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Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

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Re: Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

#181

Post by deergomoo »

I wonder if they’re still using soft touch/rubberised plastic on the back? My last-gen Kindle Paperwhite has already started to go sticky and gross.

I’ve also got an issue where the latest software update is causing frequent hangs when opening new books (literally 5+ minutes) and I quite often get stuck in books, unable to summon the menu to go back to my library. Seems to be a fairly common problem judging by Reddit.

I ended up buying a Kobo Libra Colour just this week. So far I’m very happy with it. Performance is better and it’s compatible with a lot more stuff.

Re: Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

#182

Post by linsomniac »

packetlost wrote: post #34

The new Kindle Scribe looks kinda lame compared to the new reMarkable Pro, though significantly cheaper. Maybe the colored ePaper isn't that great, but at least you get some color for highlighting, which is probably a non-insignificant use of these types of devices. Either way, sad there's no Oasis refresh. I'm not super attached to the physical buttons, but I'd prefer it to not. Oh well.

I had an original Scribe and while the writing experience was superb, I felt like the software experience was minimal and over the year or so I had it, it didn't really get enhanced any. My review of it was: It's just like paper, only more expensive.

It seemed like if you wanted a large ebook reader AND occasional note taking, it's probably great. For my use, I would have been just as happy with just a spiral notebook, probably happier. I used it every day for work notes and todos.

I sold it on ebay and got an Boox Note Air3, similar cost, and the writing experience is not nearly as good as the Scribe, but it is a much more capable device with many more features in the notebook. However, I've fallen out of the habit of using it, I think just because the writing experience isn't as good.

Re: Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

#183

Post by bookofjoe »

thimabi wrote: post #144
TnS-hun wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is only a small difference in their size. Paperwhite 5: 124.6 x 174.2 x 8.1 mm Paperwhite 6: 127.6 x 176.7 x 7.8 mm

Yet Amazon has been consistently increasing the size of the Paperwhite models over time, each one a bit larger than the previous one. They remain portable, but no longer fit into one’s pockets, for instance.

FWIW I weighed my Paperwhite Gen 5: 201 grams vs. 211 grams for the new Gen 6. So 5% heavier.

Re: Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

#184

Post by packetlost »

linsomniac wrote: post #182
packetlost wrote: post #34

The new Kindle Scribe looks kinda lame compared to the new reMarkable Pro, though significantly cheaper. Maybe the colored ePaper isn't that great, but at least you get some color for highlighting, which is probably a non-insignificant use of these types of devices. Either way, sad there's no Oasis refresh. I'm not super attached to the physical buttons, but I'd prefer it to not. Oh well.

I had an original Scribe and while the writing experience was superb, I felt like the software experience was minimal and over the year or so I had it, it didn't really get enhanced any. My review of it was: It's just like paper, only more expensive. It seemed like if you wanted a large ebook reader AND occasional note taking, it's probably great. For my use, I would have been just as happy with just a spiral noteboo…

This is similar to me with my reMarkable 2. The writing experience is strictly worse than even cheap notebook and dramatically worse than a nice one with a nice mechanical pencil + lead.

It's fine for reading PDFs, I guess.

Re: Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

#185

Post by technothrasher »

grecy wrote: post #7

I bought a used paperwhite in 2015 and have read many hundreds of books on it. Still works flawlessly and even great battery life despite taking it around the world through -45 and +45 many times. I don’t love Amazon, but this may be the best device I’ve ever owned. It does one thing really, really well.

I bought a Voyage in 2015 and don't want to give it up. I like it more than any of the newer models I've tried. Battery life is starting to get poor, but even 'poor' gives me about a week of typical reading before I have to charge it again.

Re: Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

#186

Post by thimabi »

deergomoo wrote: post #181

I wonder if they’re still using soft touch/rubberised plastic on the back? My last-gen Kindle Paperwhite has already started to go sticky and gross. I’ve also got an issue where the latest software update is causing frequent hangs when opening new books (literally 5+ minutes) and I quite often get stuck in books, unable to summon the menu to go back to my library. Seems to be a fairly common problem judging by Reddit…

The plastic on the back feels normal to me, after many years of usage. I use a case, don’t know if that helps to minimize the “sticky and gross” aspect.

However, I have been experiencing annoying software bugs with both my Paperwhite and my Kindle Scribe. Unresponsiveness, disappearing books, issues with sideloaded fonts… the devices’ software quality has greatly diminished lately.

Re: Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

#187

Post by ValentineC »

Aeolun wrote: post #171
sourcepluck wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another fully-offline, sideload-only, airplane-mode-forever ebooker here. Plus I didn't even buy it in the first place - a relation had one they said they never looked at, so I asked if I could take it off their hands. Had a funny experience once with a fellow (who was in his third year of computer science at a reputable university), where we just so happened to get on to the topic of ebooks. I told him how I operate…

I guess he’s never seen the kind of insane contracts people that publish on the Amazon store need to sign xD

As someone who has self-published a book on the Amazon Kindle store once, Amazon's cut is something like 70% + bandwidth fees (author only gets maybe ~25–28% of the selling price).

Re: Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

#188

Post by infotainment »

alwayslikethis wrote: post #172
sourcepluck wrote: post #170

Using the wisdom of the crowd here: what is the best ereader for tinkering? I'm browsing the answers here looking for that and I don't know if anything actually fits the bill. Something with Android, tablet-type machines, seems to be the answer? Is there nothing better?

Get a Kobo, which model depends on your needs. A Kindle is never yours since Amazon can push arbitrary updates wipe your stuff. Don't buy Boox either, as they include a lot of bloatware, not to mention they're blatantly disregarding GPL. Kobos are mostly just arm linux machines. You can install KOReader on them for a better reading experience.

I’ve read this, but I’ve also heard various downsides to Kobo, including in the discussion on this post. (Battery issues, general device glitches, etc)

Which Kobo do you use, and how has your experience been?

Re: Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

#189

Post by OnionBlender »

bloopernova wrote: post #131
OnionBlender wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "email yourself a PDF" note taking issue made the Scribe a no-go for me. Basically, if you transfer your PDF over USB, it wouldn't allow you to use certain note taking features. You had to email the PDF to yourself through Amazon's servers. I hope Kobo releases a new Elipsa. I waited for the new reMarkable, but it is full of subscription garbage.

I hadn't looked at the Elipsa before. It looks very much like the 1st gen Scribe, did Amazon simply buy that hardware?

All of the e-ink displays are made by the same company. That's why they're all so similar.

Re: Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

#190

Post by komali2 »

sourcepluck wrote: post #170

Using the wisdom of the crowd here: what is the best ereader for tinkering? I'm browsing the answers here looking for that and I don't know if anything actually fits the bill. Something with Android, tablet-type machines, seems to be the answer? Is there nothing better?

Specifically if you want android then boox something.

Kobo you can put custom scripts on to run stuff like koreader which is nice.

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