you can use it, uses the bottom LCD panel to 'Goto' the web.  When you get a webpage, the slice of it that you can see in that small window is in color, and when I tried a photo site, it was really pleasing to see that, even if you can see only maybe a 5th of the photo since part of the lower screen is still used for other things.

  The one thing that was somewhat problematical was that when I was on a webpage and wanted to go to another one and called up the GoTo or Location box and started typing the URL, the Nook's e-Ink screen above would flash and refresh after each and every keypress.  That was disorienting.  I spent only 20 minutes on it, but maybe there's a way to avoid it, or they'll fix that with the next update.

  If I'd never used a Kindle and known about its ability to use the web browser anywhere, I still probably would have bought it on the spot.  I saw it on the first day, so everyone was very 'up' about it and I enjoyed getting webpages on it.  The Nook is a great looking reader but, as a Kindle user, I still find it has too many menu steps and I don't enjoy controlling the top with the bottom controls on a separate screen, as it makes me feel as if I'm operating a remote control with accompanying mini-delays.  Nook owners have no problem with that though.

  My 2nd choice now would be the Nook, unless they improve the Alex, which has a full screen at the bottom, but it's $100 more expensive than either the Nook or the Kindle.

FUTURE COMPARISON OF MAJOR DEDICATED E-READER FEATURES
  I'll probably update this and will eventually do a a blog entry comparing the various features of the dedicated e-readers mentioned.  By then, there'll probably be another dozen e-readers out.

IPADS AND OTHER TABLETS.  IPADS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON MARKETPLACE
  And now, other tablets competing with the Apple iPad are also gearing up for release, while the iPad is often out of stock at stores.  Amazon marketplace stores have new iPads at elevated prices for those who don't want to wait, but I'd check the quality ratings and number of ratings for the stores.

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See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
  Check often: Latest free non-classics, shortcut http://bit.ly/latestfreenonclassics.)

Thoughts on the iPad from an e-book reader point of view

Besides loving to read on e-paper technology with its clarity and on the Kindle with its well-thought-out, direct reading & study features, I also love doing the Web on my 10" Samsung Netbook  (NC10-14). So the thoughts are on that also.

Re the e-reader, the Apple team was apparently given two weeks to put that together, unless I mis-read the transcript. It's made to look as if you're reading a physical book, but there were no words I saw in the live blogging transcripts (Wired, Engadget, CNet) about the e-reader functions for Searches, inline-instantly-accessible dictionary, highlighting, notes, etc.

The Amazon Kindle Store
The article last night from Engadget quoting WSJ: Apple wants e-books to be $12.99 or $14.99...for best sellers turned out to be right.

Steve Jobs wants the publishers to charge more (which is how they will get more from the deal with Jobs) than is charged at Amazon for the bestsellers (!) Then, both publishers and Apple will be happier, but what about the book-buying customers? Why would customers buy from iTunes store or iBook store rather than from Amazon in that case?

Also, if - as Jobs said - the iPad will work with all apps that currently work with the iPod (a great feature) and then the Amazon Kindlestore itself, with its lower prices for best sellers, will be available on the iPad, why would people choose to pay more at the Apple store for a best seller?

I imagine that the Apple store will offer all kinds of bonuses for buying from their store, credits to get this or that. But people tend to go for the best price, direct. Still, Apple customers are very loyal so those may go with the Apple store, but I doubt that very many would.

So, the Amazon Kindlestore would get that many more buying customers -- those who had not bought a Kindle before or who had read Kindle books only on their PCs with the free Kindle for PC app.

E-Reader Dictionary and Annotation Functions
From the photos, the iBook effect is very pretty, but I couldn't see from the photos that it will be sharp and clear in the way an e-paper display (e-Ink and others) is with a screen that's not putting light into your eyes. I guess it'll be left up to developer apps to add the searching and annotation functions? They weren't mentioned and are key.

