[HN Gopher] Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe...
___________________________________________________________________
Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 31 points
Date : 2024-10-16 13:52 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.aboutamazon.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.aboutamazon.com)
| jjice wrote:
| I own a Kindle Paperwhite (last gen, relative to this new one)
| and a Kobo Clara BW (purchase in the last 6 months). IMO, the
| Kindle is the premium e-reader when it comes to look and feel.
| It's just a fantastic experience. The issue is Amazon and how
| even if you want to put your own purchased ebooks on it, you have
| it send it through their servers. That tied with a few other
| privacy issues over the years led me to also get a Kobo.
|
| The Kobo can run in a fully offline mode (called "side-load mode"
| or something like that) and I can transfer my ebooks directly via
| USB. I use the Kobo most of the time now since most of my reading
| lately has been independently published ebooks, but I still use
| the Kindle for books I purchase via Amazon directly.
|
| With all that said, I personally think the Kindle Paperwhite is
| already the perfect size. It fits snuggly in my back pocket and
| strikes the perfect balance between screen size being large, but
| not too large to hold for my average male hands. I'd be a bit
| concerned about the size increase for my personal use case, but
| Amazon does a great job with the Kindle in general so I'd like to
| see some reviews.
|
| As for the new Colorsoft, I'd really like to see some reviews.
| The color Kobos that came out earlier this year got some mixed
| reviews for colors, but I'm not sure if that's just the nature of
| color e-ink or not.
| thimabi wrote:
| > The issue is Amazon and how even if you want to put your own
| purchased ebooks on it, you have it send it through their
| servers.
|
| You can sideload your books over USB too, using Calibre for
| instance.
|
| I own a few Kindle models and a Kobo Forma as well. The Kindles
| do have some quirks and bugs (e.g., disappearing books, issues
| with sideloaded fonts...). But my Kobo Forma's battery
| completely died after a couple years of usage, and the device
| became completely unreliable. After that experience, I've
| resigned myself to live with the Kindle's problems.
| __float wrote:
| Whenever I've converted books to mobi in Calibre it seems
| they fall back to a slightly worse experience - using
| "location" markers instead of real page numbers as official
| Kindle books display, cover art is tricky to get working on
| the lock screen, etc.
|
| Is this a poor Calibre configuration or are there real
| limitations to reading books side-loaded on Kindles?
| thimabi wrote:
| You can find Calibre plugins to convert the books to KFX,
| Amazon's native format. There's also a plugin to recover
| actual page numbers rather than loc markers in the books.
| It's not very intuitive, but it's doable given the options
| Amazon gives us.
| danhon wrote:
| You sideload them as epubs and they're fine on my Oasis at
| least. Calibre does a good job of fixing metadata like
| covers.
| Tijdreiziger wrote:
| It's been a few years since I've had to do this, but I
| think that (at least back then) Calibre defaulted to MOBI
| for the conversion. However, you could manually select KF8
| (AZW3), which is essentially EPUB with a different file
| extension.
| soco wrote:
| Why do you need a few Kindles and also a Kobo? Are you
| keeping them in different places and don't move them? I only
| have the first Paperwhite which I carry along, it's 11 years
| old already and it still does the job. The battery keeps up
| and I was probably lucky to not have noticed any hiccups.
| thimabi wrote:
| I read several types of books, multiple hours per day:
| reflowable fiction books, PDFs, books generated from my
| Markdown notes... I've got a Paperwhite, a Scribe and a
| Kobo Forma, but I'm still searching for the perfect
| e-reader.
|
| The Paperwhite is too small for PDFs, but great for fiction
| and portability. The Scribe is excellent for PDFs, but it
| makes my books disappear sometimes, and it does not work
| well with sideloaded fonts. The Forma is a middle ground in
| terms of portability, but its battery died after a couple
| years and nowadays I only use it near a power outlet.
| fencepost wrote:
| My wife is a pretty voracious reader and has 3 active
| Kindles that I believe are mostly segregated out by
| genre/collection. I wouldn't be surprised if this is as
| much for convenience as anything else, I don't use it much
| but Amazon's library management and navigation on the
| Kindles has never impressed me.
|
| She's also one of those folks who sideloads with Calibre as
| well as purchasing through Amazon.
| Aeolun wrote:
| I think you just naturally end up with that because the
| things appear indestructible. The first ever kindle I
| bought (dunno how long ago, it was before paperwhite, so
| more than 11 years) still works without issue. Even retains
| all the music I put on it 14 years ago when it was still an
| experimental feature.
|
| I think the only thing that has been discontinued is the
| free 3G internet all over the world that they apparently
| figured was too expensive.
| htamas wrote:
| My Kindle had this "bug" where my side loaded books randomly
| disappear. As a workaround, I have to keep it in flight mode
| at all times. Not a big issue since that's what I would do
| anyway, but in case my Kindle would break, I wouldn't think
| long to buy an alternative
| andwaal wrote:
| This happend to my kindle to! After keeping in in flight
| mode for years I put it online again in order to buy a few
| new books from the kindle store, poof suddenly my entire
| library of side loaded books was gone, with progress and
| everything. I could see random metadata files related to
| the books on the drive, be books was gone. Super annoying
| as many of the books I didn't have locally anymore and to
| loose the "archivement" of finished books sucks big time. I
| can see this may be implemented by amazon to counter
| piracy, but alot of these books was perfectly legal. So the
| result of this is that I will never put my kindle online
| again and just stop buying from the Kindle store.
