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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

#411

Post by makeitdouble »

shbooms wrote: post #293

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?

TBF phones and computers also take "evocative" numbers on their marketing material.

The "Up to 33 hours of video playback" for the iPhone Pro Max[0] for instance is an absolutely insane use case (nobody's letting their phone passively play local videos for a day and a half), and gives little insight into how long it can stay in sheer standby, do video meetings or handle slack.

[0] https://www.apple.com/iphone-16-pro/

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

#412

Post by tene80i »

Qwertious wrote: post #397
tene80i wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that the situation for authors is already poor hardly makes it better to opt not to compensate them. If you or the OP feel that you’re only playing a small part, that’s between you and your conscience. And sure, if you’re buying some copy of the book and downloading a convenient second copy, that’s totally different. I was responding to the OP being pleased about not having spent anything at all (except on t…

Note that purchasing on Amazon and compensating the author are actually separate categories - if you mail the author the RRP in cash, then they get far more than they would have if you'd bought off Amazon. In fact, if everyone used a shadow library but mailed the author cash, then Amazon would go bankrupt but the authors would be fine (and wouldn't need to use Amazon in the first place).

I think Amazon would be fine because of the money it makes on other products, but I agree paying the author directly is a more principled approach than just paying nobody.

Worth noting though that it’s not just Amazon and the author in the picture - you would be stiffing the publishers in this scenario, and they paid to get the book printed (and edited, and designed, and shipped to physical stores, and maybe some publicity, and probably gave the author an advance).

You might think “who cares?”, but if the author didn’t (traditionally) sell any of the books they published then they wouldn’t ever get another publishing deal, so you’re harming their career. They could self-publish, sure, but worth keeping in mind the author doesn’t necessarily want that, because of the benefits publishers bring (if they didn’t bring any benefits, people wouldn’t use them - they’re not idiots).

It’s very complicated, and I would argue that people using shadow libraries “for authors’ benefit” ought to be speaking to more authors about whether they want that kind of help. But I agree your plan is much more honest than paying nobody, even if it has some potentially negative effects at scale without more coordinated action.

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

#413

Post by ForHackernews »

d0gsg0w00f wrote: post #237
Aeolun wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to believe you’d ever earn enough on an Amazon book to make any such contract worth it.

70% of $100k = $70k 30% of $1mil = $300k Scale makes it seem pretty straightforward to me.

What percentage of books do you think make $m in sales? 0.1%? 0.01%?

https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books

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

#414

Post by ffsm8 »

yftsui wrote: post #343
ffsm8 wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I cannot speak on when it was actually introduced.

I only added my experience because bongobingo said 2021 and cited a tabloid "article" as proof.

The feature definitely predates April 2021, how long? I have no idea, possibly only 6-7 months, as I bought mine in October 2020.

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

#415

Post by michaelt »

tjoff wrote: post #355
majormajor wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least ten years ago https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/technology/personaltech/r...

Can't read that but that is surely if you bought the subsidized ad-version of the kindle.

There's no difference between a "subsidized ad-version" and what al_borland said: that they "paid to not have ads on the Kindle"

You can get a Kindle for $110 with ads, or for $130 without ads.

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

#416

Post by n4r9 »

gizmo wrote: post #395
letniq wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually there is a hack. After buying a kindle, you just write to kindle support and say that you are getting ads and you are not aware why are you getting them. They usually would remove them for you. Worked for me though when I bought kindle.

That's not a hack. Customer support just doesn't want to argue with people who are likely to get belligerent. You can get a lot of stuff for free just by throwing a tantrum, but is that really who you want to be?

> Hacking might be characterized as ‘an appropriate application of ingenuity’.

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html

It's not far off a hack. And not OP but personally I've got very few problems with getting one over on massive corporations like Amazon.

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

#417

Post by edanm »

hi_hi wrote: post #329
al_borland wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched from a Kindle to a Kobo (monochrome), and simply having the book cover as the lock screen makes me like it so much more. I always paid to not have ads on the Kindle, but it would show a bunch of generic images. The book cover is the obvious choice. Kobo gets it. The reading experience is a little more bare bones, but good enough, and still offers things a physical book does not.

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…

Always been a thing, I think. When you bought it you could pay like $20 extra to not have them - you probably paid and never thought about it since, I imagine.

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

#418

Post by hmottestad »

buovjaga wrote: post #314

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24271632/amazon-kindle-c... "The Colorsoft is based on E Ink’s Kaleido technology but uses an entirely new display stack for Kindles, all the way back to a newly designed oxide backplane that makes it easier for E Ink panel’s tiny bits of ink to move around quickly. The E Ink world has been working on similar tech for a while, and Amazon thinks it’s the key to making color work wel…

That's really cool. I have a Boox device with a Kaleido 3 display and the colours are really muted. And the display is much much darker than a regular BW display. I use it as an info display so I can quickly see the weather forecast and when the next subway leaves.

I'm also impressed by the improvements to Gallery 3 displays used in the latests reMarkable. Gallery 3 has typically had much better colours, contrast and brightness when compared to Kaleido 3. Now I'm very curious for the reviews.

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

#419

Post by laserbeam »

shbooms wrote: post #293

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?

Having a few eink readers/tablets, I can say that I almost never care about battery life. You end up charging them once a week or two anyway. I never look at battery stats for them because it almost never ends up important in practice. I don't even look at the battery stat when deciding which to buy or when I recommend one to a friend.

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

#420

Post by tjoff »

michaelt wrote: post #415
tjoff wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't read that but that is surely if you bought the subsidized ad-version of the kindle.

There's no difference between a "subsidized ad-version" and what al_borland said: that they "paid to not have ads on the Kindle" You can get a Kindle for $110 with ads, or for $130 without ads.

I read it as if it was a subscription, my bad.
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