Kindle Paperwhite
amazon.com
amazon.com
Is it a fair assumption that someone 'de-editorialized' the title of this article? It's really starting to bug me that mods are removing pertinent information from submission titles, like this one from me where the title was changed from something like "Final Retail Oculus Rift Hardware Announced" to "Oculus Rift" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9701298)
"Kindle Paperwhite" as an article title doesn't mean anything. It would be nice if we were allowed to give such articles meaningful titles, and not have that change on us.
Of course, "Amazon releases the Kindle Paperwhite" or "New Kindle Paperwhite preorders" would be a lot clearer.
Could also link to http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/17/8793511/amazons-kindle-pap... which has a much better title.
Oddly enough, given that they have a higher resolution display, it does not appear that they've changed the smallest font size, which is something that I would definitely like to see. I can't help but wonder why they made that decision, when the smallest font is still noticeably larger than what you would find in a standard print book.
After long deliberation (because Amazon doesn't really sell books in my native language) I finally bought myself a basic Kindle 5, because it's made by Amazon, the large company that has enough production prowess to do the hardware and software right and basically it looks like all books are there. I don't like the DRM, locking down my books from me, but I decided I'll figure that later.
When I did try to figure out how to liberate my books [1] from my Kindle, I was basically asked 'Are you asking us for help on breaking the law here? (TOS, actually)' Oops, turns out like I am. Now that I thought this over and figured that I want a reader that provides comforts of reading like a Kindle does, but allows me to read my books on my own terms, I am very reluctant on buying another Kindle. What options are there?
[1] Ebooks StackExchange: How do I liberate ebooks from Kindle device? http://ebooks.stackexchange.com/questions/1192/how-do-i-libe...
> I use Linux, so I can't use Apprentice Alf because apparently it is Windows and Mac-only (even though Calibre works on Linux)
Finally.
And I say that un-ironically. Would've switched to a Kobo just for this if it weren't for the Kindle store.
Any news for if the Voyage will get a software upgrade? I only got one a few months ago and it'd be a shame for it to be obsoleted by a cheaper product so soon after it was launched.
Edit: Nice to see in-line translate too.
I upgraded from a Paperwhite 1 to a Voyage because I thought the screen and haptic buttons would be improvements. I can barely see a difference in the screen quality when I'm deliberately looking (and don't notice any while reading), and the haptic buttons are poorly placed so I rarely use them. The Voyage is nice but was questionably worth the extra money over the Paperwhite 1. Now with the Paperwhite 3? Fuggetaboutit.
You know what feature would be a great improvement? A backlight without blue light, for reading at night without screwing up sleep cycles.
edit: clarified
Personally, if I set the light near the lowest setting I drop right off to sleep. It might not be campfire light, but it's not so far off from moonlight. Still, if they offered a warmer color option I wouldn't turn it away.
At night, I have to use level 7 on the backlight for comfortable reading without any other lights on. It's noticeably blue to my eyes at that setting. I get that Amazon's trying to make the display look whiter in normal light, but I (and I think others may) place more value on a warmer backlight for nighttime reading. Outside of vacations and doctor appointments, bedtime reading is my most frequent use case.
This is much needed.
The Marvin e-reading app on iOS can change the screen color temperature to adjust the blue level, which helps with bedtime reading.
Random ramble time... (because this aspect of the Kindle Paperwhite annoys me every time I think about it)
The tapping bit is fine, so reading books is no problem, but to be honest, in general, the touch UI is no more than resoundingly adequate. The tapping is fine, and the swiping works, but it doesn't feel as nice as it does on iOS. For me, swiping works best when the UI updates pretty much instantly as your finger moves (e.g., iOS, Android). The Kindle, on the other hand, doesn't do anything until your swipe is finished and the action has been registered. Feels like somebody who's never used an iPad read was given a one-sentence summary of what swiping was, and then wrote some code to do what they imagined. (Maybe they were worried about the screen going all blurry? Well, that's fair enough. But technical reasons won't make the touch UI suddenly brilliant.)
This makes the experimental web browser rather hard to use - a shame, as this could have been such a great feature! - and the book list a bit annoying.
But, still, compared to the non-Paperwhite equivalent, it has a backlight, and it's a bit smaller. And there's never anything wrong with a few more pixels. So overall, I don't mind, and the Kindle Paperwhite gets a thumbs up. It would still have been improved by some more UX work and/or a couple of physical inputs. I think this is what annoys me about it so much - the device is good, but it could have been better, and it's really obvious.
Ramble over. Phew! Sorry about that.
One of the buttons is starting to stick, so I'm looking at upgrade paths. The Nook Glowlight dropped its page turning buttons, but if I buy anything other than a Nook, everything I've purchased on it evaporates. Thanks, DRM!
Now if only there were current phones being made with keyboards..... sigh
One thing I couldn't find anywhere is how strong is the glass? A reader is much bigger than a phone and I wonder how safe such a big glass screen is.
Agree about the light though, its very glaring at night. I have to lower it to uncomfortably low to read to stop it from hurting the eyes. It actually feels a lot like backlight to me at night.
It has some unpleasant requirements to connect to the Internet to set it up. This can be avoided with a bit of SAL on the microSD card (which is hidden inside the device).
http://uscoffings.net/clc/tech/embedded/kobo-touch/
> Connect the Kobo via USB, and mount its onboard storage on your desktop machine.
> Ensure you have an SQLite3 database browser installed, or some way to execute SQL. For example, sudo apt-get install sqlitebrowser
> Open /mnt/onboard/.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite.
> Execute this SQL: insert into USER values("foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo");
> Save, unmount, and disconnect.
I have a Kindle touch that was gifted to me, but I don't think I'll buy one of these to replace it. I'd rather stay away from the Amazon ecosystem as much as I can.
I would really like to buy a newer Kindle, but everything past the 4 has been a disappointment.
"All-new typesetting engine lays out words just as the author intended for beautiful rendering of pages. With improved character spacing and the addition of hyphenation, justification, kerning, ligatures, and drop cap support, our best-in-class typography helps you read faster with less eyestrain."