| heelix wrote:
| Same, though I don't think it is going to help Amazon the
| way they hope it does. I moved books over to my kindle
| and had it nuke my humble bundle collections when I added
| a purchase from Amazon. I've not connect it again until I
| figure out how to backup and restore MY metadata.
| throwaway48476 wrote:
| I had an issue exactly like this with my iPad.
| thimabi wrote:
| You're lucky. I've seen books disappear from my Kindle even
| in flight mode. I wonder what is behind such a persistent
| bug.
| AcerbicZero wrote:
| Out of all the devices where having a physical airplane
| mode switch would be nice, I'd put the kindle pretty high
| up. Kinda sucks having a battery that lasts ~45 days in
| airplane mode, and like a week and a half when I forget to
| turn it off.
| thimabi wrote:
| Rather than a physical switch just for that, why not a
| few reminders in the UI if one keeps the airplane mode
| off for a certain amount of time?
| widowlark wrote:
| I basically always keep it offline, pushing updates via
| usb-c
| andrepd wrote:
| So you got one bad battery and you decide to ditch their
| devices? Seems weird. Fwiw I have an 11-year old Kobo that's
| still going strong lol.
|
| Opted for a pocketbook this time though. Physical buttons and
| small 6-inch form factor? And respect for your privacy? Count
| me the fuck in!
| thimabi wrote:
| I decided to ditch their devices because of the support I
| got -- or lack thereof. First they refused to talk to me,
| because, for privacy reasons, my device was unregistered. I
| ended up registering it, and even so they offered just a
| 10% discount on the purchase of a new device.
|
| Sadly, Amazon's support is not far behind, considering its
| inability to fix certain persistent Kindle bugs. But I've
| never seen the hardware itself fail.
| msh wrote:
| I had a kindle that died. Amazon support was top notch
| dml2135 wrote:
| I recently picked up a refurbed Kobo Forma, and I absolutely
| love the device -- with the caveat that, like you mentioned,
| the battery has been completely unreliable.
|
| Multiple times I have picked up the device to find it
| completely dead, while it was at full battery less than a day
| ago. I haven't quite narrowed down the cause yet -- since I
| did install KOReader and Nickel right after getting the
| device, it's not running stock software, so I'm not certain
| if the issue is hardware or software related.
|
| It definitely seems to be doing something in sleep mode
| that's draining the battery, even with wifi turned off. This
| really shouldn't be the case -- I'd expect close to 0 power
| being used when not actively refreshing a page. I've recently
| turned to mitigating the issue by setting the device to turn
| off completely after an hour... which is not ideal, but
| having to wait for the thing to boot up is definitely
| preferable to waiting for it to charge.
|
| It's annoying because otherwise this thing is pretty close to
| perfect for me -- the form factor is excellent, extremely
| lightweight, and I can connect to my Calibre-web server and
| download any ebook I have on demand. I'd seriously consider
| buying an extra one to crack open and install my own battery
| if I knew that would fix the issue.
|
| Edit: Lastly, I have a sneaking suspicion that "refurbished"
| does not mean "replaced with a new battery", which, honestly,
| should probably be illegal to advertise a device that way vs
| "used".
| thimabi wrote:
| My biggest problem with the Forma is that, even when
| completely turned off, the battery dies and refuses to
| charge for days on end. One day, the device says it is
| charged to 100%; the following day, it dies without an
| apparent reason. I've calibrated the battery many times,
| but the issue remains. I agree that if it didn't happen,
| the device would be excellent.
| jjice wrote:
| Sorry, you're absolutely right. The overhead of it was more
| than I cared to do (needing to use Calibre instead of a drag
| and drop of a file), especially since Amazon would then
| report my newly loaded books back to themselves. That's the
| part that I really didn't like.
|
| Shame to hear about your Kobo's battery. FWIW, they have
| great repairability (in newer models at least). That said,
| the Kindle's battery does smash the Kobo's in my experience
| as well.
| galleywest200 wrote:
| You can drag-drop the file from the file explorer, at least
| on my Kindle (2022). I think the OP mentioned Calibre
| because sometimes you need to convert the file for Kindle
| if you have a bespoke format.
| kjhughes wrote:
| > As for the new Colorsoft, I'd really like to see some
| reviews.
|
| Here's a hands-on Kindle Colorsoft review, _Amazon 's first
| color Kindle is the e-reader of my dreams_,
|
| https://www.tomsguide.com/tablets/e-readers/kindle-colorsoft...
|
| submitted earlier:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41858947
| loeg wrote:
| > you have [to] send [books] through [Amazon's] servers.
|
| No, you can sideload books using USB mass storage. It's pretty
| easy. Kindle Paperwhite is still a great experience even
| without using the Amazon book ecosystem.
| jestersarmed wrote:
| You are correct, you can sideload, but as soon as you open
| them in your Kindle, they get an Amazon-DRM; so you can't
| read the very same files on another e-reader. And - as soon
| as you go online with your Kindle - said DRM is checked and
| all non Amazon books deleted. At least, that was the case 10
| years ago: I still own a Paperwhite 1st Gen which is now
| basically defunct.
|
| I switched to a Poke 5P (Onyx) and was surprised at the tons
| of features. No ads, no DRM and reads basically all formats.
| Win.
|
| I downloaded all my Amazon-bought books, so I can still read
| them on PC, but otherwise I'm done with their product.
| loeg wrote:
| I've literally never run into the problems you are
| describing. It might be true (it seems implausible but I
| don't know), but it is not a significant factor in day to
| day ergonomics.
|
| Text crispness, page turning speed, battery life, physical
| dimensions are all much bigger factors in an ereader IMO.
