The New Kindles -- Like'em or Hate'em?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by abookreader

I'm fairly ambivalent about the Paperwhite, like the screen despise no page turn button.

Yeah. Or +1. Or this. Or whatever I'm supposed to say to indicate agreement.

[mrevent]

I was only interested in seeing a new touch DX...
("with audio, of course," -- this was needless to add until recently)

[jtdolphins]

I just came across this article that there is no way to opt out of the ads on the kindle fire models.

For 500$ I shouldn't have to look at ads.

I do have the special offer kindle, which hasn't had anything of interest in so long that I don't even notice the ad. I would not be interested in buying anything that included special offers again. It just not worth the money I am saving, I would rather see the cover of the book I'm reading.

Another thing I thought about today, does amazon have a plan to help developers optimize their apps for the bigger tablet? I believe most of the apps are still optimized for cell phones. The iphone apps didn't look so great on the ipad when it first came out.

The Paperwhite does not come with ads, correct? I don't think they do, but was really surprised to see that all the Fires do. Thought I might have missed it.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by jtdolphins

The Paperwhite does not come with ads, correct? I don't think they do, but was really surprised to see that all the Fires do. Thought I might have missed it.

You can choose to buy it either with or without ($20 difference in price).

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by jtdolphins

The Paperwhite does not come with ads, correct? I don't think they do, but was really surprised to see that all the Fires do. Thought I might have missed it.

The thing to remember here is that the $299 Fire HD comes with a 1920x1200 IPS panel and those things aren't cheap. I don't know what the price difference is between an 8.9" and 10.1" screen is at that resolution but with that many pixels I don't expect it to be much. What I do know is that there aren't any other 1920x1200 panels on devices under $400, and most are $450-500.

I personally think the 4G LTE version is overpriced, but the WiFi versions are so reasonably priced I'm not surprised at all.

Compare the base model 8.9HD to an iPad 2. The screen's only a little smaller, but the resolution is much higher. RAM and storage is the same and the Fire costs $100 less than the iPad despite a much more expensive panel.

[jtdolphins]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

You can choose to buy it either with or without ($20 difference in price).

Originally Posted by Lemurion

The thing to remember here is that the $299 Fire HD comes with a 1920x1200 IPS panel and those things aren't cheap. I don't know what the price difference is between an 8.9" and 10.1" screen is at that resolution but with that many pixels I don't expect it to be much. What I do know is that there aren't any other 1920x1200 panels on devices under $400, and most are $450-500.

I agree with what your saying. I thought the prices were pretty fair. I know the ads are paying a much bigger part of the Fires than they do for the Kindles. I wonder how they price the ads on these devices. Anyone know how it works for the Kindle?

I will be interested to see the tear down once they are released. Besos stated they didn't want to lose money on the tablets.

For me I don't want adds for that amount of money. Most people probably won't care or may have different tolerance level. It is Friday and I'm tired and cranky so the news dump just annoyed me.

[CommonReader]

A higher resolution e-ink display was the one thing I hoped Sony would deliver with the new T2. Good for Amazon to push the market into that direction. The lighting is a bonus provided it really doesn't have an adverse effect on glare and contrast.
The rest is definitively disappointing. Less storage, no buttons, no audio, generic design.

The reduced storage intends to increase the customer's reliance on Amazon's cloud storage even more.

The new Kobo line-up is far more enticing and impressive in my opinion.

The Fires will come officially to Germany for the first time. I am not impressed at all, though. I am not going to spend € 250 for a WiFi-only content delivery system for Amazon. A highly portable tablet without mobile connection is of dubious value. I'll rather spend € 50 - 100 more and get a Samsung with 3G connection and an SD-card slot.

[mike_bike_kite]

Paperwhite : Currently still using a K2i but my wife is increasingly borrowing it so I'm quite interested in getting one of these but it depends on how much they cost here in the UK. I love the idea of being able to read at night. Not so keen on the loss of the page turn button and audio - I actually kind of hoped they'd improve the voice reader software. If it disappoints then I'll probably just go for a discounted older model.

Fire: I think I still prefer the Nexus 7.

[jocampo]

Let's go back to our roots ... Let's talk about what people on this forum like most: reading. And for pure reading experience, eink is the king.

Do I like my iPad? Yes. Do I like my new Nexus tablet? Yes. But still, they are tablets. I can't travel to Colombia without being worried about battery. I can't read in direct sun light, and I focus less because distractions. So I'm really happy that Amazon keeps innovating eink readers , it means they are still interested on that and we, people who like reading, should support it.

