Why no SD cards?

[soulfuldog]

Jeez eschwartz, calm down! Just because something is not well known or readily available in the centre of your universe doesn't mean it's insignificant to all?!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

Jeez eschwartz, calm down! Just because something is not well known or readily available in the centre of your universe doesn't mean it's insignificant to all?!

Actually, (IMHO), the Kindle could be considered insignificant because of all the limitations it has. Limited options, limited fonts, no memory card slot, no audio, no ePub, walled garden, etc.

I have to say, just because a Reader is not sold by Amazon does not make it insignificant at all. In fact, there are Readers out there that are better then Kindles. Kobo, Pocketbook, Onyx to name three brands.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Let me reiterate:

I still don't care. I am more than happy with my Kindle. Which has dictionaries, nested collections structure, user-installed fonts, unlimited format support via calibre, more onboard memory than I will ever fill up even without an SD card (read: a HELL of a lotta books)...
And you still shouldn't expect conversations to gravitate around whatever the Pocketbook does. It is generally understood that when most people think about ereaders, they are not thinking about fringe devices, regardless of whether or not they are the most popular device in any given country that doesn't happen to contain the majority of ereaders bought and sold.

When I ask "what ereaders offer audio" it is among the less helpful answers to point out some insignificant device made by an insignificant manufacturer and used by a vanishingly small percentage of even knowledgeable ereader nerds, as though that is somehow supposed to demonstrate that Amazon should jump on the bandwagon and offer it too (again).

Eschwartz, the title of this thread is "Why No SD", not "why the Kindle is superior as it is". Many of us, include myself, have given reasons why they think an SD chip is a preferred part of their e-reader (liseuse).

Amazon wants to be the Model T of e-readers. Minimal features at a low price. Grab the mass market. That's fine, if that's what you want. If it's not, you find other, smaller providers. They cost more, but you get what you want. My concern is that the Kindle will drive out all the other niche players out of the business.

A non-ereader example is music players. There is not a single player in the market available new, that handles both external storage and has a user replaceable battery. (if I'm wrong, please let me know, as I want one...) There used to be, back 5+ years ago, but most of them didn't have any external storage, or were limited to 2 GB chips (FAT 16). So I buy Sansa Clips and throw them away if the battery fails... And I don't worry about the time it takes to load a 64 GB chip, I just pop it out and stick it into the replacement.

So many of us here are extolling the advantage of SD chips. (A standard, user replaceable battery is just as important.) I'm still running a 1st gen e-ink reader because it has all the features I want, and I'm not trapped in a "walled garden". That's my taste. YMMV.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Because you can have your books handled by Calibre Companion and not the reading app. CC handles the books better.

On my rooted Nook ST, I organize books via folders / directories and read them in Aireader or Coolreader. It's all very fast. I suppose I could use a program that builds some kind of database to index them, but that should not be slow. It should not take long to store and update a list of books with properties in a simple ascii file. Most e-reader OS's are based on some form of Linux / Android. They have the capability to do this. It begs the question why are Kindle, Kobo and Sony are so slow when one stores a lot of books on them (on an SD-card or in the internal memory).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rizla

It begs the question why are Kindle, Kobo and Sony are so slow when one stores a lot of books on them (on an SD-card or in the internal memory).

The Kindle certainly isn't. I have over 1000 books on every one of my Kindles, and performance is absolutely fine. The only thing that slows down with more books is, naturally enough, a global search across all books.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The Kindle certainly isn't. I have over 1000 books on every one of my Kindles, and performance is absolutely fine. The only thing that slows down with more books is, naturally enough, a global search across all books.

The Sony T line (1,2,3) is not slow like the previous Sony Readers. When you unplug the T series from the USB port, it doesn't have to scan all the eBooks on the device. It just scans the new eBook put on.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Eschwartz, the title of this thread is "Why No SD", not "why the Kindle is superior as it is". Many of us, include myself, have given reasons why they think an SD chip is a preferred part of their e-reader (liseuse).

Amazon wants to be the Model T of e-readers. Minimal features at a low price. Grab the mass market. That's fine, if that's what you want. If it's not, you find other, smaller providers. They cost more, but you get what you want. My concern is that the Kindle will drive out all the other niche players out of the business.

A non-ereader example is music players. There is not a single player in the market available new, that handles both external storage and has a user replaceable battery. (if I'm wrong, please let me know, as I want one...) There used to be, back 5+ years ago, but most of them didn't have any external storage, or were limited to 2 GB chips (FAT 16). So I buy Sansa Clips and throw them away if the battery fails... And I don't worry about the time it takes to load a 64 GB chip, I just pop it out and stick it into the replacement.

So many of us here are extolling the advantage of SD chips. (A standard, user replaceable battery is just as important.) I'm still running a 1st gen e-ink reader because it has all the features I want, and I'm not trapped in a "walled garden". That's my taste. YMMV.

And the title of my rant can be "why I think SD cards in an ereader are the most worthless feature ever, and why the devices that define themselves by that, rather than by actual features, will REMAIN niche players (which is not good for long-term survivability)". Because I remain resolutely unconvinced by any argument that involves the words (stated or unstated) "~1MB ebooks" and "2 GB storage isn't enough for my personal needs".

No, no, NO. Even taking into account the all-powerful "personal needs"... there is simply no way anyone needs to bump up their onboard storage FROM 1,500 books to 32,000+. When do you plan on reading all those, and why is it impossible to get to a computer anytime in the intervening two decades???

I was not the person who brought up niche players in a thread about, as you so rightly pointed out, the Kindle not having an SD card.

