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Evanston Advisors Monthly
Vol.
3, Issue
3 •
July 2010
The Kindle vs. the iPad
By Nathan K. Snodgrass, CFA, CFP®
I’m going to make a shocking admission here…I’m a typical guy. I love tools, toys, and gadgets. In fact, my father once described me as a “gadget junkie”. If there’s a tool or gadget that is intended to make a task less onerous or an experience more enjoyable, I probably own it. Possibly even two or three of them. Just ask my wife.
I also read a lot. Industry rags, technical financial texts, subscriptions to a multitude of newspapers and magazines, guides for my various hobby pursuits, historical non-fiction, novels, and (of course) the manuals for all my gadgets, I spend a good part of my life reading.
So a gadget designed for reading… of course I own one… or two…
I bought an Amazon Kindle a few months ago, and was instantly hooked. Then Apple introduced the iPad. I bought one for my wife for her birthday, and seeing the various ways she used it, I decided I had to have one too. So when Tim asked if I’d be willing to do a comparison of the two devices, I was happy to oblige.
First, the Kindle. The Kindle is in reality just a delivery device for Amazon to sell books. Brilliant on their part. They don’t have to warehouse anything, no shipping department to pack a book, and no items lost in shipment. Best yet, you’re going to buy your books through them because their books are the only ones that work on the Kindle. When you purchase a Kindle, you have access to over 600,000 books, most at somewhat reduced prices versus a paper copy. In addition, there are over 1.8 million books that are out of copyright that are available for free.
There are two versions: the 6” screen Kindle weighs 10.2 ounces, is about 1/3 of an inch thick, and has a 6” screen. It holds about 1,500 books. If you think that’s not enough (I’ve never felt the need to have 1,502 books with me, but hey, if that’s your thing…), you can remove books from the Kindle and they are stored in your archive. It costs $189. The Kindle DX is larger with a 9.7 inch screen and holds 3,500 books. It costs $379.
Both versions operate in the same manner. Books are purchased either online or directly from the Kindle Store on the device itself. In about 1 minute, your book is downloaded wirelessly to your device. There is no subscription fee or service charge to have the books downloaded, and the service works in over 100 countries. Battery life on each is about a week worth of reading if you leave the wireless turned on, but I usually turn mine off if I’m not shopping for a book or downloading one. Then it lasts about two weeks before needing to be charged.
The Kindle has a built in dictionary. Don’t know a word in the text you’re reading? Use the tiny joystick on the device to move a cursor to the word. Its definition pops up instantly. Are you one of those people that highlights her books or writes in the margins? The Kindle allows you to do both with the joystick and the tiny keyboard (though if you take copious notes, this would be tedious). The highlighted portions and your notes are also logged in a separate portion of the device, and can be e-mailed to friends if desired. The device can also receive e-mailed documents in PDF format, so if you’ve left a document at the office that you intended to review while on vacation, you can have it e-mailed to your Kindle. The text size can be increased or decreased, the number of words per line can be adjusted, the brightness of the screen is adjustable, you can even have it read the text to you (don’t… it sounds like a robot).
Now, the iPad. A lot of people have said “Nate, you have a Kindle, why do you need an iPad?” Let’s be clear. The iPad is not, repeat not an electronic reader. It is quite simply one of the most useful devices I’ve ever owned. It is close to a full fledged computer in a device that is the size of a book. While similar in overall size to my Kindle, the iPad has a 9.7 inch high-definition color screen, whereas the Kindle’s screen is only 6 inches. The iPad is slightly thicker than the Kindle, but weighs significantly more due to the glass touch screen and aluminum back/case.
With the iPad, you have access to the Apple App Store. There are thousands of applications designed by third parties specifically for the iPad. In addition, all of the iPhone apps are fully functional on the iPad. The screen is a touch screen; there are no keys (except for the Home button in the lower center of the device). However, if the app you are running requires that you type, a full QWERTY keyboard pops up on screen. Admittedly, it takes some getting used to, as the tactile sensation of typing just isn’t the same. But after a few weeks, I was able to type at close to my normal speed (which is pretty quick). There is a built in accelerometer, so if you turn the iPad from portrait orientation to landscape, the display shifts as well. This is also great for playing games – imagine holding the device as if it’s a steering wheel and playing a game in which you drive a car. You “steer” with the iPad. It’s really slick.
The iPad comes in two versions – the WiFi version and the 3G version. They’re the same device, except that the 3G version adds the ability to be truly mobile with the iPad via a monthly fee for data service. I have the WiFi version, so I can only get data if I have access to a wireless network (like in my home or at the office). There are also various levels of storage capacity, but increased capacity comes at increased cost. The most basic version is $499 and has 16GB of storage. I get around the lack of built in mobile wireless internet via another gadget (surprise, surprise!), a MyFi from Verizon. If you’d like more info about that, give me a call.
The iPad is an e-mail device, a weatherman, a calendar, a notepad, a to-do list, a dictionary, an encyclopedia, an expense tracker, calendar, newspaper, Rolodex, internet surfer, music player, video viewer, movie store, photo album, map, magazine, game player… I could go on and on, but you get the point. There are 20 different categories of applications, with hundreds of apps within each category. If there’s something you want to do, more than likely “there’s an app for that.”
Oh, and it’s a reader too. It comes with Apple’s iBooks pre-installed, but you can download a Kindle app as well (and Barnes & Noble’s Nook). I’ve got the iBooks app, the Kindle app, and the Nook app all installed on my iPad, so I can buy books from any of the three sources.
iBooks is a slick application. When you enter the app, a virtual bookshelf is shown, with pictures of each book that you own. Touch a book, and it comes down from the shelf and opens to the last place that you read. You “drag” the pages to turn them, and they turn on screen like a real page. You can bookmark your page, highlight words for definitions, etc.
The Kindle app is, well, a Kindle, just on your iPad. All your Kindle archived books are available for download to your iPad. Best yet, if you use the two devices interchangeably, they sync up with each other. Reading on the Kindle on the beach, then pick up your iPad in the hotel room? The iPad is sync’ed to the last point read on the Kindle.
The difference between the iBooks app and the Kindle app is pretty miniscule. Other than the animation of the pages turning, I really couldn’t tell you what is different. My preference is the Kindle app, but that’s because I have an archive of Kindle books, and I have figured out a way to share them between myself and my wife. With iBooks if she buys a book, I can’t read it when she’s done, unless I use her iPad to do it. I default to Kindle’s technology for reading, regardless of which device I use.
The Kindle device is not backlit, and has a matte screen. It’s great for reading outside. The iPad…not so much. The screen is glass, and difficult to see in sunlight due to the glare/reflectivity of the glass. In low-light conditions, you need a separate book light for the Kindle, whereas the iPad you don’t. But I still prefer the Kindle with the book light over the iPad if I’m reading in bed. The backlit iPad is quite bright, even if you adjust the brightness, and my eyes get tired faster (which, if I’m trying to fall asleep, may be a bonus!). But the brightness of my wife’s iPad can be annoying if she’s reading and I’m trying to sleep.
So which would I recommend? Both, but if I’m going to be forced to take just one, it’s the iPad. There’s just so much more you can do with it, and I have my Kindle app on there for reading. Need to send out an e-mail, check the weather, add a meeting to the calendar, write a reminder note and check stock quotes? I can do it from my iPad, and then go right back to reading my book. Add in the MyFi I mentioned earlier, and I can do it all from just about anywhere.
Anyone know if there’s a 12 step program for gadget addictions?
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