Paperwhite Second Gen: First Impressions

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Now here is my experience in a dark room using only the PW2 light. I needed to turn the light level to about 7 before I could see the text well enough to start reading. The maximum level I could stand was 10. Anything above 10 and my retinas threatened to pack their bags and leave! Between 7 and 10 I noticed the screen background was more of a light cream color (not the blue hue i see in lighted rooms), and the background dinginess was not as evident. If I could get my eyes to read in a dark room with so much contrast between a bright screen background and darkness, it would be nearly perfect. For my eyes though I needed to turn on a dim lamp to keep the eyestrain from occurring.

I use 8 for all light settings on my PW1 I found if I turn it down any more that that I got eye strain. If I make it brighter than that I get eye strain. It's just the way my eyes are though. However after the last firmware update on the PW1 my light settings seem to have change 8 has become 5. No one else has reported this change but I know I could never read on 5 for a year then the firmware update and suddenly 8 is too bright.

If you can read with it in the dark then it's a keeper!

[Barty]

@jswinden: with all caveats about juding by photo, your pw2 looks better than mine. Mine is kind of greenish yellow and has a dark blob in center of screen that looks like a black eye. Mercifully it's not noticeable during day.

None of the fonts are dark enough for me to read. I, too, have to embed fonts, which means converting all my books, not to mention hours of font tweaking. I think you also lose some features, right?

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Barty

Why do we have only 8 fixed font sizes? Why can't the font be changed by one
point increments. Because they want to keep the UI as simple as possible.
This is the case of the UI dictating function rather than the other way around.

A left-right slider for the size of the font would not make the GUI more complicated to use. Offering 10 or 12 fonts instead of 6 would also not complicate the GUI.

IMHO, it's just cheapness to keep development costs lower.

It's not a technical problem. They could make small changed to the Aa page. They could keep it as is and add an advanced page for more tweaking. They could put the settings in an editable text file so people who want fine adjustment can get what they want. They just don't want to bother. Because touting "any font size / margin / line / you want" isn't as sexy as stuff like X-ray or social media.

Exactly. It seems many companies just develop "hip" features, instead of "useful" features. Why would anyone buying an e-reader be interested in Twitter or Facebook features? Those don't impact reading experience; at least not for me. Fonts, sizes, margins, and so on, certainly do.

Originally Posted by Barty

@jswinden: with all caveats about juding by photo, your pw2 looks better than mine. Mine is kind of greenish yellow and has a dark blob in center of screen that looks like a black eye. Mercifully it's not noticeable during day.

None of the fonts are dark enough for me to read. I, too, have to embed fonts, which means converting all my books, not to mention hours of font tweaking. I think you also lose some features, right?

Yes, and that is the main reason I hate modifying a Kindle book. Amazon changes a modified "book" into a "personal document". I don't remember all of the features that books have that are not supported in personal documents, but there are some.

[tashk]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

I was also reading and then could not do anything. I kept getting pictures of a variety of covers before I did the restart.

I had the Amazon Store access blocked with a password. Did you also have it blocked? I'm thinking it may be related.

I have had two such freezes since receiving my PW2 about 36 hours ago, although my PW2 restarted on its own after about 30 seconds. I, too, have store access blocked and I do not want to enable it. Really hope this is not a general problem because so far I was quite happy with my PW2.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by tashk

I have had two such freezes since receiving my PW2 about 36 hours ago, although my PW2 restarted on its own after about 30 seconds. I, too, have store access blocked and I do not want to enable it. Really hope this is not a general problem because so far I was quite happy with my PW2.

My PW2 froze more than once and I did not have store access blocked so I don't think it's freezing due to that.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by sparklemotion

My PW2 froze more than once and I did not have store access blocked so I don't think it's freezing due to that.

That proves the store access blockage had nothing to do with the freezes. Maybe its rare and intermittent. So far it only happened once to me.

At one time or another every Kindle and Sony eReader I have owned has frozen.

[sparklemotion]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

That proves the store access blockage had nothing to do with the freezes. Maybe its rare and intermittent. So far it only happened once to me.

