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The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

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Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#61

Post by WalterBright »

The Kindle Keyboard is still the best. All it needs is an update for backlighting and higher resolution. DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE!

I bought the Kindle Oasis, really wanting to like it. At least it brought back the page turning buttons. But they got the buttons wrong. The KK got it right. You can read and turn pages with one hand. Not so on the Oasis. And the Oasis is so slippery it's hard to hold it vertically. I was astonished at that.

The KK doesn't slip out of your hands.

I like the KK so much I bought two of them, so I have one when the other dies. I don't understand why each successor is worse.

Bring back the DX!

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#62

Post by mourner »

graaben wrote: post #40

I got my Kindle in 2012 and it still runs like a brand new device. I think Amazon's issue will eventually be that, unlike the iPhone, no one needs to upgrade their kindle more than once per decade or so. Of course if the newer models had dramatically better features or apps I would be tempted to upgrade.

I don't think Amazon cares that much about Kindle sales — they made it deliberately way cheaper than other e-ink models when it was introduced. Their goal is to profit from book sales on their platform. I bought about a hundred electronic books on Amazon since getting a Kindle, so I think the model works great.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#63

Post by mourner »

I've used Kindles for 7 years now, it's by far my most beloved gadget and I don't go anywhere without it. And I love it just the way it is — a reader of books without any other distractions.

The only thing I really wish they'd do software-wise is add reading stats / achievements — they have that for kid accounts but for some reason didn't extend it to adult readers.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#64

Post by WalterBright »

thrower123 wrote: post #56

The older generation of Kindles were nearly perfect devices. I have the last model that was not touchscreen and had the physical paddle buttons on both sides to turn pages, so you can easily read with either hand. It doesn't have a ton of storage, but you can fit hundreds of text-only .mobis in a GB. The battery lasts for weeks, with the wifi turned off. I'm not so impressed with the newer models. Switching to a touc…

Yeah, a touchscreen and an ereader are a match made in hell. Just try to hold the reader and swipe with the same hand.

Reading with one hand on the Kindle Keyboard is great. You can stand in the security line with one hand on your luggage and the other reading the KK.

I have no idea how the touch interface ever got through Amazon usability testing.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#65

Post by WalterBright »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #28
lemoncucumber wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad typography on a device whose entire purpose is reading is not a feature by any stretch of the imagination. Even if all you expect from the kindle is an "electronic book," they should at least attempt to reach parity with the typesetting of paper books, but they clearly don't care to.

I read a book per week and don't notice any typography issues. Now, I'm sure it can be improved, and I don't doubt that a typography nerd could certainly spot issues. But "bad" seems like quite an exaggeration. I like to protest against this modern trend of exaggerating how "bad" we supposedly have everything just because someone can ID some improvements that could be made.

A higher res screen would be nice. It's surprising how improving the resolution reduces eyestrain.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#66

Post by LordN00b »

WalterBright wrote: post #61

The Kindle Keyboard is still the best. All it needs is an update for backlighting and higher resolution. DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE! I bought the Kindle Oasis, really wanting to like it. At least it brought back the page turning buttons. But they got the buttons wrong. The KK got it right. You can read and turn pages with one hand. Not so on the Oasis. And the Oasis is so slippery it's hard to hold it vertically. I w…

+ All the votes for the DX. Apart from having to replace the battery (and having the ability to do so.), it has been the most trouble free electronic device I have ever owned. I love the screen size, and I can read textbooks, and code at the same time etc. It has niggles (PDF viewing being a bete noire), but it's reliable, coupled with Calibre I can read anything, it hsa handled my lazy attitdue to device care admirably.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#67

Post by microtherion »

cgb223 wrote: post #60
nindalf wrote: post #54

It doesn’t need to be so much more. It does one thing and does it well. Doing more things would distract me from the book I’m trying to read. I have a 2013 kindle on which I’ve read nearly 20 books this year. I have a few complaints - I wish the device wasn’t so slow or that the e-ink display didn’t take so long to update. I wish the keyboard had autocorrect because I’ve come to rely on that quite a bit. I wish it wo…

> I wish the device wasn’t so slow or that the e-ink display didn’t take so long to update. I’ve had this complaint with the kindle for 12 years

Yes, I used to be a big fan of the Kindle DX, but everything but reading a book cover to cover was a painfully slow experience.

And additionally, Amazon seems to have given up on the large form factor.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#68

Post by ericsoderstrom »

mourner wrote: post #63

I've used Kindles for 7 years now, it's by far my most beloved gadget and I don't go anywhere without it. And I love it just the way it is — a reader of books without any other distractions. The only thing I really wish they'd do software-wise is add reading stats / achievements — they have that for kid accounts but for some reason didn't extend it to adult readers.

If you link your account with Goodreads, you can get stats that way

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#69

Post by WalterBright »

LordN00b wrote: post #66
WalterBright wrote: post #61

The Kindle Keyboard is still the best. All it needs is an update for backlighting and higher resolution. DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE! I bought the Kindle Oasis, really wanting to like it. At least it brought back the page turning buttons. But they got the buttons wrong. The KK got it right. You can read and turn pages with one hand. Not so on the Oasis. And the Oasis is so slippery it's hard to hold it vertically. I w…

+ All the votes for the DX. Apart from having to replace the battery (and having the ability to do so.), it has been the most trouble free electronic device I have ever owned. I love the screen size, and I can read textbooks, and code at the same time etc. It has niggles (PDF viewing being a bete noire), but it's reliable, coupled with Calibre I can read anything, it hsa handled my lazy attitdue to device care admira…

Oh, how I wish the DX would show the last page read as the screensaver. I could open a page on a "cheat sheet" and just keep it at my desk.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#70

Post by Shorel »

danso wrote: post #13

> The Kindle can’t even display web pages well! Its browser is slow and bad, though if you do manage to navigate to a page with an article on it, you can enter “Article Mode” and have a mediocre reading experience. This statement is made as if the author thinks rendering the contemporary web is a trivial achievement.

There's no reason to use Android for the operating system of an e-reader, except to leverage the browser technology.

And e-readers use Android, but the technology is used with the bare minimum amount of effort.

One very obvious change is to implement scrolling one page at a time, instead of a very slow slide-show of unreadable text until it finishes scrolling several seconds later.

So, yes, it can't even display web pages well, because they don't try to modify the browser for the medium at all!

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