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The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

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Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#31

Post by yiyus »

lykr0n wrote: post #10
zippergz wrote: post #8

I absolutely love my Kindle Paperwhite, I don't want to read books on any other electronic device, and I totally agree that it's in a weird spot, and I am afraid for its future. But I don't agree with the author that the lack of an "app story" or good web browsers is an issue. I like the Kindle specifically because it doesn't have apps and isn't designed for web browsing. Adding that stuff would not make it better at…

This. I bought it for one reason- to read eBooks. Nothing else. The fact that I can buy eBooks on there is great. Spelling and a dictionary? Even better. The one thing I did not buy it for was to use as a tablet. The fact that there is a web browser on there is a neat feature at best.

I think that what the article suggests is not to turn Kindles into tablets, but add specific applications. For example, there may be applications of The New Yorker or the Washington Post which are real reading applications: with no distracting ads or notifications, but with updated content and a tailored experience. Web sites may also have specific Kindle versions. This sounds like a terribly ambitious goal, but we are talking about Amazon. Amazon has been capable of much more in the last 10 years.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#32

Post by lukifer »

jhbadger wrote: post #14
lukifer wrote: post #5

I'm more of a fan of the Nook and Kobo series (ability to sideload DRM-less ePubs is non-negotiable). But I like the less-is-more approach for e-readers; if anything, I'd prefer they had even more spartan/minimalist UIs, mimicking the "zero UI" affordances of a physical book as much as possible. I'm just being finicky, but I still find the e-ink screen flash a little distracting from the flow of reading (even in newe…

Epubs and Mobis are for all purposes identical and can converted back and forth with ease (they are both just HTML containers), and you can certainly sideload DRM-free Mobis on Kindle, so I don't see that as a major problem. What is a problem is the very poor handling of PDFs on Kindles.

TIL, thanks!

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#33

Post by macintux »

celticninja wrote: post #2

If it did anything else then I would end up distracted and not reading books. When I read a paper book I have no other distractions,that's what I want from my Kindle. I already have a phone, a laptop, a desktop, that can do all these other things. I'm on holiday right now, if my Kindle did all those things then I wouldn't feel like I was lying by the pool reading,rather I was lying by the pool on the internet.

He’s suggesting it could be a really good newspaper and magazine reader as well, not that it should become an iPad.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#34

Post by hombre_fatal »

liability wrote: post #27
hombre_fatal wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why assume everyone knows an acronym instead of spending the extra 1000ms to type it out once for us?

Text-to-speech. Sorry, I assumed people here were familiar with accessibility tech. (If I recall correctly, the marketing material for Kindles used to use the term 'TTS', I don't think it's that obscure.)

I had just realized it must've been the tenth time I've had to google an acronym on HN over the last couple days. You're probably right that it's fair jargon in the context of e-readers. It's just that context is constantly changing as you click between HN comments. I might just be in a sassy mood. :P

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#35

Post by vlunkr »

So in the past ten-ish years, the kindle has remained the same, the amazon store has been flooded with knock off products, and the only other notable consumer products Amazon makes are unremarkable Android tablets, buttons that let you accidentally order more laundry soap, and eavesdropping devices.

I say lets let it be.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#37

Post by pseudalopex »

zippergz wrote: post #8

I absolutely love my Kindle Paperwhite, I don't want to read books on any other electronic device, and I totally agree that it's in a weird spot, and I am afraid for its future. But I don't agree with the author that the lack of an "app story" or good web browsers is an issue. I like the Kindle specifically because it doesn't have apps and isn't designed for web browsing. Adding that stuff would not make it better at…

I think the author only mentioned the browser so people wouldn't say "just use the browser".

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#38

Post by yiyus »

WarDores wrote: post #3
celticninja wrote: post #2

If it did anything else then I would end up distracted and not reading books. When I read a paper book I have no other distractions,that's what I want from my Kindle. I already have a phone, a laptop, a desktop, that can do all these other things. I'm on holiday right now, if my Kindle did all those things then I wouldn't feel like I was lying by the pool reading,rather I was lying by the pool on the internet.

Exactly, it was this quote > For all I love about it, it seems unlikely to ever progress beyond its current role as a pleasant book reader largely disconnected from all other sources of content. that summed it up for me. That's all I want. I want it to be disconnected from all other sources of content. I don't want to be interrupted with a notification saying that x website uploaded a new article or whatever.

I don't think anyone is asking for that. But I would gladly pay a small fee to have an app with my newspaper that gets updated in realtime and give me a great reading experience without ads, where I can choose the topics I am interested in. I would also love to have an application to manage lots of scientific articles or that allows me to review papers. And I would like to do those things in my "disconnected" device with the nice e-ink screen. Notifications? Of course not.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#39

Post by eli »

vlunkr wrote: post #35

So in the past ten-ish years, the kindle has remained the same, the amazon store has been flooded with knock off products, and the only other notable consumer products Amazon makes are unremarkable Android tablets, buttons that let you accidentally order more laundry soap, and eavesdropping devices. I say lets let it be.

They gave up on the buttons, actually. They sell a lot of Alexa devices though.

Re: The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more

#40

Post by graaben »

I got my Kindle in 2012 and it still runs like a brand new device. I think Amazon's issue will eventually be that, unlike the iPhone, no one needs to upgrade their kindle more than once per decade or so. Of course if the newer models had dramatically better features or apps I would be tempted to upgrade.
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