New info on Kindle Paperwhite 3 (PW3)

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by CRussel

That sleeve looks possible, but I don't see it as an option.

I know. It's a real disappointment. The Oberon sleeve fits really snugly, too, so the Kindle won't fall out accidentally, even if the latch isn't closed. I guess the sleeves, for whatever reason, just didn't capture people's imaginations the way their book-style covers have.

I wonder if the PW3 will have the same dimensions as the current models?

[HarryT]

The auto power-on/off capability has made the book-style covers a lot more useful. Personally, too, I find the PW too thin to comfortably hold without a cover - the cover adds useful bulk to it.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I bought an Oberon case for my PW1, but decided it was simply too heavy. And I don't like not having the automatic on/off. So it sits here, unused. Beautiful, but unused.

I may have recently purchased another Oberon cover for my Kindle (their new teal colour was way too tempting for me to resist ) Received it today and other than it being incredibly nice, there is now a magnet on the stiffener insert.
I always take the stiffeners out so I just cut off the bit with the magnet and put that back in. I had rigged my other Oberon with a diy magnet solution anyway which works a treat.

[pastanley]

How much more resolution do we really need on eink readers?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pastanley

How much more resolution do we really need on eink readers?

A resolution of 300+ ppi would be nice. It really does make a difference. The current crop of devices is around the 200 ppi mark.

[el.jeffe58]

Why does it make so much difference Harry. Do you have examples of your own?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by el.jeffe58

Why does it make so much difference Harry. Do you have examples of your own?

When I compare my iPad Retina Mini (resolution around 350ppi) with my PW2 (resolution around 200ppi), the iPad has very noticably sharper and crisper text. It really does make for an improved reading experience. Rather like the difference between reading newsprint and a nicely-printed hardback, in terms of the clarity of the letters on the page.

[elsussman]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The auto power-on/off capability has made the book-style covers a lot more useful. Personally, too, I find the PW too thin to comfortably hold without a cover - the cover adds useful bulk to it.

I agree that the PW is quite thin. the only problem with the cover is that it makes it too large to fit inside my suit jacket

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

For my Paperwhite, I bought a sleeve and like it much better.

What I like about sleeves is that they can nearly always be used for other devices, so the extravagant obsolescence of a leather Oberon cover for a single e-reader doesn't apply. As long as the leather is gorgeous, you can find a use for a pouch.

Even so, I haven't bought an Oberon cover simply because they're never quite morbid enough for me (I've come close to picking up the Celtic one in black, though). I've tried to get them to create a Flowers of Evil design in honor of Baudelaire, but they're of the opinion that no one would buy it. I'm almost certain that if they did make such a cover, they'd find they had tapped into an entirely new market.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

What I like about sleeves is that they can nearly always be used for other devices, so the extravagant obsolescence of a leather Oberon cover for a single e-reader doesn't apply. As long as the leather is gorgeous, you can find a use for a pouch.

Even more of an extravagance when you add shipping to the UK, VAT which is charged on the total price including shipping and Parcel Force "processing fee" I modified the Oberon I had for the K3 so that it now houses a notepad so at least it's still in use.

And obviously with the PW1 & PW2 being the same size at least I didn't have to buy a new cover (but I now have 2 anyway ). *If* the PW3 comes with some form of page turn buttons and is the same dimensions as the current one, then I will consider upgrading.

I've tried to get them to create a Flowers of Evil design in honor of Baudelaire, but they're of the opinion that no one would buy it. I'm almost certain that if they did make such a cover, they'd find they had tapped into an entirely new market.

I'd certainly be interested

[radius]

Originally Posted by el.jeffe58

Why does it make so much difference Harry. Do you have examples of your own?

Not speaking for Harry, but this is why I'd like to see higher resolution:

1) Better support for CJK fonts. Since these characters can be much more complicated than Roman alphabet in roughly the same amount of vertical space, it helps readability to have more pixels to represent them.

I'm guessing you might see a similar benefit for scripts which have a lot of rounded, flowing characters (as opposed to the strongly upright and across nature of Latin text) but I have no experience there.

Many other Unicode symbols would also benefit from more pixels.

2) Better looking text (glyphs and letter forms). For some reason many people think it is pointless to improve past 300dpi, but experience with printing on paper shows clearly that it is not.

You can rather easily see the difference on a good printer between 600dpi and 300dpi, especially for more delicate fonts, italics, punctuation etc. If you look at the fonts that work well at 300dpi or less, you will see that often the punctuation especially is rather squared-off or blunt. Font designers also use trompe l'oeuil effects that disappear if you don't have enough resolution.

I read most on a Sony PRS-505 with 800x600 screen and the low pixel count has always disappointed me. In my early days at Mobileread it used to frustrate me that many posters claimed to not even be able to see the pixels.

Today on the 1024x768-ish screens that are common, the situation is improved but you can still see the jaggedness on curved letters and punctuation still never comes to a sharp point etc.

3) Better looking text (paragraphs). Right now the typesetting on a lot of ereaders looks primitive compared to print books. Part of the reason is the pixel grid is so large. With more pixels available it will be easier to slightly ease the positiion and spacing of words and even letters so that full justification will look better and more natural.

4) Better looking graphics. Even if we get more grey scale levels in eink, there are not enough pixels we will still see artifacts like banding and aliasing. Techniques like dithering and antialiasing also benefit from more pixels.

Take a look at some book covers or pictures that have large flat areas of almost the same colour and (especially on Kobo's in my experience) you will definitely see banding.

[Barty]

^^^ agree with all you said, except banding is caused more by low bit depth rather than resolution. Unfortunately, haven't heard of any eink screen having more than 4 bit (16 level) gray scale.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Rather good point, Barty -- I've been a Hank obsessed with ppi on e-ink screens myself. If the tech survives -- and I hope it does -- then perhaps depth is the next frontier. May the lushest and most complex black and white photos look absolutely perfect on an e-ink screen someday.

[ndixon]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

+1

I think e-Readers are light enough already. Can't see what they would gain by shaving off another 25 grams.

For me, the important thing about a flexible screen (if such a thing exists) wouldn't be the weight – it would be the prospect of not having a fragile sheet of glass in there.

A screen that won't crack as easily as e-readers from the last five years (making e-readers as tossable as a tablet) would be a real advance.

[Vmurph]

Originally Posted by Barty

I don't mind lighter. Ideally, I'd like my ereader to float above my face,

THIS!