The New Kindles -- Like'em or Hate'em?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by taosaur

The Paperwhite is the first Kindle product I've seen that's actually a decent piece of hardware for its time. It's a little tempting, but I'm not in the gadget market just now and I'd rather wait and see if a rootable Android device comes along with a similar quality display (and more storage, and a headphone jack for TTS).

The only android-based eink readers are Nook and Sony. Nook has never had audio and Sony just dropped it. I think you have a long wait ahead of you.
(You'll have better luck starting off with an LCD device.)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Daithi

The reason is that ePub is an open standard.

A specification that is being forked into uselessness for commercial ebooks.
epub promises a lot but real world results are far from what it promises.
(C.F., Kepub, ibook, epub3 "support").

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

Contrary to popular belief, Amazon is not the only place to buy mobi formated ebooks. Smashwords, Fictionwise, Baen all sell them.

This is true, but it is also true that they also support epub (a long with some other less common formats as well). Unless you have an older reader (say more than three years old), odds are that if you don't have a kindle, you are more interested in epub than in mobi.

--
Bill

[Daithi]

The analogy that voicing displeasure with Amazon's choice to not support ePub is the same as complaining that the Nook doesn't support mobi is a weak analogy, because the Mobi format is now owned by Amazon, and therefore it would be unreasonable to ask B&N to support mobi. A better analogy is voicing displeasure with Amazon's choice to not support PDF on their earlier eReaders. In that case, Amazon listened to its customers and added the support.

My apologies ufcgrad93. I already made my case, and now I'm just arguing for no good reason.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

Makes sense. We don't have a car either. I have never driven one. My husband takes a bus pass to work.

Be careful, young lady. If you don't watch out, you will retire without a mortgage, no debt, and money that you can't get rid of except by extensive travel.

[Anabran]

Nearly all of my books are Epub and work fine on my kindle fire using Aldiko pro.
I rarely use the native kindle reader.


Cheers

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by Daithi

My apologies ufcgrad93. I already made my case, and now I'm just arguing for no good reason.

It is all good, my friend. There is nothing wrong with having different opinions.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The only android-based eink readers are Nook and Sony. Nook has never had audio and Sony just dropped it. I think you have a long wait ahead of you.
(You'll have better luck starting off with an LCD device.)

Or sticking with LCD/OLED devices, which is probably what I'll do for the foreseeable future. All my ereading for 3-4 years now has been on standard screens and it hasn't been a problem. I'm really interested in the display and price on an iPad mini, and what the small tablet market will look like at that point, not that I'll have any disposable income until next year.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by taosaur

Or sticking with LCD/OLED devices, which is probably what I'll do for the foreseeable future. All my ereading for 3-4 years now has been on standard screens and it hasn't been a problem. I'm really interested in the display and price on an iPad mini, and what the small tablet market will look like at that point, not that I'll have any disposable income until next year.

Like you, I'm very interested to see if Apple enters the 7" tablet market. While I am an Apple guy (use their phone & computers), I think the Nexus 7 and the Fire HD tablets are very nice.

[ScotiaBurrell]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

Some people's life structure is suitable to do without various things.

I would really like to do without... surfing the Internet.

[ScotiaBurrell]

Originally Posted by Harmon

If you don't watch out, you will retire without a mortgage, no debt, and money that you can't get rid of except by

...becoming simarly addicted to those in the 'oh no i bought another ebook' thread.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by ScotiaBurrell

I would really like to do without... surfing the Internet.

I hear ya.

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Be careful, young lady. If you don't watch out, you will retire without a mortgage, no debt, and money that you can't get rid of except by extensive travel.

Hehe.

[twobob]

Originally Posted by alism

I like the increased resolution and the light but coming from the Kindle 3 I am very disappointed that it only has 2 Gb and seem to have took out the audio.

^this. with reference to the lack of accessibility also.

[Piper_]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

But really, I was taking the opportunity to post about how silly it is that Amazon is among those who say DRM is so necessary for digital media, yet when a market opportunity is better served without it, they happily forego DRM.

JFTR, Amazon is not pro-DRM. Jeff Bezos is on record as saying he doesn't think it's useful, and while it is an option for authors, it is off by default.