I'm glad that the display has improved. The screenshot shows better typography than ebook readers typically have, but I bet that won't be the norm.
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.
at least now there's absolutely no need to ever touch amazon on a kindle. never know what the future brings, but i'm cautiously optimistic. the hardware itself is best in class; it's the macbook of e-readers.
I don't see why it wouldn't be the norm, given that they have half a million books converted already. If Knuth could make good typography happen in software decades ago I'm sure Amazon can do it now.
I'm kind of bummed out that they didn't update the Voyage too. The Voyage still seems to be better but I don't want to buy an "old" model. I specifically waited for the next Kindle generation to update mine...
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.
Note that this is the upgraded Paperwhite, not the Voyage, and it's the same price as the previous Paperwhite.
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.
For me the swipe / touch has been worthwhile ! The page turn buttons on the regular used to drive me nuts. Others might be used to it. The Paperwhite is a bit smaller, but has no audio, so the old Kindle is still useful to listen to audio books - though the Audible app on iphone/android is what i use nowadays for audio books. Oh and the backlight - very useful. (as @lambdaelite) pointed out.
I, on the other hand, love the page turn buttons on my Kindle 5 and reluctant to upgrade for exactly the lack of this feature. I'm afraid I will keep stubbornly refusing to get used to swiping for turning pages. Why couldn't Amazon provide both options (swiping and clicking) for page turning, at least on some of their newer devices?
I've got a version 1 Kindle Paperwhite, and you can tap the screen to turn a page. That's what I do.
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.
Agreed on that. I have a nook and love the buttons. Forward and backward on both sides so I can turn pages one-handed with either hand while I'm holding it. Comes in handy if you have a cat that likes to plop down on your arm while you read.
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!
The thing I loved about my Kindle 1 with buttons on both sides, I could lay on my back/side in bed and go back/forth with one hand. If I mess up and go too far or need to navigate menus, on my PW I have to get both hands involved.
Which regular Kindle? The built-in backlight was the selling feature to me. My old Kindle had the light built into the cover which worked OK but was too bright for my wife. The paperwhite is great for reading in bed.
Thanks for mentioning the haptic buttons on the Voyage - my wife hates touchscreens, so she alternates between the last generation of e-ink Kindle with page turn buttons and the last generation with a keyboard. I'd given up on the Kindle line, but knowing there's an upgrade path for her requirements is helpful.
Now if only there were current phones being made with keyboards..... sigh
That doesn't sound good. I really want to use physical button with my kindle. Thats my biggest complaint.
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.
One of the main reasons I haven't bought a new Kindle Paperwhite or a Voyage is because I like the physical next/previous page buttons. I've tried last year's Paperwhite and I just didn't like flipping pages by pressing a part of a screen.
I wish there were more details about the changes from the last paperwhite. From what I read, primarily it's a higher resolution display; the rest of the stuff on there seems like it could just be OS features that will be applied to old paperwhites as well.
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.
I've owned every single small Kindle, since the Kindle 1, I think so far I've bought 4 Kindles including 2 PWs (1st gen, 2nd gen). They keep upgrading things that don't bother me. What I WANT them to upgrade is the software. Why can't I sort books by Genre? Or Tags? Or Series? Making Collections is a pain so I never use it. I've got hundreds of books and the sorting is rough. I'd like to be able to list #SpaceOpera, or #Mystery, #Vampire, etc. Having to be online to get book info sucks. Most books don't have descriptions so I can't pick a random free book I've downloaded and read the jacket to see if I'd enjoy it. I'd like an offline synopsis.
It kind of feels like as bad as it can get. Even my far older sony had options to do some sorting. With good naming of my book files I can get it sort by author at least.
"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."
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.
"This item will be released on June 30, 2015." - looks like a new version of the Kindle Paperwhite. To be honest I'm still not sure if that's exactly what I should be looking at, it's not like there are any particularly funny reviews or anything
I submitted the page with the title "Kindle Paperwhite". I assumed that most HN readers would recognize a new Kindle model. I usually get my titles edited, so I am trying to help the mods.
Of course, "Amazon releases the Kindle Paperwhite" or "New Kindle Paperwhite preorders" would be a lot clearer.
With the amount of completely random crap that gets posted, some indicator that you didn't just find out about paperwhite/want to talk about the paperwhite for some reason seems justified.
I wish Amazon or someone would make a smaller kindle. I'd really like something the size of an iphone (6 or lower). It would be nice to have an ebook reader that could fit in my pant or jacket pocket.
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).
The previous versions of Kindle Paperwhite did include 4gb of storage space. Consumers may start to compare the storage between their ebook reader and their phones, and feel that they are getting ripped off by Amazon. Of course, 4gb for a reader is a lot more appropriate than 16gb for a phone (I'm looking at you, Apple).
Ouch, they ran a father's day promotion for all of last week in the UK where they sold the Paperwhite with £10 discount and then they announce a new model just before Father's day. I wonder how many geek dads will get a disappointing gift on Sunday.
> 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.
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.
What ebook reader would be good for those who would like to read ebooks on their own terms?
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?
They get to see my reply so I am correcting them with that post. Also, I'm letting you know. How should I have worded the correction? (Genuine question. I'm not good at communicating and want to do better.)
In my opinion, Kindle 4/5 was the perfect product. It's the lightest of all Kindles, and it can survive pretty much any environment. Maybe I'm a minority, but I'm using Kindle like I'd use a paper book, not as an electronic device. I couldn't care less about any feature besides opening a book and turning pages. I take it with me hiking and camping, so it's often in freezing temperatures. The screen often gets wet, because I like to read while taking a bath. I can't imagine using something with touchscreen in similar conditions.
71 comments
[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 145 ms ] threadI 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.
http://mpetroff.net/2012/09/kindle-weather-display/
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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)