What's coming in 1-2 years for ereaders? Any reason to upgrade my Kindle PW4?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Markismus

The color screens will drive down the price of greyscale ereaders considerably, so I am holding out until the fall before buying another ereader.

They won't.
Also unless a new technology is invented any ambient light illuminated colour screen will be rubbish.
The passive except when updated screens are of most advantage when using ambient light. They are a niche compared with colour LCD and OLED which are far far cheaper.

The screen quality more or less peaked at the PW3 and H2O for eInk. Larger screens than 7" get progressively disproportionately more expensive. Perhaps the yield is poor. That likely would at least be 4x worse for 14" than 7", it may be worse. There isn't much difference needed in Electronics cost for a 6" eink and an approximately 14" model.

I'd like to see A4/Letter size eink 300 dpi. A4 is 210 mm x 297 mm. US Letter is 215.9 mm x 279.4 mm. So to view the most common PDFs at actual size we need 216 mm x 297 mm.
For the brightest screen with ambient light we'd need IR or Ultrasonic touch, though maybe at that size it has to be capacitive. For the best annotation and sketching we'd want a Wacom sensor (doesn't affect screen reflectance) and a stylus.
It also would need to work purely as mass storage on anything and not be crippled by needing a Windows Application like the Sony Digital paper.
It would also need to have two USB ports, with full OTG/Host support on one. Headphone socket, Full size SDXC/SDHC slot, WiFi, Bluetooth. Built in Kindle support as well as epub2 and PDF. Otherwise you are better off with a 14" Android Tablet.

The Sony Digital paper at approximately 14" is nice but let down by poor format support, poor I/O and walled to a dedicated Windows application. Sony has forgotten the stupidity of Minidisk artificial limitations, removing Linux from PS models that already had it and the proprietary memory cards.

[JSWolf]

You can sell your PW4 on here. As for the screen size, I do find the larger screen size to be better. I have a 6.8" screen and it's nicer to have the larger space. If you do want to swap out your PW4, I would go with the Oasis at 7". But, one note, you probably won't be able to jailbreak an Oasis.

[Quoth]

However bigger than 7" (or maybe 8") is a niche in a niche, really only needed for B&W graphic novels/manga and PDFs.
The vast majority of fiction only needs mono eink. The 5" is nice for a pocket, but that is very niche with phones and it's not much smaller than the smallest 6" models. The 7" isn't much bigger than 6" unless it's got buttons. You'd buy a good enough 10" tablet for the difference in price between 7" and 8". Also a 7" Libra with buttons does fit many handbags or jackets, an 8" much less so.
I doubt we'll see a return of 5" ereaders.
The 10" eink models are very expensive and not really big enough for all PDFs.

The 7" Oasis and 7" Libra are a nice size. Most people don't need jailbroken.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

However bigger than 7" (or maybe 8") is a niche in a niche, really only needed for B&W graphic novels/manga and PDFs.
The vast majority of fiction only needs mono eink. The 5" is nice for a pocket, but that is very niche with phones and it's not much smaller than the smallest 6" models. The 7" isn't much bigger than 6" unless it's got buttons. You'd buy a good enough 10" tablet for the difference in price between 7" and 8". Also a 7" Libra with buttons does fit many handbags or jackets, an 8" much less so.
I doubt we'll see a return of 5" ereaders.
The 10" eink models are very expensive and not really big enough for all PDFs.

The 7" Oasis and 7" Libra are a nice size. Most people don't need jailbroken.

For a lot of people who do need a larger text size, 7 or 8" will be be good. I would not recommend a 6" screen for those who need a larger then normal text size as it can look awful. So while you think that larger then 6" is a niche within a niche, I disagree. I find the larger then 6" screen to be rather comfortable. And some will find them to be a necessity.

[Quoth]

No, I said bigger than 7" or maybe 8", not 6"
I agree, if cost wasn't a factor I think the 7" or (maybe 8") 300 dpi would be the most popular, closest to reading a mass market size paperback.

[crossi]

Since they already have a touch screen I really don't understand why they don't implement a note taking feature with the ability to toggle between writing and erasing by touch and the ability to save it as a named note. I don't mean as text but as a pdf so you could have scribbles, pictures or tic-tac-toe, whatever.

Sometimes I want to make a quick to-do or grocery list or scribble down a phone number and I might not have any paper but I always have my kindle.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by crossi

Since they already have a touch screen I really don't understand why they don't implement a note taking feature with the ability to toggle between writing and erasing by touch and the ability to save it as a named note. I don't mean as text but as a pdf so you could have scribbles, pictures or tic-tac-toe, whatever.

Sometimes I want to make a quick to-do or grocery list or scribble down a phone number and I might not have any paper but I always have my kindle.

Likely not worth the development resources.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Likely not worth the development resources.

There is or was a scribble app on Kobo that could be saved. The screen is too low a touch resolution.

The Sony PRS350 and other ereaders (iRiver?) have note taking in text. It's too fiddly.

You can make a calendar / diary / todo ebook with loads of suitable chapters to navigate and use that to take notes. I know how to do it and haven't bothered.

I make notes using Jota on my phone. Most people with an ereader have a smartphone and it's better for apps. Ultimately the only good use of eink is to read novels. It's not that great for textbooks.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I make notes using Jota on my phone. Most people with an ereader have a smartphone and it's better for apps.

Yeah, that's probably why no one would bother to implement it for ereaders. Most people who are tech-savvy enough to use an ereader also have a smartphone. Personally, I use OneNote, because it syncs between my phone and all my computers/tablets.

[Richwood]

Originally Posted by crossi

Since they already have a touch screen I really don't understand why they don't implement a note taking feature with the ability to toggle between writing and erasing by touch and the ability to save it as a named note. I don't mean as text but as a pdf so you could have scribbles, pictures or tic-tac-toe, whatever.

Sometimes I want to make a quick to-do or grocery list or scribble down a phone number and I might not have any paper but I always have my kindle.

For hand written notes and drawings the old Sony T series, and some earlier models, had that capability but no other major maker ever picked that up that I know of. The T3 also had a 212 PPI screen resolution, like the Kindle PW1 and PW2, while all earlier Sony readers were 167 PPI per Wikipedia. The Sony readers had a IR touch screen so almost anything could be used as a stylus for writing or drawing. The T series also had a Micro SD card slot good for a up to 32 GB sd/sdhc card. Five buttons under the screen as well as a touch screen. I have examples of all Sony T series units and still use them on occasion. Last one discontinued in 2014 due to Kindle competition as the Sony readers tended to be considerably higher priced, at least in the USA. Also late adopting 3G or wifi compared to Kindle.