Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-kindle-color-scribe-paperwhite-entry

by bookofjoe • 2 years ago

575 641 2 years ago

jjice3• 2 years ago

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.

thimabi22• 2 years ago

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.

__float2• 2 years ago

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?

soco• 2 years ago

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.

htamas• 2 years ago

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

andrepd• 2 years ago

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!

dml2135• 2 years ago

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".

jjice3• 2 years ago

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.

RMPR3• 2 years ago

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.

Funny that I got the exact same issue but with Kindle instead. I swore I would never buy a Kindle again https://x.com/_paulmairo/status/1453485148490674177

kjhughes• 2 years ago

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

loeg2• 2 years ago

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.

jestersarmed2• 2 years ago

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.

Wowfunhappy• 2 years ago

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?

jjice3• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

sourcepluck4• 2 years ago

Excellent list of DRM Free books here:

https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide/ebooks

unethical_ban• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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

thimabi22• 2 years ago

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.

grakker2• 2 years ago

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.

fastball4• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

I always use my kindles in fully offline, sideload-only. My current one hasn't left airplane mode since I got it in 2018.

sourcepluck4• 2 years ago

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.

mvdtnz• 2 years ago

I'm sick of my Kobo constantly crashing and freezing and I will never buy another one.

110jawefopiwa• 2 years ago

IMO, the Kindle is the premium e-reader when it comes to look and feel. It's just a fantastic experience.

Interestingly, I switched from Kindle to Kobo because it was lacking various basic features that made it not feel premium.

* Kobo epubs can show "pages in chapter" progress so I know how much longer there is until a nice stopping point, while Kindle only shows "minutes left in chapter" which is functionally useless.

* Kobo had blue light blocking night shift before Kindle Paperwhite (I think both have it now?)

* Kobo had a convenient feature where you slide your finger along the side of the screen to change brightness, instead of having to go into multiple menus to do this.

It's possible these things have been remedied, but especially the chapter progress thing put such a bad taste in my mouth that I never wanted to touch Kindle again.

MBCook4• 2 years ago

The kindle hardware is pretty good in my opinion, though they make choices I don’t like.

The ecosystem is amazing and unbeatable.

The software was fine on the original Kindles (well, I had a keyboard), and despite gaining a few features is largely the same since 10+ years ago.

But don’t worry, they added ads to the device that they used to sell you books and they’ve managed not to speed it up one bit!

ghostpepper• 2 years ago

Kindle only shows "minutes left in chapter" which is functionally useless

The kindle recomputes your reading pace as you go, so unless you prefer to do that math in your head and track your own pages-per-minute moving average, I don't see how it's functionally useless

lukewrites• 2 years ago

I should probably post on MobileRead with this question instead, but I wondered if you might have insight into this issue I've been having with my Kobo.

I've noticed that when I read on my Kobo I run into issue with ebook files. When I use Calibre to send .epub files I'll have lots of reliability issues; books will freeze up, pages won't turn, whole sections of the book wind up being unreadable, stuff like that. Having Calibre reformat books in the kobo epub format seems to help some, but I still have page turn issues from time to time.

Have you see any of this behavior before? As far as I'm concerned this would be the perfect ereader if it were just more reliable.

evanreichard2• 2 years ago

I've got the same generation PW and have it jailbroken running KOReader. I've considered trying other readers out, not because of issues but rather shiny new thing reasons. But at least when it comes to KOReader, it seems like the PW are the best if you can jailbreak the version you're on.

(I want / need it to run KOReader because I wrote a small Lua plugin for it that syncs reading stats (words per minute, minutes read per year, etc) to a centralized server.)

sundvor• 2 years ago

Yeah I got the Signature Edition of the Paperwhite 11 with their black leather cover, and it's just brilliant. It was a huge step up from the 10 that went before it in every regard.

The resolution and size just nails it, and my favourite feature is the warm backlighting for reading at night. Battery lasts forever, and I can just put it on my Samsung phone stand for wireless charging once in a blue moon - not once have I run out of battery.

I fall asleep so easily to this, currently on the Eisenhorn 40k Omnibus book - and a 184 week reading streak.

I used to be excited about new Kindle releases, have had one since the mammoth DXG - but no more, I'm good now with this, so don't see myself forking out $400 AUD for the new one (with a leather cover).

Also bought one (also a SE) for my son, with a different colour magnetic leather cover. :-)

cyberpunk• 2 years ago

The lack of physical page turn buttons is a dealbreaker for me. I switched, begrudgingly at first from my oasis to a kobo libre colour and it’s much better. If you stick koreader on it you can even start a Linux shell from the ui which amuses me :)

andai2• 2 years ago

The Kobo can run in a fully offline mode

Really? I had to make an account to "activate" my Kobo, but it wouldn't let me make one because I already had an old account with one of their partner websites, whose auth servers were malfunctioning, so it took like two hours to be able to "activate" the device.

Is there a way to bypass that?

zie• 2 years ago

You can bypass it, but I forget the details(I just did it a year or so ago with my newest Kobo). A web search should get you there though. The mobile read forums are usually the place where trustworthy details are found.

itsrobreally• 2 years ago

A kobo loaded with standard e-books (https://standardebooks.org/) in the kobo format is glorious.

I still have a paperwhite which is ok.

My favorite device right now is a boox Go6, smallish, cheap, android. I don't use many apps on it other than the reader but threw a copy of Kiwix on there, and use it as a writing deck using a bluetooth keyboard, hits a lot of semi-offline use cases for me.

DavideNL3• 2 years ago

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.

I managed to jailbreak my "Kindle Oasis 3" and install KOreader [1] and Syncthing on it (the process of achieving this, as described on mobileread.com/forums was quite horrible by the way.) Very happy with the result though, books are just synced automatically with my Macbook via Syncthing.

Hopefully somehow a similar setup will be possible with the new Kindles, if they can also be jailbroken.

PS. The Kindle Oasis 3 is still great in 2024, it even automatically adjusts brightness with its light sensor.

[1] https://github.com/koreader/koreader

jsheard• 2 years ago

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.

thimabi22• 2 years ago

The color model is expensive, indeed. My guess is that they will quietly offer discounts after the hype goes away.

geodel2• 2 years ago

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.

grogenaut7• 2 years ago

the scribe was on a nice discount for fathers day and randomly in march this year

thaumasiotes5• 2 years ago

All their splash art shows comics. That makes sense, inasmuch as comics are a primary reason you'd want color in a book. But it still strikes me as a bizarre choice, since Amazon is only offering colors in their tiny form factor. They also make a larger device, and if you want color, you can't have it.

Comics are unreadable on a 7" kindle's tiny screen anyway. What's up with the marketing?

al_borland4• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

It's because Ars ran a separate article just for the color Kindle.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/amazons-first-color-...

marcellus23• 2 years ago

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.

BlindEyeHalo2• 2 years ago

being less amenable to sideloading and jailbreaking than Kobos are.

jailbreaking sure but what is the issue with sideloading on kindles? You can either email them which is very practical for third party services that support it (I have a digital magazine subscription that supports this for example) or just drag and drop via USB or a manager like calibre.

I have never had any issues getting documents on the Kindle.

diffeomorphism2• 2 years ago

TLDR: Kindles just plain do not work with DRMed library books

https://www.giga.de/artikel/onleihe-mit-amazon-kindle-nutzen...

So the rule of thumb is that Kindles work well with Amazon books and very badly with everything else. Vice versa for non-kindle e-readers

grecy• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

technothrasher• 2 years ago

I bought a Voyage in 2015 and don't want to give it up. I like it more than any of the newer models I've tried. Battery life is starting to get poor, but even 'poor' gives me about a week of typical reading before I have to charge it again.

grogenaut7• 2 years ago

I loved my voyage then I lost it for week and splurge bought an 8gb paperwhite that I could read in the hot tub. I just use the paperwhite now. The voyage sits as a backup to the scribe which backs up the paperwhite and goes along for note taking

aurea• 2 years ago

I haven't done it myself but you can buy replacement batteries online for the Kindle Voyage; last time I checked they were like $30 and replacing it looks easy enough.

jmcphers• 2 years ago

I've read on my Voyage almost every day of the last 8 years. One of the best electronic devices I've ever owned. I knew it was too much to hope for it to be reintroduced, but I hoped anyway.

nafizh3• 2 years ago

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.

carlosjobim5• 2 years ago

Onyx Boox Tab X is a good option. The new Remarkable Pro with colour is probably a good option as well.

blcknight4• 2 years ago

I wouldn't buy anything from Boox. Notorious GPL violators.

nafizh3• 2 years ago

Isn't remarkable pro the same size as Kindle scribe? Their website says 10.8 x 7.8 inches.

alok-g2• 2 years ago

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.

thimabi22• 2 years ago

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.

nafizh3• 2 years ago

It works fine I would say. In the absence of a bigger screen with proportional DPI (kindle scribe is 300 which is one of the highest in terms of screen size), kindle scribe is one of the better options still IMO.

mazork• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

IPTN12• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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

emmet• 2 years ago

Life changing isn't it? Coupled with a holder attached to the bed I feel like I read twice as fast when I'm using it rather than holding the kindle, side effect being that I look like the people in WALL-E.

I understand that people would prefer if it were built into the device but in all honesty it isn't really that much of an inconvenience when you're already only using it while it's stationary.

throwaway484762• 2 years ago

The color screen is the most impressive as all the colors refresh simultaneously.

