Amazon Kindle -- A Year Later?

What Robear said. I turned my nose up at the idea of a Kindle for years until my wife got one and I actually checked it out. Now, I'm re-buying books on Kindle that I have in print just because I actually prefer that reading experience. For plain old linear text, I haven't found anything better.

For other types of books--tech books where you might want to jump around, or graphic novels--an iPad is a superior (albeit vastly more expensive) choice. I have a mini that's hooked into my dropbox where a mountain of PDFs live, and while the small form-factor honestly isn't great for extended reading of that type of book (a Pro is perfect, but they cost a bundle), it's the right size to carry around without being much of a bother, and I really only use it for referencing tabletop game manuals and such on top of the non-reading things like watching videos.

Don't mind me I'm just over here practically hugging my Oasis.

Redherring wrote:

Thanks everyone. I'm hearing "go buy a Kindle already" :)

You came into the crack addict thread and asked if you should buy some crack.

And the answer is, yes, you should.

For distraction-free reading, it's the best. However, ever since the upgrade that added Night Shift to the iPad I've almost completely switched back to reading on it. My Kindle has now become my backyard/beach device, but I still loves it!

I got a Paperwhite for Christmas to replace my first gen Fire, and we also picked up a new Fire for my mom. I love my Paperwhite for travel, and if I could use it for more college books I would. My mom loves the updated Fire, but she mostly uses that for Netflix/Hulu when she's in bed or hanging out in the hospital with my Grandma.

Finally, a water-proof Kindle! I may finally update my aging first-gen PaperWhite.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017...

I just finally got a Paperwhite with their recent sale under $100. Loving it.

I'd been using the app on various phones or iPad for years but this little thing is easy on the eyes and of course battery life is so much better.

I'm not ready to upgrade yet, but this new "dunk proof" version looks very promising!

As a current Oasis owner, I'm not sold on the new model. It is bigger and 50% heavier. For me the best thing about the Oasis is its one-handedness with its small size and light weight, I'm not sure I will upgrade.

If I had a current Oasis, I would *definitely* not upgrade just for the waterproofing. If one really wants to take a Kindle into the tub...well that's what zip lock bags are for.

I'm not sure I like the 50% heavier part myself now that you mention it. By the time you put a cover on it and whatnot, it sounds like it would be pretty bulky.

LeapingGnome wrote:

As a current Oasis owner, I'm not sold on the new model. It is bigger and 50% heavier. For me the best thing about the Oasis is its one-handedness with its small size and light weight, I'm not sure I will upgrade.

I wouldn't worry about the weight. It now weighs about as much as a hamster. Or a baseball. A bit less than two decks of cards.

Did the previous Kindle Oasis support Audible? I'm kinda tempted...

I might get a refurb of the current Kindle Oasis if the price drops to reasonable levels. But I'm disappointed at it staying $250 for the highest end.

It’s still less than what the first two generations of Kindle came out at. And how far they’ve come.

Yeah, but back then I couldn't get a fully functional tablet for less than a hundred bucks.

I'm still using my Kindle DX, although it's definitely showing its age, now. It's got a dent on one side, and the screen starts going grey and not really refreshing properly if I page through a book too quickly. But replacing it really isn't an option, as nobody makes one with that big a screen anymore. I like the size very much.

I suppose a good-sized tablet might work, but I really like E-Ink.

With its True Tone sensors, blue light limiters, laminated screen, and the considerably higher PPI, storage space, and book compatibility, even the dreaded Apple iPad Pro 9.7 would generally be a step up from the DX.

oh man, somehow I had gotten it into my head that the voyage was waterproof. I’m glad I never tested it out, that would have been an expensive mistake.

Malor wrote:

I'm still using my Kindle DX, although it's definitely showing its age, now. It's got a dent on one side, and the screen starts going grey and not really refreshing properly if I page through a book too quickly. But replacing it really isn't an option, as nobody makes one with that big a screen anymore. I like the size very much.

I suppose a good-sized tablet might work, but I really like E-Ink.

I thought Kobo or someone was making a 9" reader recently?

Still waiting for color E-Ink... sigh.

