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Barty · 04-15-2016, 12:44 AM

I'm mildly bitter, with a dash of pique.

It's been apparent to me for a couple of years now that Amazon is not going to give me what I want because my interests do not align with theirs, may in fact run counter to theirs.

I want TTS. Amazon wants to keep reducing weight while maintaining battery life. They want to sell me audio books, Fire tablets, and all the other devices in their ecosystem, so they actually have a _disincentive_ to add TTS. It made sense for them once, not any more.

I want to be able to adjust the font weight. They want to keep the UI simple, stupid. I want to side load my own fonts. They don't want the bother and the bugs. And, like the chef that looks at you askance when you ask for table salt, they think nobody should need to mess with their carefully designed fonts, anyway.

I want something a little bigger because I use largish font size and it'd be nice to have more lines on one screen. They're like, MORE? You want MORE?!?!

I want to jailbreak my kindle to customize it and run some interesting mods beside. As I understand it from the mods, it's possible for Amazon to allow for unofficial mods without a jailbreak, which involves exploiting a software bug and putting the device at risk. But instead they're increasingly hostile to the modders. (It's pretty telling that while Microsoft is embracing open source and cross platform, Amazon is doing its best to wall the garden. These two companies are on opposite trajectories, in a way.)

Just buy something else, right? The problem is the alternatives are not great. Kobo does not have TTS either. Their software seems buggier. They don't sell in any U.S. stores. (But I'm inching closer to buying a kobo.) The android based e-ink readers look pretty kludgy and the displays are not quite as good. Amazon has the best e-ink displays and probably will continue to. They have tremendous advantage in procuring the best e-ink screens and putting them to best use given their market share and R&D war chest. Then, there is liquavista looming on the horizon.

Oh well, I'll just have more money for e-books, I guess.

04-15-2016, 12:44 AM	#735
Barty doofus Posts: 2,553 Karma: 13089041 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kindle Voyage	I'm mildly bitter, with a dash of pique. It's been apparent to me for a couple of years now that Amazon is not going to give me what I want because my interests do not align with theirs, may in fact run counter to theirs. I want TTS. Amazon wants to keep reducing weight while maintaining battery life. They want to sell me audio books, Fire tablets, and all the other devices in their ecosystem, so they actually have a _disincentive_ to add TTS. It made sense for them once, not any more. I want to be able to adjust the font weight. They want to keep the UI simple, stupid. I want to side load my own fonts. They don't want the bother and the bugs. And, like the chef that looks at you askance when you ask for table salt, they think nobody should need to mess with their carefully designed fonts, anyway. I want something a little bigger because I use largish font size and it'd be nice to have more lines on one screen. They're like, MORE? You want MORE?!?! I want to jailbreak my kindle to customize it and run some interesting mods beside. As I understand it from the mods, it's possible for Amazon to allow for unofficial mods without a jailbreak, which involves exploiting a software bug and putting the device at risk. But instead they're increasingly hostile to the modders. (It's pretty telling that while Microsoft is embracing open source and cross platform, Amazon is doing its best to wall the garden. These two companies are on opposite trajectories, in a way.) Just buy something else, right? The problem is the alternatives are not great. Kobo does not have TTS either. Their software seems buggier. They don't sell in any U.S. stores. (But I'm inching closer to buying a kobo.) The android based e-ink readers look pretty kludgy and the displays are not quite as good. Amazon has the best e-ink displays and probably will continue to. They have tremendous advantage in procuring the best e-ink screens and putting them to best use given their market share and R&D war chest. Then, there is liquavista looming on the horizon. Oh well, I'll just have more money for e-books, I guess.