Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more • Hacker News Board

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

#621

Post by int_19h » Thu, Oct 17, 2024, 6:04 PM UTC

exodust wrote: post #379

laweijfmvo wrote: post #260

I hope they’re not abandoning page turn buttons for good, like my Oasis has — the only reason I bought the Oasis. Touch screens are just not a good reading experience, for me.

Physical page buttons have a small UX disadvantage in that your finger must be located at the button when its time to turn the page. Unlike the soft method where you gently tap screen with finger or pen, and you're not limited to one activation location. So, more energy required with the physical button. I was disappointed at first the Scribe didn't have buttons, but now I don't care.

It's the opposite - with a physical button, you just put your finger on it and keep it there while reading, so that you only need to push slightly to get to the next page. Whereas with touch screen you need to actively move your finger back and forth every time (since keeping it there would block the screen, and in any case you can't really rest it on a capacitive screen without it registering as a touch).

For one-handed reading especially, that alone makes physical buttons significantly more ergonomic, provided that they're placed such that your thumb rests on them naturally when holding the device.

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

#622

Post by loeg » Thu, Oct 17, 2024, 6:06 PM UTC

carlosjobim wrote: post #486

jestersarmed wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[dead]

I get my books from different sources than Amazon. I can transfer these to my Kindle by e-mail or Calibre, without any issue. And they stay there on the Kindle and work fine. I also sync these books from my computer to other devices, Android and iOS, and they work fine also. Use EPUB file format and your books will work on all devices, including Kindle.

> Use EPUB file format and your books will work on all devices, including Kindle.

My Kindle won't open EPUB files, only AZW3. But it is easy to convert with Calibre.

The rest is true in my experience. Loading non-DRM AZW3 books works fine; Kindle doesn't magically add DRM to them nor delete them.

If you're getting books from Amazon with DRM, you don't need to sideload them!

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

#623

Post by int_19h » Thu, Oct 17, 2024, 6:07 PM UTC

k33l0r wrote: post #401

ane wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been using Send to kindle[1] for years to upload epubs directly to Kindle. It even syncs the position in the books so that if I read it on my Kindle, it syncs the position to the Kindle app on my phone. [1] https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle

I've found that Send to Kindle does a much worse job at converting to MOBI than Calibre, which is a bit ironic but on par with Amazon's overall treatment of non-Kindle books.

Back when MOBI was still the primary format for Kindles, it would actually allow you to upload .mobi files directly via Send to Kindle.

These days it wants ePub only, but things also seem to "just work", and I always assumed it's because they added support for it on device side. What are the issues that you ran into?

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

#624

Post by dotancohen » Thu, Oct 17, 2024, 6:13 PM UTC

EA-3167 wrote: post #592

dotancohen wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a Boox Note Air Plus 2, a colleague uses a Boox Note Air 3. My device is black and white, hers is in colour. The black and white device is excellent, I cannot remember the last time I turned on the backlight. The color device is so dark that it is unusable without the back light in normal office conditions. I have not seen it outdoors, however.

I also have the Note Air 2, and really don't feel a need for color at this point. It's my go-to e-reader, I have a little remote and a stand for it so I can just kick back in a chair or in bed and read. I couldn't be happier with it, the battery life is still amazing even after a LOT of use too. If I need color for some reason I have a phone, tablet, laptop etc that do the job better than e-ink presently can.

Which remote do you use?

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

#625

Post by octernion » Thu, Oct 17, 2024, 6:15 PM UTC

krzyk wrote: post #582

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…

First I waited for Kindle Voyage refresh, then started thinking about Oasis, but waited for it to have a normal charging port (USB-C) and now the last reader with physical buttons disappears :( Oh well, at least my Voyage still works and fits in most pockets (and has cool origami cover), the only downside is that if not in airplane mode, it uses up battery in 2-3 days. In airplane mode I can read 2-3 weeks.

i'm in the exact same boat - was really hoping to see a premium color device with buttons. not sure why they hate us :(

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

#626

Post by TZubiri » Thu, Oct 17, 2024, 6:23 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #613

TZubiri wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% not a book as it's not movable. Might be a scroll or a codex, but it might even be on a wall.