Robear wrote:

Still waiting for color E-Ink... sigh.

Robear wrote:

Still waiting for color E-Ink... sigh.

Now *that* would certainly be worth an upgrade. Currently, whenever I think of getting a new Kindle, I think to myself how there is nothing wrong with the Kindle I already have and so I just never do when it's still all just greyscale anyway.

Color e-ink is still not quite there yet. From what I've read, current technology is only about 150 dpi, and still looks somewhat washed out. I have a feeling that people have been spoiled by high DPI phone screens, so the kind of dithered dot color technology that made color newsprint and magazines possible just won't fly on e-readers.

At least registration errors would be a thing of the past!

current technology is only about 150 dpi,

DPI doesn't matter nearly as much with E-Ink, at least in the grayscale version, because the pixels have hard edges. I think my old DX is something like 72dpi or something dumb like that, really low-resolution, but it still looks really, really good, and is extremely readable.

When I first got it, it had a plastic protector with printing on it telling me to remove it. I was shocked when I peeled it off, and the words stayed behind. They were on the screen, and the plastic was blank. It was indistinguishable from standard printing, at least to a normal read. (it's not like I got a magnifying glass out.)

If the color version works the same, 150dpi E-Ink will probably be roughly comparable to a 450dpi LCD. (edit to add: at least for reading text. It's likely to be somewhat inferior for image-heavy formats, maybe sharply inferior.)

DX is 150dpi. I *did* pull a magnifying glass out on mine; it looked like ink dots suspended in some kind of uniform matrix. I don't recall being able to tell they were little balls. Very paper-like without the shredded fibers showing up under magnification.

The new PaperWhites are waterproof! I never bit on the more expensive model, but this is almost an impulse purchase. I think I'll put it on my X-Mas list though.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018...

I wonder if the Audible tie-in means they could be convinced to work with audio books borrowed from the library.

Katy wrote:

I wonder if the Audible tie-in means they could be convinced to work with audio books borrowed from the library.

Doubtful. You can't play audiobooks from Hoopla, Overdrive, RBDigital in the audible app like you can some some of the Overdrive ebooks via the Kindle app.

Either way that's awesome news. As it is the feature on the Fire where you can have the book read to you is really cool. It would be even better to have that on a traditional Kindle. The only thing that worries me, though, is if that means it's no longer a traditional e-ink Kindle. Wouldn't Audible support require a significant horsepower upgrade.

DSGamer wrote:

Either way that's awesome news. As it is the feature on the Fire where you can have the book read to you is really cool. It would be even better to have that on a traditional Kindle. The only thing that worries me, though, is if that means it's no longer a traditional e-ink Kindle. Wouldn't Audible support require a significant horsepower upgrade.

IIRC the original models had the option to do text to speech but publishers (or somebody involved) put a legal stop to that because it had potential to interfere with audiobook sales.

Edit: It was second generation that was the first to include that. So I guess the only difference is that this would have a bluetooth transmitter. Those don't take much power.

EvilDead wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Either way that's awesome news. As it is the feature on the Fire where you can have the book read to you is really cool. It would be even better to have that on a traditional Kindle. The only thing that worries me, though, is if that means it's no longer a traditional e-ink Kindle. Wouldn't Audible support require a significant horsepower upgrade.

IIRC the original models had the option to do text to speech but publishers (or somebody involved) put a legal stop to that because it had potential to interfere with audiobook sales.

Ah. The Kindle Fire (and the apps on smartphones and tablets) now have a feature where you buy a discounted version of the audiobook from Audible and it enhances the book. So not text to speech per se.

DSGamer wrote:

Ah. The Kindle Fire (and the apps on smartphones and tablets) now have a feature where you buy a discounted version of the audiobook from Audible and it enhances the book. So not text to speech per se.

Yeah, its sometimes a cheap way to score an audibook too. I have never actually tried using the whispersync where I go between the two though.

I think I might upgrade to this new one or at least put it on my Xmas list. I have an original paperwhite that is showing battery wear. The flush screen is also nice as I always manage to get crap stuck in the seams (beach sand, fabric fibers, cat hair ect.).