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ipad... or competitor... gift for wife new student

W

whyrichard

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 15, 2002
1,716
9
Hello!

I need some advice regarding the ipad vs. kindle vs. nook...

I want to get my wife a gift, she is a new grad student and has to read hundreds of pages of text every few days. It would certaintly benifit her to have something digital for her pdf's!

I was hopeing to wait for the next version of the ipad w/camera, however it seems a bit urgent... and the prices for the kindle and nook are so low...

SO... i was hoping to get some advice for the following:

-which is the easiest on the eyes to read a pdf on?
-which is the most convient to read a pdf on?
-which is the most convienent shape for a petit student with tons of books?
-are text books supported on all devices?
-is evernote on all devices?
-can all devices email?
-etc etc...

-WHICH IS BEST FOR A STUDENT WHO NEEDS TO READ A LOT?


Thanks!

r.

right now i am leaning towards the new kindle. though can anyone tell me how easy it is to load it with a pdf? can you do so wirelessly through wifi from a computer?

thanks,
r.
 
Quite honestly, if she's doing PDF's, don't go with a Kindle or a Nook. I have a Sony Reader (also e-ink based) and it rendered PDF's incredibly slow. Page turns on a large (50mb+) PDF were measured in seconds.

If you are reading technical material -- programming books, medical journals, flight/aviation manuals, I recommend going with the current iPad. 9.7" screen is the perfect size for a standard A4 (letter size) PDF and page turning is much faster, and you can use a program like iAnnotate to write directly on the screen.
 
If budget is a major factor, then the competition ought to be considered but bear in mind that iPad can do much, much more than a Kindle or Nook. Her being a student, the ability to take notes and do some light computing (with iWorks for example) is not trivial.
 
iPad has many good PDF viewers which open and present documents very fast. I read a lot of PDF's and .epubs and textbooks on my iPad and don't find it to be painful to my eyes at all. For night time I simply dim the brightness. As far as I know - the Kindle doesn't even have a backlight (I could be wrong).
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Get her the iPad she could use it for way more things than just reading
 
trust me, i KNOW how useful and multi talented the ipad would be for her... but there are a few reasons why i think the kindle would be the better purchase right now... for my lovely student wife...

-better on the eyes for reading (120 pages every day?...)
-less distracting with other features (no facebook, no chat, etc)
-battery life/ size/ weight
-cost!

-also, want to wait for the ipad with facetime, dammit!

compelling reasons? or does someone with experience reading a bunch on both have something to chime in?

regarding the pdf page turning issue, i have a sample pdf of her reading, totaling 2mb, that i could email someone with a kindle and they could tell me how it goes....? some like mac angle out there?


thanks,
r.
 
I'm a grad student, and I've said it on here before...I don't know how I did my undergrad without my iPad. I have a TON of reading to do, and the iPad completely eliminates the need to carry physical papers, even textbooks. Not to mention the productivity apps that are available for taking notes in class, keeping organized, finding sources on the web, etc- it really is an all-in-one device. If you love your wife, you'll get her an iPad (I sound like a car salesman:D).
 
whyrichard said:
trust me, i KNOW how useful and multi talented the ipad would be for her... but there are a few reasons why i think the kindle would be the better purchase right now... for my lovely student wife...

-better on the eyes for reading (120 pages every day?...)
-less distracting with other features (no facebook, no chat, etc)
-battery life/ size/ weight
-cost!

-also, want to wait for the ipad with facetime, dammit!

compelling reasons? or does someone with experience reading a bunch on both have something to chime in?

regarding the pdf page turning issue, i have a sample pdf of her reading, totaling 2mb, that i could email someone with a kindle and they could tell me how it goes....? some like mac angle out there?


thanks,
r.
Click to expand...

Being a grad student myself (History with the same, if not more, amount of reading per week), I can tell you right now that the needs you've listed make the Kindle the only choice.

Personally, I find the iPads screen too hard on my eyes. The display on the Kindle will be much better and easier on her eyes given the amount of reading.

Besides, wait for the iPad 2 to come out with the features you/ she want.
 
If it were just ebooks, I'd say Nook or Kindle. But iPad will be far, far better for pdfs.

Regarding which screen is better for reading, though, it really depends on the person. Some people prefer eInk, and some people — believe it or not — prefer reading on an LCD screen. She'd really have to try both kinds of screens to see which is better for her. There's no right answer for that one.
 
I would absolutely endorse the iPad. I'm a first year medical student, and i have a ton of digital notes (recorded class notes Typed up), as well as histology slide pictures and the class powerpoints.

What I've done is convert/save all of those documents in a PDF format, then upload them to my dropbox and get them to my iPad that way. I annotate the PDFs with noterize, then i can reupload them to my dropbox account with the notations on it, and if i want do i can download that PDF to something like goodreader to read the PDFs on. It's super easy, and everything looks so good on the screen. Best part is multiple color highlighting and pictures look fantastic, so everything is so well organized.

I would absolutely, without a doubt, reccommend the iPad for grad school. And since all the schools are moving more to digital, it'll be the best thing for the future.

Happy shopping! You won't regret it!!
 
MXSkier62 said:
I would absolutely endorse the iPad. I'm a first year medical student, and i have a ton of digital notes (recorded class notes Typed up), as well as histology slide pictures and the class powerpoints.