And those who want a clear e-reader without dictionary or annotation tools can get one for about $200 with the pocketable but very readable Sony PRS-300, though it has no wireless access.

iPad vs the 6" Kindle International
More on the above when I get to Apple's decent pricing for a Web tablet -- but as pricing for an e-reader-plus, the iPad won't threaten the Kindle International ("Global") as the lead e-reader for people who want to read books comfortably (size and clarity of text on screen) at a reasonable price for both the device and the books themselves.

Every day there's a column on the Net written by a columnist who had resisted ereaders for the usual reasons (look, touch, smell) succumbing to the reading experience of the Kindle. People who love to read books are the target audience for the bulk of dedicated e-readers, rather than whose who want to surf and be visually entertained.

The DX, though, will have to be given PDF editing tools and ePub reading capability for it to be chosen in academia, not that there is editing of PDFs for the iPad at the moment either.

McGraw-Hill
We also get a clue as to why the McGraw-Hill exec was so forthcoming in that CNBC interview last night despite non-disclosure agreements normally made and respected. They weren't part of the 5 publishers highlighted today as getting with the entire program, though obviously they'll participate in some way.

iPad vs Netbooks
Some points that come to mind when Steve Jobs put down netbooks (with commenters on the live blogging sites writing back that netbooks are actually faster and more powerful than the iPad w/o a need to buy and carry add-ons to make it more worthwhile):

Jobs isn't targeting business-use laptops but I don't see that most of us who love our small but 10"-screen netbooks will want to get this, as we have 160G to 300G hard drives to store the videos he was showing and a real keyboard plus touchpad to do mousing chores. And it can do many things at once.

List of problems for the iPad vs the netbook audience it wants:
1. No multi-tasking possible
2. No flash (!) for the Web? But Jobs has been adamantly against using it.
3. 1 connection for USB port capability if you buy a special adapter
4. Storage ability not at all great for a WEB device - especially for people with laptop-use like the photographers who thought they could travel with the iPad and store their photos on it while being able to view and edit later at 64G storage, tops, at a cost of $800+.
And still photos do not begin to take the storage space of videos. Video hounds tend to want to keep many videos on at once.
5. Some commenters said it's too big for your pocket, too small for meaningful work or even play.
6. A physical keyboard means extra$ and also extra weight to carry.

For some reason, people did not expect just a giant iPod.

Pricing
The pricing, as I said, is very good for a web-device if you want one.
From the transcript:

11:22 Here are the options:
Wi-Fi only:
16GB $500
32GB $600
64GB $700

Wi-Fi + 3G:
16GB $630
32GB $740 Should be $730
64GB $830

It’ll be shipping in 60 days; 90 days for 3G models.

What's smart, and attractive, is the no-contract price of $15/mo. for 250M of data
(but it's a useless amount data for most though a few can stay under that and some will not realize they can't).

Even $30/month for unlimited cellular wireless is good because most netbooks sold on 2-year contracts with Sprint and Verizon (the netbooks are sold for $150 avg) require a $60/mo. for those 2-years for ALMOST unlimited wireless.

This part would be a coup were it not that AT&T who will provide this has been asking users not to use the wireless so much as they can't handle the capacity in a few cities. So what will they do now?

BASE price then, before add-on wireless keyboard, covers, cases, webcam (which almost all notebooks have, built in) for the 3G wireless is $630, with only 16G storage for a device that was shown doing streaming video that some will want to keep (and on their netbooks they can), and a plethora of other things.

So the most PRACTICAL starting point is really 32G at $740 $730 (the transcript is off by $10; thanks to Batman for the correction) - before the data plan is added. Kudos for the lower starting points for those who can live with the limitations on a data-gobbling device.

In the iPad's Favor
A point in the iPad's favor: Most netbooks equipped to have 3G access instead of just WiFi WILL cost $40 (ultra limited access) to $60 per month with the requirement that buyers pay this amount for 2 years. With the iPad there is no contract needed for the lower pricing of $30/mo. for 'unlimited' access (when AT&T is able to handle it).