Keyframe• 2 years ago

So is this Colorsoft what's replacing my dear and favorite Oasis?

longtimelurkerr2• 2 years ago

I suspect it's the Paperwhite in its new 7 inch form.

coremoff3• 2 years ago

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.

andrewla5• 2 years ago

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.

prlin2• 2 years ago

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.

coremoff3• 2 years ago

unfortunately it's not much different carrying an adapter around than carrying the cable; but I'll have a look at options, thanks

unsnap_biceps3• 2 years ago

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.

coremoff3• 2 years ago

ah, I missed that announcement - that's a shame; thanks for the info

andrewla5• 2 years ago

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_biceps3• 2 years ago

They officially discontinued the oasis last year. I'm holding onto my oasis until it dies.

andrewla5• 2 years ago

Was there an official announcement of this? All I can find in Google is reddit threads speculating about its discontinuation.

apwell232• 2 years ago

I have Boox with android like you described. Quality doesn't compare with kindle though. I still prefer reading on kindle.

andrewla5• 2 years ago

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.

alok-g2• 2 years ago

I have been considering Boox Air 3C. Could you pls. explain more about the differences you see between Kindle and Boox? Thanks.

Novosell• 2 years ago

If you only wanna read normal books, I agree. But I read RSS feeds, mangas and books all on my Boox tablet. Only made possible due to being able to install android apps for RSS and mangas.

mmanfrin• 2 years ago

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.

IPTN12• 2 years ago

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.

andrewla5• 2 years ago

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.

akvadrako3• 2 years ago

I bought a Pocketbook Verse Pro last year and it's okay, but has some issues.

There is no PB Cloud support but it uses Dropbox, however that means no syncing progress like with kindle.

It takes a few seconds to start since it's Android and fully turns off.

And highlighting is very clunky.

The software situation with that company is pretty sketchy. From their website both mine and yours are listed as the same OS but seem totally different.

DavideNL3• 2 years ago

Two things that are stopping me from buying a PocketBook:

1. Android (privacy...)

2. No light sensor to automatically adjust screen brightness to surroundings

(i currently have the Kindle Oasis 3, jailbroken, running KOreader.)

andai2• 2 years ago

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 agree in principle (slow feedback is the bane of my existence) but I had one of those 10 inch Kindle DX without touch, and it was a pretty bad experience compared to the Paperwhite.

Physical buttons (and possibly the orientation sensor?) were definitely nice to have though.

krzyk• 2 years ago

First I waited for Kindle Voyage refresh, then started thinking about Oasis, but waited for it to have a normal charging port (USB-C) and now the last reader with physical buttons disappears :(

Oh well, at least my Voyage still works and fits in most pockets (and has cool origami cover), the only downside is that if not in airplane mode, it uses up battery in 2-3 days. In airplane mode I can read 2-3 weeks.

tiltowait2• 2 years ago

The Voyage was a neat device, though its haptic buttons pale in comparison to real buttons. There are a lot of options outside of the Kindle, but if you want to stay in the Amazon ecosystem, you might be in for rough times.

octernion• 2 years ago

i'm in the exact same boat - was really hoping to see a premium color device with buttons. not sure why they hate us :(

sangeeth96• 2 years ago

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_borland4• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

I use Plato on the kobo libra 2, it's much faster. And there's also Koreader.

danso2• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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

phil21• 2 years ago

Yep. Same. Buttons are a must have for me, along with the waterproofing. It was (is) the perfect device aside from going through three of them (replaced via warranty) due to the waterproofing not being as advertised. I am happy I saved the advertisements of folks using in in baths.

Both are features that complement each other. If I can’t read in the rain I don’t want it. This means disabling the touch screen and using the physical buttons to page turn, otherwise you are using hacks like putting it inside a plastic baggie. Haptic buttons would be fine as well, and likely solve some of the waterproof issues along with an update to USB-C charging.

Pondering having someone mule me the last of the Oasis International editions available for sale for when my current Oasis finally dies. I really don’t want to go back to the dark ages of touchscreen only.

int_19h4• 2 years ago

It's not just the physical buttons alone, but the overall design with a fairly large area on one side to easily grip it with one hand (while still having your thumb over the page flip button).

I really wish UX designers for handheld devices optimized for, you know, ergonomics of actually holding it, rather than just trying to minimize the physical size.

packetlost3• 2 years ago

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.

criddell6• 2 years ago

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.

packetlost3• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

jeremycarter4• 2 years ago

Have you seen the TCL Nxtpaper 14? It's huge! I'd imagine reading a textbook on it would be as good as the real thing.

thimabi22• 2 years ago

I wonder why they did not add color e-ink to the Kindle Scribe. Maybe they thought the price would be prohibitively expensive?

gamblor956• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

grogenaut7• 2 years ago

I agree, the new one looks snazzy. Though I have my og scribe in the composition notebook cover which is super slick and discrete.

linsomniac• 2 years ago

I had an original Scribe and while the writing experience was superb, I felt like the software experience was minimal and over the year or so I had it, it didn't really get enhanced any. My review of it was: It's just like paper, only more expensive.

It seemed like if you wanted a large ebook reader AND occasional note taking, it's probably great. For my use, I would have been just as happy with just a spiral notebook, probably happier. I used it every day for work notes and todos.

I sold it on ebay and got an Boox Note Air3, similar cost, and the writing experience is not nearly as good as the Scribe, but it is a much more capable device with many more features in the notebook. However, I've fallen out of the habit of using it, I think just because the writing experience isn't as good.

packetlost3• 2 years ago

This is similar to me with my reMarkable 2. The writing experience is strictly worse than even cheap notebook and dramatically worse than a nice one with a nice mechanical pencil + lead.

It's fine for reading PDFs, I guess.

legohead• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

stogot2• 2 years ago

Turn it upside down? It works in both directions

thimabi22• 2 years ago

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.

jfultz• 2 years ago

THIS!

I had hope at one point to set up a Kindle with large fonts on a treadmill, but that was just totally hopeless. I tried again with a music stand next to the treadmill, but it was too far away, badly angled, and touching the device to flip pages could still turn it off.

And it's not just the accidental power-off, it's also the accidental power-on. I slip the Kindle into a tight pocket in my backpack, and it sometimes turns on by itself. Further, inserting it into the pocket can sometimes reproduce the swipe motion, so it can be on and active (and sometimes randomly page-flipping) inside my backpack.

AcerbicZero2• 2 years ago

Did we get real buttons again? I can't see myself buying another one of these touchscreen versions....and apparently no real buttons :(

toast0• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

Still waiting for a refreshed Oasis.

Ekaros2• 2 years ago

I wish someone did slightly smaller models still. Not phone size, but bit down. Would be easier to carry sometimes.

reaperducer• 2 years ago

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.

grogenaut7• 2 years ago

Try a scribe, it's like a kindle DX that you can take notes on and is modern.

tristor• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

Ekaros2• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

The Kindle Paperwhite is without a doubt one of my top 5 favorite gadgets.

alexawarrior4• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

mulderc• 2 years ago

My understanding is that e-ink with higher than 300 dpi is very difficult to produce which means it is rather expensive and doesn't look that much better to most people. Additionally, people think of an e-reader as a sub-$200 device so the market for a premium high DPI e-reader is just rather small. People are already complaining about the price of the Kindle Colorsoft, think what they would say if amazon put out a Kindle high DPI and it was in the $400-$500 range.

fakename• 2 years ago

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."

widowlark8• 2 years ago

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

foxyv5• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

foxyv5• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

Rebelgecko2• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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.

Freaky• 2 years ago

I too have the previous generation Paperwhite and it's a laggy piece of junk. About the only thing it's even remotely zippy at is flicking through pages rapidly when I accidentally brush my wet hand against the stupid touchscreen while I'm in the bath.

foxyv5• 2 years ago

That's encouraging. I've had mine for years and years. Maybe it's time for an upgrade!

xnx• 2 years ago

Official page: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-kindle-color-sc...

bloopernova4• 2 years ago

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.

OnionBlender2• 2 years ago

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.

bloopernova4• 2 years ago

I hadn't looked at the Elipsa before. It looks very much like the 1st gen Scribe, did Amazon simply buy that hardware?

bloopernova4• 2 years ago

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.

jacurtis4• 2 years ago

I adamantly disagree. There are 10,000 devices in this world that will feed you your email if you really need to see it in the second it comes in. You probably have one in your pocket right now and another on your wrist and a third that you are staring at to read this post.

I use a Remarkable tablet (the Scribe's competitor) for the exact reason that it doesn't come with apps for email or web browsing or an app store or a weather app. It writes really really well (the scribe does too) and lets you focus on that. It doesn't try to be the 4th version of a smart device when you already have so many.

The simplicity of it is a feature not a bug.

throwaway091290• 2 years ago

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.

tene80i5• 2 years ago

Shame you don’t see any need to compensate writers for your enjoyment of their work.

widowlark8• 2 years ago

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.

carlosjobim5• 2 years ago

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?

maherbeg2• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

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• 2 years ago

They do block side loading of audiobooks. You can only play audiobooks from Audible on Amazon Kindles.

boznz2• 2 years ago

Silly question, but why would you ever buy a kindle (or a kobo) for an audible book?

BadHumans• 2 years ago

I wish Kindle Scribe ran Android so I could sideload apps to it.

mopoke• 2 years ago

Take a look at the Supernote.

samschooler• 2 years ago

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=...

maherbeg2• 2 years ago

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?

poulpy1232• 2 years ago

for what I've seen it acts like a filter on top of the b&w screen, so used in b&w you don't loose sharpness. however you loose contrast compared to a b&w only screen

dyauspitr• 2 years ago

Oh wow, finally a color kindle. This is the first I’m hearing of it. This will be great for comics.

thr0waway001• 2 years ago

wow this whole time I assumed there was a color one.

lobochrome• 2 years ago

No oasis? No buttons? Sigh…

sourcepluck4• 2 years ago

How long before we get Parabola on it?

https://www.davisr.me/projects/parabola-rm/

Qwertious3• 2 years ago

ParabolaRM doesn't support the RM2, let alone Kindles. Also it barely works, given that Parabola is Arch-based and Parabola-RM hasn't been updated in years, it doesn't even support the RM1 these days. Caveat emptor.

