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

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341–350 of 683 posts

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

#341
post #332
post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, you have to pay to not have ads on a Kindle? When did that start being a thing? I've been using a kindle for about 14 years, my current one is a few years old. I've been thinking about upgrading, but it works perfectly fine, and I've never had it display ads, and haven't had to pay anything for that "privilege". It sounds like this will be my last Kindle device if I now have to pay extra for no ads, on a device…

Its been that way for years, the ad is on the lockscreen, and its an ad for other books. The version with no advertisement is 20$ more, I don't see the problem if someone wants to get a discount for looking at ads.

Yeah I don't find it that bad either. The ads are non-intrusive (only when not using the device) and the standard wallpapers are super boring anyway.

As much as I hate advertising, this is as good as it gets

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

#342
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Kindle had this "bug" where my side loaded books randomly disappear. As a workaround, I have to keep it in flight mode at all times. Not a big issue since that’s what I would do anyway, but in case my Kindle would break, I wouldn’t think long to buy an alternative

Out of all the devices where having a physical airplane mode switch would be nice, I'd put the kindle pretty high up. Kinda sucks having a battery that lasts ~45 days in airplane mode, and like a week and a half when I forget to turn it off.

Since the kindles with 3G have disappeared, the need for airplane mode for actual airplane use is a lot less though. Where I am most airlines permit WiFi use and even offer it themselves in flight. Only mobile network connections still have to be switched off.

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

#343
post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/16/22387146/amazon-display-c... 2021. People have certainly been asking for it for at least the last decade. Jail breaking doesn't count.

I bought a Kindle Paperwhite in 2020, it's been doing that since day 1 of my purchase without jailbreaking or anything. It's not a new thing that journalists cover old features as if they've just been added, because they just found out about it and feel they're newsworthy

It's definitely not "a decade". I have the 2013 Kindle Paper white and it doesn't have that feature without JB, the oldest device supported is Kindle Paperwhite 7th Gen which is released in 2019.

It's likely you are just lucky to buy a KPW with that feature just rolled out.

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

#344

We had books, but then we thought, what about screens. Then we had screens but we thought, what if screens were more like books. Then we had book screens and we thought, what if the screens we made to look like books were more like screens.

Reading code and documentation with an eink screen is tantalising. I have no interest in lugging around tomes and tomes of manuals anymore. When I was in uni and school I'd regularly lug around 15kg+ of textbooks. I love buying physical books but the freedom and flexibility of having ink-like screens is still a bonus.

Especially for things like reading contracts which I find miserable on a screen

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

#345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the exact opposite experience. My kindle battery went wonky after a few years, but my kobo has gone on for a lot longer with no issues. It's made me a little wary of buying a kindle again. Aside, or on top of, not wanting to support Amazon.

Did you try contacting Amazon support? If you had they probably would've shipped you a new one for free. Why don't you want to support Amazon?

I did not. It was a couple years old, and I wanted to get a bigger screen. As to not liking Amazon, they are anti-union, should be broken up, and their main stockholder is a money hoarding ghoul.

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

#346
post #227

We had books, but then we thought, what about screens. Then we had screens but we thought, what if screens were more like books. Then we had book screens and we thought, what if the screens we made to look like books were more like screens.

I get the joke, but color has been present in books (manuscripts, before the invention of the printing press, even) basically since their inception, many centuries ago, so just adding color wouldn't make these devices more similar to screens as much as it would make them more akin to... well, books. Just look at these marvels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript .

Here's a book a little closer in time to the invention of books: https://cdn.britannica.com/25/83825-050-F8826674/Anubis-Egyp...

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

#347

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?

Depends on what you mean by "tinkering". I had been on the lookout for a large Ereader from the very early days (i love reading books) and had owned a IRex Iliad and Nexus 10. I was looking for at least an A4 size screen (a must for reading technical papers/books) and finally settled on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (14.6 inch screen) which i bought this year. I have the Moon Reader Pro+ as my ereader app and with the S Pen you have note-taking capabilities too. Add a bluetooth keyboard/mouse and you have a easy to carry "laptop/tablet/note-taking ereader" for many usecases.

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

#348
post #6
post #3

The color model is uncharacteristically expensive for Kindle at $280, more than the color Kobos which are $220 for the same 7" size (which also has physical buttons and stylus support) or just $150 for the smaller 6" size. Kindles are usually the cheaper option, at the expense of being less amenable to sideloading and jailbreaking than Kobos are.

The color model is expensive, indeed. My guess is that they will quietly offer discounts after the hype goes away.

All their splash art shows comics. That makes sense, inasmuch as comics are a primary reason you'd want color in a book. But it still strikes me as a bizarre choice, since Amazon is only offering colors in their tiny form factor. They also make a larger device, and if you want color, you can't have it.

Comics are unreadable on a 7" kindle's tiny screen anyway. What's up with the marketing?

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

#349

What's the deal with ereaders and their seeming disdain for sane battery life measurements? Amazon boasts "up to 8 weeks on a single charge" in all their selling points, then, in the fine print states "A single charge lasts up to eight (8) weeks, based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at 13". So, it has 28 hours of actual use time, got it. Why not just say that?

Because people are dumb and don’t want a book that you have to recharge every day.

But also because it is not really 28 hours of battery life. If you just let it sit without touching it, the battery lasts for several weeks, if not longer.

It's a hard class of devices to give any sort of reasonable battery life length.

Regardless, the battery on these devices even back in 2012 was already good enough.

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

#350
post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

warm light (ideally adjustable temperature) and page turn buttons are the killer features for the Oasis. faster page turns and all the rest I can live without.

I hated not having buttons. The squeeze things on the Voyage weren’t good but at least they were something. The buttons on the Oasis are far better than that, though I still have gripes about them. I can’t imagine replacing my Oasis. I don’t know what it is they have against the buttons. I might’ve bought the color thing today if it had buttons. I guess I just can’t upgrade until my device dies and then I’ll have to…

My oasis is configured to make its lighting unusable. There are no buttons controlling the lighting. You have to navigate a menu on the touchscreen. It's possible to turn the lighting off, but if you do that, you'll be unable to turn it on in the dark, which is the only circumstance where you'd want to.
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