Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story • Hacker News Board

Re: Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story

#61

Post by fpgeek » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 5:05 AM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #27

jfb wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should someone choose to read on Amazon if the experience is so hostile? It's a lament for a lost opportunity most of all.

Amazon's octopus stranglehold on books. He mentioned that he reads a lot and listens to audiobooks... audible is basically the only game in town, and Kindle editions add $1 to the cost.

While you're right about Amazon's bundling advantages (with both Audible and MatchBook), there are other audiobook alternatives (e.g. Downpour, which sells many DRM-free audiobooks).

Re: Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story

#62

Post by ericd » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 5:15 AM UTC

pookieinc wrote: post #53

AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #22

I had been planning to launch a big, public campaign about Kindle typography to try and get Amazon to change her ways. But I came to the conclusion: why bother? This is precisely the feeling I had right before I resigned from my position at Amazon. Though I worked at a subsidiary, not Amazon proper, the culture at Amazon everywhere can be absurdly stubborn. In the presence of a bad team, the "leadership principles" c…

I agree with this post, but not with regards to the Kindle, but more Amazon as an entity. Also, perfect timing to read this article, after just purchasing a Kindle Paperwhite and having it for a few weeks now. As a casual reader, I find the Kindle Paperwhite as the perfect medium for my reading needs. I can hold it in one hand, I can read it any time of the day with adjustable brightness, and the e-ink is very clear…

Yeah, I've never once wanted more options/features/modes for my Kindle. I honestly think any additional complication would make it worse.

Re: Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story

#63

Post by ericd » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 5:17 AM UTC

jayvanguard wrote: post #23

This person seems extremely picky. I have pretty much every generation of kindle and they just keep getting incrementally better. Resolution, backlight, multiple dictionaries, x-ray, etc.

I hated the switch to touch from physical buttons, but maybe it's gotten better (more responsive) since the first version.

Re: Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story

#64

Post by fpgeek » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 5:21 AM UTC

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #4

To be fair, I find it much easier to fall asleep after using my Kindle Paperwhite than I do with an iPad. But, virtually every aspect of the Kindle ecosystem user experience is an experience in mediocrity. In some respects, I feel like the company is like what you'd get if you crossed the worst aspects of Microsoft and Google. (And apologies to my friends who work at Amazon, but let's be honest: you're all going to q…

While there are plenty of mediocre aspects of the Kindle ecosystem, there are plenty of excellent ones as well. For example:

1. Return policy. Amazon has the best ebook return policy in the business. It seems essentially the same as their physical book policy. The last time I checked, Google Play was next-best (7 days no-questions-asked, regardless of jurisdiction) and everyone else grudgingly had a return policy where it was required by law (i.e. Europe) and none otherwise.

2. Sideloaded books. AFAIK, of the major ebook retailers, only Amazon and Google will let you sync books you didn't purchase from them to your cloud library. Other retailers might let you read sideloaded books in their clients, but you have to use Dropbox or an equivalent for backup and syncing across devices.

3. Client support. If it supports third-party applications, Amazon makes a Kindle client for almost anything you might want to read an ebook on, plus they have a web-based reader. Meanwhile, Google and Apple are busy paying "strategy taxes" for platforms it isn't in their interest to support, and B&N and Kobo don't quite have the resources to keep up.

Re: Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story

#65

Post by ericd » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 5:23 AM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #12

I had a second generation Kindle (still had buttons, still had free 3G everywhere in the world, which was an awesome feature), and loved it. I dropped it many, many times, over the years, and finally the screen broke. So, I replaced it with a Paper White. It's a better product in most regards, but I find I use it for reading far less. I tend to almost exclusively read on my Nexus 7. Twilight makes it possible to dim…

I absolutely hated my Kindle Touch (1st gen), so I sold it and bought a used 3G. Since then, I've cracked two screens, but fortunately, they're very easy to get parts for and repair (http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Amazon-Kindle-Parts-for-Repair...).

Amazon still sells used Kindle Keyboard 3Gs for reasonable prices, if you're ever tempted to go back.

