Bloomberg: new Kindle in August

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

Doesn't sound like anything that would make me want to ditch my K1.

Maybe if it REALLY speeds up page turns etc. dramatically.

The refresh on my reader doesn't bother me in the least. If it goes away, fine. But if they came out with the same reader with NO blink for $100 less I wouldn't bother to buy it. That and more improvements will be in the next reader that I buy in 3 to 5 years.

Originally Posted by The Old Man

Are standalone e-book readers doomed?

Probably. Probably not. Ereaders ONLY will still be around. Just A LOT cheaper. In the '70s I sold very simple calculators for $125 ON SALE NOW!!! Today you can get a calculator for $1.50. Ereaders will get cheaper. (just not for $1.50)

I would probably like an iPhone to keep in my pocket to read on. But I like a larger screen. A large (7 to 11 inch) color screen would be great! But it has to be lighter than they are now. And they need to have an 8 to 10 hour battery life. And I don't mean like my tablet computer (2.5 pounds) where the REAL battery life is much shorter than the advertised battery life.

Back to my point.
" a thinner version of its e-book reader in August, and the new workout regiment will also enhance its screen sharpness and responsiveness."

Are there many Kindle owners that would give up their Kindle and pay $175 - 200 just to get those features now?

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

The refresh on my reader doesn't bother me in the least. If it goes away, fine. But if they came out with the same reader with NO blink for $100 less I wouldn't bother to buy it. That and more improvements will be in the next reader that I buy in 3 to 5 years.

It doesn't bother me much for simple novel reading. But it kills using the devices for reading anything I want to skim through like a research article etc. since it takes so long to flip through several pages etc.

For novel reading it only comes into play if I can't remember who someone is etc. In a paper book it's very quick to flip back a few pages, on my Kindle I don't bother.

But mainly where I'd like to see things sped up is things like looking up a word in the dictionary, getting back to the home screen, opening books etc. The current Kindles are painfully slow to do anything like that. I often don't look up words as it just takes to long to click the line, hit look up, have it pop up, then hit back to go back to the text.

[SameOldStory]

Right now I am reading "The Penal Colony" by Richard Herley. The book is VERY good. But one problems with the British books is that we don't use the same language.

A useable dictionary is very useful in looking up the words that they use but we rarely if ever use. Hopefully Amazon will come up with a dictionary that looks up words like my GPS. As I start typing it starts searching and brings up the most likely answer.

Actually that might be something to suggest to them.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by The Old Man

Are standalone e-book readers doomed?

I think there's a market for e-readers that "only" read books in the time to come. Aside from tech savvy people who are early adapters by nature, mainstream is catching on as well. Take for example my wife (and her sister for that matter). Both can be categorised as techophobes - absolutely no interest in the gadgets what-so-ever. However, both are avid users of e-book readers. Why? Because it makes sense for them to do so! It's a simple device which does what its meant to do really well. Great readibility - you can change font sizes, plus battery life is awesome.
Granted, the price has to be right, but it's getting there. Once you have this "market segment" sorted out, I don't think there is a fear that dedicated e-book readers will get out of business any time soon.

[SensualPoet]

An iPad tablet runs $629 with 3G; a Kindle for less than half that. An iPad tablet runs $499 with just WiFi; a Kobo for a third of that. Plus most people I've talked to are opting for the 32 GB model iPad (it is for multimedia playback primarily); so add at least $100 to the price above. And, in the medium term, the gap will grow.

Hands-up anyone who believe next year's iPad will be cheaper? Hands up everyone who believes next year's e-readers will be cheaper?

I'm not predicting it, but I will suggest it: the tablet market is trying to occupy the space between fully functional netbooks at half the cost and mid-range laptops at about the same cost as tablets. Only the tablets are "crippled" in terms of input; they are optimised for output / playback only. E-readers are "optimised" for playback too -- single-purpose playback. I think there is a much brighter future for Kobo-like readers pushing the $99 envelope, and "affordable" full feature readers like the Kindle 2 drifting down to $199, than there is for the tablet category overall.

Anyone who believes Apple always gets it right has forgotten about the Newton and the Lisa. But who knows what will come NeXT?

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

It doesn't bother me much for simple novel reading. But it kills using the devices for reading anything I want to skim through like a research article etc. since it takes so long to flip through several pages etc.

For novel reading it only comes into play if I can't remember who someone is etc. In a paper book it's very quick to flip back a few pages, on my Kindle I don't bother.

But mainly where I'd like to see things sped up is things like looking up a word in the dictionary, getting back to the home screen, opening books etc. The current Kindles are painfully slow to do anything like that. I often don't look up words as it just takes to long to click the line, hit look up, have it pop up, then hit back to go back to the text.

The Kindle 1 is slow at doing those thingsj the current Kindles are not. The dictionary look up and annotation on my DX are near instantaneous. My Sony Touch is just as fast and it also has the option of flipping through pages quickly. I have found it very useful when it comes to marking up documents with both text and drawn figures. Eink readers have advanced a bit since 2007.

Luqman

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

An iPad tablet runs $629 with 3G; a Kindle for less than half that. An iPad tablet runs $499 with just WiFi; a Kobo for a third of that. Plus most people I've talked to are opting for the 32 GB model iPad (it is for multimedia playback primarily); so add at least $100 to the price above. And, in the medium term, the gap will grow.

