Donna Was RIGHT ALL ALONG !!!!! (or why I got a new E-Reader)

As much as it pains me to admit it, the above statement is true. I give Donna all the credit for being the absolute smartest person in our household. The e-reader revolution was just starting when she chose the Amazon Kindle as her “e-reader of choice”.

I stayed with print books for some time after that, since she reads a lot more than I do. Eventually, I made the brilliant decision ( at the time ) to look at e-readers and see which one I liked the best. After looking at the Kindle, Sony Reader, Kobo, and the Nook, I chose the Barnes and Noble Nook.

The reading screen was e-ink and easy on my eyes, but I also liked the little color touch screen at the bottom where I could select things without using a keyboard. That was the fun way for me to go, and I was very happy with my Nook. One of the reasons I liked it was because I could read different file types on it, and the Kindle couldn’t read some of those same file types. Most of the books that I was reading on it came as direct wireless downloads from the Barnes & Noble website, which I thought was pretty cool at the time.

Then I was introduced (thanks Kate) to the e-reader management software called Calibre. Many of you use that already, but for those that don’t, it’s open source software, free to download and use, and allows you to search the web for books in virtually any file type and then convert those to work on just about any e-reader you happen to have. It really makes things easy, no matter what you’re reading with, so Kindles and Nooks were on even ground there.

With the introduction of the IPad, and then other tablets trying to catch up, 
e-readers became somewhat bashed about in the popular press. The so called “tablet wars” began in earnest, and things will never be the same again.

A good friend of ours is an avid Apple user, and loves all things Mac, so of course the IPad became her reader of choice. It was very impressive, and all the things you could do with it were also intriguing to me, since I’m your basic “gadget geek” and have had a computer of some type since about 1971.

Always enjoyed using them, still have most of them, all Windows based machines. Never really had any particular problems with any of them and have put a lot of software on them over the years. I’m not really a computer gamer, so most of the work I did was in the form of spreadsheets, and I loved Excel, after I got over having to change over from Lotus 123, which was what I learned to use after Visicalc. (Now you begin to understand just how OLD I really am, if you know what I’m talking about there.)  Back in the early days of personal computing, I started out with a Radio Shack TRS80 that didn’t even have a hard drive!

Anyway, you can tell I’m getting off point here, so back to the present. I loved the idea of having an IPad, and all of the cool things that could be done with it. I was pretty sure that was exactly what I was going to do, but I wanted to wait until Apple came out with the IPad3 later this year.

In the meantime, Donna wanted to get a Kindle Fire, and thought that would be something she could enjoy. She’s pretty darn good with computers and technology too, so I was anxious for her to try one and see how she liked it. Donna didn't really have much chance to play with it so she handed it over to me to play with and she never got it back!!

So, I started using it, and discovered that I really enjoyed it. (It’s Donna’s, though.) I soon discovered that using the Amazon Kindle Fire and using the Kindle Reader app on my PC, and with Donna using her Kindle for reading…I was able to do most of the things I wanted to do with the IPad.

The main limitation for me was reading books on the Kindle Fire. That was not comfortable on my eyes. I soon discovered the Kindle DX which is basically an overgrown Kindle, with a 9.7” screen (about 30% larger than the original Kindle screen). It’s very easy on my old eyes, and with the built in 3G and Wireless connectivity, we’re able to seamlessly update all of our reader content at once,
sync any book to the furthest place read, and then pick it up on any of the devices and begin reading right where we left off. Of course, that’s only something I discovered after having more than one Kindle device in the house.

Now, I’m happy using the Kindle Fire for checking my e-mail, blog reading, etc. while I sit in my recliner each morning … and, using the Kindle DX for book reading. Donna still enjoys reading on her Kindle and since she likes different books, that works great for both of us.

It’s not as expensive for us compared to what I was prepared to shell out. For me, an Apple IPad would have led me to a MacBook Pro laptop as well in the near future, since I wouldn’t be happy with a stand alone tablet, I don’t think.
This way I will stick with the Windows machines we already have and use, and enjoy the Amazon network for most of our books, videos, etc.

Streaming video is simple and can be viewed directly on our TV, laptops, or Kindle Fire. I’m happy with what we can do with what we have now, and I can enjoy “playing” with the new “gadgets”. That’s fun for me, but I’m sure it’s not something a lot of other people would feel the same way about.

I’ll still be reading regular books, but now when we travel, we can take a lot more books with us than we had before. We don’t need a wireless connection to read directly from the readers, which is fine. I’m still using my Nook, too, so I guess I’m a “gadget hog” and can’t pull away from the “trough”. All I can say is “oink, burp, excuse me, please”.

Note from Donna:  Along with our new toys, we received a 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime.  I gotta tell you, I'm loving it!  Not only do we get free 2 day shipping on most items from Amazon (no minimum purchase required), we also get many free streaming videos, both on TV and on our Fire.  This service will cost us $79 annually after our free trial and I can see the value already.  I recommend it.