Next generation Kindle

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I can't think of any reason why it should. The only down-side is that your library list will be a lot longer, of course.

That's true, but they are in collections, with series info, so it's easy enough to navigate.

[evanft]

What I'm guessing:

Basic Kindle
Will remain largely the same. Will probably not go to a touch or PW screen. I could maybe see them going to a higher res screen, but I doubt it. The big thing is going to be price point. I would not be shocked at all if they pushed the price to $49.99. That may hit a psychological barrier for a lot of people that makes it easier to buy one.

Kindle Paperwhite
Overall improvements in lighting evenness and contrast, mostly addressing issues with current model. I don't think they'll match the Aura's screen, though. I could also see a price drop to $100 in order to reduce gap with basic model.

[Josieb1]

PDF reflow, yes I know you all laugh but I read single column text PDFs and I can't on the Kindle, but I can on the Nook Simple Touch. That's all I really want plus more storage and text to speech back.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by evanft

What I'm guessing:

Basic Kindle
Will remain largely the same. Will probably not go to a touch or PW screen. I could maybe see them going to a higher res screen, but I doubt it. The big thing is going to be price point. I would not be shocked at all if they pushed the price to $49.99. That may hit a psychological barrier for a lot of people that makes it easier to buy one.

Kindle Paperwhite
Overall improvements in lighting evenness and contrast, mostly addressing issues with current model. I don't think they'll match the Aura's screen, though. I could also see a price drop to $100 in order to reduce gap with basic model.

You base this on what? I have no doubt Amazon will do just that, or better, assuming you are refering to the higher resolution.

[Katsunami]

I wouldn't be surprised if the next Paperwhite has a 1280x960 screen to exactly match the Aura's 265 ppi while keeping the screen at 6 inch. While I dread it, I also expect more social stuff now that Amazon owns GoodReads. The Kindle will possibly sync to it automatically. Also, it'll be half a millimeter thinner, and 1 grams lighter so they can put this into the specs.

Those things wouldn't be something I'd consider an upgrade for.

But if they added official custom fonts, a lot of new fonts with Kobo-like adjustments, more sizes, more spacing and margin control, and allow Calibre to control collections ... Then I'd consider it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I wouldn't be surprised if the next Paperwhite has a 1280x960 screen to exactly match the Aura's 265 ppi while keeping the screen at 6 inch.

Do eInk make such a screen? Amazon can only use screens which exist - they don't manufacture screens themselves.

Originally Posted by Skydog

Improved lighting is at the top of my list. I would like more natural lighting, no bluish casts, and elimination of the gawd-awful blotches.

And if they cannot do that I wish they would update the Touch to be just like the PW 2 but without the light layer.

Oh, and 7" or larger screen with two column landscape view like the old Sony PRS-900/950.

More formatting options!!!!!!!

Option to easily add your choice of fonts.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do eInk make such a screen? Amazon can only use screens which exist - they don't manufacture screens themselves.

If Amazon wants to use such a screen, and e-Ink can make it, they will start making it, maybe even exclusively for Amazon, in the first half year if need be.

[gers1978]

I want even lighting (or at least the ability to turn the light off completely, the bright patches grate on my brain).

I also want an even smaller depth between bezel and screen. I got rid of my Touch for this reason alone and even the much-reduced gap on the PW grates on me.

[barryem]

I'm pretty happy with the Paperwhite as it is. I rarely keep more than about 20 books on board and usually not that many. I find the light to be just fine. I have 2 Paperwhites and they're both evenly lit. I would like page turn buttons but it's a small thing. I'm okay with the way it works now.

What I would like to see is a more intelligent way of handling wireless. It should turn off when I'm not doing something that needs it and turn on when I am. Why ask me if I want to turn on wireless to access the bookstore or download from the cloud or sync? Of course I do. What a silly question!

When I'm finished with one of those things wireless should be smart enough to turn itself off. For those who have special offers (I don't) it could turn itself on periodically, update them and turn itself off.

As it is I like the Paperwhite so much that the next one is going to have to be very very good to make me want to upgrade. I've gotten every new model since the Kindle Keyboard, my first one, but the Paperwhite could be my last, or at least till the battery is gone.

Of course if the next one is a bit lighter and has a built-in inflatable recliner I might reconsider.

Barry

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by barryem

What I would like to see is a more intelligent way of handling wireless. It should turn off when I'm not doing something that needs it and turn on when I am. Why ask me if I want to turn on wireless to access the bookstore or download from the cloud or sync? Of course I do. What a silly question!