True, but the price comparisons only work if one is buying the iPad to do nothing but read on.

And I think very few people are buying iPads only to read on, or even primarily as readers.

I want a Tablet for a variety of reasons. Reading is part of it--especially reading letter sized PDFs for work. But more of my use would be net surfing, e-mail, videos etc. I'd just also use it as my novel reader as I just don't really need to keep a dedicated reader around to read a book or two a month.

But yeah, if someone just wants to read straight text, the iPad doesn't make a lot of since price wise. If they want to do some reading, surf the net, watch videos, read magazines, comics, newspapers, PDFs etc. in addition to straight text novels, then it (or a future tablet) may be worth the extra cost.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

The Kindle 1 is slow at doing those thingsj the current Kindles are not. The dictionary look up and annotation on my DX are near instantaneous. My Sony Touch is just as fast and it also has the option of flipping through pages quickly. I have found it very useful when it comes to marking up documents with both text and drawn figures. Eink readers have advanced a bit since 2007.

Luqman

Haven't used the Sony or a DX. Playing around with a friend's Kindle 2 that stuff was faster than my K1--but still to slow for my liking.

I've just been spoiled from playing around with my girlfriend's iPad and really want to get away from e-ink and on to some kind of LCD tablet as soon as one that fits my needs and the faster processor and the LCD screen allows for true instant page flipping etc.

And as I've said repeatedly, I'm not an avid reader so the benefits of e-ink just don't matter much when I'm reading 30-60 minutes a day tops most days. Hell, I probably spent more time bitching about things on here since getting my K1 last spring than I have using my K1!

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

I want a Tablet for a variety of reasons. Reading is part of it--especially reading letter sized PDFs for work. But more of my use would be net surfing, e-mail, videos etc. I'd just also use it as my novel reader as I just don't really need to keep a dedicated reader around to read a book or two a month.

But I wasn't making the distinction that tablets, and the iPad specifically, is just about reading. Of course it isn't. In fact I stated: "it is for multimedia playback primarily".

The problem with tablets -- and you state exactly my case -- it's not about inputs. You can't "type" on it; you can "peck" on it -- the core difference between a virtual and a "real" qwerty keyboard. And, while pointing and pinching and finger dragging is great in some cases, it's not as precise as a mouse -- depending on what you are doing ... select from a honeycomb colour palette for example.

We will see: but at the moment, tablets appear to have an uphill fight to define their functionality between mobility of an iPhone / Android phone and a netbook and the full featureness of a modest laptop. Longer term, I'm not sure there is a market at such a premium for a device primarily focussed on playback.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

But I wasn't making the distinction that tablets, and the iPad specifically, is just about reading. Of course it isn't. In fact I stated: "it is for multimedia playback primarily".

Fair enough--silly to compare it too e-ink devices which don't do anything other than display reading material though as it's apples to oranges. Actually more like apples to pizza as they're different enough to not even both be fruit!

The problem with tablets -- and you state exactly my case -- it's not about inputs. You can't "type" on it; you can "peck" on it -- the core difference between a virtual and a "real" qwerty keyboard. And, while pointing and pinching and finger dragging is great in some cases, it's not as precise as a mouse -- depending on what you are doing ... select from a honeycomb colour palette for example.

We will see: but at the moment, tablets appear to have an uphill fight to define their functionality between mobility of an iPhone / Android phone and a netbook and the full featureness of a modest laptop. Longer term, I'm not sure there is a market at such a premium for a device primarily focussed on playback.

Yeah, for me I really want a tablet with good stylus support. As the only "work" I would do on them would be reading and marking up/annotating PDFs of research articles, word documents of articles I'm reviewing etc. that I currently (and always) have done on printouts. Though worth noting that tablets can get around your gripe by using a bluetooth keyboard.

Anyway, other than that markup use, I'd use a tablet for netsurfing, checking e-mail and media consumption--videos, magazines, comics, novels etc. All that stuff Laptops can do, but I HATE the form factor for. It just gets old sitting at a desk, or sitting on the couch with the laptop on my lap etc. I much prefer doing that stuff on my girlfriend's iPad which I can hold like a book or magazine. Not have the heat output etc.

Smartphones are useless to me as I'm not on the go enough to need (much less pay for) 3G access, and I wouldn't want to do much of anything on such a tiny screen anyway.

But you're, only time will tell if there's really a market for these type of tablets or not. Depends how many people there are like me out there I guess that want a tablet form factor for document work, reading, and media consumption vs. how many are perfectly fine with their PCs and laptops/netbooks.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

This new Kindle will be using the new ink screen that has higher contrast and is faster. Somewhere on MR is a link to a video showing off one of these new screens.

Higher contrast would be a big selling point for me. Do you know the contrast ratios of these new screens?

[Dulin's Books]

new e-ink film is 15:1 contrast(white is noticeably whiter) vs the current 7-8:1

[AnemicOak]

Thanks Dulin, that's a pretty big difference. That will definitely make me upgrade to a device with the new screen. Any other devices out using it (or rumored to be coming)?

[TallMomof2]

Better contrast is more than enough for me to buy the new Kindle.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

Better contrast is more than enough for me to buy the new Kindle.

I will probably buy the new Kindle, if I have 2.5 by then.