Until, pitching in at around halfway through (so far) some genius of the galaxy got us started on the current round of idiocy whereby your ereader is supposed to double as your MP3 player, in which case the below argument would apply here too... but I am strongly of the opinion that anyone who treats their ereader as a primary MP3 player is mentally deficient, so....

Music players are obviously different. A voracious consumer of ebooks can still store over a years worth of books on hardly any storage, a voracious consumer of pretty much any other media needs expandable storage to last out the week (or a really good day of movies).



User-replaceable batteries are an interesting and totally different topic, and I do think it would be awesome if more devices had them, as it would make any given device last a lot longer without requiring sending it into the manufacturer etc...

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The Kindle certainly isn't. I have over 1000 books on every one of my Kindles, and performance is absolutely fine. The only thing that slows down with more books is, naturally enough, a global search across all books.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

Jeez eschwartz, calm down! Just because something is not well known or readily available in the centre of your universe doesn't mean it's insignificant to all?!

I have no problem with it being significant to other people. If for no other reason than, something which I disagree with and think is stupid is still someone else's business, and they have the right to disagree, and etc.

When people poke their nose into this thread and start comparing the Kindle to their insignificant in context ereader, attempting to justify the claim that the Kindle should have audio, because, "well, my niche ereader has audio and OCR and a camera and TTS in 40 voices, and even a child's voice, and and and", then the ready availability of the device in the centre of [my] universe the parts of the world where Kindles are popular, (and tangentially, the parts where the majority of ereaders of any description are sold,) is suddenly very relevant all of a sudden.

And because this is not the first time @kacir has done a drive-by advertisement for the Pocketbook because of what I feel is an irrational bias against Amazon. I've got nothing against being biased against Amazon, but I'd prefer my biases to be reasonable, rather than the ones I do see which range from "doesn't have 32 years worth of book storage" (above) to "they're spying on me worse than the NSA" (I really hate this one).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And the title of my rant can be "why I think SD cards in an ereader are the most worthless feature ever, and why the devices that define themselves by that, rather than by actual features, will REMAIN niche players (which is not good for long-term survivability)". Because I remain resolutely unconvinced by any argument that involves the words (stated or unstated) "~1MB ebooks" and "2 GB storage isn't enough for my personal needs".

Amazon is well known for removing useful features. SD card? Can't have that any more. Sound/TTS, no way. Buy a tablet. You want the margins to actually come closer to the bezel? Nope, can't have that. Want the line height closer together? Forget it. You want software on the computer to be able to manage your collections? Not gonna happen.

So please stop complaining that features that are useful and that others want are not useful and that the Kindle is the best there is. The Kindle is not the best there is. It's actually lacking in many features.

Take a look at the T68 (the version sold on Amazon) as it comes stock. It has many more features then the Kindle. Kobo has many more features then the Kindle. Pocketbook has many more features then the Kindle.

I'm not saying the Kindle is lousy. I'm just saying that the Kindle no longer has a lot of features that it used to have and a lot of people want them. In fact, there are a number of things people want that Amazon has never given them and probably never will.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

When people poke their nose into this thread and start comparing the Kindle to their insignificant in context ereader, attempting to justify the claim that the Kindle should have audio, because, "well, my niche ereader has audio and OCR and a camera and TTS in 40 voices, and even a child's voice, and and and", then the ready availability of the device in the centre of [my] universe the parts of the world where Kindles are popular, (and tangentially, the parts where the majority of ereaders of any description are sold,) is suddenly very relevant all of a sudden.

Speaking of TTS, the real reason most people who want TTS on the Kindle is not because some other Reader has it like the T68, but because Amazon used to have TTS on the Kindle. The Touch was the last Kindle model to have TTS and for that matter, sound (MP3, audiobooks, etc.).

[JSWolf]

I don't recall if anyone else brought this up, but if so, sorry for duplicated.

One reason for an SD card slot is if you have multiple devices and you want to move books from one to the other without having to keep the same books on multiple devices.

[Rizla]

What about Why no Custom Fonts and Crap Margins? Now that is a mystery.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Amazon is well known for removing useful features. SD card? Can't have that any more. Sound/TTS, no way. Buy a tablet. You want the margins to actually come closer to the bezel? Nope, can't have that. Want the line height closer together? Forget it. You want software on the computer to be able to manage your collections? Not gonna happen.

So please stop complaining that features that are useful and that others want are not useful and that the Kindle is the best there is. The Kindle is not the best there is. It's actually lacking in many features.

Take a look at the T68 (the version sold on Amazon) as it comes stock. It has many more features then the Kindle. Kobo has many more features then the Kindle. Pocketbook has many more features then the Kindle.

I'm not saying the Kindle is lousy. I'm just saying that the Kindle no longer has a lot of features that it used to have and a lot of people want them. In fact, there are a number of things people want that Amazon has never given them and probably never will.

See above, under the vast majority of people in the world disagree with you, hence why the Kindle only sells even more than it did before.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Speaking of TTS, the real reason most people who want TTS on the Kindle is not because some other Reader has it like the T68, but because Amazon used to have TTS on the Kindle. The Touch was the last Kindle model to have TTS and for that matter, sound (MP3, audiobooks, etc.).

See above under it was removed because most people didn't want it, there will always be people who don't like something for some reason or another but that is hardly a vindication of the complaint.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I don't recall if anyone else brought this up, but if so, sorry for duplicated.

One reason for an SD card slot is if you have multiple devices and you want to move books from one to the other without having to keep the same books on multiple devices.

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