Re: Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story

#66

Post by jlarocco » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 5:43 AM UTC

megablast wrote: post #43

jayvanguard wrote: post #23

This person seems extremely picky. I have pretty much every generation of kindle and they just keep getting incrementally better. Resolution, backlight, multiple dictionaries, x-ray, etc.

> This person seems extremely picky. I don't understand this? Why not disagree with the valid points he made, rather than just calling him picky? When you use a device a lot, as you would an ereader, I can imagine these problems becoming magnified.

The article is basically just some guy's rant against Amazon. He found some very minor nitpicks, has blown them way out of proportion, and is using them as evidence that Amazon hates readers. Or something. Factor in all the insults, and it's not really worth trying to start a discussion, IMO.

Re: Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story

#67

Post by Derbasti » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 5:54 AM UTC

After having owned three kindles, I have switched to a kobo about a year ago. The kobo has many of its own problems, but it gets the reading experience right: it uses (very un-aggressive) hyphenation, and the lock screen displays the book cover.

I miss going on Amazon, clicking some button, and immediately start reading a new book. Now that's a multi step process that involves a computer and a DRM removal tool. But the reading experience is easily worth it for me.

Re: Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story

#68

Post by teekert » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 5:59 AM UTC

I have been using a kindle keyboard (3.5) since January 2011 (still use it actually). It took until September 2012 for them to introduce what they call "crisper fonts" which were fonts that actually match the pixels of the device. This means that before "crisper fonts" the same letter could look different depending on its position (which was not aligned with the pixels). I have for that entire 20 months wondered if anyone at Amazon actually used the kindle themselves.

Other than that I'm still quite pleased with the thing (apart from the small trouble of having to remove DRM from most books to read my, paid for books on unsupported devices. Calibre plugins make this quite painless thankfully.)

Re: Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story

#69

Post by SwellJoe » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 6:13 AM UTC

ericd wrote: post #65

SwellJoe wrote: post #12

I had a second generation Kindle (still had buttons, still had free 3G everywhere in the world, which was an awesome feature), and loved it. I dropped it many, many times, over the years, and finally the screen broke. So, I replaced it with a Paper White. It's a better product in most regards, but I find I use it for reading far less. I tend to almost exclusively read on my Nexus 7. Twilight makes it possible to dim…

I absolutely hated my Kindle Touch (1st gen), so I sold it and bought a used 3G. Since then, I've cracked two screens, but fortunately, they're very easy to get parts for and repair ( http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Amazon-Kindle-Parts-for-Repair... ). Amazon still sells used Kindle Keyboard 3Gs for reasonable prices, if you're ever tempted to go back.

Only 15 bucks to fix my old Kindle! Why didn't I think of that? I definitely miss the old one, and wish I'd thought of doing this to start with. I wasn't really excited about the new Kindles (the move to touch screens everywhere has been a thing I've been unenthusiastic about, always...I was hesitant to move away from the G1 to a touchscreen Android phone, too). I just assumed I had to "uprade".

Thanks for the link.

Re: Voyage to Nowhere: The Amazon Kindle Story

#70

Post by ursidae » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 6:17 AM UTC

fpgeek wrote: post #64

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #4

To be fair, I find it much easier to fall asleep after using my Kindle Paperwhite than I do with an iPad. But, virtually every aspect of the Kindle ecosystem user experience is an experience in mediocrity. In some respects, I feel like the company is like what you'd get if you crossed the worst aspects of Microsoft and Google. (And apologies to my friends who work at Amazon, but let's be honest: you're all going to q…

While there are plenty of mediocre aspects of the Kindle ecosystem, there are plenty of excellent ones as well. For example: 1. Return policy. Amazon has the best ebook return policy in the business. It seems essentially the same as their physical book policy. The last time I checked, Google Play was next-best (7 days no-questions-asked, regardless of jurisdiction) and everyone else grudgingly had a return policy whe…

One frustrating thing about side loaded books, you cannot read them with Kindle for PC, Kindle for Mac, or Kindle cloud reader.