I saw some pricing around the £100 mark. It's very tempting.

I am seriously tempted. If I have £150 lying around in October, I'll get one.

The iPad is, frankly, crap for reading books. The TFT would hurt my eyes after a while (the Kindle screen is much easier on the eyes and can be read in direct sunlight, unlike the iPad), and the battery life just isn't good enough. The Kindle lasts for a whole month with wi-fi off, I doubt the iPad would last a day, not to mention the free 3G (iPad requires a data contract).

Its interesting you have such a strident opinion on a device your post suggests you haven't actually used for any length of time.

As for the 3G, the iPad one can be used for anything, the Kindle one for downloading books. Not exactly an equivalent service are they?

Amazon: why we won't make a touchscreen Kindle (Or colour, yet)

Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/portable- ... z0v6eH3Drn

Fair enough, and if I was looking for something to browse the web with or play games on obviously the iPad would win out. However, for reading books, the Kindle wins hands down.

I dont see Kindle and iPad as a comparison. Ok the iPad can do books but it is £320 more expensive for the cheapest wifi only models. As Linux said if you want to read books the Kindle wins hand down.

I'd say that for reading books, books win hands down.

As for £100 for a plastic, grey scale display text reader?
Pull the other one.

It's funny, despite the reasonable level of popularity of audio books, we still don't often ask people if they've heard the latest Pratchett (unless, I imagine, you know a lot of blind people).

Ironically, books work better as kindling too.

I have them all.. in book and audio format

Same here.
Except the audio thing.

Still not convinced by the epaper things. The flicker as you turn pages is very annoying, and tells me that it‘s not really ready for prime time. The lack of colour means that you won’t be getting your comics or magazines on them yet either.

The iPad is, for me, much better. It’s a multi use device - so I don’t have to carry the Kindle AND something else with me to do other casual stuff like, well, this. The iPad does ePub - an open format - as well as PDFs. I’ve not tried standing up for any length of time with an iPad reading - but then I’ve never stood up reading a book for any length of time either.

I have a friend who loves audio books, and listens to them in the car. Another person I know uses them to help them sleep, as they suffer from an anxiety disorder.

The advantage of the kindle is that you can take many books everywhere. 250g isn't going to add much to your weight limit on your Ryanair flight either, a handful of paper backs will though.

This is, I think, the only strength it has over physical media.
Then again, unless you're studying, how many books do most folk have on the go at once?
Occasionally, I'll have maybe 2 on the go. Usually, I have none. Which means when I am reading, I'm only reading one book at a time.
Even if I were going on holiday for two weeks somewhere nice, I'd probably only pack a couple of books.

I found it interesting to hear that eBooks now outsell hard backs.

Of course hard back sales only represent a tiny minority of total book sales, but it still demonstrates a significant uptake.


Very droll

+1 Books every time.