Nicer screens/features and hackability mostly. The Kindles so far are midrange hardware at best (and their pricing reflects that). Only the Kindle Oasis 3 approaches a resolution on which you can open a comic/manga/pdf full page and read smaller fonts. Entirely missing from the Amazon lineup (and where we're entering the $400-$1000 range) are ebook tablets.
Having gone through a dozen different reading devices, I can say that I prefer Kobo devices. They admittedly have a special place in my heart for being fixable after I soft bricked one by messing around with the OS via ssh - their "internal" storage is an actual physical micro sd card sitting on the board that you can pop out after opening the device. A kind stranger on a forum sent me a good firmware and a 'dd' later I had a working device again.
Kobo and PocketBook readers have all those features and can be fed with every format you wish just by plugging them to any computer without conversion or by sending them anything by email, or Dropbox.
And you can turn pages by pressing a good old button standing right under your finger.
I have to trust the closed source software does that it purports to do. This is something we all have to do when we use computers. I certainly don't know that Amazon doesn't program the wifi to turn on, find open networks, and phone home while it pretends to be in airplane mode. It does seem rather unlikely given the risks/rewards that Amazon would face in implementing such a system.
* I get access to 1,038,733 DRM-free books in several formats (including Word, EPUB, computer-narrated audio) via Bookshare.org
* I get access to 40,000+ professionally narrated books via the National Library Service through the Library of Congress in the US
* I get access to 80,000+ volunteer narrated books via LearningAlly.org (formerly Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic)
* I get access to hundreds of magazines and newspapers, including breaking news services, via the National Federation for the Blind NewsLine
* I get reciprocity with other countries' libraries for the print-disabled around the world, which is useful as I am in progress with learning new languages.
It's nice because I never have a need to go to websites that serve ads to me. Of course it's called uBlock Origin and using ProtonVPN with Anti-tracking + Ad-blocking features...but still...I have it good.
I skimmed the article and I guess it’s about a vulnerability that was patched in April so the title is a bit clickbait.
I love Kindle and it’s ecosystem.
I wish it wasn’t proprietary, but the convenience is unbeatable if you read a lot. Especially the progress syncing so if I’m out and about and open the Kindle app on my phone.
My biggest wish honestly would be improvements in the screen technology and USB-C charging. If they could improve the resolution and refresh rate, it’d be so nice.
There's Android eReaders like the Boox and Likebook lines. They even have USB C already and more size options. Don't have to be shackled to any one store since you can just run random apps including Kindle.
I never understood kindles. I really disliked mine. I only liked the data storage aspect once during a camping trip so I could bring some reference books, but paperbacks would have been fine too. I started reading paperbacks again and it’s been wonderful
Pdfs/epubs on a laptop can be handy if you are making anki cards as you go
I hate the physical act of having to turn pages/make sure the book is angled toward a light source.
Kindle makes it possible to read in the dark and without changing positions. Also if you read a lot you aren’t piling up a bunch of physical books you aren’t likely to ever read again.
I really hate the page turning function on the Kindle.
It seems that the sales people have added a multitude of unwanted functions: Dictionary, highlights, notes, and so many others.
When I attempt to turn the page it will frequently jump into some unwanted function.
And often it will leap to a random page, leaving no way to get back to where I was. And the functions are entirely different between books and magazines.
Just yesterday I lost my place in a book and spent half an hour trying to get back. Eventually I deleted the book entirely and abandoned the Kindle.
From now on I'll be using a tablet to read on. Additionally the tablet can display PDF's which are my main interest.
If it happens by itself (no interaction from you) it's likely a fault. I've had that happen on a Kindle before and had to send it back.
But the most common cause for me is when trying to tap the right part of the screen to move to the next page, I end up tapping a small link instead that jumps deeper into the book. Very annoying when it happens.
+1, some elongated thin buttons on the bezels with great tactical feedback would be killer. Nook's had this iirc. And yes touch everywhere is getting old
Pre-touch Kindles[1] had exactly this. IMO they had struck a perfect balance between form and function, and it’s the best kindle I owned, before touch ruined it.
They also had pretty crappy screens, low-resolution and grey in color (which resulted in pretty low contrast ratio). Taking everything into consideration, I much prefer modern kindles.
PocketBook readers have « next/prev » buttons. It’s so convenient that I just don’t understand why they aren’t everywhere. Also, PocketBooks are cool for hacking since they are totally open (adding your app is as easy as throwing a binary into some applications folder).
The e-readers are great but the apps are frankly garbage. They take forever to launch, gatekeep TTS, and have laughably few display options. It's great if you want blazing white text on a black background or brown text on an infinitesimally lighter brown background but God forbid you want grey on black or to listen to a book there's no audiobook for. Other ebook apps like Moon+Reader make the Kindle app look like a pathetic joke.
I cold started the app just now. It takes less than half a second to get me into the book after showing me the cover art of the book. It’s about the same as any other app on my phone. Certainly doesn’t take “forever”, although I concede my phone is about a year old. It could be different if you’re using the app on a much older device.
Seems harsh to call it a “pathetic joke” or “frankly garbage”. I was just reading a book on my phone so I checked the “laughably few display options”. I see the ability to customise font (8 fonts, serif, sans-serif, dyslexic friendly), font size, page colour, the option to update page colour according to system theme, line spacing, alignment, orientation lock, continuous or page scrolling and 8 other options.
It’s better to say that your specific need to change the font colour isn’t catered to. But there’s no need to talk in such harsh terms. Get a hold of yourself.
That was a decent feature set when I had it on my Palm twenty years ago. If you haven't tried other much more powerful e-readers you might be pleasantly surprised. The Kindle app won't even let you keep the nav buttons and status bar displayed while you read.
