Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Kindle is OK

scripting.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 109 posts

Re: Kindle is OK

#91

Post by lushootseed »

ghshephard wrote: post #87
barmstrong wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would add one more: battery life. If you keep the 3G off except while downloading books, you can easily get TWO OR THREE WEEKS of battery life out of the Kindle - even if you use it every night. The iPad does a lot more, no doubt, but as a straight up reading device the Kindle still wins.

Ironically, and I recognize this is more a behavior than product issue - the battery on my kindle is dead almost 100% of the time when I want to use it, but on my iPad, the battery typically has 8-10 hours of reading life on it. As a result, I do most of my reading on my iPad, even though I prefer, all things equal, to do so on my kindle in the sun. The battery is just never charged _when I want it_. The difference -…

>>>the battery on my kindle is dead almost 100% of the time when I want to use it I am quite perplexed that you seem to have a defective device that doesn't hold charge and still compare it to iPad?

Re: Kindle is OK

#92

Post by hugh3 »

city41 wrote: post #84
hugh3 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How often do you turn the page? Can't you shut your eyes for that half-second if it bothers you?

How often do you turn pages while reading books? I'm going to guess pretty often.

Maybe once a minute. How often do you blink?

Re: Kindle is OK

#93

Post by petercooper »

Xurinos wrote: post #26

I guess I am in the minority. I found that the eInk displays of these readers made for a poorer reading experience than reading straight off my iPhone with the help of Stanza. (1) I can read with the lights off. (2) The default font is not as grating. (3) I can adjust the brightness. Without giving my preference, I had an older gentleman compare the experience of trying to read with both devices. He usually needs to…

The default font is not as grating.

This is a bugbear for me. Most Kindle books have poor typography slapped on them by the Kindle software (even on other platforms).

While there are many who find e-ink vs LCD or battery life issues to be sticking points, the typography and layout are, perhaps, my biggest beefs. It takes all sorts I guess ;-)

http://redubllc.com/2009/01/a-typographic-critique-of-the-ki... http://qwan.org/2009/05/17/kindle-typography-goes-craptacula...

Re: Kindle is OK

#94

Post by JoelSutherland »

jsulak wrote: post #45
JoelSutherland wrote: post #4

One of the coolest things I do with my kindle is send my instapaper articles to it. It costs $0.15 per send (not per article), but it is great to have a bunch of really good, long form articles available. As an example, I read this great article about Lincoln the other night: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2005/10/lincoln-ap... There is no way I would read that on a computer.

One way to avoid kindle fees is to use USB to sync. If you're on Mac, use Ephemera ( http://goephemera.com/ ), or if you're on Windows, use Wordcycler ( http://www.wordcycler.com/ ). (I'm the developer of Wordcycler.) Another great benefit of these programs is that you can sync individual articles, not just the pre-made bundles that Instapaper provides. You can plug in your device, have the program download the artic…

I'm aware but consider the $.15 well worth it. I maybe sync with instapaper 6 times a month.

It is really nice to treat the kindle as a stand-alone device. The last thing I want to do is stress about hooking up to my computer just to save some change.

That sounds REALLY lazy, but I have to say, deciding to be lazy in this instance feels great. As long as I remember to click 'Read Later' once and a while I know I'll always have something great to read wherever I am.

Re: Kindle is OK

#95

Post by mingyeow »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #31
pragmatic wrote: post #10

I don't think it's a zero sum game. It's not either/or. For most it's both. You will have a smart (brilliant) phone and if you read a lot, a dedicated reader. The 2 form factors just don't overlap enough to do both well.

At this point the Kindle is so cheap that if I actually commit to buying any quantity of Kindle books, I might try one.

Agreed, but the order is wrong. The truth is that you will almost certainly buy way more kindle books if you actually have a kindle

Re: Kindle is OK

#96

Post by jacoblyles »

far33d wrote: post #8

Rough anecdotal polling from my experience on the Boston-area commuter rail in from the suburbs: I see more iPhones than Kindles, but way more Kindles than iPads. People on iPhones are often playing games, not reading. Kindles are surprisingly popular with older women. I suspect it's because it does its one task really well and is much less technically intimidating for non-savvy users. I own one and use it periodical…

The iPad is supply-constrained. Apple has sold every unit they've made. So, even if it were twice as popular you wouldn't see any more on your commute.

Re: Kindle is OK

#97

Post by rdl »

ghshephard wrote: post #87
barmstrong wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would add one more: battery life. If you keep the 3G off except while downloading books, you can easily get TWO OR THREE WEEKS of battery life out of the Kindle - even if you use it every night. The iPad does a lot more, no doubt, but as a straight up reading device the Kindle still wins.

Ironically, and I recognize this is more a behavior than product issue - the battery on my kindle is dead almost 100% of the time when I want to use it, but on my iPad, the battery typically has 8-10 hours of reading life on it. As a result, I do most of my reading on my iPad, even though I prefer, all things equal, to do so on my kindle in the sun. The battery is just never charged _when I want it_. The difference -…

Many of the Kindle Ones had bad batteries which would self-discharge; Amazon would replace them for free. I had this problem (charge would only last a day or so), but I broke my K1 before getting it back to Amazon for repair (while durable, putting it in a bag with an inmarsat bgan terminal, then having 1000 pounds of other bags on top of the bag, leads to screen cracking...)

I actually preferred the shape of the K1, and the buttons being on the left as well.

Re: Kindle is OK

#98

Post by Charuru »

Xurinos wrote: post #26

I guess I am in the minority. I found that the eInk displays of these readers made for a poorer reading experience than reading straight off my iPhone with the help of Stanza. (1) I can read with the lights off. (2) The default font is not as grating. (3) I can adjust the brightness. Without giving my preference, I had an older gentleman compare the experience of trying to read with both devices. He usually needs to…

Actually for me, the iPhone is a better reading experience than the iPad. The iPad and Kindle both are too big, and the iPad is too heavy.

iPhone + Stanza is perfect.

Re: Kindle is OK

#99

Post by maxjg »

gamble wrote: post #23

The Kindle is best at reading straight-forward linear text with minimal formatting, like novels. You can't go wrong with a Kindle if you read plenty of novels, especially if you read outside. OTOH, the iPad is far superior for heavily formatted text and graphical content. Even the Kindle DX has terrible support for PDFs and the eInk screen is inherently bad for graphics, so for the person who wants to carry textbooks…

> iPad is far superior for heavily formatted text

True in theory, not so much in practice. After having read a couple of books in iBooks, the books mostly seem like hasty OCR jobs (Ender's Game, while a fantastic book, definitely showed this). The iPad has the capability to do great formatting, but publishers don't seem to be doing a whole lot with it. For example, in Ender's Game, there's a little snippet of conversation before each chapter. In print it's very clearly differentiated with italics, the iBooks version lacks even that. Curiously, I seem to notice far fewer formatting problems with the Kindle app.

Re: Kindle is OK

#100

Post by jk8 »

ghshephard wrote: post #88
jk8 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My only issue with reading on kindle like devices is the way it changes the page. I don't think I can stand that. I feel like that would bother my eyes. EDIT: That is the only thing stopping me from buying one.

As one who has read about 30 novels on my K1/K2 - I can attest that your brain / eyes actually seem to go into a wait state when you change the page, such that you don't ever seem to recall changing pages while reading long fiction. On the other hand, flipping through technical references is painful to the point of despair, and was one of the key reasons I fell in love with my iPad.

Yes, I think it would take some time to get used to it.
Post reply on HN