Groxx• 2 years ago

300 ppi (black & white), 150 ppi (color)

Ah. So it's just the color filter that basically 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.

blcknight4• 2 years ago

That's disappointing. Rumors were 300 ppi for the color screen.

sourcepluck4• 2 years ago

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?

alwayslikethis3• 2 years ago

Get a Kobo, which model depends on your needs. A Kindle is never yours since Amazon can push arbitrary updates wipe your stuff. Don't buy Boox either, as they include a lot of bloatware, not to mention they're blatantly disregarding GPL.

Kobos are mostly just arm linux machines. You can install KOReader on them for a better reading experience.

infotainment2• 2 years ago

I’ve read this, but I’ve also heard various downsides to Kobo, including in the discussion on this post. (Battery issues, general device glitches, etc)

Which Kobo do you use, and how has your experience been?

evanreichard2• 2 years ago

FWIW I've been running a jailbroken PW5 for a few years now always connected to the internet without any issues dealing with updates.

I did rename the ota binary. I'm aware that there's always the possibility of Amazon maybe having some other way to push an update, but I haven't had any issues so far.

whamlastxmas• 2 years ago

Inkplate probably

komali23• 2 years ago

Specifically if you want android then boox something.

Kobo you can put custom scripts on to run stuff like koreader which is nice.

poulpy1232• 2 years ago

depends of what you means by tinkering. The pinenote maybe ? https://pine64.org/devices/pinenote/

freedomben5• 2 years ago

Is the Pine Note finally purchasable? Every time I've tried, it's not available.

freedomben5• 2 years ago

Remarkable is very tinkerable[1]. I've had a lot of fun hacking mine! It could be better, but all in all, very good.

[1] https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable

Qwertious3• 2 years ago

ReMarkable is somewhat tinkerable, it's a shame that (for the RM2/RM3) drawing the screen requires DMAing into memory that's owned by a proprietary blob and moves every update.

fancy_pantser• 2 years ago

Look into PocketBook readers. They have a full lineup with color and grayscale in various sizes. They run linux, you can ssh into it and install koreader, etc. They have a good privacy story and little vendor lock-in. The experience is a lot like my Kobo, but the matching mobile app is much better. I continue where I leave off with my iPad sometimes, it's a nice feature.

https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/catalog

rramadass• 2 years ago

Depends on what you mean by "tinkering". I had been on the lookout for a large Ereader from the very early days (i love reading books) and had owned a IRex Iliad and Nexus 10. I was looking for at least an A4 size screen (a must for reading technical papers/books) and finally settled on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (14.6 inch screen) which i bought this year. I have the Moon Reader Pro+ as my ereader app and with the S Pen you have note-taking capabilities too. Add a bluetooth keyboard/mouse and you have a easy to carry "laptop/tablet/note-taking ereader" for many usecases.

utopiah• 2 years ago

reMarkable (Linux) or PineNote (Android stock, or Linux)

hyperpl• 2 years ago

I was quite hopeful for this refresh to upgrade my Oasis but it looks as though they've regressed on weight: 188g for my current Oasis vs 211g for the Paperwhite. The new entry level kindle is indeed lighter but unfortunately lacks a warm light. I hope something else will be on the horizon!

laweijfmvo3• 2 years ago

warm light (ideally adjustable temperature) and page turn buttons are the killer features for the Oasis. faster page turns and all the rest I can live without.

MBCook4• 2 years ago

I hated not having buttons. The squeeze things on the Voyage weren’t good but at least they were something. The buttons on the Oasis are far better than that, though I still have gripes about them.

I can’t imagine replacing my Oasis. I don’t know what it is they have against the buttons. I might’ve bought the color thing today if it had buttons.

I guess I just can’t upgrade until my device dies and then I’ll have to figure something out.

robertwt72• 2 years ago

I loved my kindle paperwhite so much. I have a case on it all the time, there is not a single scratch on my kindle. One day, out of the blue, the touch screen stopped working. it is unresponsive to any touch, I've soft reset it, hard reset it, googled everything. Apparently its a common thing in amazon forum, and of course what does amazon support say? just buy a new one. At this point my kindle is only 2.5 years old and I'm pissed.

I've bought an ipad since and just read book from my ipad. at least my old ipad doesn't break even after 8 years

thimabi22• 2 years ago

The thing is that the iPad screen truly doesn’t compare to e-ink in reading black-and-white books. If the e-ink screen is made properly, with high resolution and no PWM, one can read for hours on end without eye fatigue. Battery life on e-ink devices is in another league as well.

For me at least, issues with an e-ink device simply mean moving on to another device, or another manufacturer/brand, instead of switching to tablets.

MBCook4• 2 years ago

I don’t think that was their point.

pizzafeelsright• 2 years ago

Hardware today last as long as the warranty-1 month.

elevatedastalt• 2 years ago

My Kindle Paperwhite has been running strong for 10 years. No issues whatsoever except diminished battery life.

imp0cat2• 2 years ago

Yeah, my 2011 Kindle 3G needed a new battery, but otherwise, it's still as good as new.

Were the quality standards just different back then?

paulcole2• 2 years ago

My dad, partner, and I all have our own Kindles on my Amazon account. Over the past decade I’ve had them break a few times out of warranty. What I do is chat with support online and explain the issue. They may offer you a coupon to replace it at a discount. Decline and tell them not to worry about it, you’ll just toss it in the trash.

I think this has gotten a free replacement Kindle on 2 of 3 times that I’ve tried it.

blcknight4• 2 years ago

If the new Paperwhite supported immersion reading (highlights the word as audible book plays), I'd grab it. It works on my Boox with the Android app but as far as I know not on any kindles (battery life + screen refresh speed allegedly. I really want to ditch my Boox, horrible company.

KeplerBoy4• 2 years ago

Is immersion reading really a good experience, because it sounds kinda horrible.

tanjtanjtanj• 2 years ago

It’s a technique for language learning, not for entertainment (necessarily, many people enjoy language learning as entertainment).

pfooti3• 2 years ago

I have a pretty old paperwhite. When it started deleting books i had side-loaded via calibre, I decided to get a kobo. I have a libra color, and I have to say: price notwithstanding, it's a great device. I don't have a lot of experience with more recent devices, but compared to my 2nd gen paperwhite, it is _amazing_.

Color is good enough to read comic books on it, the google drive integration means it's not too hard to get my CBR/CBZ files on directly. The annotation / notetaking featureas are nice (I haven't leaned into them yet, but they work well even on the small screen size), plus all the regular stuff with normal book reading. Also, since it's kobo/rakuten, the libby integration is better (search and select library books right from the device).

The actual reading app is maybe 90% as good as reading on the kindle (or a more specialized reader like perfectviewer on android). There's some annoyingly fiddly features- font size is kind of weirdly variable, when going through CBR files there's no "read next in the folder" gesture nor is there a "this is read/unread" state in the google drive ui, so you always have to remember which book you are finishing when opening the next in the series.

I tried out one of those boox readers with the android apps, which would be even better software-wise, but the boox hardware seems like garbage (for an N=1 at least). My display came with several rows of stuck pixels, and apparently it's a good thing that I ordered from amazon instead of the boox store, because the reviews indicate getting an RMA from boox directly is a pain.

koyote• 2 years ago

When it started deleting books i had side-loaded via calibre

Could you expand on that? I load all my books via calibre but I also have the kindle set to aeroplane mode at all times. Does this happen when syncing?

qazxcvbnm• 2 years ago

Happened to me too… Yes, it happened during syncing. I searched up on how to disable Kindle auto update and it’s happening less, but last time I bought a book from Kindle store I got bit again. I guess it’s a sign to stop feeding the hand that bites me.

wooque• 2 years ago

It deletes all side-loaded books when you connect it to the internet, happened to me as well.

atulatul2• 2 years ago

My notes/ underlines were wiped out when synched. (new edition with quality issues- spellings, I think- corrected.)

Any workaround?

ptman• 2 years ago

I've had this problem as well. When going from offline to online, it removes books sideloaded via USB. But not books I've added via send to kindle or ones that I've downloaded via the experimental browser. So now, instead of sideloading via USB, I convert to mobi, run a python -m http.server on my laptop and use the experimental browser to download them on kindle.

tallanvor• 2 years ago

If you switch airplane mode on and off it can happen. If you have airplane mode off when you're side loading content (so the information that you've added files gets synced, you don't have to worry about it. The problem seems to be when things have changed in the cloud it doesn't check for new items you've loaded on the kindle first, and thinks something went wrong and deletes it.

Latty• 2 years ago

I've got a Boox Note 3 and love it for what it is (my hardware has been fine), but I'd find it very hard to recommend generally. Boox are dodgy at best (GPL violations, random connections to china, etc...), you start with an already old version of Android and if lucky you might get another major version, they aren't cheap, Android stuff is mostly not designed for black-and-white/low refresh rate and some apps have unreadable buttons, things like that.

But, with that all said... it's great for my specific uses. Android is just so much better if you want to run self-hosted stuff. When it dies or the software just gets that old I'll be really at a loss for what to get to replace it.

abound• 2 years ago

Yeah, I have a Max Lumi and I feel broadly the same way. My hardware has been great, I use it daily and have read 100s of books and written thousands of pages of notes on it, but wouldn't necessarily recommend it to others because I think mine has already stopped getting updates, the GPL violations aren't great, and the cloud stuff seems a bit dodgy.

On the cloud stuff though -- note syncing has support for WebDAV, so I've fully disabled the Boox Cloud integration and all notes get synced to my self-hosted OwnCloud server, which is nice.

