This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
My husband wants to get a device that supports PDF files downloaded from the Internet. He thought about getting a laptop or a tablet and then found out that the Kindle and Nook both claim to support PDF. We don't want to spend a lot of money for all the bells and whistles, apps, and games, so we thought an e-reader would be the way to go. Which one is the easiest, most user-friendly device? In their specs they list speakers, but I don't know all the acronyms and didn't see MP3, so what is the sound file they use? — Kenzie Taft.
Kenzie is talking about the Adobe PDF, or portable document format, that displays digital documents on computers and computer tablets. It's actually based on a digital file system originally created by Adobe founder and University of Utah graduate John Warnock, in case you were wondering.
All e-readers and computer tablets, including the Kindle, Sony e-reader, iPad, Nook and more, will read PDFs as well as play MP3 music because those are the most commonly used formats for documents and songs. So the only determination here is the cost.
If it comes down to how much you want to pay and the device's ease of use — all of the e-ink readers have similar easy-to-use interfaces — then I would really go with the new Amazon Kindle.
Just two weeks ago, Amazon introduced a new line of Kindles that completely blew the doors off the e-reader market with new prices.
The new prices range from $79 for the latest version of the regular e-ink Kindle to the new Kindle Fire color tablet at $199. If you also want to play MP3 songs, then you have to go with the new $99 Kindle Touch or higher. The Kindle Fire will go on sale Nov. 15 and the Kindle Touch on Nov. 21. Meanwhile, the e-ink Nook from Barnes & Noble sells for $139.
Be aware that the $79 Kindle doesn't support MP3 playback, while the rest of the lineup does. The Kindle Touch is Amazon's newest addition to the group of Kindles that adds touchscreen support. There's no keyboard, and you swipe through the menus with your finger. But unlike a color LCD tablet, the Kindle Touch uses e-ink technology. So it's in black and white but can be read easily in direct sunlight with incredibly long battery life.
If you want to move to a color tablet, then consider the new Amazon Kindle Fire, which is a direct competitor to the $499 Apple iPad 2.
The new Fire is an Android-based tablet that also will play movies, music and games, and display photos. You can also read books, but it's more difficult to read in direct sunlight, and the battery life is much shorter — about a day's worth of usage.
With the new prices and models announced last month on the new Kindles, it's hard to resist buying one. Certainly for people who just want to read books and documents, it's the best choice so far.
If you have a tech question for Vince, email him at ohmytech@sltrib.com and he'll try to answer it for his column in The Salt Lake Tribune or its website.