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| _you can sideload, but as soon as you open them in your
| Kindle, they get an Amazon-DRM; so you can 't read the very
| same files on another e-reader._
|
| Not true and never has been. The Kindle will make no
| changes to sideloaded files.
| carlosjobim wrote:
| What you wrote is completely untrue. I have myriad of books
| on my Kindle which are not on Amazon, and they are not
| deleted. Neither does anything weird happen to them.
| fastball wrote:
| It sounds like you are trying to move DRM'd books you
| bought from Amazon to another Kindle, which is indeed not
| possible - that is the purpose of DRM. You'd need to strip
| the DRM for that to work.
|
| But as other commenters noted, if you sideload ebooks which
| do not already have DRM on them, the Kindle will certainly
| not add any sort of DRM to the files. This is true both if
| you sideload via USB or even if you use the "email to
| Kindle" feature.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| Where do you buy DRM Free books from? (I assume that's a
| requirement for the device to be fully offline, right?) Do you
| run everything through that DRM-stripper Calibre plugin?
| jjice wrote:
| It's usually a small marketplace like Leanpub. Tilted
| Windmill Press (Michael W Lucas) [0] is another one I've done
| a good bit of purchasing from in the last six months or so.
|
| [0] https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/
| timeon wrote:
| TIL there are DRM books. But I have never owned kindle - just
| Kobo and Remarkable. I buy at online site of book store or
| publisher.
| hexagonalc wrote:
| Some of the books on the Kobo store are also sold with DRM.
| They only mention it in small print under eBook Details at
| the bottom of the page, e.g. Download options: EPUB 3
| (Adobe DRM)
| sourcepluck wrote:
| Excellent list of DRM Free books here:
|
| https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooks
| unethical_ban wrote:
| I am running a kindle voyage (2014). It is the perfect size for
| male jeans pocket carry, PPI is above 300 and battery works.
|
| Most important! The yoga cover is great for laying on either
| side, so I can toss and turn in bed and keep reading. Literally
| no e-reader I have seen since has a _symmetrical_ stand-cover
| that can be used sideways both ways.
|
| As for Kobo, I just looked the other day and saw they have some
| great prices for e-readers that have similar features, plus
| they advertise being completely repairable! And you're not in
| the Amazon ecosystem. My only gripe years ago was the don't
| rendering on side loaded books wasn't as good as Amazon, and
| that Calibre couldn't De-DRM Kobo books as well as Amazon. I
| think the game has changed a bit, though, and I haven't tested
| anything in a while.
|
| If Kobo books are crackable, my next e-reader will likely take
| me away from Amazon. I want that USB-C in my life.
| TnS-hun wrote:
| There is only a small difference in their size.
|
| Paperwhite 5: 124.6 x 174.2 x 8.1 mm
|
| Paperwhite 6: 127.6 x 176.7 x 7.8 mm
| thimabi wrote:
| Yet Amazon has been consistently increasing the size of the
| Paperwhite models over time, each one a bit larger than the
| previous one. They remain portable, but no longer fit into
| one's pockets, for instance.
| fastball wrote:
| I have the last gen Paperwhite and it still fits in my
| pocket.
|
| Admittedly I have big pockets.
| grakker wrote:
| I had the exact opposite experience. My kindle battery went
| wonky after a few years, but my kobo has gone on for a lot
| longer with no issues. It's made me a little wary of buying a
| kindle again. Aside, or on top of, not wanting to support
| Amazon.
| fastball wrote:
| Did you try contacting Amazon support? If you had they
| probably would've shipped you a new one for free.
|
| Why don't you want to support Amazon?
| donio wrote:
| I always use my kindles in fully offline, sideload-only. My
| current one hasn't left airplane mode since I got it in 2018.
| sourcepluck wrote:
| Another fully-offline, sideload-only, airplane-mode-forever
| ebooker here. Plus I didn't even buy it in the first place -
| a relation had one they said they never looked at, so I asked
| if I could take it off their hands.
|
| Had a funny experience once with a fellow (who was in his
| third year of computer science at a reputable university),
| where we just so happened to get on to the topic of ebooks. I
| told him how I operate my little machine, which I'd only
| started using. He was shocked, and stated clearly that he
| thinks it's unethical towards authors to use a "jailbroken"
| device like that and not get books through the Amazon
| store...
|
| Sigh.
| Aeolun wrote:
| I guess he's never seen the kind of insane contracts people
| that publish on the Amazon store need to sign xD
| mvdtnz wrote:
| I'm sick of my Kobo constantly crashing and freezing and I will
| never buy another one.
| jsheard wrote:
| The color model is uncharacteristically expensive for Kindle at
| $280, more than the color Kobos which are $220 for the same 7"
| size (which also has physical buttons and stylus support) or just
| $150 for the smaller 6" size. Kindles are usually the cheaper
| option, at the expense of being less amenable to sideloading and
| jailbreaking than Kobos are.
| thimabi wrote:
| The color model is expensive, indeed. My guess is that they
| will quietly offer discounts after the hype goes away.
| geodel wrote:
| Yeah, black friday is near. I am thinking older models will
| be given higher discount via their deal site woot.com. And
| latest model on Amazon with 20-50 dollars off depending on
| original price.
