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Not buying another Kindle

androidauthority.com

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Re: Not buying another Kindle

#31

Post by Insanity »

paulnpace wrote: post #13
Insanity wrote: post #4

The devices were supported for more than a decade. Sure, this forced deprecation isn’t great but it’s still had a longer lifetime than many other devices. I’ll happily keep reading on my kindle, it’s the most ergonomic way of reading for me especially when traveling. I get that there are other options like Kobo, but I don’t see it as significantly better than the Kindles. And I like the fact that I can also use the i…

IIRC, part of the original sales pitch was replacing physical books, for whatever reason one might like to do that. I did it because I was doing a LOT of travel. I haven't had a job that requires travel in a long time, so looking at it from that perspective, having my library also require some kind of additional device maintenance cycle or whatever really adds a layer of complexity I don't want to deal with, so depen…

One benefit apart from travel that I couldn’t go without is adapting the font size. I have pretty poor eyesight and some physical books were a PITA to read. Especially from bed / bath where I wouldn’t normally wear glasses.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#32

Post by Barrin92 »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #23
johngossman wrote: post #8

I can understand why one would want to move from Kindle to another device, but this article starts by complaining that support is being dropped for devices from before 2013. I can even understand being upset by this, but I have absolutely no faith that whatever other device I switch to will still be supported in 10+ years. Could be. But I sure wouldn't count on it.

What's also not mentioned is that the discontinued devices don't support KFX. KFX is the modern kindle format, AZW meanwhile is heavily PDF-based. KFX was designed ground-up by Amazon, supports every modern feature they could think of, and presumably couldn't be backported to 2013 and earlier Kindles; AZW meanwhile was basically a wrapper around a subset of PDF. KFX is a complete redo, notable enough it's what "Enhan…

I don't follow the logic here. Users of old devices aren't asking for new features, they're merely asking for their devices not to be bricked. If an author wants to design against a new set of features they can do that, and that book will not be available on older hardware. Just like, if you want to build an Android app against a newer version you can do that without forcing every human being to replace their phone.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#34

Post by gjsman-1000 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #32
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's also not mentioned is that the discontinued devices don't support KFX. KFX is the modern kindle format, AZW meanwhile is heavily PDF-based. KFX was designed ground-up by Amazon, supports every modern feature they could think of, and presumably couldn't be backported to 2013 and earlier Kindles; AZW meanwhile was basically a wrapper around a subset of PDF. KFX is a complete redo, notable enough it's what "Enhan…

I don't follow the logic here. Users of old devices aren't asking for new features, they're merely asking for their devices not to be bricked. If an author wants to design against a new set of features they can do that, and that book will not be available on older hardware. Just like, if you want to build an Android app against a newer version you can do that without forcing every human being to replace their phone.

The old kindles can still read all previously downloaded content. Amazon's warning is literally exactly that - you can't download new books or redownload old books (i.e. AZW versions).

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#35

Post by WillAdams »

andrewla wrote: post #16

Has anyone done any interesting work on transflective / reflective frontlit LCD panels? It seems like this is rife for progress; LCDs can achieve densities and response rates that are beyond the reach of any eink device, and only the lack of good contrast stands in the way.

Fujitsu used to offer them --- their Stylistic ST-4110 was my favourite device for a very long while, used as for maps/navigation as well as an ebook reader in addition to being my main computer --- quite miss it and the simplicity of a single (stylus-equipped/daylight-viewable) device, as opposed to the ménagerie which I currently use (Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, Book 3 Pro 360, Kindle Scribe Coloursoft, Wacom One attached to MacBook)

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#36

Post by [deleted] »

andrewla wrote: post #18

I'm still using a Kindle Oasis (and bought a couple of unopened used ones on eBay). I need the physical page turn buttons so Amazon has basically abandoned me. Trying out the Boox and Kobo readers I was immediately struck by their leggy and unresponsive UI (and this is saying something, coming from the kindle, which is already pretty laggy). I used a Nook in a demo and was impressed, but I'm leery of buying the eread…

[deleted]

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#37

Post by mrec »

boplicity wrote: post #14
jihadjihad wrote: post #5

The site causes cancer but the conclusion of TFA is sensible: just get a Kobo and be done with it. I had a Kindle for years but there's no reason to stick to Amazon for e-readers anymore.

I really want to like the Kobo. I really do. But I've had such bad luck with their devices. For example, sometimes the pages randomly start turning, really fast, so I completely lose my place. It also never reliably syncs between devices. And the integration with Overdrive is unreliable, only working some of the time. I also read it in the bath sometimes, which supposedly is one of the features available due to the w…

> For example, sometimes the pages randomly start turning, really fast, so I completely lose my place.

FWIW, I've had the same issue with my Kindle, and cleaning the screen seemed to fix it reliably.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#38

Post by com2kid »

andrewla wrote: post #17

In my view the death of the eReader is just the price fixing on ebooks -- that ebooks are sold at par with at a premium to physical books still bothers me, and I think is responsible for the fact that the Kindle is dying -- Amazon can't move enough ebooks at these price levels to be worth investing anything in interested new hardware.

A number of authors have written about this and the tldr is that ebooks aren't really any cheaper to produce.

Paper is cheap. Shipping is cheap. The incremental cost of making a physical book is so small as to be noise in the overall book price.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#39

Post by tbyehl »

I'm not buying another Kindle until there's a successor to the Voyage's "Limited Edition Premium Leather Origami Cover." If a competitor wants to lure me over, that is the way.

Re: Not buying another Kindle

#40

Post by Barrin92 »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #34
Barrin92 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't follow the logic here. Users of old devices aren't asking for new features, they're merely asking for their devices not to be bricked. If an author wants to design against a new set of features they can do that, and that book will not be available on older hardware. Just like, if you want to build an Android app against a newer version you can do that without forcing every human being to replace their phone.

The old kindles can still read all previously downloaded content. Amazon's warning is literally exactly that - you can't download new books or redownload old books (i.e. AZW versions).

but that has nothing to do with what you just said. How would being able to continue to download, or purchase, old books affect the ability of authors to create books to new standards going forward? It's not like me being able to still buy an ebook version made in 2015 on my device from 2012 going to interfere with you publishing a book in 2026. That's just bricking the device in case the user ever has to reset their device or has not downloaded their library.
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