My Take on the iPad
My take: Elegant Jack of all trades, Master of none in a lighter, but far less flexible package than a netbook. And so far I think it will suffice for e-reading for people who are not that keen on reading entire books often, but who read mainly in spurts and are interested more in newspapers and magazine reading and haven't yet bought an e-reader due to lack of interest.

Those who do want to read many books on one dedicated device but who were waiting to see what the Apple is like before buying an e-reader will look at $259 for a many-featured, efficient e-reader like the Kindle, or the Sony or even the Nook (though the Nook is currently extremely buggy in the most basic operations after update 1.11 and so inefficient that it's hard to say how it will do long-term, but readers who haven't used more direct, capable, and reliable e-readers will enjoy the Nook because it does have the best screen contrast of the e-readers, looks great and is priced well).

The Kindle-Killer hopes
For now, there is still no "Kindle-killer," as many gadgeteers like to say, where the $259 Kindle Int'l is concerned, coming as it does with free 24/7 Net access in the U.S., Japan, HongKong and Mexico for text-based lookups and with, at the least, live Wikipedia access at no cost, globally, in addition to an excellent e-paper reading experience.

The key is with long-session sequential text reading vs the random reading done with newspapers and magazines. LCD screens are not doable for most with that kind of reading focus.
I can leave this low-white-tuned desktop screen bleary-eyed, with almost blurred vision, and go read on the Kindle and then remain awake for hours caught up in the reading, with no strain on the eyes and my vision back to normal.

Amazon needs to work on the Kindle DX to make it more attractive to business and academia.
Again, ePub format support is required as is the editing of PDFs for those two target audiences.

For people like me (and there are many) I favor reading on the DX because of its extremely vivid clarity and the ability to read PDFs very well (web-info is usually offered in PDF format) while it handles illustrations in books with far better detail than the smaller e-readers. The Kindle's annotation tools and webpage support for those annotations + the design of their dictionary use are prime, and it remains to be seen how the iPad will handle these areas later as well as the effect on the eyes for any long-session reading.

That's it for now :-) Comments from others are very welcome, of course.

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Photo Credit: Wired.com

CNet review and some corrections

Here's a new CNet review that is more thorough than most today (after so many e-readers hit the market and very few have been actually really trying them out for functioning before reviewing them). The downsides are explored in this review, and buyers should be aware of them.

I'm linking readers to the review but pointing out a few erroneous statements (which are somewhat common to Kindle reviews) for those wondering about the pros and cons of the the Kindle International 6" reader. Still, the review is much more accurate than most I've read.

According to CNet, the font darkness or screen contrast is now better than it was with the Kindle 2.
Although they say, rightly, that the free websurfing is slower than we'd want but it's doable, they don't understand why Barnes and Noble is not giving this web-surfing capability with the Nook reader. (It's costly.)

Correction 1
On page 2, CNet says that *.txt and *.jpg files can't be natively viewed on the Kindle and that this is problematical.  The Kindle does natively view .txt files, and jpg files are read with a 'pictures' folder function though the latter's not that easy to use.

Correction 2
They also say that you'll "need to email" these and other formats for conversion at a cost of 10 cents per file. No, you can email them to be converted and sent to your computer for free and then move the converted files to the Kindle yourself with the USB cable. No cost.
  There IS a charge for mailing them direct to the Kindle and that is now 15 cents per file (per megabyte of file). They are right that the Kindle 2 does not natively read PDF files but converts them, which is allright for novels, but not particularly accurate with multi-column text and complex pages with illustration and labels. On the other hand no 6" reader will show these well and anyone needing PDF reading capability should go with the coming Plastic Logic's larger model or iRex's due in December, though they'll be more expensive. They allow annotations on PDFs, which is important for academics and business users.
  Update - I should have mentioned that the Kindle DX does a good job of reading PDFs and enlarges them when you rotate the unit.  It currently does not allow editing of PDFs but we can convert copies to flowing-text "mobi" or "prc" files for that while using the original PDFs for reading, on the DX, the layout as presented.

