Tech Wham | Ereader Tablet and Ebook Reader Reviews, Videos, and Comparisons

If you have a mother that loves to read, you might want to consider getting an ebook reader this Mother’s Day. Or would you rather live with the fact that your Mother is getting smacked by a hard back book in the nose when she falls asleep at night? Of course not. Of course not.

Ereaders are still very hot items, and will definitely be a hot gift this 2012 Mother’s Day. Which new ebook readers are the hottest thing? There have been some new developments. Take a look and choose which one is best for Mom this year.

The Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire is the hottest new ebook tablet reader of the year by far. It combines ebook reading with tablet computing, giving the user the best of both worlds at a price that won’t break the bank. If you’ve a mother who wants to surf the web, play some games, and read all on one device, then the Fire is a great choice.

Of course, let’s face it, many mothers out there aren’t the most tech-savvy people. Perhaps they’ll get more use out of an E-Ink ebook reader.

The Kindle and Kindle Touch

This year Amazon released a new family of Kindles. The new base model Kindle for $79 is a simple substitution for paper book reading. It’s navigation is simple and the pricing is right for a cheap but very useful gift.

The Kindle Touch is Amazon’s E-Ink touch screen reader. It’s a little easier to navigate with a touch screen, comes with more memory, and more features.

Check out Amazon’s Mother’s Day Kindle Deals (30% off)

The New Nook Simple Touch With “Glowlight”

The new Nook Glowlight version is a slightly more expensive version of the Nook Simple Touch, but it has a softly glowing back lit E-Ink screen to aid in reading at night. This is an innovation that has definitely perked up the ears of other competitors in the E-Ink ebook reader market. The reader can be read in bright sunlight with ease, just like other E-Ink models, but makes an exterior light unnecessary for night reading.

NOOK® Special Offer – Save $20 on NOOK, Plus Get a Free NOOK Gift Bag with Free Shipping! Limited Time Only.

Other Readers Mom May Enjoy This Mother’s Day

The Nook Simple Touch is a hot E-Ink reader for the last couple years running. For a full color tablet reader from B and N, you may want to check out the Nook Color or the Nook Tablet. The difference being the Tablet is a more robust reader than the Color.

Amazon and Barnes and Noble definitely have the hottest ereaders on the market, and you’ll find loyal customers on both sides. You may want to check out some of our in depth reviews here and videos to see which is best for what your mother may need this Mother’s Day. Rest assured, an ereader is a great idea this year for a gift. She’s sure to thank you for it!

Last holiday season Barnes and Noble really shook things up with it’s new Nook Color, a color touch ebook reader. Now it’s Amazon’s turn to shock everyone with it’s new Kindle Fire. This 2011 holiday season and beyond is going to have a lot of people wondering, which is the better choice? Let’s compare the new Kindle Fire vs Nook Color side by side and see which comes out on top.

Kindle Fire vs Nook Color Video- Our Hands On Comparison

Click to visit Amazon.com For the Kindle Fire

Click to visit Barnes and Noble for the Nook Color

Kindle Fire Vs. Nook Color

After seeing the above video, it’s pretty apparent the Kindle Fire looks to react to the user’s touch much smoother and faster, and it looks to make nice intuitive sense.

Let’s compare the Kindle Fire vs. Nook Color features side by side now. Here’s a convenient chart to quickly see the differences between the two devices.

	Kindle Fire	Nook Color
Price	$199.00	$199.00
Memory	8 GB (Free Cloud Backup/Overflow)	8 GB
Expandable Memory?	No	Yes
# of Apps Available	16,640	729
App Store	Kindle Apps For Android	Nook Color Apps
Screen Size	7 Inches	7 Inches
Screen Resolution	1,024 x 600	1,024 x 600
3G?	No	No
Battery Life	8 Hours	8 Hours
Browser	Amazon Silk	Customized Android
Camera?	No	No
Device Dimensions	7.5″ x 4.7″ x .45″	8.1″ x 5″ x .48″
Content	Amazon	Barnes and Noble
Wireless Delivery Of Content Outside the U.S.?	Yes	No
Availability?	Available Now	Available Now

Kindle Fire Vs Nook Color- Features

One can see there are some obvious differences when looking at the above chart. Specifically, a Kindle Fire user will be able to enjoy many more apps on the device, free cloud storage, much more media availability, and faster web browsing if Silk is all it’s hyped up to be. However, will the “Cloud” be well received by customers? We’ll see.