I'd love to figure out how to install some stock Android or Linux on it down the road, though Boox's notes + reading apps are really quite good, and likely very optimized for the hardware.

TechDebtDevin• 2 years ago

Boox is dodgy, but everyone I know that has one loves them. I wouldn't expect any Chinese company to respect GPLs. Although, I've seen people on Reddit say they can have QA issues, and if you receive that unit you're likely SOL, this is the only reason that I've been hesitant to spend money on one. I've also been eyeing this new company, daylight, that has a 60hz refresh rate with what I think is E-Ink[0]. Their website says E-Paper, not sure if that's different from E-Ink. Unfortunately, they've always been on wait list months out every time I've looked.

https://daylightcomputer.com/product

misja111• 2 years ago

My last e-reader was a Boox Note. It did its job but was slow and after a couple of years just didn't start up anymore.

Then I switched to Kindle Scribe, mainly for the large screen. It was amazing, it was so much faster and more responsive. I even started to use the scribe to make notes, though I didn't buy it for that purpose. With the Boox Note I never did that because of the slowness, it was just annoying.

mtalantikite• 2 years ago

I got a Boox Go 7 as my first ereader a few months back and I feel the same way. I like it for my own use, which is mainly loading foreign language books in from Calibre into KO Reader, but I'd never recommend it to someone unless they were pretty technical.

jorgesborges• 2 years ago

I stopped using Calibre because it turned out to be more annoying than simply emailing an epub to my designated kindle address. I've never had anything removed. Most of the content comes from libgen.

thimabi22• 2 years ago

I think Calibre is able to integrate with the “Send to Kindle” email interface as well, so you can have the best of both worlds :)

cg5280• 2 years ago

Yeah, I personally don't see any need to maintain a digital book library (like with calibre) when libgen is so accessible. Email to Kindle is a great feature; I've also never had anything unexpectedly deleted.

jeffybefffy519• 2 years ago

How do you legitimately buy books on it?

lidavidm• 2 years ago

Kobo has a store. It's decent, it won't have Kindle indies, and IMO it has fewer/worse sales, but it's not a big deal to me. They do have a subscription plan with unlimited access to certain books but it's not clear to me how good the catalog is.

You can also buy from third party stores, e.g. Weightless Books for sci-fi & fantasy, and just drag-and-drop the epub onto the Kobo.

rhcom2• 2 years ago

I have the Kobo libra 2. I love the thing, especially the Pocket integration.

yzydserd• 2 years ago

I also have a Kobo Libra 2 and sing it’s praises.

I upgraded from an Oasis 2 and couldn’t be happier. When it comes to upgrade again, Amazon DRM readers will not even be looked at.

al_borland4• 2 years ago

I switched from a Kindle to a Kobo (monochrome), and simply having the book cover as the lock screen makes me like it so much more. I always paid to not have ads on the Kindle, but it would show a bunch of generic images. The book cover is the obvious choice. Kobo gets it.

The reading experience is a little more bare bones, but good enough, and still offers things a physical book does not.

elijaht• 2 years ago

I have a kindle that just displays the book cover. Are you sure it’s not just a setting?

kaonwarb• 2 years ago

Just FYI, this is now a Kindle option too. https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=23435466011

notatoad3• 2 years ago

kindles have displayed the book cover on the lock screen for approximately the last decade.

dlevine• 2 years ago

There are a bunch of comments about how this is the default experience now. It's only the default experience if you buy the ads-free version.

Since I don't want to pay extra to disable the ads, the trick I figured out is to buy the Kindle for Kids. It comes with a cover, no ads, and a 2 year warranty. You can turn off the kids stuff with one switch, and then it's just a normal Kindle.

If you buy it on Black Friday or one of their other sale days, you should be able to get it for the same price or less than the regular edition would be when not on sale.

hi_hi• 2 years ago

Wait, you have to pay to not have ads on a Kindle?

When did that start being a thing? I've been using a kindle for about 14 years, my current one is a few years old. I've been thinking about upgrading, but it works perfectly fine, and I've never had it display ads, and haven't had to pay anything for that "privilege".

It sounds like this will be my last Kindle device if I now have to pay extra for no ads, on a device I've already paid for, to read books I also pay for.

When will the madness stop!?

lencastre2• 2 years ago

Both Kindle PW 10 and 11 gen support showing the cover. Personally I actually don’t like to see the cover of the books. Nobody’s business to see what I’m reading.

ErigmolCt5• 2 years ago

It’s a small detail, but it adds a lot of personality to the device

dfc3• 2 years ago

I've been a kindle user for so long I'm embarrassed to admit I don't have any concept of what it is like to get ebooks outside of the Amazon ecosystem. Was the change easy to make? Do you feel like you have access to as much content as you did with a kindle?

interestica• 2 years ago

There's a secret slideshow folder(demo mode?) where you can put in your own images that will display when it sleeps. It was kind of fun to use it as an eink display. I never figured out how to remote in/ssh to remotely swap the images though.

hresvelgr2• 2 years ago

I will second that the Kobo Libra Colour is an excellent device. To me it's the perfect reading device. To anyone using Calibre with it, make sure you get the Kobo plugin that transforms epub into kepub when sending to device. It normalises text size, margins, and so on so the reading experience is consistent no matter where you uh... procure your library from. I reconvert all my epubs anyway, but that step is critical.

pfooti3• 2 years ago

Ooh, thanks for this. I was having all kinds of font and margin irregularities with my side loads, assumed I just had to power through and manually adjust the fonts in each book

alias_neo2• 2 years ago

I use Calibre-Web (self-hosted web-UI for Calibre) with my Kobo Forma, and with a quick change of a config file on the device (by plugging it into PC) I can use Calibre-Web as an online book store and retrieve my books over my network, I'd recommend it for anyone interested in keeping a large library and wanting to manage what's on-device.

No jailbreak or anything required, just some config in Calibre-Web and replace a URL or two in a config file on the Kobo.

NoGravitas3• 2 years ago

Does the Libra Colour support KOReader? That removes the need to convert to kepub and generally gives you better rendering, at the cost of having to do more setup.

willcipriano• 2 years ago

I got a libra color myself and cab second this recommendation.

It was so good I got a second one for my 5 year old daughter, figured it was a good alternative to the iPads I see her peers with.

the_af• 2 years ago

I have an old Kindle Paperwhite where I both buy books from Amazon and sideload using Calibre and it has never deleted anything to my knowledge.

It's usually in airplane mode, but I of course turn syncing on whenever I buy a book from Amazon, and it never deleted any of my sideloaded books.

I wonder if this is a "feature" of new Paperwhites? If so, it would suck. I was looking to replace mine because it has the old micro USB connector that no other device I own uses, and so I must keep a cable just for it.

fishywang• 2 years ago

I switched from reMarkable 2 to (my wife's old) Kindle Oasis to Kobo Sage, and I love Kobo Sage, despite some minor annoyances (like how this is the only thing that don't auto downscale the image in epub I've used: https://b.yuxuan.org/url2epub-downscale-images).

One thing in particular is that the physical page turning buttons are very useful. None of Amazon's new Kindles have physical page turning buttons any more from what I see in the reports.

h05sz487b• 2 years ago

When it started deleting books i had side-loaded via calibre

Never had that happen, either with stuff loaded through Calibre or Amazons document service.

thih9• 2 years ago

When it started deleting books i had side-loaded via calibre

This is news to me. All my kindle library is books side loaded via calibre. Then again, my kindle paperwhite is non stop in airplane mode so maybe this is a factor. In any case this is alarming and thanks for the feedback, I will read more about non-Amazon devices because of that.

bambax2• 2 years ago

All my Kindle library is also books side loaded via Calibre (sent to my kindle email address). I have been doing that for years (more than an decade actually) and have never had any book deleted by the device. Is this real?

oblio2• 2 years ago

These Kindles look great but I want to upload my own books.

I wonder if there is a way to do that safely, long term.

fransje26• 2 years ago

I've been doing that for years using the Calibre app. No problems so far.

m463• 2 years ago

I have had many ereaders: several kindles including dx, remarkable 2, kobo clara 2e and the latest is the pocketbook inkpad lite. (all are b/w)

Honestly, I just wanted an open reflective reader just for reading. Just put the books on the reader with usb and you're done.

I liked the remarkable 2 - they didn't require an account or cloud syncing. I didn't use the pen much, but when I did it was pretty good. I mostly stopped using it because no backlight.

I tried a kobo clara 2e - I had to learn about "sideloadedmode=true" in the settings to use it properly. Decent reader, but a little small. I like dark mode.

then I stumbled on the pocketbook inkpad lite. I use it all the time. 9.7" screen but only $219, backlight, and you just put your books on it and go. No activation or cloud stuff required.

Also, it reads books directly not only in epub, but many other formats like mobi and azw. (I haven't tried .azw)

IWeldMelons2• 2 years ago

inkpad's 150ppi is a dealbraker

ErigmolCt5• 2 years ago

It's frustrating when promising devices are let down by poor hardware quality. Your experience with stuck pixels on the Boox sounds disappointing

mcovalt• 2 years ago

If you own a Kobo e-reader, check out the Plato reader [0], an unofficial document reader of Kobo devices. I find it interesting that it's written by the same person that wrote the bspwm window manager.

It is one of my favorite pieces of software. The UI is beautiful and, to be honest, inspirational. It frequently reminds me that the best UI should not be noticed. Humbling.