Correction 3
CNet writes that "The Kindle is natively compatible with only Amazon's own .azw file format" - what you get from the Amazon Kindle store. This is decidedly not true.  It reads, natively, 'mobi' and 'prc' files which you can get and download for free from places like http://feedbooks.net, http://manybooks.net (http://mnybks.net) and as I have said often, this also includes 30,000 well-formatted free "mobi" books from Project Gutenberg.

Correction 4
They also say that you "can't read the huge library of free Google books, but you can, with a simple 3-minute conversion.

Correction 5
CNet's review claims that Kindle's Whispersync does not allow two people to read a book at the same time. This is misleading at best. Whispersync is for people who want to read on one device and continue reading on a second device.
  Those sharing a Kindle account can just turn off Whispersync and then up to 6 people sharing that account can read a given book at the same time for the cost of one book.

Despite the above, the review has very good information, otherwise.

(Am still on vacation but reading every now and then.)

Amazon Customer Svc: Charging Kindle Internationally - Update

Amazon Kindle Customer Service posted (and updated) to their Forums the following advisory Sunday:

' Charging your Kindle Internationally
Kindle ships to most countries with a U.S. power adapter and a micro-USB cable. The U.S. power adapter supports voltages between 100V-240V.

Charging from your computer via USB:
When using the USB cable to charge your Kindle via your computer, charging times can vary greatly from 4 to 12 hours.  We recommend keeping your computer plugged in while charging. Some computers limit the power supply to USB ports when not plugged in which will result in a slower charge.  Additionally, some computers have both "low powered" and "high powered" USB ports.  If your Kindle is charging slowly, please try other USB ports which may provide more power.

Charging using the U.S. power plug with a 3rd party physical plug adapter:
If you are outside the U.S. and choose to use the Kindle power adapter with a physical plug adapter (adapts the two prong U.S. power adapter to the local power outlet), make sure the local plug adapter is compatible with Kindle and read and follow all safety instructions for the plug adapter.

I don't actually know what this one means since I am currently visiting another country that requires a physical plug adapter to have my normal electronic items work and these are just about always 3rd party and I haven't seen any local plug adapter info about compatibility with Kindle but they should be.  I get my physical plug adapters from REI or Radio Shack or Target, and the one I'm using in Egypt does help to power the Kindle DX fine (light turns green and there is plenty of reserve).

Charging using the USB cable and a 3rd party USB power adapter:
3rd party USB power adapters vary greatly in their specifications.  Many of these USB power adapters will not properly charge Kindle.  If you attempt to charge Kindle with a 3rd party USB adapter, and the battery icon on the Kindle screen has a lightning bolt through it, the USB charger is working and the device is charging.  If the battery icon does not have a lightning bolt through it, the USB charger is unsupported and the device is not charging.

In general, charging your Kindle should follow this sequence:

* Connect your Kindle to a power source.
* Light on the bottom of the Kindle will display yellow.
* Battery indicator on the top of the home screen should have a lightning bolt through it.
* If your Kindle battery was run down completely so that the screen turned off prior to charging, it may take up to 60 minutes of charging for the screen to come on.
* If the screen does not come on or the lightning bolt is not displayed, the charging source is not working and Kindle is not charging.
* Light displays green when the battery is fully charged.

We do not recommend using a 3rd party USB power adapter. 3rd party USB power adapters vary greatly in their specifications.  Many of these adapters will not properly charge your Kindle and may also cause your Kindle to become slow or unresponsive.  If this occurs plug your Kindle into a computer USB port or restart your Kindle. '

The forum Amazon forum thread includes questions and useful comments from Amazon Kindle users.  Australian Kindle owners especially should read these.  But others should read these as well and join in with any tips they may have.