The new PaperWhite snuck out! Incremental update

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by rem736

i thought that at the very least, the new kindle paperwhite would be smaller in size than the existing paperwhite. the new kobo aura has a 6" screen and yet managed to be smaller than the paperwhite.

By not making a marginal change in the size of the device, it means that all those existing accessories will still work with the new device which is good for consumers, the oems making that stuff and amazon itself as it is one less barrier to an upgrade for people that were unsure.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the device is already a comfortable size for people to hold for extended durations and that is not going to definitely improve if they shrank it further.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by vugtitan

no epub.

no memory card slot.


no file explorer.


rubbish.

i will never buy it.

The only item that can't be changed from your list is the memory card slot one. But if the KPW2 can be jailbreaked etc like the KPW1, you can put Koreader on it, then you have a file manager and can read epubs. I just did it with mine, and I love it! The kindle was not retaining my formatting, but using Koreader, it does. (I like a space between paragraphs. I hadn't even been using my Kindle because it wasn't displaying that. Now, I can use it again.)

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by Crowl

By not making a marginal change in the size of the device, it means that all those existing accessories will still work with the new device which is good for consumers, the oems making that stuff and amazon itself as it is one less barrier to an upgrade for people that were unsure.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the device is already a comfortable size for people to hold for extended durations and that is not going to definitely improve if they shrank it further.

Your point is valid but this has never stopped any other hardware maker from changing the shape of their devices each generation. I don't doubt that a current Paperwhite is very comfortable to carry but I think the reduction in size is much more important than a reduction in weight. I assume an Aura will fit much more nicely in a jacket pocket than a Paperwhite will.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Your point is valid but this has never stopped any other hardware maker from changing the shape of their devices each generation. I don't doubt that a current Paperwhite is very comfortable to carry but I think the reduction in size is much more important than a reduction in weight. I assume an Aura will fit much more nicely in a jacket pocket than a Paperwhite will.

I wouldn't want the bezel to be any smaller than it is. There wouldn't be enough to easily hold.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I wouldn't want the bezel to be any smaller than it is. There wouldn't be enough to easily hold.

I guess it all depends on how you hold it. I keep most of my hand on the back or have it cupped in my hand so unless I'm walking around I don't tend to have too much of a grip on the bezel.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Barty

Audible is precisely why you can expect TTS to be gone.

Of course!

[Canuck_in_Japan]

I see Kindle will have something that looks suspiciously like Reading Life achievements. What do they say about imitation and flattery?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I'm guessing that Text-To-Speech is still MIA? Kind of strange if it is, as Audible was bought by Amazon and you can now sync your reading between Audible apps and Kindle apps pretty much everywhere except on the last (and maybe this) Paperwhite.

Originally Posted by Barty

Audible is precisely why you can expect TTS to be gone.

But Audible is also MIA.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

I think the reduction in size is much more important than a reduction in weight. I assume an Aura will fit much more nicely in a jacket pocket than a Paperwhite will.

I completely agree with you. My Paperwhite is the biggest and heaviest of my 3 e-ink devices, therefore, the last one I want to carry around in my bag.

[BenG]

Last year there was a lot of hype surrounding the launch of the Paperwhite, some of which led to higher expectations than Amazon could meet, leading to a lot of complaints and returned devices.
Perhaps that's why they are keeping a lower profile with this release.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

I see Kindle will have something that looks suspiciously like Reading Life achievements. What do they say about imitation and flattery?

Didn't the Audible apps have those before Reading Life? Pretty sure they did.

[crossi]

Until they increase the user memory to at least as large as the Kindle Keyboard I'm not interested. I've made changes to many of the titles and publication dates and downloaded books from the cloud don't have those changes. Also the cloud doesn't have the books organized into my catagories so for a large library it's very cumbersom to find the book you want or to see which is next in a series. The cloud/archive sucks so I simply never use it. I need enough space to hold all my edited and organized books.

[HarryT]

The PW holds well over 1000 typically-sized novels. That represents something like 12 years' worth of reading for me.

[AnemicOak]

It'd be nice if it had more storage or a card slot, but for myself I've found I never end up using most of the space my current devices have built in. Perhaps if these devices handled a large number of files better I'd use more of the space.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

I see the new Paperwhite is getting a 2000 yen price increase in Japan from 7,980 to 9,980. So much for that wonderful little deal us living in Japan used to have. I suppose that's expected with the falling yen value. The Kindle was only at that price in the first place to match Kobo. I wonder if their reasoning is that they've got a strong hold on the Japanese market or because they think that the new Kobo Aura will inevitably be more expensive so they don't need to cut their margins so close.