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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

#531

Post by andai »

andrewla wrote: post #21

No update to the Oasis; I guess when I refresh I'll get a Boox or other Android-based device with page turn buttons and run the kindle app on it. I have a first generation Kindle Oasis, which is a great device, in no small part because of its asymmetric design and page turn buttons. The newer Oasis (still last refreshed in 2022) have better lighting (temperature adjustable) and inverse text mode, which are both nice…

>honestly would prefer that the touchscreen was as little used as possible -- an unresponsive or slow screen is the worst case for a touchscreen, since the feedback loop is terrible.

I agree in principle (slow feedback is the bane of my existence) but I had one of those 10 inch Kindle DX without touch, and it was a pretty bad experience compared to the Paperwhite.

Physical buttons (and possibly the orientation sensor?) were definitely nice to have though.

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

#532

Post by criddell »

jeremycarter wrote: post #462
criddell wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Scribe is neat, but it's too small (same goes for the Remarkable devices). It wish it was A4/Letter size to read PDFs at full size. There are a few devices like that out there (I've heard the Fujitsu Quaderno is nice), but none of them can be used with books purchased at Amazon. And yes, I know about Calibre and the DeDRM tools. They don't work on KFX files and the workarounds degrade the book (you lose typograph…

Have you seen the TCL Nxtpaper 14? It's huge! I'd imagine reading a textbook on it would be as good as the real thing.

If only it wasn't running Android. I actually like that the Scribe and Remarkable are dedicated devices.

I'd like to see one because I'm a little skeptical about the screen. Is it as readable in sunlight as the Kindle?

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

#533

Post by tikkun »

mdorazio wrote: post #520
dfc wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been a kindle user for so long I'm embarrassed to admit I don't have any concept of what it is like to get ebooks outside of the Amazon ecosystem. Was the change easy to make? Do you feel like you have access to as much content as you did with a kindle?

I use a Boox reader, but pretty close to the same experience. For me, I either buy the book from one of the many places that lets you download epub, or buy it on the Kindle store and download it from Libgen. It's really a non-issue. I've only run into one or two books I wasn't able to get an epub of, and those I ended up reading on the Kindle cloud reader on my laptop.

What are your favorite places to buy books that let you download the epub versions also?

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

#535

Post by widowlark »

eloisant wrote: post #514
op00to wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asked Amazon via chat to remove the adds because I was SCANDALIZED, just utterly SCANDALIZED to see romance novels on ads on the lock screen. They removed the ads for free. ;)

Congrats, you made a big fuss to save $20

megacorp set an arbitrary price for this, and you think the consumer is at fault?

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

#536

Post by atombender »

WillAdams wrote: post #527
atombender wrote: post #495

The one improvement I want from an ebook reader is better typography. On current devices (especially Kindle, but from what I've seen of screenshots online, also other readers), the font selection is extremely limited and the rendering is atrocious. Nobody seems to have spent any time on kerning, word breaking, or anything else relating to typography and layout. Even after 20+ years of ebooks, they still don't have th…

It's a tough problem to solve and the computation of it all is sufficiently expensive that doing it on a battery-powered device is a significant drain. A further difficulty is the file formats being used --- ages ago, I tried to argue for an ebook format which specifically noted markup and content as being decorative or semantic and looking over the specification I don't see that that was ever really worked up. That…

Is it a tough problem, though? Fonts have hinting built in, executing those bytecode instructions should be something even low-powered chips should do just fine. Text flow algorithms have been solved well since Knuth's TeX work in the 1970s, as I understand it.

Obviously, publishers also need to make a better efforts in producing ebooks, but I'm not super familiar with EPUB and don't know where the technology is lacking.

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

#537

Post by widowlark »

eloisant wrote: post #523
n4r9 wrote: post #507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. It's exploiting a weakness in customer service provision in order to work around built-in UX degradation. Not many people would think of it.

It's not a weakness, it's Amazon's strategy to be generous in customer support to ensure loyal customers.

not so - they will fight you on the ad removal most of the time

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

#538

Post by Funes- »

mirekrusin wrote: post #240
Funes- wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the joke, but color has been present in books (manuscripts, before the invention of the printing press, even) basically since their inception, many centuries ago, so just adding color wouldn't make these devices more similar to screens as much as it would make them more akin to... well, books. Just look at these marvels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript .

Color was present in cave paintings.

Where exactly in parent's post are cave paintings mentioned, instead of explicitly just books and screens, whose specific relationship is what the tongue-in-cheek comment is about? Your post makes no sense, other than trying to be a "gotcha!" one and failing at it.

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

#539

Post by widowlark »

dewey wrote: post #402
wooque wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It deletes all side-loaded books when you connect it to the internet, happened to me as well.

That’s not right, I always buy books from Amazon over WiFi but also sync my books from Calibre. No issues for probably 10 years.

is your wifi on when you add your calibre books? if so, thats why.

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

#540

Post by mcovalt »

pfooti wrote: post #179

I have a pretty old paperwhite. When it started deleting books i had side-loaded via calibre, I decided to get a kobo. I have a libra color, and I have to say: price notwithstanding, it's a great device. I don't have a lot of experience with more recent devices, but compared to my 2nd gen paperwhite, it is _amazing_. Color is good enough to read comic books on it, the google drive integration means it's not too hard…

If you own a Kobo e-reader, check out the Plato reader [0], an unofficial document reader of Kobo devices. I find it interesting that it's written by the same person that wrote the bspwm window manager.

It is one of my favorite pieces of software. The UI is beautiful and, to be honest, inspirational. It frequently reminds me that the best UI should not be noticed. Humbling.

[0] https://github.com/baskerville/plato

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