Kindle vs Tablet

Tim Huntley, a close friend and business partner of mine, knew that I had both an iPad and a Kindle.  He asked "If you were doing it again from scratch, what would you buy?"  It seemed like a question that a lot of people might have, especially at Christmas time.  Here is a cleaned up version of my response:

• Hard core book readers: get a Kindle Paperwhite. Very light. Very easy to read. The battery lasts eight weeks. Much cheaper than a tablet at $139.  You can also get a version for $119, but it shows you some ads.
• Everyone else: get a tablet. My choice would be the Apple iPad or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. For pure reading, it is heavier, shines a light in your eyes, and the battery only lasts about 10 hours. However, it does everything else. I almost never take my laptop when I travel. A tablet is enough. I read lots more news and magazines than I do books, at least right now. Applications like Flipbook make this incredibly simple. Throw in everything else a tablet does: games, maps, sports, ESPN streaming, movie watching, web browsing, …

Most people seem to discover they use them more than they thought they would. For any brand of tablet, get at least 32GB, not 8 or 16. I wouldn’t bother getting the cellular modem support unless you will be traveling a lot with it. Both Julie and I have WiFi versions and we are quite happy with that.

Tim said he is leaning towards the Kindle, but made a good point.  At just a bit over $100, if you decide you don't like it, it's not the end of the world.