Amazon announces new 7" waterproof Oasis with 32GB storage option

[Kolenka]

Honestly, this is what they should have released last year, IMO. I still like my Oasis over the Voyage in terms of ergonomics, and the battery case worked as a trade off for me when traveling. But being able to ditch the battery case by making the screen bigger? That should have been done to begin with. And the inclusion of the light sensor, too.

Fewer trade offs make for an easier sell when asking for more money.

[robko]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Lighting is the issue. The larger the screen, the less well the light diffuser works. I don't expect the frontlight on the 7" to be as good as that of the 6", for that reason, but an 8" would definitely be a lot worse. I know of no 8" devices with good frontlighting.

Originally Posted by tdonline

Suppose some Kobo Aura One owners may have a word here.

Though after hearing of so many lighting issues with the KAO, you may have mass agreement on your statement!

The WHITE (normal) light on the KA1 has very few issues. The uneven/poor lighting on the KA1 are with the "night" light where the different colours cause issues. Kobo can get even normal lighting on 7.8" from the bottom, so it should be possible for Amazon to do it with side lighting (assuming they are going that way again).

Nice to see Amazon once again finally catching up with Kobo

[JSWolf]

Just a quick note... You are buying the Oasis for what the firmware does. There isn;t going to be a jailbreak anytime soon (could be never),

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by ezzkmo

I realize it is not out yet and so this may be a premature question, but do you think we'll be able to drag and drop MP3's or other audio files over to it? I think the KK let us do that.

Also, how big are typical Audible books? I'm thinking of just getting the 8gb Oasis and hoping it has enough space for a couple hundred ebooks and 6-8 audio books at any given time.

It depends on the audio quality and of course how long the book is and how fast the narrator reads. At ‘standard’ quality 25 hours is about 350MB (probably equivalent to 500-650 page book). ‘Enhanced’ will be roughly twice that. But there will probably be an option to download ‘parts’, especially if they back-port this feature to older Kindles.

I doubt they’ll make provision for mp3.

[Josieb1]

Can I ask, is anyone considering the extended warranty, only now it has to be purchased at the same time as the device and I am dubious of doing that in case I got a dud device.

[tomsem]

More details & press release and podcast at The Kindle Chronicles:

http://www.thekindlechronicles.com/

It seems most of the new features (adjustable boldness, inverted text etc) will soon be available for other Kindles, Audible for original Oasis and 8th Gen Kindle a little later.

[vrf]

Originally Posted by tomsem

It seems (at least initially) it does not support Immersion Reading (synchronized text + audiobook playback), or at least there’s no mention of it. Will it at least play in background so you can read along? Probably not. The Audible player on previous Kindles was horrible, and hard to imagine even an improved player for Kindle would be preferred to the smartphone app.

Amazon says it is "seamless" to hope back and forth between audiobook and ebook. (syncing works.) This video seems to confirm that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=qffCVvuNRd8

[poohbear_nc]

Come to my arms, my beamish Oasis!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

*apologies to Lewis Carroll*

32 G model on order - visions of loading it with Delphi Classics tomes ... endless reading .... sigh ...

[dublincheri]

I never do audiobooks nor do I read near water (unless you count a glass of water) so it's nothing I need. Unfortunately that has never stopped me before and it won't this time either. The asymmetry still bugs me visually but it's extremely practical to use. Oh well I can always cancel the order if I change my mind.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by vrf

Amazon says it is "seamless" to hope back and forth between audiobook and ebook. (syncing works.) This video seems to confirm that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=qffCVvuNRd8

That is an improvement over the previous Audible players for Kindle but Immersion Reading is the standard Amazon has established for the last several years. Having to switch modes is not the same - might as well have it play from your smartphone or Echo and read along with the text. I can understand where highlighting words dynamically could drain battery faster, but they could just forgo that and keep page turns synchronized, which would be fine (like TTS on Fire).

And yes, let’s have ‘plain old TTS’ and not just VoiceView.

[SKK]

Originally Posted by ezzkmo

I realize it is not out yet and so this may be a premature question, but do you think we'll be able to drag and drop MP3's or other audio files over to it? I think the KK let us do that.

Also, how big are typical Audible books? I'm thinking of just getting the 8gb Oasis and hoping it has enough space for a couple hundred ebooks and 6-8 audio books at any given time.

According to a chat I had with amazon customer help they said only audible books, no mp3.

[JoHunt]

The only thing that might convince me to upgrade is the 7" screen. Still on the fence though.

[tomsem]

Hope the software updates for the other Kindles show up before too long. I’d like to play with them before I decide about getting Oasis 2.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Just a quick note... You are buying the Oasis for what the firmware does. There isn;t going to be a jailbreak anytime soon (could be never),

This may not be accurate. It may be able to use the current jailbreak. We will know shortly.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by booklover6

I do worry about the fragility...with one side being so thin.

Going by my existing Oasis, the thinness is not a problem. If you drop it, you'll smash the plastic off and scratch the screen *long* before any damage due to one side's thinness is likely. A good chunk of that thinness is metal. It's *tough*. Even treading on it isn't a problem (I know: it survived that undamaged).

Myself, I plan to wait and see. I might get another exchange on my extended warranty, since my existing Oasis is rather beaten up.

Honestly this looks like a step backwards in some ways: almost twice as heavy due to the move-back of the battery but you *still* need a case almost as expensive as the old one unless you actually like the the 'chipped and beaten' look after a few months of use -- though the new case looks almost as useless for that as the old one because it doesn't actually protect the edge of the Kindle at all. The larger screen is tempting, as is the bluetooth support. I only care about waterproofing insofar as it makes it rain-proof, but rain never did my existing Kindles any harm, so...