| qzw wrote:
| Don't forget you can also trade in pretty much any old
| kindle in any condition for another 20% off (plus a few
| bucks for the old device itself).
| al_borland wrote:
| This article really buries the lead. It talks about updating
| monochrome kindles, when they just released their first color
| Kindle (not counting the Fire). I had to look elsewhere to
| confirm this was indeed a brand new line of products, and
| others give it top billing.
| Clamchop wrote:
| It's because Ars ran a separate article just for the color
| Kindle.
|
| https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/amazons-first-
| color-...
| marcellus23 wrote:
| From the second paragraph of the article:
|
| > In addition to the monochrome e-readers, Amazon introduced
| its first color e-reader today. The new Kindle Colorsoft,
| covered in more detail here, looks almost identical to the
| new Paperwhite and launches on October 30 for $279.99.
| grecy wrote:
| I bought a used paperwhite in 2015 and have read many hundreds of
| books on it. Still works flawlessly and even great battery life
| despite taking it around the world through -45 and +45 many
| times.
|
| I don't love Amazon, but this may be the best device I've ever
| owned. It does one thing really, really well.
| simonbarker87 wrote:
| I've said for the past decade that the device that had the most
| net positive impact on my life is my Kindle. I went from
| reading a couple of books a year to 30+. It brings me
| knowledge, calm, joy, adventure and growth with basically 0
| downside.
|
| Maybe other devices have been more life changing but their
| trade offs have all been greater than the Kindles.
| lifefeed wrote:
| Having a pocket-sized wifi-only kindle is what saves me from
| doomscrolling. Instead of spending god-only knows how many
| hours a week on social media, I read. It's an mental health
| game changer.
| stevekemp wrote:
| I find stuck pixels gradually build up and kill kindles for me,
| after 4-5 years.
|
| I'm on my third device now, and I have a couple of them which
| just won't clear. Not the end of the world but eventually there
| will be so many that reading is just a pain.
| nafizh wrote:
| I wish they would do a bigger size kindle scribe. I read pdfs all
| day on my scribe, and often I wish the screen was bigger so the
| font size would be large.
| carlosjobim wrote:
| Onyx Boox Tab X is a good option. The new Remarkable Pro with
| colour is probably a good option as well.
| alok-g wrote:
| How suitable is 10" for PDF reading? Is the font too small? Do
| various e-readers allow PDF content to reflow?
|
| I have been considering Boox Air 3C. PDFs are important for me.
|
| Thanks.
| thimabi wrote:
| The size is good for PDF reading, but PDFs with huge margins
| or small font sizes don't work well.
|
| One way to fix the margins issue is to use the "Send to
| Kindle" feature, which converts PDFs to the Print Replica
| format and trims their margins in the process. Sideloaded
| PDFs actually appear with more margins (thus reduced font
| sizes) than books sent through Amazon's servers.
| mazork wrote:
| Still no remote/bluetooth capabilities. That's the only thing
| that would make me upgrade, the third-party remotes you can buy
| are all pretty clunky (bulky clip on the side of the Kindle, need
| to be recharged often, can only flip forward as they just fake a
| swipe on the right of the screen).
| Meleagris wrote:
| I've also been waiting for remote page turning.
|
| Connecting a Bluetooth remote to the Paperwhite or using the
| Scribe's pen to turn pages remotely would be fantastic.
|
| I can't understand why remote page-turning capabilities are not
| being included.
|
| There are multiple listings on Amazon for the clip on remotes
| that have 10,000 reviews. The use-case is common.
| IPTN wrote:
| I recommended the PocketBook Era to someone who has an Oasis in
| a sister comment. It supports Bluetooth remotes, keyboards,
| probably any Bluetooth HID with buttons. You just map any
| button press you want to reader actions (including ones beyond
| just page turn). It doesn't support input from them outside the
| reader interface, but fully usable without the touchscreen (you
| can map turning it on and off to the button combos too) when
| reading with a remote or the built in physical buttons.
| chatmasta wrote:
| I paid $20 for a remote page turner on Amazon and the battery
| lasts weeks. There's no Bluetooth involved, it just uses basic
| radio signals to trigger a pulse that the kindle interprets as
| haptic input.
|
| It's one of my favorite purchases, because now I can actually
| fall asleep while reading the kindle since I'm not activating
| my arm muscles to turn every page.
|
| This is the item (my kindle is one of the earliest versions,
| from 2011, if that matters): https://amzn.eu/d/aJaesjd
| throwaway48476 wrote:
| The color screen is the most impressive as all the colors refresh
| simultaneously.
| Keyframe wrote:
| So is this Colorsoft what's replacing my dear and favorite Oasis?
| coremoff wrote:
| no oasis refresh?
|
| no buttons? no purchase.
|
| Been waiting a long time, I suppose it's time to move to
| alternatives, as it's a pain to carry around a usb-micro cable
| just for my kindle.
| andrewla wrote:
| I'm in the same boat. Give me USB-C, page turn buttons, maybe
| even wireless charging and I'd upgrade almost reflexively. I've
| been eyeing various Android-based eReaders (like Boox Page)
| that have Kindle support through an app.
| prlin wrote:
| A friend showed me usb adapters from usb-c to lightning and I
| found that very helpful for usb-c -> micro as well to charge
| the kindle.
| coremoff wrote:
| unfortunately it's not much different carrying an adapter
| around than carrying the cable; but I'll have a look at
| options, thanks
| unsnap_biceps wrote:
| Oasis was officially discontinued last year. I'm in the same
| boat. I love my oasis and will not upgrade until I get those
| buttons.
