E-books & Kids

Kindle Fire or Nook? Movies, not books, could be the deal breaker

This holiday season, countless families will be looking at e-readers for their bookworm kids. But the choice is tough.

Which one to choose... the Nook or the Kindle Fire? Both have color screens, both are about the same size, sort of the same price, have access to plenty of books... what's the dealbreaker?

The dealbreaker may be movies, not books.

One of the few differences between the two e-readers is video content. The video streaming library at Amazon.com has more than 10,000 titles. They're all free to Amazon Prime members. And becoming an Amazon Prime member requires a $79 fee. But I signed up for an Amazon credit card and got Prime membership free. Also (shh don't tell) I have a friend who just contacted Amazon and asked for a free membership and got it (they said they were homeschoolers...maybe Amazon has a heart afterall.) It's worth a try. Anyway, you can try Prime free when you buy your Fire. One month of Amazon Prime comes bundled with the e-reader. 

If you decide to purchase a Nook, you will able to stream videos, but the selection is more limited. You must download movies through embedded Netflix apps or Hulu Plus. You can't get to any video contant via the company's online store, www.BN.com.

So do your kids watch movies in addition to reading books? Do you wnat to make it easy to see movies on the e-reader, or make it more limited? Your feelings about movies could help you make a choice when shopping for e-readers for the holidays.