Kindle 3 Review & Free E-Books

Kindle 3 improves on the Kindle 2 in numerous ways -

1. New eInk Pearl Screen with 50% better contrast. Kindle 3 has the new eInk screen (which the DX 2 has) and also software improvements (which DX 2 doesn’t). The contrast is much better than Kindle 2. Side by side Kindle 3 blew away Kindle 2.
2. $189 Price – Kindle 3 manages to stay at $189 despite the improvements.
3. WiFi Support - Kindle 3 has both WiFi and 3G. There’s free book browsing and buying at AT&T WiFi hotspots. There’s also a Kindle WiFi for $139 Kindle 3 improves on the Kindle 2 in numerous ways - 1.New eInk Pearl Screen with 50% better contrast. Kindle 3 has the new eInk screen (which the DX 2 has) and also software improvements (which DX 2 doesn’t). The contrast is much better than Kindle 2. Side by side Kindle 3 blew away Kindle 2. 2.$189 Price – Kindle 3 manages to stay at $189 despite the improvements. 3.WiFi Support - Kindle 3 has both WiFi and 3G. There’s free book browsing and buying at AT&T WiFi hotspots. There’s also a Kindle WiFi for $139 (my Kindle WiFi Review) although the only difference is the lack of free 3G in Kindle WiFi. 4.Lighter, Thinner, and Smaller – Comparing the weights of the Kindle 2 and Kindle 3 was a revelation. It’s 8.7 ounces and feels lighter. It’s also 21% smaller and will fit a coat pocket or a small clutch purse. It’s thinner than the Kindle 2 and the tininess is a bit disconcerting. 5.3 Font Types, Sharper Fonts - Kindle 3 added sans-serif and condensed fonts to the Caecilia serif font. There’s also talk of making fonts sharper via waveform technology that flew over my head. 6.1 Month Battery Life - Yes, you read that right. It’s ‘up to 1 month’ with wireless off and up to 10 days with wireless on. 7.Improved PDF Reader - You can add notes and highlights to PDFs, use the Dictionary, and access password protected PDFs. 8.Accessibility via Text to Speech for Menus, Home Page – Kindle 3 reads home page lists, item descriptions, and menus to you. Add on the supersize fonts and it’s great for blind readers and low vision readers. 9.Quieter Page Turn Buttons - Yup, no more getting cursed at when you’re reading in bed. Easier to push too - though the ends wrap around the edge and it’ll take some adjusting. 10.Double the Memory – You can now store 3,500 books and it’ll soften the pain of not having an SD card slot. although the only difference is the lack of free 3G in Kindle WiFi.
4. Lighter, Thinner, and Smaller – Comparing the weights of the Kindle 2 and Kindle 3 was a revelation. It’s 8.7 ounces and feels lighter. It’s also 21% smaller and will fit a coat pocket or a small clutch purse. It’s thinner than the Kindle 2 and the tininess is a bit disconcerting.
5. 3 Font Types, Sharper Fonts - Kindle 3 added sans-serif and condensed fonts to the Caecilia serif font. There’s also talk of making fonts sharper via waveform technology that flew over my head.
6. 1 Month Battery Life - Yes, you read that right. It’s ‘up to 1 month’ with wireless off and up to 10 days with wireless on.
7. Improved PDF Reader - You can add notes and highlights to PDFs, use the Dictionary, and access password protected PDFs.
8. Accessibility via Text to Speech for Menus, Home Page – Kindle 3 reads home page lists, item descriptions, and menus to you. Add on the supersize fonts and it’s great for blind readers and low vision readers.
9. Quieter Page Turn Buttons - Yup, no more getting cursed at when you’re reading in bed. Easier to push too - though the ends wrap around the edge and it’ll take some adjusting.
10. Double the Memory – You can now store 3,500 books and it’ll soften the pain of not having an SD card slot.

 Being smaller, lighter and more beautiful looking than its predecessor, Kindle 3 has now become one of the most successful e-readers thus far. It has about 50% better contrast than Kindle 2. Page flipping is also made faster thanks to its enhanced e-ink technology. In addition, the battery life is amazing. Especially if you don’t use it that much Kindle 3 can stretch from several days to even a couple of weeks.

Color Nook

The latest and most anticipated news concerning Barnes & Noble’s Nook is its color version. The newest Color Nook e-reader is expected to debut at $249 before the holidays officially kicks in. With this pricing, it is poised to become the priciest e-reader compared to any of Kindle and Kobo’s frontrunner editions. Dubbed as the first all-color touchscreen e-reader, the Color Nook comes with more games, e-books, newspapers, magazines and other reading materials. Like its predecessors, it uses the top performing Android OS.

Barnes & Noble said that pre-orders will all be welcomed starting this week and the shipment of the e-reader is targeted by mid November. Weighing at almost 1 pound, having a battery that stretches to about 8 hours and a powerful 7-inch touch screen, the Color Nook places itself as a top e-book reader.

Kobo Wireless

If you want to have an alternative for the top e-book names above then why don’t you settle with an alternative like the Kobo? Kobo has always been one of the choices and not just your other e-reader choice. In fact, Kobo is trying to join the competitive field with its new incorporation of magazine and newspapers with Kobo Wireless. To address such, major publications such as the New York Times and PC Magazine have already joined in among others. To see the full list of available publications, you can readily visit the Kobo site for more details. There has also been some word that the e-reader can also use some iOS Apps, on top of its new WiFi connectivity that was not available at its first launch.

Nevertheless, magazines will be billed at $2.99 monthly while newspapers are priced at $13.99. Both are available on a subscription basis. The publications will be directed to your Kobo as soon as it gets published, that is, if you have already subscribed.

Although prices vary, Kobo Wireless with three color choices seems to be the cheapest of the three (with Nook and Kindle as the other two). It has a 6-inch e-ink display and a 32 GB expandable SD card slot. Some of the files supported by this e-book reader are DRM (Adobe) files

 The Nook Color will not run apps straight out of the Android Market, but that does not mean it cannot run them. In fact, they have done a lot of tests on apps from standard Android smartphones and they pretty much run on Nook Color, which has Android 2.1 under the hood. (The Nook native interface and apps are just standard Android application layers.) Barnes & Noble special Nook SDK runs on top of the standard Android one and gives developers access to exclusive extensions and APIs for the Nook and its interface. So porting Android apps is not difficult. B&N says it is more like optimising them for Nook than porting them.
Nook Color screen is supposed to be better (less reflective) for reading than iPad as it’s using a new LG screen with anti-reflection coating.
It allows to play video, listen to the music, view Office documents and PDF’s.
If you prefer eInc screen, original Nook is still available.

In addition, the battery life is amazing. Especially if you don’t use it that much Kindle 3 can stretch from several days to even a couple of weeks.” So if I leave it charged but turned off it should last what? Forever? So much for my constant reading every chance I stand still for more than 5 mins. 2 days to 2 weeks, doesn’t sound like a good gamble.