[0] https://github.com/baskerville/plato

bee_rider• 2 years ago

Is there a good store for comics and manga? I realized everything I had was locked in to annoying Amazon DRM, which has quite limited support.

imzadi2• 2 years ago

If you have a library card, check out Hoopla

m4rtink• 2 years ago

Have an older Kobo Aura H2O as well as new Onyx Boox Pgae and both work fine. :)

deergomoo• 2 years ago

I wonder if they’re still using soft touch/rubberised plastic on the back? My last-gen Kindle Paperwhite has already started to go sticky and gross.

I’ve also got an issue where the latest software update is causing frequent hangs when opening new books (literally 5+ minutes) and I quite often get stuck in books, unable to summon the menu to go back to my library. Seems to be a fairly common problem judging by Reddit.

I ended up buying a Kobo Libra Colour just this week. So far I’m very happy with it. Performance is better and it’s compatible with a lot more stuff.

thimabi22• 2 years ago

The plastic on the back feels normal to me, after many years of usage. I use a case, don’t know if that helps to minimize the “sticky and gross” aspect.

However, I have been experiencing annoying software bugs with both my Paperwhite and my Kindle Scribe. Unresponsiveness, disappearing books, issues with sideloaded fonts… the devices’ software quality has greatly diminished lately.

Turon• 2 years ago

I’m on the latest update too and, yes, sometimes I can’t get the menu or bookmark to open. I have to reboot the device to get it working again. The previous updates were fine.

tikopia• 2 years ago

I had the exact same thing happen, I tried a case to cover up the stickiness but it just made it fell too big. Switched to a Kobo BW which has been nice but I miss the bigger screen.

komali23• 2 years ago

Instinctively attracted to the Kindle scribe because I love writing on books as I read them, however I've been disappointed by every device that's taken a crack at this, and I've tried them all. Nothing beats paper, which sucks because digital formats are infinitely copy able, backup able, etc.

I always wonder how they implement write-in-books. Never found a FOSS version. I wanted to add it to an android e reader maybe so at least I could try write in books on various Android tablets or a zfold. Failed at that too!

23B1• 2 years ago

FYSA for those considering the Boox it is an absolute privacy/security nightmare. Basically a black hole.

ge96• 2 years ago

It's not a coincidence most e-ink tablets look the same is it? I'm talking the scribe here vs. remarkable 2.

dboreham• 2 years ago

After trying a third-party E-ink tablet that has Google app store support, I'd never go back to Amazon devices where they prevent you from accessing content that isn't blessed by Bezos.

innocentoldguy• 2 years ago

I've been using a Kobo Clara Color for several months. I love the size and functionality, but the color isn't that big a deal since I'm not reading picture books.

I used to use a Kindle Oasis, but I like Kobo's software better than Amazon's, so I switched.

TZubiri4• 2 years ago

We had books, but then we thought, what about screens. Then we had screens but we thought, what if screens were more like books. Then we had book screens and we thought, what if the screens we made to look like books were more like screens.

kevmo314• 2 years ago

Next up: a kindle with physical pages, each page is a screen!

entropie• 2 years ago

It might also fold!

jacurtis4• 2 years ago

Similarly, I saw someome on social media yesterday post about buying "Monopoly Go" boardgame at the store. The box says "Based on the popular mobile game".

The joke was the same, we had a board game, then we made a mobile video game based on the board game, now they are selling a board game based on the video game that was based on the board game.

samplatt• 2 years ago

In this case there's the extra meta joke with Monopoly originally being created to show how capitalism is bad.

Funes-2• 2 years ago

I get the joke, but color has been present in books (manuscripts, before the invention of the printing press, even) basically since their inception, many centuries ago, so just adding color wouldn't make these devices more similar to screens as much as it would make them more akin to... well, books. Just look at these marvels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript.

mirekrusin• 2 years ago

Color was present in cave paintings.

thaumasiotes5• 2 years ago

Here's a book a little closer in time to the invention of books: https://cdn.britannica.com/25/83825-050-F8826674/Anubis-Egyp...

chipdart2• 2 years ago

I get the joke, but color has been present in books (...)

That's like saying confortable cars have been present since their inception, and then present as a example a royal coach.

True, you technically had colors in books. Just like you had books with hardbacks with gold inlays. The fact is that the bulk of the books being published were not color books because that costs a premium to make and moreso to buy. Hence the default stabilized in softcover books with B/W print on flimsy paper.

With e-readers you do not get higher production costs, and you can just download your books and benefit from that. Some ebooks even ship with high resolution images where you can zoom in all you want or need.

yjftsjthsd-h• 2 years ago

Well... Yes, we'd ideally like the best attributes of both at once. What of it?

mertd• 2 years ago

Sorry but this is a bad take. The active light on "screens" is stimulating, causes eye strain and keeps you awake. The two technologies are not the same.

hollerith2• 2 years ago

This again! Kindles have lights, too. On my old Paperwhite, the light could not be turned off. Although it could be dimmed, my iPad's backlight can be adjusted to be much dimmer than the Paperwhite's is capable of.

djtango• 2 years ago

Reading code and documentation with an eink screen is tantalising. I have no interest in lugging around tomes and tomes of manuals anymore. When I was in uni and school I'd regularly lug around 15kg+ of textbooks. I love buying physical books but the freedom and flexibility of having ink-like screens is still a bonus.

Especially for things like reading contracts which I find miserable on a screen

potatoman22• 2 years ago

The dialectics of e-ink

ErigmolCt5• 2 years ago

That's a perfect summary of the strange evolution we've had with reading devices!

NoGravitas3• 2 years ago

Honestly, my only use-cases for a color eBook reader are comic books and House of Leaves. And I'm not sure if a 7" screen is really big enough for comic books (pretty sure on my Nexus 7 it was better to read comic books half a page at a time in landscape mode than a whole page in portrait).

tomcam• 2 years ago

It uses an oxide backplane with custom waveforms for fast performance

What does that mean?

hasbot4• 2 years ago

My Paperwhite 4 is 6.6” x 4.6” x 0.3”. This new one is 5” x 7” x 0.3”. Unless the bezel is significantly smaller (and from the pictures it doesn't), I'll wait for the next version. I read in landscape because in portrait mode the rapid scanning back and forth is annoying.

mikeiz404• 2 years ago

I second giving landscape mode a try. There is something more comfortable about it and you get more space to hold onto each side of the screen.

Of note, the screen seems slower to update when waking up or going to the home screen and keyboard touch points seem slightly off and I'm not sure why that is.

esaym• 2 years ago

I upgraded to the pw 5 when it came out and it had the 6.8" screen and I hate it. With the larger screen I can no longer hold it easily with one hand. Looks like this newer version is even bigger :(

yawnxyz• 2 years ago

huh the site has an interesting way of doing internationalization — it's just a different blog post w/ Spanish, rather than another language like /[sp]/[blog link]. Curious why they chose that route

rkharsan64• 2 years ago

It's a website where most articles don't have translations. This article seems like an exception, and I can't think of a simpler way to do this either.

If you had separate paths for each language, most links would have an unnecessary /en/.

valzam• 2 years ago

I switched from an older Paperwhite to the latest version (before this announcement) IMHO the 6.8 inch size is too big and now they go up to 7 inches? My wife has the regular kindle (because it got USB C before the Paperwhite and she lost hers just in time) and that size is imho perfect. The screen is noticeably worse though.

yapyap• 2 years ago

If amazon wasn’t tracking every single swipe you did across their devices it’d be a no brainer.

C-Loftus2• 2 years ago

There is so much market disruption potential for e-readers.

Every one has a pretty big tradeoff if you are looking to use the e-reader as a general study tool (i.e. using it with Anki for language learning)

- boox devices run Android 11, illegally violate the GPL, and have poor customer service

- meebook devices are too underpowered and also run Android 11

- Kindles are too restrictive and anti-consumer; also does not have an Android option

- Kobo is probably the best, but still no Android option

- PineNote or Linux options are too expensive and unstable

listic• 2 years ago

Why would I want Android on my e-reader, again?

lucubratory• 2 years ago

Because most people who read ebooks use a Kindle, and an e-reader having Android is by far the simplest way to read your collection of Kindle books on a non-Amazon e-reader. This is because you can just download the Kindle app to access your collection.

C-Loftus2• 2 years ago

Anki, audiobook apps, better TTS, basic text browsing on the internet, notes apps, etc.

paulcole2• 2 years ago

Kindles are too restrictive and anti-consumer

Bro I can wake up my Kindle, buy essentially any book I want to read for less than $20 and be reading it in less than 30 seconds.

The Kindle has been one of the most amazing and consumer friendly devices I’ve ever used. I think I spent like $2k on books last year on it.

drilbo2• 2 years ago

Vendor lock-in and DRM doesn't bode with my definition of consumer friendly, personally.

starky• 2 years ago

Apparently the reason that all the Android based ereaders use Android 11 is due to the eink driver not supporting anything newer. Though it looks like they have moved to Android 12 on the latest devices so they must have figured something out.

WillAdams3• 2 years ago

Supernote seems a promising option which you didn't enumerate.

eigenvalue• 2 years ago

It's mind boggling to me that they wouldn't offer a color version of the Oasis, which is the obvious choice for any real Kindle enthusiast (metal, physical buttons, waterproof, amber light). Not sure who would even buy this color Kindle they came out with.

lelandfe• 2 years ago

I have some bad news pal :( https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24272009/amazon-disconti...

303uru• 2 years ago

They killed the oasis today, sad day.

disillusioned• 2 years ago

In fairness, the Colorsoft is waterproof and has the amber light as well. I have grown to enjoy the asymmetric design of my Oasis, though. It's comfortable to hold in a way the new one (and the standard ones) just doesn't seem to be...

