Paperwhite Second Gen: First Impressions

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by xendula

@ aceflor: what I believe are dust particles stay in the same place on mine, but their visibility changes with the angle at which I am holding the kindle.

It did indeed. I could only see it if I was looking down at it. Looking up or looking directly at the screen I could not see it, which is the reason why I say I really searched for those pinholes.

Originally Posted by xendula

What did he write? I agree, the email address should be very visible.
BTW, thanks for the test page screenshot!

I already deleted the email, but JosieB posted the reply she got and it was verbatim to mine, except her reply had some links specific to UK customers that mine didn't since I'm in the USA. Basically it was a very generic statement saying they appreciated my feedback and would pass it along. My reply never even mentioned what my feedback was about. I too hope all these email requests help and Amazon listens to them, but they have a history of ignoring requests to have smaller margins, better font sizes, etc. It sure would be nice to have Amazon officially support customer fonts.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by xendula

Jack, try doing this from YourMediaLibrary. It only moves the deleted items into your trashcan, but at least you can do a few items at once, instead of one by one.

I'm in the same boat with regards to dictionaries I can't remove, I have two sets loaded last week, for my two returned Paperwhite two's, I could delete the first lot but not the second lot. In the UK we don't have a 'media library page' we only have Manage Your Kindle. It's so annoying, I don't want 13 foreign dictionaries, and certainly not 5 versions of Chinese and 2 of Japanese, even if I wanted the European ones.

And what's even more annoying is if I end up getting one eventually I'll only end up with duplicate foreign dictionaries

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by xendula

I got my replacement yesterday - third time's the charm?
The contrast is tons better, the black much blacker, even without my own fonts. There are no color hues. oK, the lower left corner is very very very faintly more greenish than the rest, but I can live with this.

One issue that I have is what I think Sparklemotion had reported on one of them: there is an extra flash between pages - I don't know how else to describe it. When I turn pages, I can see the font in the original page slowly get pixilated and extra bold, then the new page form. Page refresh is off. It's a bit distracting and I have to see if I can live with this. Also, while there are a ton of dust particles between the screens, they are small enough for me to believe that they are not actual holes, but there is a shimmer all over the middle section. I have to see if I can live with this.

What bugs me a bit is what I noticed on all of the ones I have: the white is not really uniform. I don't know if there are dust particles or if they purposely made it so weird as to resemble real paperback paper, but there is tons of grey, like grey dots, or, like marble. I do not like this, but since I saw it on all the PW2 I got, I assume that's typical for all. It's hard to capture this in images. Can anyone see it when comparing the PW1 background to the PW2 background? The bakcground itself is a bit lighter colored nd has a yellowish tint, but a pleasant one. The light is also a bit yellowish, but not like my pee colored one - it's very pleasant to the eyes.

Yesterday, I had a few spontaneous shutdowns. Very strange, but it hasn't happened again.

I'll do some more reading and see if the above issues bother me, especially the way the pages refresh (this was not happening on my first two PW2s I received, BTW). I love the contrast on the device I received. It's awesome. I'll try to add a picture later.

Glad you're happy, xendula! I did have that refresh issue on one of my earlier PW2's, yes. I don't have it on my current one. I really hope this one will be a keeper for you!

Originally Posted by xendula

Jack, try doing this from YourMediaLibrary. It only moves the deleted items into your trashcan, but at least you can do a few items at once, instead of one by one.
I actually tried getting my trashcan removed on varius occasions, and they keep telling me it's not possible. I will email them about this separately.
Thing is, when something is on your trashcan, it is still searchable. I have hundreds of items in there that I just want gone. They were all freebies, so was told they can't even go the refund route, which is the only way to permanently delete items. When the kindle was first introduced, this approach would have been fine, but it is just not sustainable so many years later, with people's libraries the size of a whale.

Thank, I'll give that a try!

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I'm in the same boat with regards to dictionaries I can't remove, I have two sets loaded last week, for my two returned Paperwhite two's, I could delete the first lot but not the second lot. In the UK we don't have a 'media library page' we only have Manage Your Kindle. It's so annoying, I don't want 13 foreign dictionaries, and certainly not 5 versions of Chinese and 2 of Japanese, even if I wanted the European ones.

And what's even more annoying is if I end up getting one eventually I'll only end up with duplicate foreign dictionaries

I wish Amazon had PC/Mac and/or Android/iOS apps that would allow us to manage our library locally, then sync it to their web servers. Website updating is so slow, but the ability to do this locally on a computer or tablet would make it much faster and easier.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I too hope all these email requests help and Amazon listens to them, but they have a history of ignoring requests to have smaller margins, better font sizes, etc. It sure would be nice to have Amazon officially support customer fonts.

I'd like to see Amazon officially support custom fonts as well--or even unofficially--such as by allowing the "Use_Alt_Fonts" trick. I really don't see what that hurts--only the more serious users who go to places such as mobileread to learn all they can about their devices will use the trick and those who just want to use their Kindles as is with no mods will be perfectly happy.

I can see why Amazon might not want to officially support the "Use_Alt_Fonts" trick--if they officially supported it, they'd probably be peppered with questions from casual users who can't get it to work. But, I don't see any reason why they don't just leave it in there as an undocumented feature--available to more sophisticated users.

Originally Posted by dordale

I'd like to see Amazon officially support custom fonts as well--or even unofficially--such as by allowing the "Use_Alt_Fonts" trick. I really don't see what that hurts--only the more serious users who go to places such as mobileread to learn all they can about their devices will use the trick and those who just want to use their Kindles as is with no mods will be perfectly happy.

I can see why Amazon might not want to officially support the "Use_Alt_Fonts" trick--if they officially supported it, they'd probably be peppered with questions from casual users who can't get it to work. But, I don't see any reason why they don't just leave it in there as an undocumented feature--available to more sophisticated users.