It's a bunch of sheets of paper, or more likely part of a scroll. You can see the grain clearly in the image. > it's not movable I don't know what to say here. This is obviously false. Why did you say this? What do you think is the difference between a "book" and a "codex"? Why do you think ancient texts are divided into "books"?

Oh my bad, definitely movable then, thought it was a wall.

According to wikipedia:

"The codex (pl.: codices /ˈkoʊdɪsiːz/)[1] was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term "codex" is now reserved for older manuscript books, which mostly used sheets of vellum, parchment, or papyrus, rather than paper.[2] "

I would say a codex is a book yes, you are right there. The defining characteristic for me is the binding method, the flippable pages and the bookiness factor of the book.

That said, unbound scrolls that are scrolled into scrolls of scroll are definitely scrolls and not books.

So 2 to 1, gg.

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

#627

Post by IPTN » Thu, Oct 17, 2024, 6:24 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #600

IPTN wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not seemlessly because Amazon has their store locked down to Kindle. But you can export all your books from the Amazon web interface or use the desktop Kindle app to download them all. You would then use Calibre with a couple plugins to deDRM them. At that point you have plain ebook files in Amazon's format to do what you want with. Calibre can convert them to any one of the open ebook formats (I personally prefer ep…

Amazon's latest file format (KFX, I think) hasn't been cracked. You can't reliably strip DRM from new Amazon books. The tools work on some of the books some of the time, but you can't rely on it working. The workarounds mostly involve getting Amazon to give you the book in an older format, but then you lose the typography improvements that KFX gets you. Apple's DRM format (Fairplay?) has never been cracked but I beli…

For exporting a library of books you already own/read there aren't going to be many titles that have any improvements in KFX that you would care about. It certainly doesn't hurt to just try it and see what if any of the titles in the library have issues with being deDRMd.

I second buying from Google Play. Outside of a period of time last year where they had a bug that prevented exporting many titles in their catalog (some error in their backend service), I have never had an issue with purchases from there. I will happily continue getting my books from sources that allow true ownership after purchase regardless of any touted benefits Amazon adds to future DRM schemes, just need the words on the page.

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

#628

Post by TZubiri » Thu, Oct 17, 2024, 6:25 PM UTC

hollerith wrote: post #544

pta2002 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Kindle's light is much more diffuse than the iPad's though, much closer to just having a reading light on, which you'd need anyway for a physical book.

The Kindle's light comes from a ring of linear LEDs that goes through a plastic sheet called a diffuser -- same as the light from an iPad. In the iPad the diffuser is behind the image whereas in the Kindle, it is in front of it, but why is that better or "more diffuse"? >much closer to just having a reading light on First of all, that contradicts the evidence from my eyes, but second of all, even if it were true , yo…

"evidence from my eyes"

What are you a peasant?

Everybody knows that the modern scholar obtains information from the world through papers, either from google scholar or from the latest libgen domain.

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

#629

Post by mcmcmc » Thu, Oct 17, 2024, 6:28 PM UTC

cowsandmilk wrote: post #511

mcmcmc wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s directly against their priority of influencing you to only purchase ebooks through their monopoly. Whether anti-competitive, anti-user practices are malicious or just a consequence of capitalism run wild, I don’t think there’s much of a difference

Most likely, it is something they don’t test because it isn’t officially supported.

Right. And it’s not officially supported because they are incentivized not to support it.

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

#630

Post by ornornor » Thu, Oct 17, 2024, 6:30 PM UTC

The color display seems pretty neat!

I also love how they’re mentioning sustainability just below a picture of someone using a kindle on a plane… and what’s sustainable about the kindle? That it’s box is made of recycled cardboard. Times like these I think our species is doomed.