| coremoff wrote:
| ah, I missed that announcement - that's a shame; thanks for
| the info
| andrewla wrote:
| 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 but have not been enough to get me to
| upgrade. It lacks the battery cover of the original oasis, which
| while kind of a pain was nice because it gave a very natural way
| to hold the device.
|
| I'm sad to see that the Oasis line is not mentioned here. I have
| little to no interest in using my kindle as a writing device, and
| 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 don't know if they'll have an OS update to go along with this.
| I have found successive updates to be worse and worse -- my pages
| are all crammed with ads (not actual ads since I paid to have
| them removed, but "recommended books") and large page covers. I
| can barely fit five titles from my library on a screen; I would
| much prefer to have just the title/author/progress and fit twenty
| on a page.
|
| The integration with the Amazon ecosystem is probably the best
| selling point, but until somebody shuts down Libby I've switched
| my habits to be almost entirely rent-based rather than buying
| books.
| unsnap_biceps wrote:
| They officially discontinued the oasis last year. I'm holding
| onto my oasis until it dies.
| andrewla wrote:
| Was there an official announcement of this? All I can find in
| Google is reddit threads speculating about its
| discontinuation.
| danso wrote:
| Doesn't seem like there's an official announcement since
| any news articles about it describe it as a "quietly
| discontinuing" [0]
|
| I'm in the U.S. and a search for "oasis" has nothing but
| eye drops in its top results. You have to scroll down to
| find a listing for the "International Version -- Kindle
| Oasis", selling at just $135 [1], but which Amazon refuses
| to ship if your address is in the U.S.
|
| [0] https://www.thestreet.com/retail/amazon-quietly-
| discontinues...
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Oasis-now-with-
| adjustable-warm...
| unsnap_biceps wrote:
| As with all previous kindles, the only official bit is the
| removal from the store. There hasn't been a case (so far)
| of a kindle that was removed from the store and then a
| later model being released.
| apwell23 wrote:
| I have Boox with android like you described. Quality doesn't
| compare with kindle though. I still prefer reading on kindle.
| andrewla wrote:
| I am very, very, very sad to hear this. This does match with
| my experience of fiddling with various Kindle competitors
| over the years (nook, kobo), but between generally faster
| processors and the increasing bloat of kindle OS, I thought
| maybe the gap would be narrower.
|
| Looks like I've got to build my own.
| bryanlarsen wrote:
| I'm very happy with my Boox Palma. The Kindle app works
| fine on it so there's no fiddling with side loading Kindle
| books into a non-Kindle device.
| alok-g wrote:
| I have been considering Boox Air 3C. Could you pls. explain
| more about the differences you see between Kindle and Boox?
| Thanks.
| apwell23 wrote:
| screen is not as crisp and a lot of ghosting
| jestersarmed wrote:
| Can confirm. I own a Poke 5P and the ghosting is really
| more obvious until you've fiddled with the settings enough
| - and I do mean fiddle here. Might take a while.
|
| Other than that I'm a real fan: latest update delivered
| dark mode (black background, white text) and like I said
| above: no ads, no Amazon-DRM, all formats, cloud storage
| (if you want to), TTS, annotations that are really
| comfortable to handle, bluetooth.
| mmanfrin wrote:
| I have the first Oasis as well. Prior to that I'd pretty much
| bough every single kindle refresh. Since then I haven't. I'm in
| the same boat: give me physical buttons.
| IPTN wrote:
| You should check out the PocketBook Era. It's what I moved to
| from the Kindle Oasis and I've really enjoyed it. The device
| isn't as svelte as the Oasis since it isn't subsidized by
| Amazon, but has an assymetric design and even more physical
| buttons which you can fully customize the control scheme. Also
| like the Oasis it gets amazing battery life with it's light
| weight OS compared to the Android based e-readers.
|
| The PocketBook cloud is just as seamless as the syncing with
| Amazon if that is something you use. Only time I notice
| problems is during the weekly maintenance window which just
| looks like an outage. It has bidirectional sync for your
| progress as well as syncing new books and has a web interface
| and a phone app. Also offers the same email endpoint service as
| Kindle and you can set up Adobe DRM to use with library
| borrowing as well as other places that distribute ascm. The
| builtin store probably doesn't have the same availability of
| titles as Amazon but I haven't used it since I manage my
| library with Calibre and buy my books from various stores.
|
| Best of all is the customizability. Don't want to use their
| store or cloud? You can turn off (really just not setup and
| hide) all the features and integrations individualy to make it
| an "offline" reader but still bring it online for things like
| Wikipedia lookup and web searches. You don't even need an
| account to set it up. You can also load additional
| dictionaries, fonts, and even applications on it. It has a
| healthy if small development scene.
|
| There is a new color version but if you don't read things that
| require color I would get the original; Based on reviews it has
| the the same downside as Kobo and others that use the Kalaido
| screen where it's relatively dimmer in ambient light compared
| to the B/W one and so needs a higher average backlight level to
| compensate.
|
| Overall I've been really happy with my switch and can't see
| myself going back to Kindle.
| andrewla wrote:
| I have a significant library with Amazon -- does this have
| any support for Kindle books? The Android-based ones let you
| run a Kindle app, which, while not ideal, at least lets me
| access the library.
|
| I've considered doing a sweep to download all of my kindle
| books and de-DRM them so that I have an archive, but this is
| a tortuous process if your library has over a thousand
| titles, as mine does.