Browser Winner: Amazon’s Silk Browser

Amazon’s browser will certainly be faster than Barnes and Noble’s customized Android browser. Amazon has promised ultra fast web browsing, taking advantage of their EC2 Cloud service to help load essential pieces of a page faster. If you want a technical explanation, you can visit Amazon.com to see their Silk Browser Video. However, just taking a look at the video above shows the difference in browsers.

The Silk Browser for Fire is more intuitive, faster, and streams videos with flawlessness. The Nook Color browser is clunky and slow. Streaming videos play great audio, but the video is choppy every time we try it here at Tech WHAM.

Memory Winner: Kindle Fire

People are going to dislike the “Cloud” notion, and will fight having all of their content only accessible when connected to the internet, but that’s not a perfect explanation of the situation when you see how the Kindle Fire actually works.

One can toggle in between “Cloud” and “Device” functions to swap content on or off the device. That means if there is ever a point in time when the user is running out of space for a movie, book, or other piece of digital content, they just need to put something on the cloud to make room. Next time the user is within wi-fi range, they can swap the content out for new on the cloud.

Some, like me, will embrace this new technology. “The Cloud” seems a good idea, especially for Kindle Fire users, because you never have to worry about memory, for no extra cost. Cloud backup comes free. For non-Amazon content, users will get 5 GB free usage on the Cloud Drive, then will have to pay a subscription after that. One example of this is a 20GB subscription for $20 per year.

Price Winner? Both are now $199.00. 

So Which Is Best? Kindle Fire or Nook Color?

It’s apparent that when you compare the Kindle Fire vs Nook Color, Amazon’s device offers more for the same price. Our assessment is the user interface, reaction time of the device, web browser, and overall user experience is just better on the Amazon Kindle Fire. Of course, you may want to check out our Nook Tablet vs Kindle Fire page to see how the Tablet fairs differently. In the end, both are going to be very popular devices this holiday season. Both the Kindle and Nook devices have loyal fan bases.

Related posts…

Kindle vs. Nook
Kindle vs. Nook Color
Nook Tablet vs Kindle Fire

Ad example for the Kindle With Special Offers

Amazon has unveiled it’s newest model of ebook reader, the “Kindle With Special Offers”. What’s the difference between the Kindle With Special Offers vs. Kindle? Let’s compare the two and see if it’s a good value or not.

Kindle With Special Offers vs Kindle Difference #1- The Special Offers

The glaring first difference between these devices is the “Special Offers” that will be available on the Kindle With Special Offers. It’s a glorified way of saying, “This Kindle has ads”.

Amazon has made it clear that the device will have 4 default special offers to begin with…

1. $10 for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card
2. $6 for 6 Audible Books
3. $1 for an album in the Amazon MP3 Store
4. $10 for $30 of products in the Amazon Denim Shop or Amazon Swim Shop

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? DENIM SHOP??

The other thing many are no doubt wondering, “Will ads be staring at me when I’m trying to read my books?” The answer is no. The ads will be shown on the screen savers (seen in picture) and also on the home screen, not within the books themselves.

KWSO Vs Kindle Difference #2- Pricing

The newest model of Kindle is being offered at $25 dollars less than the cheapest WiFi only model. Ironically, Amazon will undoubtedly make bundles more in sales with showing these ads to people than the $25 dollar cut they will take on the sale of the ebook reader.

This is brilliant stuff, business-wise, from Amazon. They are getting on the band-wagon with other apps on smart phones and Tablet PCs that show ads within to generate revenue. It’s upsetting some people who find the idea disgusting, but thankfully they have a choice to opt-out of the ads by not purchasing the Kindle With Special Options, and instead go with the Kindle.

