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IPad vs. Kindle | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5468 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes  Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 25 of 67 16 March 2011 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Seems to me that there are two sorts of people: those who love Kindle for its
simplicity and those who hate it for its simplicity. I'm the former. Kindle is for reading. Period. If your learning consists of reading, then it's the best damn tool there is. If you want to do anything else, Kindle is not up to it. Kindle is my indispensable buddy when I go on trips. I've got loads of books there and I don't really get how some people are put off by Kindle's "small" storage. I have 349 books on Kindle 3 and still have 2.7 GB free. How many books does one need? 3000? What for? I can read Russian and Japanese on it, it can handle national characters of most European languages as well. I charge my Kindle once per month or twice per month tops, when I let it sit on WiFi and download subscriptions at will and when I read a lot. But to wear down K3 battery in two weeks I have to read *a lot*. Kindle sucks for slick dictionary lookup, sucks for reading PDF's and it sucks for listening MP3's. It. Is. For. Reading. Texts. For everything else there are tablets and smartphones. I personally find iPad pricey for what it is. I've used it but have no plans to purchase it. Kindle complements my laptop and smartphone better. 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lasciel Groupie United States Joined 5308 days ago 55 posts - 81 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 26 of 67 24 March 2011 at 1:56am | IP Logged | ||
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For me, the Kindle wins out. People can tout the extra features of the Ipad all they like, but the Kindle really is lighter and more convenient than a paperback book... I find myself reading and studying more just because it's easier to take a Kindle with me traveling than an actual book. And I'd have to carry around a pile to have both Spanish & Japanese resources available. If I wanted something bigger like the Ipad, I have a netbook that costs half the price and is still more convenient to carry.
I also have had varying degrees of success with PDFs (Kindle 3, 3G version) but it manages a converted-to-mobi Colloquial Japanese just dandy. I did have issues with my copy of Genki, but considering the file is about 300MB I'm not surprised something went wrong somewhere... I haven't had any problems with the audio. Go with the Kindle if you really do want lightweight and convenient, AND if you plan on reading for 2+ hours. I read a 300 page book on a backlit screen in 2 days once, and it was a killer ): if you read for long periods of time, the Kindle is the way to go. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5743 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 27 of 67 03 April 2011 at 5:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I just got a Nook color and turned it into a full Android tablet by putting CyanogenMod
on it :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5468 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 28 of 67 03 April 2011 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | ||
How's the performance and battery? How does it compare to dedicated Android tablets? Rooted Nook Color might be something I'd may consider. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5743 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 29 of 67 10 April 2011 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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It plays video just fine. I don't think it would play HD video well though. Not sure
what the res was on YouTube. Everything else, web, etc is fine. It lacks a camera, built in mic, gps, 3g/4g. It does have wi-fi and blue tooth though. I believe its possible to use blue tooth headset with it and a blue tooth keyboard. The processor is a single core @ 800 Mhz and i think it comes with 1GB internal storage. The display is fantastic. That said, the ViewSonic gTablet may be a better buy at $300 (vs $250) as it comes with a dual core processor, camera and i think a mic. Friend got one at work and I'm hoping to check it out For reading the Nook is great, be it web or an eBook, and thats what I wanted it for. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5743 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish* Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German | Message 30 of 67 10 April 2011 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Side Note: There seems to be A LOT of Kindle books available in Spanish, French, German, Italian and
Portuguese: Spanish: 8,631 French: 4,383 German: 12,501 Italian: 2,130 Portuguese: 2,177 Kindle books in Foreign Languages Edit: The number seems to be growing too. As of 2011/4/18 the numbers are now: Spanish: 8,801 French: 4,485 German: 14,361 Italian: 2,189 Portuguese: 2,207 Edited by ChiaBrain on 19 April 2011 at 5:52am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| aerozeplyn Senior Member United States Joined 5083 days ago 141 posts - 202 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 31 of 67 11 April 2011 at 9:37am | IP Logged | ||
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looks like the iPad wins unless it is too expensive for your budget AND you're ONLY going to read to acquire a
language. Unfortunately, in order to speak the language you need to do a lot more than just read... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kubelek Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal Joined 6787 days ago 415 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 32 of 67 11 April 2011 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I check the ebook reader market periodically and kindle now is pretty affordable, even
for me :) Last time I checked though the dictionary situation left a lot to be desired. Has it changed yet? Is there a wider array of languages, with comprehensive dictionaries, or is it still a domain of fanboys who compile their own dictionaries from public domain files? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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