| IPTN wrote:
| 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 epub) and sync them to your device(s)).
| Those ebooks are treated like any others and fully
| supported by PocketBook cloud if you use it. The
| convenience of Amazon's store for Kindle is nice, but it's
| also how they lock you in to their ecosystem and devices so
| you keep only buying/paying for a subscription with them.
|
| The process is really not bad at all if you use the desktop
| Kindle app to download your library before importing to
| Calibre. Each step is fully automated with the only manual
| parts being setting it up and doing each step in sequence
| for the whole library but not each individual book.
| sangeeth96 wrote:
| I was hoping they'd revive the Oasis. That form factor is
| _perfect_ IMO. Scribe is too big for a replacement. I settled for
| a Libra 2 which is similar to the Oasis but I feel it's a bit
| sluggish when it comes to chapter turns, highlights and page
| turns w/ images but I don't have something in the Kindle line-up
| to compare it to now.
| al_borland wrote:
| The Kobo Libra 2 and Libra Color look to have a similar form
| factor to the Oasis. At least having a chunky area on one side
| with buttons that give a good spot to hold it.
| fnordpiglet wrote:
| I love the oasis. Specifically the fact that it's made out
| aluminum and is water proof. My daughter is an extraordinary
| reader since a very young age, long before her motor skills
| have matured, and ended up with my oasis. She does all the
| things a young kid does like smear food all over it and drop it
| all the time. I can just wash it off in the sink once a day and
| we are all good. If it had been less sturdy and not waterproof
| there's no way she could have used it.
|
| Finally the physical page turn buttons are great as well as the
| bevel on the back for holding it with one hand.
| Terretta wrote:
| Oasis was peak paperback form factor Kindle.
|
| If not traveling, getting to read an open paperback, two
| pages side by side, on Kindle Scribe is super enjoyable, then
| turn it to portrait to read white papers or textbooks.
| bondarchuk wrote:
| I use Plato on the kobo libra 2, it's much faster. And there's
| also Koreader.
| danso wrote:
| Came here just to say this. I've owned an Oasis since 2018 and
| recently bought the first Scribe model when it went on sale,
| and naively thought "at this price and 6 years later, it must
| be a better overall experience" -- even as I knew its main
| selling point was having a writeable interface.
|
| I did know of its drawbacks beforehand -- e.g. no physical
| buttons, not waterproof. The page-turning response/refresh time
| is noticeably better, but I'm left feeling pretty meh by the
| overall experience. I haven't had much need to scribble notes
| so as of now, the Scribe is basically an iPad-sized device with
| the limited feature set of the Paperwhite.
|
| The size is good for textbook-type material, but not enough to
| make me pick it over an iPad if I'm traveling. The Oasis is
| small enough that I can carry it in a coat pocket.
|
| But the buttons really are the killer feature. Being able to
| disable the touchscreen -- especially when I'm anywhere where
| moisture is an issue (at the beach or gym) -- easily makes the
| Oasis worth bringing even if I could read on my phone. I would
| have easily gone for a new version of the Oasis but I guess
| consumers haven't shown enough interest in paying extra for a
| button interface.
| paradox460 wrote:
| I love mine, and somewhat dread the day when it dies. I've
| decided I'll probably switch to onyx boox of the same form
| factor when it dies. I've got the big one from them, which I
| use for sheet music, and it works nicely. Runs Android too, so
| you can install the Kindle app and read your old library
| packetlost wrote:
| The new Kindle Scribe looks kinda lame compared to the new
| reMarkable Pro, though significantly cheaper. Maybe the colored
| ePaper isn't that great, but at least you get some color for
| highlighting, which is probably a non-insignificant use of these
| types of devices.
|
| Either way, sad there's no Oasis refresh. I'm not super attached
| to the physical buttons, but I'd prefer it to not. Oh well.
| criddell wrote:
| 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 typography improvements that are only in KFX).
|
| I'm also disappointed by the Oasis being discontinued. I wanted
| to trade mine in for a USB-C version.
| packetlost wrote:
| I've found a laser printer to be a more economical (if not
| less convenient) option for viewing PDFs. It's more fun too,
| IMO.
| mariusor wrote:
| The current 10inch devices are quite expensive, you can
| imagine what a 14inch color e-ink screen would be at almost
| twice the surface size.
| criddell wrote:
| The Quaderno is monochrome, not color. You can buy them for
| $600 right now. If it worked with Amazon and had a USB-C
| port, I'd order one today.
| thimabi wrote:
| I wonder why they did not add color e-ink to the Kindle Scribe.
| Maybe they thought the price would be prohibitively expensive?
| gamblor956 wrote:
| Color e-ink (both versions) isn't yet fast enough to be used
| for writing. Boox and Remarkable had to do a lot of hacky
| things to make the experiences usable on their color e-ink
| devices. (Boox currently uses the older color technology,
| Remarkable uses the newer one.)
| pedalpete wrote:
| I had exactly the other response when compared to my current
| scribe. I'm not sure they are trying to compete with remarkable
| on the design front, or that they should.
|
| Remarkable, as a newer, smaller company, needs to seriously
| differentiate itself. Amazon can play it safer.
|
| Having said that, I think the white bezel and introducing a
| professional looking colour to the Scribe, is so much better
| looking than my current Gen 1.
|
| I normally wouldn't care, I didn't feel my scribe was ugly,
| until I saw the new one. I'm half considering passing mine to
| my mother, and buying the new version.