You can click here to visit Amazon and learn more about the Kindle With Special Options…

As always, tell us what YOU think below!

Many people looking for an ebook reader find themselves comparing and weighing the IPad vs Nook Color vs Nook vs Kindle. This is obviously a slight case of comparing apples to oranges…to grapes (?), but nonetheless, it’s important to at least compare the back lit screens with the E-Ink screens before choosing the right device for you.

This page will attempt to compare these 4 devices in meaningful and useful ways to help you choose what is best for your situation.

Video: IPad vs Nook Color vs Kindle vs Nook- How Well Do They Perform In Different Lighting Conditions?

You can click to visit Amazon.com for the Kindle or IPad…

You can click to visit Barnes and Noble.com for the Nook Color or Nook…

All In One Devices Or Ebook Readers?

IPad- The Ipad is obviously an all in one device that can be used as an ebook reader. It’s probably a safe bet that those who are purchasing the IPad (or IPad 2 at this point) are doing so for the all-in-one aspects of the device. The experience of reading on the device is taken into account along with watching movies, playing games, working on the device and listening to music.

Kindle and Nook- Those who are buying these ebook readers are looking to read ebooks. If one is buying an EInk ebook reader like the Nook or Kindle to surf the web, then they are in for a terrible experience!

The Nook Color- The waters are a little murkier as to what this device is. It doesn’t have the battery life of an ebook reader, or the capabilities of a tablet pc, yet still has a good many features of a color touch ereader device.

The POINT? These are obviously all different devices and have their strengths and weaknesses between them. Hopefully the video above helps you see the reading experience for all 4 side by side. Now the question is what you are willing to sacrifice in some areas in order to gain benefits in the other.

The Nook Color Vs IPad- How Do The Two Devices Differ?

The video below is a basic look at the Nook Color and IPad side by side. You’ll notice some of the limitations of the Nook Color compared to the IPad for certain things. Of course, for double the price, the IPad should be a little more robust!

You can click HERE to visit the Nook Color at Barnes and Noble.com…

You can click HERE for the IPad at Amazon.com…

The Big Question: What Do You Want In A Reading Screen? LCD vs E-Ink

It’s all going to come down to preference and your intended use choosing between the Nook, Nook Color, Ipad, or Kindle 3. If you can’t live without color and touch, then you must be willing to live with short battery life. There is going to be the challenge of seeing through glare and fingerprint smudges. You can always try a screen protector to minimize both of these. It is also well known that back lit LCD screens strain eyes more than Eink screens, so one must be aware of this.

If you are looking for battery longevity, little to no glare when reading outside, and don’t mind reading in black and white, then you may want to just compare the Kindle vs Nook and forget about LCD touch screens. E-Ink screens have also been found to be less strain on the eyes for longer reading sessions.

Other Considerations…

If you want to be reading ePub files, then you’ll have to choose between the Nook, Nook Color or iPad. The Kindle does not allow for use of the ePub. Reading a PDF file is doable on all 4 devices, but if you are in the habit of needing to read complicated, color-filled and well laid out presentations in PDF form, then the iPad will obviously be a good choice.

If you want a very large E-Ink reading screen, then the Kindle DX may be a good fit for you.

Nook vs Kindle vs IPad (and IPad 2) vs Nook Color Pricing

iPad- Can be found at Amazon for anywhere between $419.99 (16 gigabytes) and up for other models.
iPad 2- Can be found at Apple.com and Amazon.com.

Nook Color- Can be purchased at Barnes and Noble.com for $199.

Nook- Can be purchased at Barnes and Noble.com for $149 and $199 (WiFi only and WiFi+3G).

Kindle 3- Can be purchased at Amazon for $139 and $189 (WiFi only and WiFi+3G).

Hopefully this page has helped you choose between the iPad vs Nook Color vs Nook vs Kindle. They are all different devices, well suited for different needs. It will come down to preference of type of reading screen and ultimately the price you are willing to pay.