I have 200 hours on Moon Reader reading The Wheel of Time alone. At least 200 more reading other books. I still prefer Kindle because it has features that are important to me, such as a simple and effective notes+highlights system and syncing my place across devices.
same here. book sometime only show up on a particular device but not on other device, even though I send them to kindle email or upload on aws ui.
I ended up just ditch it and use Apple Book. Though I still have book that only available on Kindle cuz I bough them on AWS. I wish it has an easy way to export those to Apple Book.
That one feature might be killer for you, but for someone else it might be something else, perhaps advanced additions for highlighting or bookmarks. There's a long tail of possible improvements.
But instead Amazon have gone for simplicity. That isn't laziness, it's a deliberate feature, and I like it.
It's tempting to jam more features in a product, but surprisingly it ends up being equivalent to removing them, because it becomes hopeless for the average user to find anything. I think it's a good thing the Kindle app hasn't fallen into that trap.
What resolution improvement would you like to see?
I have a Kobo e-ink reader (the Clara HD) which has 300 PPI. For long texts, the e-ink screen is more comfortable to read than even the highest resolution tablets.
Some Kindle models also have a high resolution (e.g. Kindle Paperwhite with 300 PPI).
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 107 ms ] threadGood luck exploiting it. :)
That said, at hardware level the Kindle is hard to beat.
Having gone through a dozen different reading devices, I can say that I prefer Kobo devices. They admittedly have a special place in my heart for being fixable after I soft bricked one by messing around with the OS via ssh - their "internal" storage is an actual physical micro sd card sitting on the board that you can pop out after opening the device. A kind stranger on a forum sent me a good firmware and a 'dd' later I had a working device again.
And you can turn pages by pressing a good old button standing right under your finger.
I like to read on these so the UX outside the reading mode is minimal and perfectly justifiable. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done.
* I get access to 1,038,733 DRM-free books in several formats (including Word, EPUB, computer-narrated audio) via Bookshare.org
* I get access to 40,000+ professionally narrated books via the National Library Service through the Library of Congress in the US
* I get access to 80,000+ volunteer narrated books via LearningAlly.org (formerly Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic)
* I get access to hundreds of magazines and newspapers, including breaking news services, via the National Federation for the Blind NewsLine
* I get reciprocity with other countries' libraries for the print-disabled around the world, which is useful as I am in progress with learning new languages.
It's nice because I never have a need to go to websites that serve ads to me. Of course it's called uBlock Origin and using ProtonVPN with Anti-tracking + Ad-blocking features...but still...I have it good.
I love Kindle and it’s ecosystem.
I wish it wasn’t proprietary, but the convenience is unbeatable if you read a lot. Especially the progress syncing so if I’m out and about and open the Kindle app on my phone.
My biggest wish honestly would be improvements in the screen technology and USB-C charging. If they could improve the resolution and refresh rate, it’d be so nice.
Pdfs/epubs on a laptop can be handy if you are making anki cards as you go
Kindle makes it possible to read in the dark and without changing positions. Also if you read a lot you aren’t piling up a bunch of physical books you aren’t likely to ever read again.
It seems that the sales people have added a multitude of unwanted functions: Dictionary, highlights, notes, and so many others.
When I attempt to turn the page it will frequently jump into some unwanted function.
And often it will leap to a random page, leaving no way to get back to where I was. And the functions are entirely different between books and magazines.
Just yesterday I lost my place in a book and spent half an hour trying to get back. Eventually I deleted the book entirely and abandoned the Kindle.
From now on I'll be using a tablet to read on. Additionally the tablet can display PDF's which are my main interest.
Does anyone know?
But the most common cause for me is when trying to tap the right part of the screen to move to the next page, I end up tapping a small link instead that jumps deeper into the book. Very annoying when it happens.
Always works on my non-updated 2012 Paperwhite, which incidentally doesn't have this bug (or any bug).
Pre-touch Kindles[1] had exactly this. IMO they had struck a perfect balance between form and function, and it’s the best kindle I owned, before touch ruined it.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle#/media/File%3A...
IIRC, Kobo latest readers have the buttons too.
There's more than one country and more than one language in the world. I use these features multiple times a day.
I cold started the app just now. It takes less than half a second to get me into the book after showing me the cover art of the book. It’s about the same as any other app on my phone. Certainly doesn’t take “forever”, although I concede my phone is about a year old. It could be different if you’re using the app on a much older device.
Seems harsh to call it a “pathetic joke” or “frankly garbage”. I was just reading a book on my phone so I checked the “laughably few display options”. I see the ability to customise font (8 fonts, serif, sans-serif, dyslexic friendly), font size, page colour, the option to update page colour according to system theme, line spacing, alignment, orientation lock, continuous or page scrolling and 8 other options.
It’s better to say that your specific need to change the font colour isn’t catered to. But there’s no need to talk in such harsh terms. Get a hold of yourself.
But instead Amazon have gone for simplicity. That isn't laziness, it's a deliberate feature, and I like it.
It's tempting to jam more features in a product, but surprisingly it ends up being equivalent to removing them, because it becomes hopeless for the average user to find anything. I think it's a good thing the Kindle app hasn't fallen into that trap.
I spend many hours per week on a 13'' Android tablet with EPD and BlueTooth keyboard, and work on it proficiently.
Surely you can use Moon+Reader there, and much much more.
What resolution improvement would you like to see?
I have a Kobo e-ink reader (the Clara HD) which has 300 PPI. For long texts, the e-ink screen is more comfortable to read than even the highest resolution tablets.
Some Kindle models also have a high resolution (e.g. Kindle Paperwhite with 300 PPI).
Show me a hack with .cbz comics or ePub files for my reader.