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Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

reuters.com

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Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#211

Post by watwut »

somewhatgoated wrote: post #196

What is a good e-reader nowadays? I had a pocket book 2 for 15+ years but destroyed the display recently :/ Looking for a replacement now that is black&white, has a very good paper like screen, long battery life and allows me to read any .epub/.mobi without DRM or other bs restrictions. I don’t need colour screen, don’t need audio support and no integrations with any shops or anything like that. Kindle is ruled out,…

I am waiting for when the patents expire and we finally get some competition, quality and lower prices.

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#212

Post by bborud »

What I don’t get is why the publishing industry never got its act together, listened to customers and got its act together.

Yes, like many industries I have worked in I can imagine that they are unable to cooperate because of petty greed and short-sightedness: they would rather have the whole market taken away from them than endure the possibility that some of their direct competitors get a small, temporary advantage.

It should not be hard to create truly interoperable systems that can cut Amazon out of the equation. It isn’t a technology issue. We have technology that easily solves every conceivable aspect of distributing, paying for and consuming ebooks.

This should be the ultimate opportunity for the publishing industry. Especially given that Amazon isn’t investing much in development of devices.

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#213

Post by torben-friis »

shrubby wrote: post #206

Who needs software updates and Bezos's spying. We have several different ecosystem e-readers in our household and all are used via USB and Calibre. The "extra time used" is won by multitude with approach where the reading stays in the center and uploading is once in a while event. This creates a barrier for addictive bookshopping, though a reader with plenty of books allows the change of minds, not just the endless b…

Any recommendations? I've gone back to paper partly because the form factors of kindles don't feel particularly comfortable. The basic kindle feels kinda cramped but I don't like pro-tablet like devices.

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#214

Post by muyuu »

Aloha wrote: post #107
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #34

Amazon's attitude towards its Kindle device customers is one of lofty disregard. Every time they announce new Kindle products, half of the comments are like "I hope they have buttons," "I hope they bring back the Oasis," etc. But they appear to exult in dashing the hopes of their customers, or at the very least they don't care about them at all. They've doubled down on no-key devices with stupid pens, pointless and p…

14 years of support for a device is pretty incredible.

not when all it takes is not to actively boycott the device

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#215

Post by swores »

bborud wrote: post #212

What I don’t get is why the publishing industry never got its act together, listened to customers and got its act together. Yes, like many industries I have worked in I can imagine that they are unable to cooperate because of petty greed and short-sightedness: they would rather have the whole market taken away from them than endure the possibility that some of their direct competitors get a small, temporary advantage…

I'm not very familiar with anti-cartel laws (in any country), but I wonder if there would be legal issues preventing publishing companies from working together in such a way even if they otherwise had wanted to?

(Though even if that is the case, I'd still think they could have at least agreed on open standards to use, to prevent anyone like Amazon from creating vendor lock-in.)

But Amazon had advantages from its size. In terms of economies of scale for device manufacturing, publishers could have somewhat caught up if they pooled money to invest in a co-owned company that made devices (though still wouldn't have had such an advantage as Amazon, who could share R&D and production costs with any overlaps to other devices such as smart home speakers, Android tablets, etc.) But Amazon was also able to take a bigger picture approach, using cheap Kindles/ebooks to attract people into their ecosystem and then converting a not-insignificant amount of them to buying other stuff on Amazon.

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#216

Post by realusername »

Aloha wrote: post #107
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #34

Amazon's attitude towards its Kindle device customers is one of lofty disregard. Every time they announce new Kindle products, half of the comments are like "I hope they have buttons," "I hope they bring back the Oasis," etc. But they appear to exult in dashing the hopes of their customers, or at the very least they don't care about them at all. They've doubled down on no-key devices with stupid pens, pointless and p…

14 years of support for a device is pretty incredible.

I have my 2010 Kobo and it still works fine, you can copy books by usb to it.

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#217

Post by somewhatgoated »

tacker2000 wrote: post #203
somewhatgoated wrote: post #196

What is a good e-reader nowadays? I had a pocket book 2 for 15+ years but destroyed the display recently :/ Looking for a replacement now that is black&white, has a very good paper like screen, long battery life and allows me to read any .epub/.mobi without DRM or other bs restrictions. I don’t need colour screen, don’t need audio support and no integrations with any shops or anything like that. Kindle is ruled out,…

I've now moved to an Android eReader (Boox Note 7, for example [1]). I can just get the Ebook or PDF files and transfer them via Calibre, simple as that, and I can also download any Android app i want. There are tons of apps out there that support eInk screens. [1] https://shop.boox.com/products/go7

This looks very promising, thanks for the tip!

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#218

Post by 0x38B »

latentframe wrote: post #171

A big amount of user loyalty comes from products that feel finished more than always evolving. Early Kindles felt closer to bookshelves than software platforms

My Kindle Touch, judging by the plastic, is old, on its second battery. I love that the reading experience has not changed at all in the time I’ve had the device. I never thought of it as a bookshelf, but that’s a great way to put it.

In contrast, my iPhone changes with each update, but often I find not for the better – I hated the new control center at first, and while I made it mostly match the old one, the tap targets are smaller than they used to be, on my 4.7” display.

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#219

Post by rldjbpin »

my device just missed the window, and pre-covid it had a battery issue. back then, when i requested amazon to replace the battery, they simply offered a discount on a new one similar to the affected users instead.

it magically started keeping charge recently and is working as i last remembered. i haven't been keeping tabs but the underlying computing of these kindles has been largely the same, TI-84 like, outdated scrap that happens to be enough for the slow refreshing screens.

while it's unlikely for anyone here complaining to own an affected device (that is still their daily driver), i hope they do have a major overhaul incoming which necessitates this. the main pain point with access to your purchases is indeed frustrating, but very few things in computing has lasted me this long.

Re: Kindle loyalists scramble as Amazon turns page on old e-readers

#220

Post by mackross »

moved to kobo (the nice one with colour screen) with calibre web running behind a cloudflare tunnel, getting books direct through smallest publishers/authors. Adds the tiniest bit of friction in book acquisition but reading experience, battery life, everything else shits on my kindle experience (and I’ve owned every one).
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