BlindEyeHalo2• 2 years ago

(metal, physical buttons, waterproof, amber light)

apart from the physical buttons the paperwhite signature has all of these.

laweijfmvo3• 2 years ago

I hope they’re not abandoning page turn buttons for good, like my Oasis has — the only reason I bought the Oasis. Touch screens are just not a good reading experience, for me.

vaughnegut• 2 years ago

That's why I love my Kobo Libra 2. Physical buttons, sweet spot for size, easy to sideload or I can buy on Kobo on device/mobile/desktop or sync pocket or get library books from overdrive/Libby.

mholm2• 2 years ago

Oasis is discontinued, per The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24272009/amazon-disconti...

exodust• 2 years ago

Physical page buttons have a small UX disadvantage in that your finger must be located at the button when its time to turn the page. Unlike the soft method where you gently tap screen with finger or pen, and you're not limited to one activation location. So, more energy required with the physical button.

I was disappointed at first the Scribe didn't have buttons, but now I don't care.

blehn• 2 years ago

On the other hand, touchscreen page turn has several UX disadvantages.

- You have to move the position of your thumb/hand for every page turn (to the screen, and back off of it). I disagree with "more energy required with the physical button"

- You have to obstruct text with your thumb/hand to turn the page

- It's very easy to accidentally turn the page by grazing the edge of the screen while you're reading

int_19h4• 2 years ago

It's the opposite - with a physical button, you just put your finger on it and keep it there while reading, so that you only need to push slightly to get to the next page. Whereas with touch screen you need to actively move your finger back and forth every time (since keeping it there would block the screen, and in any case you can't really rest it on a capacitive screen without it registering as a touch).

For one-handed reading especially, that alone makes physical buttons significantly more ergonomic, provided that they're placed such that your thumb rests on them naturally when holding the device.

secabeen• 2 years ago

If any device with physical buttons didn't also support screen touch as well, this would be an issue, but that's not the case; every competitor device with buttons also fully supports screen touch, so you get both!

ChuckMcM• 2 years ago

Interesting that the Scribe looks a lot like my ReMarkable 2 :-). I wonder if there has been some cross pollination with Lab126.

If it weren't for the way Amazon has this option to yank back things you bought I would probably be a much more avid kindle user. As it is I've got a big chunk of my reference library digitized and installed on the ReMarkable.

habosa• 2 years ago

The new Kindle paper white may finally get me to upgrade … but also maybe not.

I have a 10+ year old Kindle Paperwhite (I think first gen). I use it daily and it’s still just nearly a perfect device. It’s withstood rough treatment, battery life is still ~2 books long, and it has never been made obsolete by a software update.

No other electronic device I’ve ever bought has had this kind of longevity and it’s not even close.

Cool to think that if I do upgrade now that $159 will probably get me to 2035.

manacit• 2 years ago

I've upgraded my Kindle once, to get USB-C charging and a waterproof device. For the price, extremely worth it.

grogenaut7• 2 years ago

Thinner, waterproof, usbc much faster charging, and I think the screen isn't as brittle. I bought the new one on a whim when it was on hella sale and I really like it.

wackget• 2 years ago

No physical buttons, no purchase.

mrweasel• 2 years ago

I still use my Kindle 4, because it's the last version to have buttons, without having a crazy form factor. It was also $100, which is in the absolute max a Kindle should cost.

None of the later version have peeked my interest, because I don't gain anything, compared to my 12 year old Kindle. Prices have gone up, but I've lost the physical button, so I pay more to lose a feature I really like.

Amazon could have more or less stopped Kindle development in 2012 and just worked on reducing the cost ever since and it would still have been a great e-reader.

maxglute• 2 years ago

It's fucking crazy they won't even enable bluetooth media controls. I thought you could get a simple ringer finger bluetooth page turner / remote but no, this is the hacky alternative monstrosity:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T8CZYF3?th=1

shbooms• 2 years ago

What's the deal with ereaders and their seeming disdain for sane battery life measurements?

Amazon boasts "up to 8 weeks on a single charge" in all their selling points, then, in the fine print states "A single charge lasts up to eight (8) weeks, based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at 13".

So, it has 28 hours of actual use time, got it. Why not just say that?

DJBunnies• 2 years ago

Because people are dumb and don’t want a book that you have to recharge every day.

Maxion• 2 years ago

But also because it is not really 28 hours of battery life. If you just let it sit without touching it, the battery lasts for several weeks, if not longer.

It's a hard class of devices to give any sort of reasonable battery life length.

Regardless, the battery on these devices even back in 2012 was already good enough.

makeitdouble2• 2 years ago

TBF phones and computers also take "evocative" numbers on their marketing material.

The "Up to 33 hours of video playback" for the iPhone Pro Max[0] for instance is an absolutely insane use case (nobody's letting their phone passively play local videos for a day and a half), and gives little insight into how long it can stay in sheer standby, do video meetings or handle slack.

[0] https://www.apple.com/iphone-16-pro/

laserbeam• 2 years ago

Having a few eink readers/tablets, I can say that I almost never care about battery life. You end up charging them once a week or two anyway. I never look at battery stats for them because it almost never ends up important in practice. I don't even look at the battery stat when deciding which to buy or when I recommend one to a friend.

RMPR3• 2 years ago

don't even look at the battery stat when deciding which to buy or when I recommend one to a friend.

I used to not care but beware if you get yourself a Note Air 3C the BSR can drain your battery at an alarming rate.

xdennis• 2 years ago

"A single charge lasts up to eight (8) weeks, based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at 13".
So, it has 28 hours of actual use time, got it.

Reminds me of when Quorn sold 3 sausage rolls but labelled them as 12, arguing that if you cut each one in 4 you get 12. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42251481

int_19h4• 2 years ago

The problem is defining "use time". With eInk readers, the only time it needs to be actually awake is when refreshing the screen, and then it goes back to sleep immediately after. So depending on your reading speed, one hour of active reading time - which is what the users themselves would normally think as "use time" - can vary a lot in how much power actually gets used.

That said, I do think they should just give the number in terms of page refreshes and let the users figure it out from there.

astennumero• 2 years ago

I usually sideload books, downloaded from Libgen, through their send to kindle email setup. Is it illegal to download books from there? Did I just leave a trail of evidence?

dewey3• 2 years ago

Are you really asking if it’s illegal to download books from a piracy site?

buovjaga• 2 years ago

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24271632/amazon-kindle-c...

"The Colorsoft is based on E Ink’s Kaleido technology but uses an entirely new display stack for Kindles, all the way back to a newly designed oxide backplane that makes it easier for E Ink panel’s tiny bits of ink to move around quickly. The E Ink world has been working on similar tech for a while, and Amazon thinks it’s the key to making color work well. The Colorsoft has new LED pixels, and a new way of shining light through them individually to enhance colors. It’s also brighter than ever, to help the whole thing feel more vivid. Some of this tech also helped the new Paperwhite turn pages faster and easier, but it was designed to make Colorsoft work."

https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/kindle-color-specs-...

"...Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition packs a suite of innovations that make every hue and shade pop.

Those include custom formulated coatings between the display layers to enhance the color, a light guide with micro-deflectors to minimize stray light, and an ultra-thin coating in the display stack to improve optical performance. We built the display on an oxide backplane for sharper contrast, faster page turns, and better image quality."

hmottestad• 2 years ago

That's really cool. I have a Boox device with a Kaleido 3 display and the colours are really muted. And the display is much much darker than a regular BW display. I use it as an info display so I can quickly see the weather forecast and when the next subway leaves.

I'm also impressed by the improvements to Gallery 3 displays used in the latests reMarkable. Gallery 3 has typically had much better colours, contrast and brightness when compared to Kaleido 3. Now I'm very curious for the reviews.

wakeupcall3• 2 years ago

I'm a happy owner of the latest rm pro, but I was curious about the boox. You're actually saying the boox is even more muted and darker?

In the rm pro the colors are still what I consider to be pretty muted. I had a laugh of what "red" looks like then I tried it. I don't care too much about it, for the purpose it's a great addition, but it's also darker than the rm2, which instead turned out to bother me a lot.

I can use the rm2 everywhere, but the rm3 is only saved, in my eyes, by some amount of backlight, which brings it closer, but still not exacly equal to the rm2. And by the way the rm2 is also, by far, not "white". If I consider rm2 to be some shade of ivory, the rm3 is downright gray.

Grayscale rendering on the rm2 display is also better. I do notice the dithering on the rm pro, and there's some color fringing in the ghosting.

christianh• 2 years ago

I’ve been wanting to have a color ereader for a while (e.g. when non-fiction books have charts, illustrations, and photos I want to see them as they appear in print) and I’ve been looking at Kobo and others. But I want access to buy books on Amazon easily.

It’s my understanding that you can’t easily get Amazon books onto anything else than Kindle, is that not true?

thangngoc89• 2 years ago

Unless it runs Android then you could download Kindle app from Play Store. Boox eReaders run on Android

girvo• 2 years ago

I knew I shouldn't have bought a Scribe 6 months ago! I might have to replace it now; the new one looks excellent, and Active Canvas is awesome. Though I haven't missed not being able to scribble on books all that much I guess after moving to it from my (broken) Boox Note 2

makeitdouble2• 2 years ago

It's disappointing they stay below the B5/10" size range, and can't step up to a A4/13" which allows full right/left page display or magazine pages at 1:1 size display.

It's particularly frustrating for manga, which Amazon sells plenty, as it's common to have a full 2 page scene during the most intense parts of the story.

Same of course for many research PDFs with graphs and schemas that are just so much more legible near the A4 size.

That was my main use case for the iPad Pro, which can now be covered by the air as well. The Surface Pro line is also around 13". I think there's really no reason to shy away from the full A4 size, especially when people are ready to pay for the screen real estate.

animal5313• 2 years ago

Some of the biggest pros and cons of Kindles vs Books:

Pros - Lightweight, I can even fit it into a holder on the side of a chair or bed so I don't have to hold it.