| legohead wrote:
| I want to upgrade my Kindle but first I need to know where the
| power button is. My current one has the power button on the
| bottom and it turns off when I rest it on things - extremely
| annoying. Can't be certain from the product pictures, but looks
| like it's on the bottom again.
| Xiol32 wrote:
| The biggest flaw of the last gen for sure. It's right where my
| pinky naturally rests and I'm always hitting it by accident.
| stogot wrote:
| Turn it upside down? It works in both directions
| thimabi wrote:
| The last Paperwhite model, for example, did not work upside
| down, just in landscape mode (and even so, only rotated to
| one direction). I don't know whether Amazon finally added a
| gyroscope to the Paperwhite in order to fix this issue.
| AcerbicZero wrote:
| Did we get real buttons again? I can't see myself buying another
| one of these touchscreen versions....and apparently no real
| buttons :(
| toast0 wrote:
| My Kindle Keyboard still works. You can't use the shop from the
| device, but you can push books from the website (although on
| mobile, only 3? devices are listed and there's no way to choose
| from more if you have them...)
| mostlysimilar wrote:
| Still waiting for a refreshed Oasis.
| Ekaros wrote:
| I wish someone did slightly smaller models still. Not phone size,
| but bit down. Would be easier to carry sometimes.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _I wish someone did slightly smaller models still._
|
| Funny, because I'd like a larger one.
|
| When e-readers first started, one of the big companies offered
| a machine that would display an entire page of The New York
| Times on it large enough to be able to skim the headlines, then
| you'd tap on the article and it would take you to that part of
| the page.
|
| Back then, I didn't have the money for it. Now I do, and the
| only options seem to be too small.
| tristor wrote:
| Same, I'm still rocking an older Kindle because it fits in my
| hip pocket on my cargo pants and so can always be with me
| whenever I get a quiet moment day-to-day to read.
| ed wrote:
| You might be interested in the Kindle Basic. It's the smallest
| in the lineup and a comparable size to the first-gen oasis
| (before they increased the screen size) - my previous daily
| carry.
|
| It's almost a pocketbook form-factor. I overlooked it initially
| because who wants a basic model? but the only thing I miss in
| practice is waterproofing. That, and the Oasis OEM cover which
| was unexpectedly nice, like a leather-bound pocketbook.
| Ekaros wrote:
| I still might prefer 5" model. Compared to current 7th Gen
| paperwhite, it is not that much smaller. A bit more would
| make it even more sensible in size.
| delduca wrote:
| The Kindle Paperwhite is without a doubt one of my top 5 favorite
| gadgets.
| alexawarrior4 wrote:
| Why is no one making higher dpi ebook readers? I've been waiting
| decades now for an ebook that would actually have the resolution
| of printed 600 dpi pages. The chunky text simply makes ebooks for
| me uncomfortable and unpalatable for long reads.
| alpaca128 wrote:
| Probably because it's enough for most people. I have a
| Paperwhite with (I think) 300 dpi and unless I reduce the font
| size to the minimum and look really close I can't see any
| issues at any reading distance. It feels like a printed book to
| me.
| fakename wrote:
| I've been buying the kids versions because in the past, it was
| the ad-free version and came with a free case, but the new kids
| version seems to have ads if not used in kid mode:
|
| "Will my kid see ads while using this device? Kindle Paperwhite
| Kids is automatically set up for your kid to enjoy an ad-free
| experience. However, if you exit Amazon Kids using a passcode,
| sponsored screensavers will be displayed on the device's
| lockscreen."
| widowlark wrote:
| I can confirm that the new versions have to be placed in a
| child mode in order to hide the ads. It seems they have closed
| this admittedly nice loophole
| foxyv wrote:
| I am so excited for this. I've run into so many books where color
| would make it ten times better. Also, the Comixology subscription
| will be so much more valuable with this device. The only thing I
| have a wish for is that the device is more responsive than the
| original Kindle. There is nothing more frustrating than tapping a
| touch screen and waiting 5 seconds for it to respond.
| jemmyw wrote:
| I agree, the lagginess of kindles drove me to distraction and I
| was actually reading less because of it.
|
| I bought a colour Kobo. Super responsive by comparison. The
| colour isn't wonderful, I like that it's there.
|
| Also, physical buttons! Such things are only available on the
| most expensive Kindle, I didn't realize how much I'd missed
| them.
| foxyv wrote:
| My partner has a Kobo and I'm seriously considering one. My
| Kindle has done more for my sleep than any other device. I
| get sleepy reading it, unlike my phone or tablet. I really
| wish I could my content on either device.
| iLoveOncall wrote:
| > Also, physical buttons! Such things are only available on
| the most expensive Kindle
|
| Or the old ones you can get for $10 on eBay :) I use
| exclusively old models that have physical buttons for Kindles
| because they're just insanely cheap and still perfectly
| reliable (the battery too) even a decade later.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| I don't think any Kindles still have physical buttons. Kind
| of a bummer because buttons make it much easier to change the
| page while holding the Kindle with 1 hand
| 0x5f3759df-i wrote:
| I don't know if you've used a recent paperwhite but they've
| gotten very responsive.
|
| I have the newest paperwhite (prior to the one announced here)
| and it is incredibly fast and zippy compared to the kindles of
| old. And they claim the new one is even 25% faster.
| xnx wrote:
| Official page: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-
| kindle-color-sc...
