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Apple and the Kindle

aaronsw.com

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Re: Apple and the Kindle

#71

Post by breck »

smackfu wrote: post #62
euroclydon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After reading ebooks on my iPhone and now iPad, I couldn't go back to the kindle. The UI was just so terrible and slow. I use white on black for night time reading, and can still fall asleep. Incidentally, this is the same reason I could only use Duck Duck Go for one day before going back to Google search. The Google search UI has just spoiled me with its responsiveness.

I guess the difference for me is that UI speed just seems irrelevant. 99% of my interaction is page forward or back, which is fast enough.

Nail on the head. It'd be nicer if page back/forward were faster though. The latest version is a big improvement and I can't wait for an even faster page switch.

Re: Apple and the Kindle

#72

Post by irons »

dagw wrote: post #68
subwindow wrote: post #39

So far I've had a pretty frustrating experience with the Kindle (Kindle 4 no keyboard, no touchscreen) from the get-go. Sure, the box was nice, but as soon as I powered it on it was frustrating. Since the Kindle was a gift, I had to enter in my Amazon account information before I could do anything else. Total buzzkill. I wanted to flip through a book and see what the screen was like and how it worked, but instead I h…

"Unboxing" experiences with Apple products have become a religious experience for a reason Really? Unboxing my Macbook Air cavalcade of annoyances. First wanting my address and phone number just to boot up, then having to create an Apple account and enter a credit card number just to download the latest updates to the software it ships with. How is that a religious experience?

It's not really obvious, but you're free to skip the registration and Apple ID portions of the Mac OS X installation process. I hit command-Q, which brings up a dialog with a Skip button.

Re: Apple and the Kindle

#73

Post by tomkarlo »

There's a theory of interpersonal relationships that says you need 4-5 positive interactions to balance every 1 negative interaction, if a friendship / relationship is to be sustainable. I'd argue that with devices and software, that ratio goes way up - maybe at least 10:1 or 20:1. That's why even a small annoyance can balance a largely positive experience.

Re: Apple and the Kindle

#74

Post by docgnome »

jc4p wrote: post #38
cschep wrote: post #28

Aaron! Font size! Bigger!

Seriously. I have good eyes but if I have to zoom in at 300% on your page to be able to read it, something is definitely wrong.

I've since given up hoping people will stop thinking that tiny, tiny fonts are awesome. Cause I guess nothing makes the article you wrote more awesome than making it impossible for humans to read. Readability, ftw. http://www.readability.com/

Re: Apple and the Kindle

#75

Post by venuj »

I used to be quite skeptical of Kindle and a dedicated book reading device until I was gifted a Kindle. My wife got tired of my buying hundreds of books and having it fill up the house and the Kindle TV ad did the trick.

Now that I've used it for a few months, I'm a Kindle convert. I carry it with me all the time - conveniently fits into my coat pocket and weighs so little - and I whip it out whenever I'm a line or at an airport and all those otherwise wasted time.

It has remarkable battery life - I normally get 2-3 weeks between charges - and more if I turn off WiFi. The more I use it, the more I like all the small details which while quirky and not quite upto iPad levels of overall usability adds up to a very convenient book reading experience. I used to lament the space wasted on the physical keyboard but I'm not such a fan of the new touch Kindles.

Now I wish I had all my books on my Kindle.

Re: Apple and the Kindle

#76

Post by rapind »

jgrahamc wrote: post #4

To me the Kindle has two killer features: the screen (because I can read it like paper for hours) and its weight (can hold it for hours like a paperback book). Those two things made it a 'wow' device. The 3G access made it effortless. None of those things seem very clever and have been pretty easily duplicated in the Nook. The software itself (and this applies to Kindle and Nook) is rather ugly and it feels slow to r…

Please leave my Kindle alone. I don't want it to be fancy. I want to read books on it. Cheap, long battery life, and a screen that reads like a book is as clever as I ever want from it. I have no intention of replacing my kindle anytime soon. I don't care if a new version comes out that's 10 times faster... I'm completely content with the one I have.

When I want to use an iPad (for something other than reading books), then I'll just use my iPad.

Re: Apple and the Kindle

#77

Post by WalterBright »

rryyan wrote: post #46
WalterBright wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, when you get a Kindle in the mail you don't have to connect it to a computer with iTunes on it to get it to work. I can also load books from my computer onto the Kindle using drag-and-drop without needing iTunes (or any Amazon software) installed.

Connecting with iTunes is actually no longer required for iOS devices starting with iOS 5. You can also add PDFs to iBooks on the device without iTunes -- not sure about epub files though.

But iTunes is required to update my ipod to iOS 5 :-)

I've never been able to get large pdf's onto my ipod without itunes. Can't email them because they're too big, and the ipod cannot browse local shared directories.

Re: Apple and the Kindle

#78

Post by WalterBright »

rapind wrote: post #76
jgrahamc wrote: post #4

To me the Kindle has two killer features: the screen (because I can read it like paper for hours) and its weight (can hold it for hours like a paperback book). Those two things made it a 'wow' device. The 3G access made it effortless. None of those things seem very clever and have been pretty easily duplicated in the Nook. The software itself (and this applies to Kindle and Nook) is rather ugly and it feels slow to r…

Please leave my Kindle alone. I don't want it to be fancy. I want to read books on it. Cheap, long battery life, and a screen that reads like a book is as clever as I ever want from it. I have no intention of replacing my kindle anytime soon. I don't care if a new version comes out that's 10 times faster... I'm completely content with the one I have. When I want to use an iPad (for something other than reading books)…

Me too. The Kindle is optimized for reading books, and it does that very well. I'm satisfied with it.

Re: Apple and the Kindle

#79

Post by 6ren »

> lifetime unlimited worldwide data plan

Unfortunately the web-browser that makes this useful (beyond buying books) is still labeled "experimental", years later. Meaning it can be dropped at any time.

Re: Apple and the Kindle

#80

Post by DrStalker »

harshpotatoes wrote: post #25
jgrahamc wrote: post #4

To me the Kindle has two killer features: the screen (because I can read it like paper for hours) and its weight (can hold it for hours like a paperback book). Those two things made it a 'wow' device. The 3G access made it effortless. None of those things seem very clever and have been pretty easily duplicated in the Nook. The software itself (and this applies to Kindle and Nook) is rather ugly and it feels slow to r…

I can't speak for the ugliness, but as for the slow to react... I think the reason it feels sluggish are two reasons: The screen technology has a slow response time. This is alittle difficult to fix, due to the nature of the technology: an electic field turns on or off causing tiny balls to be pulled to the top or bottom of the screen causing light to be reflected/absorbed. Due to the size of these balls (microns), i…

I've been using a Kobo since just after release, which has slower page turns than a Kindle. It's annoying for maybe the first hour, then it feels perfectly natural as I hit the "next" button as I'm reaching the bottom line so the screen refresh is occurring as my eyes scan back up to the top of the page.
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