- I don't have to physically manipulate the 1000 page book to try and get to certain pages.

- No dust.

Cons - I can't tell you the authors or names of most of the books I've read on it. When you have a physical book you're confronted by the book and author's name, along with an image to burn the combination into your mind. As a kid going to the library I knew whether I had read a book just from the jacket.

- Amazon shenanigans.

- Battery won't last forever and you'll need to replace the whole unit.

thimabi22• 2 years ago

I count the physical manipulation of pages as an advantage of dead tree books. E-ink is very nice, but there’s nothing like flipping through actual pages to find some information.

Of course, the situation reverses when you’re trying to search a word rather than a page. It’s too convenient to use a global search function on e-readers.

diffeomorphism2• 2 years ago

There are non-amazon ereaders, e.g. kobo.

- The standby screen is the book cover of your most recent read.

- No amazon shenanigans. Works just fine with calibre or the local library (onleihe).

- I bought my kobo aura hd in 2013 IIRC. Battery is still fine. Apparently newer models even have an ifixit partnership https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/21137184146071-Repai...

That said, there are some additional drawbacks which make me like physical books still:

- For physical books you have an intuitive understand and memory where in the book something happened, e.g. in the first quarter or on an earmarked page. On an ereader every book and every page feels the same.

- Easy multi page view and crossref. For instance, I can have two textbooks about the same subject open and easily compare different sections by just using bookmarks and spreading them on my desk. For that I would need multiple ereaders. Same reason a tablet with pen is nice but feels limiting.

- DRM is annoying enough to be basically an ad for piracy. Get the ebook, download, add it to adobe software, connect cable, transfer to ereader, disconnect cable, still doesn't work, reauthorize device, maybe it works. Meanwhile without drm: add to calibre, get book via wifi, done.

- Maybe better with newer tech, but eink was still somewhat lower resolution and contrast compared to a printed book. Also, page turning is fast enough but not seamless.

animal5313• 2 years ago

Yeah before the Kindle I had a Sony E-Reader which worked fine for a long time, until it eventually ran into battery problems, after which I got my Kindle.

Its battery has degraded over time, but even at half the original length its not a problem.

theshrike79• 2 years ago

I've had two Kindles since 2010. (My first kindle had a physical keyboard it was that long ago)

It broke because I had it in my back pocket and I sat on it. Bought a new one immediately.

I've yet to have any measurable battery degradation on either and I read 1-3 books a month. (Including 1000+ page monsters by Brandon Sanderson).

hasbot4• 2 years ago

My eyesight has gotten worse and I can't read a typical book with its tiny print. The biggest Pro for me is adjustable font sizes. Another Pro is free books! After purchasing probably a 1000 books in my life; I'm done buying and storing books. I did the library thing for a few years when the library was only a couple of blocks away but book selection and availability was never good. Now I can easily get any book I want from the comfort of my home.

animal5313• 2 years ago

Those are some great pros! I have also found a lot of very good Kindle Unlimited books.

user3939382• 2 years ago

I lose interest in everything I try to read. I might make it one chapter, two, sometimes up to 25-30% of a book but I never finish with very few exceptions.

kingkongjaffa• 2 years ago

fastest Kindle Paperwhite ever

Is this something people value in an ereader? As long as its fast enough, idk why speed would be the thing they promote in the sub heading. I read on an ipad mini all the time but I don’t understand this.

It’s weird messaging. Who in amazons product and marketing teams decided that this is the most important thing to mention?

BillinghamJ• 2 years ago

Maybe they mean fast in terms of the screen refreshing?

dagw• 2 years ago

If I'm reading a novel then speed doesn't matter at all. If I'm 'flipping' through a book, looking for something, the page turning and refresh speed matters quite a lot.

coolyd• 2 years ago

I’m personally holding out for a reader with higher refresh like the daylight. I might splurge on the next model.

ErigmolCt5• 2 years ago

It does seem odd for Amazon to highlight speed as a major selling point for an e-reader

hasbot4• 2 years ago

"Speed" appears to be the only improvement over previous versions. It's only slightly larger than previous versions. My Paperwhite 4 is a little pokey especially in scrolling through a library, but it's not a big deal and not worth "upgrading." So the bigger question is "Why did Amazon create a new version of the Paperwhite with such marginal improvements?"

benterix3• 2 years ago

I was hoping for a greater size - the standard Kindle sizes are totally unusable for users like me who mainly read PDFs.

After experimenting with larger e-ink screen sizes from other vendors I realized I also miss the snappiness of reading a real book. So in the end I settled for the cheapest 12-inch Chinese tablet I could get. Since I spend ca. 40-70 minutes a day reading, it's the best experience for me: the text is crisp, the contrast is perfect, and I can browse pages very quickly (not like in a real book, though, but the best experience so far).

Reflecticon• 2 years ago

Can you please point me to the website/device where you got that device? I'm looking for something similar but affordable.

jeremycarter4• 2 years ago

For a similar purpose I use the TCL Nxtpaper 11. There are also a larger version.

benterix3• 2 years ago

The device is called Dogee T20 Ultra 12", I bought it from a local vendor for ca. 230 euro to avoid dealing with a Chinese vendor. Works without any problems and the battery lasts for many days with my usage pattern (that is only reading ca. an hour a day).

Edit: it looks like the TCL option the other person mentioned is better because of screen glare (I use mine indoors only but probably it would get uncomfortable in full sunlight).

didacusc• 2 years ago

Hmmm... I was wondering why my Kindle Oasis had suddenly become slow and unreliable after the latest update. Now I understand

lnyan• 2 years ago

I've been using a BOOX Tab Ultra C Pro (with the Kaleido 3 color e-ink) for a year. The colors are quite dim, to the point where I sometimes forget it's a color e-ink display. The Colorsoft display looks significantly better in comparison (even seems to have better contrast than ClearInk?), so I'm curious how it works.

IWeldMelons2• 2 years ago

Am I only who wants 460nm backlight instead 450nm typical? 1/3 of monitors on the market are already 460 nm ones, and the number keeps going up.

lagrange772• 2 years ago

I have recently bought a Scribe 1st Gen, when it was on sale.

Rooting it was a hassle, but it was worth it.

The excellent hardware (display, enclosure) combined with Koreader makes it really joyful to read technical books and documents, especially when combined with Calibre.

As one of those books was about Lisp, i also installed Kterm, tmux, the joe editor and tinysheme, which served as a decent Scheme Playground/IDE while i was on vacation!

hydrolox2• 2 years ago

is it possible to root still? I'm guessing no

lagrange772• 2 years ago

The jailbreak i used is working up to FW v5.16.2, which was obsolete at the time i bought the device (approx. 2 months ago). However i was lucky, since my device came with that very FW version.

loughnane• 2 years ago

I presume Amazon can track my reading habits on a kindle. If that’s the case I’m too sleeved out for it.

Remarkable 2 and rmfakecloud does the trick for me. Private, stable, no ads, and I can load books over Wi-Fi.

shinycode• 2 years ago

I discovered this tool (that I self hosted and it works perfectly) to send ebooks to kobo/kindle from anywhere so iPhone included within seconds : https://send.djazz.se

No more plugging it to my laptop, connect to the site from both, type the code and the epub is sent and even converted to kepub. Works like magic

yjgyhj3• 2 years ago

I want to recommend getting an e-ink smartphone.

I've tried the Hisense A5 and the Bigme Hibreak, and software-wise, found the Bigme Hibreak to suck a little less, as I could not access the Google Play store on the Hisense.

I had one with colour, and one without.

The black and white screen is much better.

Both sadly run outdated Android versions, so I don't do anything like banking on my e-ink phone.

But I have found that not having a LCD screen in my pocket, literally gives me hours of my day back. It literally saves a huge portion of my life from being wasted in the evil pit that is ad-funded recommendation algorithm services.

LCD screens, videos, and ad-watch-time-maximising recommendation algorithm services (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, etc) attract our eyes like moths to a flame.

I have not finished multiple books per month since my pre-smartphone childhood days, until getting an e-ink smartphone.

My Bigme Hibreak, that is my daily driver, runs Android 11, and I don't get timely notifications on e.g. messaging apps. It also came without case and screen protector, which is a big minus.

Do you have experience with e-ink smartphones? Which makes and models work for you?

KeplerBoy4• 2 years ago

I'm sorry, as much I'd like to buy a e-ink smartphone, your recommendations doesn't read like a recommendation at all.

Notifications and a kind of recent android version are two deal breakers.

yjgyhj3• 2 years ago

You're not wrong. Notice how I mentioned my favourite model "sucks less" than the other one. What ever company sells an e-ink smartphone with a fantastic camera and up-to-date Android will get my money for ever.

imzadi2• 2 years ago

I'm hearing good things about the Palma. I currently have a first gen paperwhite and am looking to upgrade. I'm thinking either the palma or the kobo libra color. They are about the same price, I think.

jerojero• 2 years ago

I have the Palma.

It's pretty good. The only problem is that the glass on the screen scratches easily. If you're okay with a screen protector then it should be fine.

In terms of software, it has access to the playstore but I actually haven't downloaded any apps on it. I've used fdroid and aurora store.

I installed a minimal launcher called unlauncher. I use Koreader as my main reader and I have it there most of the time so that I unlock/lock the e-reader and I'm taken directly to the book. It has amazing support on this device (I've used other android based E-readers and support wasn't the best). Can't change front light from the Koreader app though, which is slightly annoying.

Other than that, and the main reason I got an android e-reader, is that I use an android based manga reader. The experience is amazing. Yes, the manga reader is not fully optimised for e-reader screens like Koreader is but it works well enough that it's not a problem.