Remember that the mode in which WiFi is turned off is called "Airplane Mode" for a very specific reason. Do you really think that WiFi should be turned on automatically, from Airplane Mode, without asking you for confirmation? That seems like an extremely bad idea to me!

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by barryem

Why ask me if I want to turn on wireless to access the bookstore or download from the cloud or sync? Of course I do. What a silly question!

...and welcome to the group

[valex]

Originally Posted by evanft

What I'm guessing:

Basic Kindle
Will remain largely the same. Will probably not go to a touch or PW screen. I could maybe see them going to a higher res screen, but I doubt it. The big thing is going to be price point. I would not be shocked at all if they pushed the price to $49.99. That may hit a psychological barrier for a lot of people that makes it easier to buy one.

Kindle Paperwhite
Overall improvements in lighting evenness and contrast, mostly addressing issues with current model. I don't think they'll match the Aura's screen, though. I could also see a price drop to $100 in order to reduce gap with basic model.

I agree with you. Based on the recent news/rumors it looks like at this point Amazon is much more interested in their new projects which are largely Android-based - phone, tv, tablets. In the e-reader area I am not expecting anything more drastic than marginal improvements/fixes in hardware (faster cpu, more memory, etc), some improvements/fixes in software (which are directly revenue-generating), and/or lower price. I think lower price is the highest priority, the e-reader market is pretty much saturated and in order to sell more readers en masse they'd need to go after those who still don't have one yet - meaning _very_ casual readers. So I fully expect, say, $25 (or less!) for basic Kindle.

As far as major improvements go, there has been only a few innovations in e-ink area recently, namely flexible screens and color e-ink (HD is not new any more). Amazon experimented with color e-ink (Triton) in the past and wasn't impressed with the quality. I also think the primary audience for the color screens - magazine readers - is pretty much satisfied with tablets (and bought them already).

The flexible screens are much more interesting, but unless they can make truly revolutionary device with fully folding/rolling-up screen so the device when closed is the size of a smartphone/pencil - again I don't see that happening.

The Kobo Aura HD is kind of a signal that there is nothing really in the pipeline for the e-ink screens (ok, its dpi is higher) and the only "major" improvement could be the bigger size. Let us not forget that the Aura's screens are the batch abandoned by BN so they also both didn't have anything else (but size) to offer and didn't think that enough people would want to buy it.

Me, I am ready to jump my Kindle Keyboard ship, just waiting for the kindlepdfviewer to be ported to Aura HD

[alicepattinson]

I would want a 32gb storage. lol!! Or maybe 16gb. hihihi

[guitarizt]

Originally Posted by valex

As far as major improvements go, there has been only a few innovations in e-ink area recently, namely flexible screens and color e-ink (HD is not new any more). Amazon experimented with color e-ink (Triton) in the past and wasn't impressed with the quality. I also think the primary audience for the color screens - magazine readers - is pretty much satisfied with tablets (and bought them already).

The flexible screens are much more interesting, but unless they can make truly revolutionary device with fully folding/rolling-up screen so the device when closed is the size of a smartphone/pencil - again I don't see that happening.

The Kobo Aura HD is kind of a signal that there is nothing really in the pipeline for the e-ink screens (ok, its dpi is higher) and the only "major" improvement could be the bigger size. Let us not forget that the Aura's screens are the batch abandoned by BN so they also both didn't have anything else (but size) to offer and didn't think that enough people would want to buy it.

Me, I am ready to jump my Kindle Keyboard ship, just waiting for the kindlepdfviewer to be ported to Aura HD

I love the new colour and paper flexible and portable screens. The colour screens with the new peacock technology are still going to be a ways off for ereaders. 10+ years is my guess since it's hard to make them high resolution, and it so recently was developed.

The flexible paper 5th element type screens will be awesome for cell phones.

I think the abandoned BN batch rumour was untrue since Kobo developed the new screen with e-ink. Either way I think the Aura HD has the nicest frontlit e-ink display atm.

I think we saw the future when Kobo came out with the Aura HD. It beat the other readers to the next gen era by 4-6 months. I will be surprised if the PW2 will be as good as the Aura since the Aura has so many things the PW2 won't have like a bigger screen, microsd slot, ect. I'll be surprised if the PW2 is has 1440x1080 resolution. The best thing the PW2 can have over the Aura is a lower price which would make it better than the Aura for me as long as it had a screen that was similar to the Aura's.