At one time or another every Kindle and Sony eReader I have owned has frozen.

Yes, it could just be a fluke. Sometimes electronics freeze. I personally wouldn't be too concerned unless it started happening more.

[latepaul]

Got mine yesterday and very happy with it. No pinholes and the screen looks good to my eyes - which are the only ones that matter.

Spent some time today comparing it to my Kindle touch and I prefer it to that. I think the contrast is better. The non-text looks yellow-ish rather than grey-ish. Also compared it against my Kobo Aura HD, specifically the light. The light is whiter, less blue. It's also fainter at the lowest setting but brighter at the highest. On the Aura I can comfortably read in a dark room at 1% - I need it on at least 4 or 5 (of the 22 scale) on the Kindle, but that's ok. I'd prefer it if I could switch it completely off.

Like my touch it feels fast and responsive. Even my Aura, with its faster processor than the Mini or Kobo touch, doesn't always feel that fast. I do like the Kindle firmware design.

The only odd thing I've seen is with the page refresh. I've got it with the default setting i.e. refresh every page is OFF. However I've noticed on a couple of books that I can have several pages in a row where it refreshes every page (such that I thought the setting was ON) and then it won't for several pages. I guess it's to do with the contents of the page and how it calculates what's changed - there must be a threshold at which it decides it's worth doing the whole page.

The one thing I miss from my Kobo devices is the ability to download books via the web browser.

Hmm. Was just in the process of checking that that last statement is still true and the Kindle froze on me trying to update a web page. I guess that's why it's 'expermiental'.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by latepaul

The one thing I miss from my Kobo devices is the ability to download books via the web browser.

Hmm. Was just in the process of checking that that last statement is still true and the Kindle froze on me trying to update a web page. I guess that's why it's 'expermiental'.

You should be able to download books via the web browser. It will not download PDF but .mobi/.prc/.azw should work.

I've downloaded from Dropbox, calibre server, gutenberg, feedbooks, google drive, etc.

There are some web sites it has trouble with (skydrive), but it is generally serviceable.

[latepaul]

You're right it does download. I guess I had a lingering impression from an older Kindle/firmware (which was why I tried to double-check and got into trouble)

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to like my calibre dropbox folder - possibly too many folders. I was able to navigate away from it this time but it was sitting there with its little spinning indicator for a good ten minutes before I abandoned it.

But I put up a mobi file on a site of my and it successfully downloaded that.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I would open the box in the store and do my best to check it out there. If it had obvious issues, I could return it easily enough.

When I exchanged mine, they offered to open it up in store for me.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by latepaul

You're right it does download. I guess I had a lingering impression from an older Kindle/firmware (which was why I tried to double-check and got into trouble)

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to like my calibre dropbox folder - possibly too many folders. I was able to navigate away from it this time but it was sitting there with its little spinning indicator for a good ten minutes before I abandoned it.

But I put up a mobi file on a site of my and it successfully downloaded that.

You can always just email the book to your Kindle or use Send to Kindle Desktop to get your book much faster and without the browser hassle.

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by Blossom

You can always just email the book to your Kindle or use Send to Kindle Desktop to get your book much faster and without the browser hassle.

As long as you are at home and have the files locally to you. If they are sitting in dropbox and you are at work, then I guess you could log into dropbox, download, and then email to your kindle, but it seems easier to me to just use dropbox and the kindle browser (which is much faster on the PW2). Much more versatile.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by volwrath

As long as you are at home and have the files locally to you. If they are sitting in dropbox and you are at work, then I guess you could log into dropbox, download, and then email to your kindle, but it seems easier to me to just use dropbox and the kindle browser (which is much faster on the PW2). Much more versatile.

No I just email from the Dropbox app on my smartphone. It's much faster and easier for me then trying to use Dropbox's site on the Kindle browsers. Keep in mind I have like 20GB of stuff on my Dropbox so the apps loads much quicker than the site.

It takes about a minute to find the file and email then up to 2 minutes for the Kindle to get it.