Quote:
Originally Posted by taosaur
I'm tempted once again, as I was with the original KPW. The PPI is a disappointment, but the contrast claims might make up for it vs. the Kobo Aura HD. The claims regarding the frontlight will hopefully bring it up to par with the Aura. The KPW2's obvious advantage would be stable software. The Kindle store is a wash--to get full use of anything I purchase there, I'll need to strip and convert it, and to use anything I purchase elsewhere (EPUB), I'll need to possibly strip and definitely convert it. If I decide I'm tired of reading and want to listen, I'll have to at least switch devices if I have the audiobook, or switch devices, strip, convert, and upload to Google Play Books for decent (or any) TTS.
All of the above limitations are artificial, marketing-imposed hogwash, by the way, which make me angry with Amazon as a company and disinclined to spend money with them.
I would love if Barnes & Noble delivered another Android reader this year, with improved lighting and pixel density, and a microSD slot, but I'm not holding my breath. I've been shopping for a worthwhile eInk device for a few years now, and haven't seen one to lure me away from tablets yet. The screens are finally getting there, but they keep getting strapped to deliberately hobbled hardware and software. Manufactured obsolescence has given way to manufactured frustration.
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While you do make some fair points, have you actually tried the kindle with calibre, it's a piece of cake to keep your library in both epub and mobi (and they take very, very little space) and sync with the kindle. I think the vast majority here will attest to that. As far as including text to speech or audible support in the kpw, it's a fair point, and I am with you. I too miss both.
But you see the selling point of eink at the moment is very low price and huge battery life. That's the only things differentiating them from the far more versatile tablets, that and the eink screen of course. I really don't think amazon could come up with a decently priced kindle and add much, much more storage for audio, a much larger battery to make up for the audio playing, making it also heavier and bulkier. I am quite sure if amazon could keep the price point and add these features they would. I think we are not there yet though. But anyway to me, the sync reading from audible is really a gimmick. Just play your audiobook in any player/computer/tablet and read your book on the eink reader and enjoy.
At least at this stage of einks evolution, finally, we have a screen that's really impressive in terms of contrast/fonts/responses. Obviously not only in the kindle.