Call it Kobo, Nook or Kindle, but the market is still there and it's because were buying.

epub support? Wow, i can't believe people are still complaining about it. We should complain about DRM. Converting via calibre takes 60 seconds and in real life, both both look exactly the same.

I ordered my paperwhite and can't wait to use it.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by jocampo

Let's go back to our roots ... Let's talk about what people on this forum like most: reading. And for pure reading experience, eink is the king.

That's hardly a settled question on this forum or in the world at large. For me, the Paperwhite is the first e-ink display to significantly erode tablets' advantages for reading. Density, contrast, an adjustable light source, faster navigation (due to both faster refresh and more robust internals) and more configurable reader software have trumped e-ink's battery life and under-a-spotlight readability for me. And of course, having one multi-purpose device is preferable to having another gadget rattling around.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

I think the parental controls on the Kindle Fires are a *really* smart feature. I bet a lot of people buy Fires as a "starter tablet" for kids, and they want parental controls.

The other kind of parental control I would want (and I've heard others request it, too) is the ability to send only certain books to the device, not every book I've bought on my Amazon account. Can you do that now?

eP

You can do that now. When you buy, you can select the device or send the book to the cloud. I haven't tried the cloud, but I think it acts a bit like an archive. You could opt to send it to a different device (such as a laptop or different kindle.)

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

You can do that now. When you buy, you can select the device or send the book to the cloud. I haven't tried the cloud, but I think it acts a bit like an archive. You could opt to send it to a different device (such as a laptop or different kindle.)

It's not quite the same as you cannot specifically limit which books are available to which device. I have both kids books and some more adult fiction on my Amazon acc't - right now I cannot let my daughter choose the kids books but lock her out of the adult titles.

[stutzj]

Like em. I just ordered the paperwhite wifi. IMO, the single most important feature in a e-reader is the text display. I spend a good portion of my day in front of the computer for work and that's why I eventually decided to buy an ereader(kindle 4 and I use it primarily for Instapaper these days to catch up with my 'online' article/blog reading) so I could give my eyes a bit of a rest. I was a little disappointed with the text display on the K4 since I noticed a significant difference between my dad's K3 display and the K4 and required finding a sweet spot for optimal reading(usually with a clear light bulb). Judging from a few videos on youtube (obsessively watching the 1080p versions), there seems to be a step forward in resolution and clarity in the text. I think the adjustable light will help readers find the perfect reading light depending whether you're in the dark or sitting outside.

I am disappointed about the physical buttons. Seems like they could have buttons on a touch model as well.

I'm looking forward to getting mine.

[Synergi]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Disappointed. I love my K4, but would have rather have the option of paperwhite than a cheaper price. I guess I will just read at night on my kf, as I have been. The longer battery life is really tempting, though.

I am very disappointed in the kf options. The larger one, at $299, doesn't tempt me as much as the Nexus 7. And the $499 for 250 mg? You have got to be kidding. I think I will buy a Nexus 7, and buy an ipad mini for my daughter. My kf and k4 will be just for reading.

I think the 200 dollar price jump is really covering what AT&T charges for it anyway. 15 bucks a month for 250mb at around 180 a year 20GB of cloud storage a year cost 10 dollars and the 10 dollar app store credit equals 200 a year. Amazon is actually making money on this deal at charging 50 a year, unless their hardware really is under priced. The Wifi model at 200 dollars cheaper makes the 499 tag a lot harder for me to swallow.

Anyway, I was going to say, I used 250mb plan on my iPad before I bought a new one and switched to Verizons plan. 250mb was used only if my home internet was done and while I was out. I used it for making and getting phone calls, surfing, emails etc.. NO Video! As long as you leave out streaming music and video, 250mb lasted me the entire month using it at least 4 days a week.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Synergi

Anyway, I was going to say, I used 250mb plan on my iPad before I bought a new one and switched to Verizons plan. 250mb was used only if my home internet was done and while I was out. I used it for making and getting phone calls, surfing, emails etc.. NO Video! As long as you leave out streaming music and video, 250mb lasted me the entire month using it at least 4 days a week.

I have a 1GB/month data allowance on my iPhone, and use it throughout the day for e-mail, web browsing, plus lots of use of apps that use the internet (eg Google Maps). I have never, in the two years that I've had it, used as much as 250MB in a month; my typical monthly usage is 100-150MB. A 250MB/month allowance is entirely adequate for many people.