Scott W

eReaders - What is everyone's thoughts?

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OH that brings up a very good point.

 

I also hate the shit out of my current Nook's library. Can't sort by series? WHAT? Etc.

 

How's the latest Nook vs the latest Kindle in that regard?

 

Also sick bike pedal!!

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OH that brings up a very good point.

 

I also hate the shit out of my current Nook's library. Can't sort by series? WHAT? Etc.

 

How's the latest Nook vs the latest Kindle in that regard?

 

Also sick bike pedal!!

 

Excuse the poor audio -

 

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Hah awesome, thanks.

 

Looks sadly only really marginally better than my years-old Nook, but it's tolerable since I'm usually only switching books after I finish reading the current one.

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I have often read my eBooks off of my android Phone / tablet, especially when i was reading a lot of books off of Baen, Now days I read mainly off of Kindle, so I bought a Kindle Fire HD as they are SUPER CHEAP.

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Ooh! I can finally, finally say something about this topic! This christmas (2015 countdown - BOOM) I got a third generation Paperwhite and it's really nice. I'm reading The Count of Monte-Cristo and it's a bliss. The e-ink tech isn't quite super duper high res yet, but you only notice it when you press your face to the screen. Doesn't affect your regular reading. The pages load very quickly, the interface is nicely responsive and I like tapping the screen to turn a page. I bought an official Kindle cover with it (royal purple), which is quite nice as well.

 

All in all, totally recommend it, though I can't compare to any other device. The high end competition is probably also really good! Just saying. And Project Gutenburg away!

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So what's the status of manga on ereaders at this point? I've wanted a Kindle for ages, and now that I'm moving I'm again reminded of just how many fucking books I own. On top of that, DMP is starting to make good on their promise to release the entire library of Osamu Tezuka digitally (Brave Dan, Crime & Punishment, Age of Adventure, and Mr. Cactus have all been recently released as digital-only goods), so I think it might finally be time for me to take the plunge, provided the resolution on these things is finally good enough to be trusted with crisp linework.

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If you are doing anything color and high res, don't get an e-ink kindle that is for sure.

 

 

Ooh! I can finally, finally say something about this topic! This christmas (2015 countdown - BOOM) I got a third generation Paperwhite and it's really nice. I'm reading The Count of Monte-Cristo and it's a bliss. The e-ink tech isn't quite super duper high res yet, but you only notice it when you press your face to the screen. Doesn't affect your regular reading. The pages load very quickly, the interface is nicely responsive and I like tapping the screen to turn a page. I bought an official Kindle cover with it (royal purple), which is quite nice as well.

 

All in all, totally recommend it, though I can't compare to any other device. The high end competition is probably also really good! Just saying. And Project Gutenburg away!

 

 

Oooh I am still on a kindle that is a few gens old, and have a case with a light built in. I want a paperwhite, the built in LED would be so nice for reading next to my SO. RIght now the janky led sticking out of the case is pretty distracting. 

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If it's a money investment you can make and you don't feel happy with the current equipment, go for it. A paperwhite isn't that costly (I got the wi-fi edition, without 3G. Seemed like an unnecessary luxury since I can load up on books whenever I'm at a PC and it's quite a lot more expensive.)

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Oooh I am still on a kindle that is a few gens old, and have a case with a light built in. I want a paperwhite, the built in LED would be so nice for reading next to my SO. RIght now the janky led sticking out of the case is pretty distracting. 

 

It really made a world of difference when my fiancée and I both switched to models with built-in lights. Now when she stays up past 2 am finishing a book, my own suffering is limited only to seeing a grumpy zombie shuffling around the next morning before work!

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The paperwhites are all like the Kindle touch right?  Meaning there's no actual buttons and you swipe to turn pages?  I have a really hard time reading if I don't use my finger to keep track of where I am (when I read I usually just swipe my thumb under the lines really fast and I'm fine, otherwise I'm constantly losing my spot) and as far as I can tell this would be constantly be turning pages if I were trying to read on a paperwhite, correct?  It's not a big deal as my Kindle keyboard is still going strong and I have no problems with it.  Does anyone here ever use x-ray? 

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The paperwhites are all like the Kindle touch right?  Meaning there's no actual buttons and you swipe to turn pages?  I have a really hard time reading if I don't use my finger to keep track of where I am (when I read I usually just swipe my thumb under the lines really fast and I'm fine, otherwise I'm constantly losing my spot) and as far as I can tell this would be constantly be turning pages if I were trying to read on a paperwhite, correct?  It's not a big deal as my Kindle keyboard is still going strong and I have no problems with it.  Does anyone here ever use x-ray? 

 

Yes, Paperwhite has no actual buttons and you have to swipe or (more conveniently) press one side of the screen to turn pages. The new Kindle Voyage has both a touch screen and buttons for turning the pages. I don't know if you can disable the touch screen functions in that one, but somehow I doubt it.

 

I used x-ray all the time when I was reading Gravity's Rainbow to keep up with all the characters. The interface is a bit slow but I found it very useful.