There are probably legal reasons Amazon is not currently supporting it. They might want to avoid legal action or threats of action by font owners who don't want their fonts placed on devices without proof they were purchased. That is just a guess though. But even still, Amazon could provide legal mumbo jumbo that states users must use fonts legally. After all, Microsoft and Apple could care less what fonts you put on computers running their operating systems. They make no attempt to police your usage of fonts. Neither should Amazon.

And it is true that some fonts that look good on a computer or tablet look like poop on a Kindle (or any eInk reader). Once again Amazon could use legal mumbo jumbo that states user fonts might not look well or work properly and that they are not responsible if that occurs.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

Glad you're happy, xendula! I did have that refresh issue on one of my earlier PW2's, yes. I don't have it on my current one. I really hope this one will be a keeper for you!

Thank you

Originally Posted by jswinden

I wish Amazon had PC/Mac and/or Android/iOS apps that would allow us to manage our library locally, then sync it to their web servers. Website updating is so slow, but the ability to do this locally on a computer or tablet would make it much faster and easier.

I would love to see this implemented as well! Maybe another email?

Originally Posted by dordale

I'd like to see Amazon officially support custom fonts as well--or even unofficially--such as by allowing the "Use_Alt_Fonts" trick. I really don't see what that hurts--only the more serious users who go to places such as mobileread to learn all they can about their devices will use the trick and those who just want to use their Kindles as is with no mods will be perfectly happy.

I can see why Amazon might not want to officially support the "Use_Alt_Fonts" trick--if they officially supported it, they'd probably be peppered with questions from casual users who can't get it to work. But, I don't see any reason why they don't just leave it in there as an undocumented feature--available to more sophisticated users.

That's exactly what I told the awesome PW2 support guy I talked to, Will. That I can see how they may not want to officially support it, but that they could leave the work-around working for those willing to learn how to do it. No need to advertise it, just open it up again.

Originally Posted by Josieb1

In the UK we don't have a 'media library page' we only have Manage Your Kindle.

Have you tried to log in to the link I sent? It may work.

[ixtab]

I dimly remember a report here of the USE_ALT_FONTS thing actually bricking a Paperwhite - probably because of a dodgy font.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by dordale

I can see why Amazon might not want to officially support the "Use_Alt_Fonts" trick--if they officially supported it, they'd probably be peppered with questions from casual users who can't get it to work. But, I don't see any reason why they don't just leave it in there as an undocumented feature--available to more sophisticated users.

They could provide custom fonts as an experimental feature, stating that not all fonts work well on e-ink, and that you must try yourself to see if your chosen font is any good.

Making the feature experimental makes sure they don't have to support it, just like it is with the browser. If it works, fine. If it doesn't for some site or another, Amazon won't help you with it... because it's experimental.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

They could provide custom fonts as an experimental feature, stating that not all fonts work well on e-ink, and that you must try yourself to see if your chosen font is any good.

Making the feature experimental makes sure they don't have to support it, just like it is with the browser. If it works, fine. If it doesn't for some site or another, Amazon won't help you with it... because it's experimental.

Or, they could just have a bunch of fonts ready to go and let users download them from their site. I really want serif fonts, since the PW has a great screen resolution and can support them.

Or they could use the same approach as Kobo. Being able to set the line thickness is something I long for!

[Barty]

Originally Posted by jswinden

There are probably legal reasons Amazon is not currently supporting it. They might want to avoid legal action or threats of action by font owners who don't want their fonts placed on devices without proof they were purchased. That is just a guess though. But even still, Amazon could provide legal mumbo jumbo that states users must use fonts legally. After all, Microsoft and Apple could care less what fonts you put on computers running their operating systems. They make no attempt to police your usage of fonts. Neither should Amazon.

And it is true that some fonts that look good on a computer or tablet look like poop on a Kindle (or any eInk reader). Once again Amazon could use legal mumbo jumbo that states user fonts might not look well or work properly and that they are not responsible if that occurs.

Or, they could just say nothing. How many people know or care about the font trick?

Originally Posted by xendula

Or, they could just have a bunch of fonts ready to go and let users download them from their site. I really want serif fonts, since the PW has a great screen resolution and can support them.

Or they could use the same approach as Kobo. Being able to set the line thickness is something I long for!

This is my thought too. Hey Amazon makes a lot of money selling content, so why not sell fonts or font packs too. I would be willing to pay $25 for a single font if it meant I could read for hours without eyestrain!

I'm the same on my preference for serif now that device screens have the higher resolutions needed to view them. I remember reading a scholarly article back in the 1990s where studies were conducted to see what worked best for reading on computer monitors. One thing the study indicated was that lower resolution (common on monitors in that era) made reading serif fonts much more of an issue than reading sans serif fonts. They found that people generally preferred serif fonts with printed material (higher resolution) but preferred sans serif fonts for low resolution monitors because of the decrease in eyestrain. But that is no longer an issue with most new devices as they tend to have a much higher resolution than the old 72 dpi (Apple) and and 96 dpi (PC) computer monitors.

[sirmaru]

Right now we get 6 named fonts, 8 point sizes and 3 ways of displaying them (black on white, black on yellow and white on black). That means we have 144 different ways to display eBooks. If one adds to that 24 levels of lighting, that works out to 3,456 combinations of fonts, sizes, colors and lighting.

That should be more than enough for everyone's taste. Remember, the objective is to read more and not play around with the art.

In addition, see this link for a package of SUPPORTED extra fonts for the Kindle Fire HDX:

http://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Systems...=special+fonts

"The font package is compatible with OfficeSuite Viewer and OfficeSuite Professional version 6.10 or higher."

If you use Calibre, it may be possible to convert eBooks to Office format.