Overall, it's a really nice E-reader. My favourite thing about it is the size and form factor. Really, I have a 6 inch Kobo reader and this one is much easier to carry around. I'm very much used to reading on my phone anyway so the size is very comfortable for me.

Overall, it's been a positive experience. I'm waiting for either a color device in this form factor with kaleido 3 or perhaps another b/w with carta 1300.

But yeah, it's positive. Hardware is good and software can be made enjoyable.

atombender3• 2 years ago

The one improvement I want from an ebook reader is better typography.

On current devices (especially Kindle, but from what I've seen of screenshots online, also other readers), the font selection is extremely limited and the rendering is atrocious. Nobody seems to have spent any time on kerning, word breaking, or anything else relating to typography and layout.

Even after 20+ years of ebooks, they still don't have the visual quality of paper books. Headings, drop caps, quotations, illustrations — all the beautiful stylistic choices that a paper book makes is just wasted on an ebook.

Anyone have a happy story to tell here? Like some niche device that actually has high resolution and beautiful font rendering?

Kudos• 2 years ago

For font selection, you can drag and drop your own onto a Kobo.

atombender3• 2 years ago

That's good to know. However, as long as the rendering looks like this [1], that's not enough.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F5...

WillAdams3• 2 years ago

It's a tough problem to solve and the computation of it all is sufficiently expensive that doing it on a battery-powered device is a significant drain.

A further difficulty is the file formats being used --- ages ago, I tried to argue for an ebook format which specifically noted markup and content as being decorative or semantic and looking over the specification I don't see that that was ever really worked up.

That said, a further difficulty is even if a feature is in the spec, it's not certain if the various hardware and readers would actually be implemented.

One back-burner project I've had for a while is to take a publication, make it into an ePub, then use the ePub as the source for a nicely typeset version (or more likely, series of versions) --- gotta finish a bunch of other projects first.

FWIW, it seems to me that a lot of the effort into nice typography/appearance is going into the "coffee table" sort of books which these days are stand-alone apps such as:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elements-by-theodore-gray/...

and it seems to me that there is a lot of potential for such documents which is as-of-yet only poorly explored --- some examples which seem to be reaching towards this:

- Bembo's Zoo --- this used to be a Flash-based website which was delightful: https://jilltxt.net/bembos-zoo/ --- it really needs to be brought back

- Euclid’s Elements Joyce's Java Version --- https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/java/elements/elements.htm... --- I refer to and link to this version by preference

- Motion Mountain: The free physics textbook --- https://www.motionmountain.net/ --- if this would read well in a PDF viewer on the Kindle Colorsoft, I'd get one --- as it is, I've been reading through it on my Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, and it's done a lot to help my understanding of physics

- various CD-ROMs and other multimedia efforts --- "The Manhole" became Myst which became a franchise unto itself, Broderbund's "Living Books" are now a popular line of apps, the Voyager series which was _amazing_ and I'd dearly love to see revisited https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1995/01/02/t...

- Leonardo da Vinci CD-ROM which was a wonderful interface for exploring the "Codex Leicester" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci_(video_game)

I'd be very interested in other texts which explore this space and which have the potential for nice typography.

That said, I am fine with just reading ebooks on my Kindle w/ flush-left, ragged-right and having the ability to report the (apparently inevitable) typo.

atombender3• 2 years ago

Is it a tough problem, though? Fonts have hinting built in, executing those bytecode instructions should be something even low-powered chips should do just fine. Text flow algorithms have been solved well since Knuth's TeX work in the 1970s, as I understand it.

Obviously, publishers also need to make a better efforts in producing ebooks, but I'm not super familiar with EPUB and don't know where the technology is lacking.

sigzero• 2 years ago

That price though makes it a nope.

tikkun2• 2 years ago

If the only thing I care about is speed of page turns, what's my best option?

A Kobo device? Colorsoft? Scribe? Paperwhite?

wizzwizz4• 2 years ago

A paperback book. I can get around a hundred pages per second.

If you need an eReader, something with an LCD screen will refresh faster than something with an eInk display.

jdlyga• 2 years ago

I've tried out all the e-ink note taking devices (Kindle Scribe, Boox Go 10.3, Remarkable 2, and Remarkable Paper Pro). The Kindle Scribe can't really compete with the others right now since the software is so limited. I'd only get it if you were a huge Kindle user that very occasionally wanted to take some notes. Otherwise, the Remarkable 2 or Remarkable Paper Pro are your best bets. Those are absolutely excellent products that don't overwhelm you with distractions.

bloopernova4• 2 years ago

Yeah, my Scribe is great for reading, but for anything else, not so great.

RMPR3• 2 years ago

Otherwise, the Remarkable 2 or Remarkable Paper Pro are your best bets. Those are absolutely excellent products that don't overwhelm you with distractions.

You need a word of caution here. These devices are very good for writing but absolutely suck at rendering ebooks. I was on the market for a new e-reader/writer ultimately decided to go for the Boox Note Air 3 (no backlight on the Go was a deal breaker) and I think remarkable really dropped the ball by releasing the Paper Pro with a pen that needs a battery. Coming from years of using a Kobo Ellipsa, this was a huge deal breaker. The Remarkable 2 is a bit old and underpowered not to mention the limited amount of storage space.

rietta2• 2 years ago

Pedantic clarification. My Kindle Fire in 2011 had color. This is specifically about an eInk display Kindle? The article talks about the "the first-ever color Kindle" without specifying that it is eInk.

jvolkman• 2 years ago

Fire tablets haven't been called "Kindle Fire" since late 2014, so I doubt many people are confused.

rietta2• 2 years ago

That explains my confusion. I am just getting old. The 2011 Kindle Fire still works though power is predictably degraded. I end up using the app on my phone more or my 1st Gen Paperwhite anyway.

longtimelurkerr2• 2 years ago

The new Kindle lineup is kinda meh, incremental improvements definitely but the tech is already so good that they've become a bit like phones. There's no compelling reason to upgrade my 11th gen Paperwhite, and colour doesn't interest me, at least not in its current state. I'm guessing the reason the new Paperwhite screen is 7 inches is because there's no replacement for the Oasis.

1970-01-01• 2 years ago

Can't wait to see how well it will run DOOM.

ornornor• 2 years ago

The color display seems pretty neat!

I also love how they’re mentioning sustainability just below a picture of someone using a kindle on a plane… and what’s sustainable about the kindle? That it’s box is made of recycled cardboard. Times like these I think our species is doomed.

stronglikedan• 2 years ago

Virtue signaling such as mentioning sustainability in the context of a device that is clearly not significant to sustainability will doom us faster than any significant sustainability issues, so there's that.

Yawrehto• 2 years ago

Something that's always bothered me about Kindles is the web browser. Like, I get it, that's not what it's made for. But it should be able to do more than it is currently able to. I don't mean "easily rendering complex websites". The kindle is made for text display, its current displays are surprisingly broad (although still narrow enough that if I'm using the web browser I typically go through stuff I know works - Wikipedia, Google, etc - or things on textonly.website and other such things with an emphasis on being small). But what really nags me is the formats of books it lets you download. Here they are: .prc, .txt, .mobi, .azw3.

They are, needless to say, not the most common formats. A search on google for "computing filetype:[X]", with "[X]" being replaced by pdf, epub, mobi, txt, and azw3 (prc produced seemingly no relevant results) has about 174 results for Kindle-supported files (done by going to the last page as Google's counter is more accurate there), 120 of which were .txt. The non-Kindle supported searches, epub and pdf, had 356 results, 67 of which were epub files. But Google's engine doesn't do great for finding books. A much better database is LibGen. As I couldn't figure out an analysis of all LibGen files, I searched for "Astronomy" (unless noted all LibGen searches are in nonfiction) which yielded 2,550 results, sorted by extension, and counted.

Results:

4 things in .zip format, 0.15 percent 3 in .rar, 0.11 percent 2144 in .pdf, 84 percent 11 in mobi, 0.43 percent 1 in mdf, lit, gz and bz2, 0.039 percent each 214 in epub, 8.39 percent. 156 in djvu, 6.1 percent 3 in azw3, 0.11 percent 8 in 7z, 0.31 percent 2 in chm, 0.078 percent.

In my experience that's rather skewed (I'd never seen a 7z one before, or at least not noticed one). But the general idea - PDF most common, then EPUB, then something else (often MOBI, distantly) - remains. The fact that Kindle can't go from 14 downloadable things to 228 (actually, many legal open access ebooks are published in just pdf or pdf+epub, it's rare to get mobi or azw3) by letting you download an already existent format it kind of supports is a bit ridiculous and has always struck me as odd.

But I am very curious how the color kindle works on the web browser, as noncolor Kindles have the background bleed a bit if you scroll. I imagine you'd end up with this sludgy mess of a background, but I'm not sure.

rldjbpin• 2 years ago

has an og paperwhite owner, i later switched to a tablet, due to the colours and performance. but if they release a new scribe using a colour eink screen, it would be an instant sell for me.

remarkable pro is well and good but its price does not justify its utility imho.

bewal416• 2 years ago

Is anyone else disappointed they didn't experiment with any AI features? I'd think Amazon would welcome the challenge of some sort of on-device LLM and embedding model of your bookshelf.

For example, it would be very cool to just highlight a character's name, and the AI reminds you who that character is, when they were introduced, and what they've done so far in the book.

Some books have an X-ray feature that allows embedded, hyperlinked concordance and index material within the book. It would be cool if they took that technology one step further with LLMs.

uslic001• 2 years ago

I have really enjoyed by Kindle Scribe prior version since it came out. I have had 7 different Kindles since they first came out. The Scribe is my favorite. Not sure if the new Scribe is worth buying.

Amazon reveals first color Kindle, new Kindle Scribe, and more

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