What I've done is convert/save all of those documents in a PDF format, then upload them to my dropbox and get them to my iPad that way. I annotate the PDFs with noterize, then i can reupload them to my dropbox account with the notations on it, and if i want do i can download that PDF to something like goodreader to read the PDFs on. It's super easy, and everything looks so good on the screen. Best part is multiple color highlighting and pictures look fantastic, so everything is so well organized.

I would absolutely, without a doubt, reccommend the iPad for grad school. And since all the schools are moving more to digital, it'll be the best thing for the future.

Happy shopping! You won't regret it!!
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more with your use of Noterize. I love that app. Its a must have for college students of any kind. I'd love to see a Kindle or whatever do what it does.
 
Along with everyone else, I too would suggest the iPad over the Kindle. Like others, I am a grad student and view many PDFs of textbooks and articles with multiple columns and diagrams. On the Kindle, it is restricted to 50% zoom increments for PDFs, resulting in either too much white space or too restricted a view. When the view is restricted, the scrolling is very slow. Diagrams do not look good, and the use of color really is a good tool for notes. The other uses of the iPad come in very handy in school too. I end up keeping my mbp at home most days now, and it makes a tremendous difference over the course of a long day.
 
As with most devices now a days they all come with built in or left out compromises. Nature of the beast and all. The key would be to get more bang for your compromised buck. Hands down the iPad costs more but delivers more. If you can live with what the iPad can't do, you will be amazed by what it can do. You are getting a great media consumption device that has the ability to perform many tasks found on computers while being much more portable. If photography is your thing, then the iPad will be an added bonus. get the Camera Connector Kit, take your cam and away you go. I did this in Italy, Portugal, and Germnay and didn't once miss my MBP.
 
the new Kindle...

whyrichard said:
-etc etc...

-WHICH IS BEST FOR A STUDENT WHO NEEDS TO READ A LOT?
Thanks!
r.
Click to expand...

Well, going by your wife's actual needs, I think that the new Kindle would be ideal - especially since your wife will be doing hundreds of pages of reading a week. No matter what anyone may say, e-ink is a lot clearer and easier on the eyes. Just saving your wife's eyes alone is worth getting the Kindle.

Plus for extended reading (more than half an hour), the iPad is cumbersome. I'm an average size guy and by no means a weakling, but after a short time, finding a comfortable position to place the iPad while doing some serious reading becomes a chore. The Kindle is agile and effortless to prop up while you are in any position (bed, chair, etc...).

Also, you mention that you want to wait for the 2nd gen. iPad. The Kindle will set you back just under $200 USD brand new. This will still allow you to get the newer iPad when it does eventually come out next year.

I personally own an iPad 64GB and I love it - no regrets whatsoever. Yet, in all honesty, if I want to do serious reading, I'd rather reach for the Kindle. My brother has one of the newer ones; it's great. And so I also plan to get a Kindle. It's better to have both if you can afford it.
 
I think it depends on what she will be reading. If she has to read articles that have lots of colored graphs and diagrams, the kindle would be kind of useless. The kindle is really for reading straight black and white text.

I wish I had an iPad in school. Most of my teachers did the lecture notes in power points which I always printed out 4 slides per page. For each class I had a 2 inch binder completely full of lecture notes by the end of the semester. It would have been so nice to be able to convert the slides to pdf and load them on the iPad and take notes right on the slides instead of having to lug around all of those huge binders.

I know the kindle would have been useless to me since it can't display color and since you can't notate on it (at least on the cheap one...not sure about more expensive one)
 
the Helix said:
No matter what anyone may say, e-ink is a lot clearer and easier on the eyes. Just saving your wife's eyes alone is worth getting the Kindle.
Click to expand...

So despite any number of people posting here and contradicting you the iPad is a poor reader? I read 120 pages a day on it - and then some. And this is after 2 years of Kindle use. It may not suit everyone but making a blanket statement like you did is wrong and misleading.
 
My wife recently bought the iPad 16GB wi-fi and her Kindle2 has been gathering dust (not even turned on) since...ebay next I think.
Don`t get me wrong, the Kindle is a great device and the price is very good but I`ve had no end of problems with PDF`s both on the kindle and on my Sony PRS300.
E-ink IS easier to read from, particularly in bright light and for just reading e-books it`s the business but for PDF`s I would say iPad hands down.
To be honest, I`ve started using my MBP for most reading now unless I need the portability.
Price is the biggest factor, in the UK the new kindle is £109 whereas a 16GB iPad will run you £429!
 
If PDF's are her main reading format, you're going to regret getting a Kindle. But it sounds like you've already made up your mind. Cheers.
 
I have to disagree with those that are recommending the Kindle for PDF viewing. The kindle is great for reading e-books, but PDF reading leaves much to be desired. I have used my kindle for a few required readings that were available on the kindle and I must say that while the e-ink display is easy on the eyes, it's not that great for note taking, highlighting, etc... At this point I wouldn't recommend any type of e-reader or tablet for school. Pen an paper are your best friends, for now.
 
I have a kindle and an iPad. For PDFs the iPad wins hands down. Especially if the are any pictures or diagrams in it. It is easier to load pdfs on the ipad since you can just email it to yourself if you only have a couple. Also if you have goodreader or there are a few others, you can download a pdf off of a website or ftp if needed. For reading a book outside on a sunny day with no shade I will pick the kindle.
 
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