| bloopernova wrote:
| Kindle Scribe should show your calendar, news, weather, etc when
| it's plugged in.
|
| I hope Scribe note sharing is improved from "email yourself a
| PDF".
|
| And come on, still no physical page turn buttons?
|
| I also want a Kindle Scribe with a scroll display: a high-
| refresh-rate LCD touchscreen that sits just below the bottom of
| the eink screen. Use case being: swipe to a bookmark or page very
| quickly. It would stay off until touched and would be about 2cm
| tall, with the same width as the eink screen.
| OnionBlender wrote:
| The "email yourself a PDF" note taking issue made the Scribe a
| no-go for me. Basically, if you transfer your PDF over USB, it
| wouldn't allow you to use certain note taking features. You had
| to email the PDF to yourself through Amazon's servers.
|
| I hope Kobo releases a new Elipsa. I waited for the new
| reMarkable, but it is full of subscription garbage.
| bloopernova wrote:
| I hadn't looked at the Elipsa before. It looks very much like
| the 1st gen Scribe, did Amazon simply buy that hardware?
| bloopernova wrote:
| And the Scribe won't even accept a bluetooth keyboard. In the
| Kindle app on my iPad I can use a bt keyboard to turn pages.
| throwaway091290 wrote:
| My kindle paperwhite is my favorite tech that I own. It has
| changed by life significantly for the better and allowed me to
| cut down the time I waste on doom-scrolling social media. I find
| a book on shadow libraries, convert them into epub format and
| then send them over to my kindle via USB. Calibre helps in all
| this. I have read close to a hundred book now--all for no dime.
| tene80i wrote:
| Shame you don't see any need to compensate writers for your
| enjoyment of their work.
| widowlark wrote:
| Not OP, but a few things:
|
| - the authors are unfairly compensated by amazon and the
| public libraries due to publisher issues with ebooks already.
| OP is hardly contributing to this disparity.
|
| - I choose to purchase expensive copies of books I love - but
| the digital copy is the one I read.
| tene80i wrote:
| The fact that the situation for authors is already poor
| hardly makes it better to opt not to compensate them. If
| you or the OP feel that you're only playing a small part,
| that's between you and your conscience.
|
| And sure, if you're buying some copy of the book and
| downloading a convenient second copy, that's totally
| different. I was responding to the OP being pleased about
| not having spent anything at all (except on the kindle
| itself presumably).
| carlosjobim wrote:
| I don't know about the commenter above, but most writers I
| read have been dead for at least a hundred years. Should I
| purchase their e-book online for $850 each or should I get it
| from a shadow library?
| tene80i wrote:
| If they're dead who cares? Often it's in the public domain.
| Go nuts.
| maherbeg wrote:
| You should also try using Libby / Overdrive to see if your
| local library has the book. I've borrowed 20+ books this year
| and it's pretty seamless and easy!
| Yeul wrote:
| The Kindle is one of the best things Amazon ever did. They made
| subsidized ereaders and made them cheap. Ofcourse they did it to
| promote their store but they've never blocked side loading.
| windsurfer wrote:
| They do block side loading of audiobooks. You can only play
| audiobooks from Audible on Amazon Kindles.
| boznz wrote:
| Silly question, but why would you ever buy a kindle (or a
| kobo) for an audible book?
| BadHumans wrote:
| I wish Kindle Scribe ran Android so I could sideload apps to it.
| mopoke wrote:
| Take a look at the Supernote.
| samschooler wrote:
| Looks like the base Kindle also hasn't been updated at all. Same
| dimensions, screen, weight and battery life. They also nixed the
| base Kindle Kids which was the best deal considering it was the
| same price as base and they'd fix it if it broke.
|
| 2022: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SWV3BYH
|
| 2024: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNV9F72P
|
| Kindle Kids Warranty (2 years vs 1 year):
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...
| maherbeg wrote:
| It says that a color image is 150ppi, and black and white is
| 300ppi. How does a colored highlight work on a mostly b&w page?
| does that section have reduced sharpness?
| dyauspitr wrote:
| Oh wow, finally a color kindle. This is the first I'm hearing of
| it. This will be great for comics.
| thr0waway001 wrote:
| wow this whole time I assumed there was a color one.
| lobochrome wrote:
| No oasis? No buttons? Sigh...
| iamdamian wrote:
| After a few years of waiting for a replacement for my Kindle, I
| jumped ship to Kobo and haven't looked back. The Elipsa and Sage
| are both particularly good and have a great build.
|
| For the Hacker News crowd, if you're interested in having a more
| open, tinkering-friendly device and ecosystem, I'd encourage you
| to give Kobo a chance. (It's also a great signal to Amazon
| against having such a closed off, standards-unfriendly
| ecosystem.)
| sourcepluck wrote:
| How long before we get Parabola on it?
|
| https://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/
| Groxx wrote:
| > _300 ppi (black & white), 150 ppi (color)_
|
| Ah. So it's just the color filter that everyone (except
| ReMarkable) has done.
|
| I'm kinda curious to see it in person, to see if they are doing
| it better, but other brands' results have not been appealing at
| all to me. Washed out, worse contrast, and a consistently
| pixelated / screen-door look.
| sourcepluck wrote:
| Using the wisdom of the crowd here: what is the best ereader for
| tinkering? I'm browsing the answers here looking for that and I
| don't know if anything actually fits the bill. Something with
| Android, tablet-type machines, seems to be the answer? Is there
| nothing better?
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-10-16 23:00 UTC)