 

 

Oh and yes, the built-in LED is excellent feature.

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So what's the status of manga on ereaders at this point? I've wanted a Kindle for ages, and now that I'm moving I'm again reminded of just how many fucking books I own. On top of that, DMP is starting to make good on their promise to release the entire library of Osamu Tezuka digitally (Brave Dan, Crime & Punishment, Age of Adventure, and Mr. Cactus have all been recently released as digital-only goods), so I think it might finally be time for me to take the plunge, provided the resolution on these things is finally good enough to be trusted with crisp linework.

 

You could probably do manga if you can find it in compatible format, since they're usually in black and white. But for comics generally (and magazines) I definitely prefer my iPad. Every actual book I read on my Paperwhite.

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When I bought a Paperwhite I gave my old Kindle 3 (keyboard) to my nieces. I've just decided to swap back for the following pedantic and/or idiosyncratic reasons:

  • When I bought the Paperwhite I'd assumed they had improved the screen to be actually white. But it's just the same type of screen with a light that makes it look whiter. I don't like how it looks.
  • I don't use the light at all; either I read in daylight or I have a lamp.
  • You can't turn the light all the way off. I'm sure it uses almost no battery but it still irritates my obsessive tendencies.
  • I miss the page turn buttons and the little clicky D-button. I liked having the tactile (haptic?) feedback.
  • Same with the keyboard, even though it's rarely used.
  • I find the touchscreen to be not always super responsive. Sometimes you need to swipe rather than touch, like if you're using the browser. Scrolling menus is harder than using the D-button.
  • If a book has hyperlinks it's easy to click them accidentally when turning a page.
  • I never use the annotations, word-lookup type stuff but it is also easy to activate them accidentally.
  • If some dust or dirt gets on the screen - which is going to be often, if reading outside - I don't want to worry about accidental page turns when wiping it off.
  • The screen itself is not pleasant to touch for me, something about the anti-reflective texture.
  • Knowing how fragile e-reader screens are, I get nervous about touching it - this is probably baseless.
  • I find the shop harder to navigate due to scrolling menus; I only recently figured out how to find the wishlist, which was the most useful thing when stuck somewhere and wanting a new book.

In addition to the above - though irrelevant to anyone else - I had a super expensive leather case for the K3 that I missed, and the K3 was the free 3G model which was occasionally useful. I think my nieces will love the Paperwhite for the touchscreen, I doubt they'll care about my personal nitpics.

 

In the Paperwhite's favour the fonts and screen resolution are a clear improvement and going back will be a slight readjustment. But once you're engrossed in a book, words is words.

 

Note that I also stopped using a smartphone in favour of a Nokia 3310, if that helps the above make more sense.

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I use a kindle (4? 5? Whichever is the most recent basic kindle) almost exclusively. Mostly because I really cant be bothered with all the room physical books take given my currently very small living space. In a few years, and especially before I have kids in the house I'd like to get some more physical ones on the shelves, but intend to be very selective and keep as few as I'm happy with.

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SmZA, I totally understand your reasons, this is why I still have a keyboard Kindle and have almost no desire to upgrade. I haven't gone as far as you to go back to an old phone (because I need them wicked casts when out and about) but I dislike touchscreens for a number of the reasons you mentioned above but mostly because they're just a poor input system in the majority of situations.

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I have a Kindle Voyage and I absolutely love it. I love not having to cart around heavy books anymore. Also, and maybe this is just me being excited about a new device because I have only had it for a few months, but I've been reading a lot more than I did before I had it.

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SmZA, I totally understand your reasons, this is why I still have a keyboard Kindle and have almost no desire to upgrade. I haven't gone as far as you to go back to an old phone (because I need them wicked casts when out and about) but I dislike touchscreens for a number of the reasons you mentioned above but mostly because they're just a poor input system in the majority of situations.

 

Yeah, touch controls are, most of the time, The Worst . It's definitely a usability downgrade on the Kindle and I seethe impotently with rage at the design decision most phone companies have made to phase out physical keyboards on mid-to-high-end smartphones. (And of course, iPhones have never had them.) Ultimately I feel like some of the other improvements are too important to go back to my button-based devices but I'd really love it if I could have both the better tech -and- functional UI.

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I have kindle app in my tablet though I prefer reading books in PDF most of the time. Maybe because I'm more use in PDF.

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Yeah, touch controls are, most of the time, The Worst . It's definitely a usability downgrade on the Kindle and I seethe impotently with rage at the design decision most phone companies have made to phase out physical keyboards on mid-to-high-end smartphones. (And of course, iPhones have never had them.) Ultimately I feel like some of the other improvements are too important to go back to my button-based devices but I'd really love it if I could have both the better tech -and- functional UI.

 

Yep, I guess we're stuck with them for the foreseeable future. Likely until non-physical interaction becomes viable.

 

Strangely though there's an attachment for the new Galaxy Note phone that puts a physical keyboard over the lower part of the screen.

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