Paperwhite Disgust

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I have 623 books on my Paperwhite 2 (all bought from Amazon, no side loaded content) and 9MB left (which I need, else notes and such don't work anymore).
I can't download my other 270 books.

To me it's stretching it a bit to argue that not being able to carry your whole library with you is -- somehow -- an advantage. To a lot of us it doesn't matter, but to those to whom it does, it's silly to argue that it's "ludicrous" to have the expanded memory necessary to take your books with you.

I honestly don't understand why all eReaders don't have microSD slots. But Amazon made that decision for their Kindles early on -- for whatever reason.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I see nothing wrong with anyone having only one book or 10,0000 books on their reader if that is how they like it. And I am foolish enough to wish that standard reader software and hardware on the popular eink readers worked as well as the older Sonys. But of course I get by just fine as it is.

That's the way I look at it. Choice is good. A microSD slot gives you more choice. Of course there's other factors in making your eReader choice, as well. (Personally I don't see why I have to choose just one.) There's advantages and disadvantages to all the eReaders.

[conan50]

I had a print book library of about 2,000 books. One of the things that greatly appealed to me was the idea that I could carry my entire library of ebooks with me. My "Reading Now" collection on the Kindle has about 100 books just in it. I'm never just reading one. I sample several at a time.
Here is my argument: The first Kindles had more storage for smaller size books. Now we have ebooks that have much more formatting and larger file sizes, but Amazon has cut the Kindle storage size in half. That is a problem for some of us. My wife reads just one, and only one book at a time, and I get that, but not everyone reads that way.
My bigger concern with Amazon right now is that they are, seemingly, pushing people further and further into their ecosystem. Prime is practically shoved down our throats now, and I see a day coming when anyone who really wants access to Amazon is going to 'need' Prime. Amazon uses a half-dozen different ebook file types. There really is no reason why they could not use Epub like nearly everyone else does. Finally, it is all about the Cloud. They honestly do not want you to have over a thousand books on your ereader. They eventually will want you to buy cloud storage from them. Same with Google to be fair. Like Amazon, you don't see sdcard slots on their tablets either.
Maybe I'm a control freak, but I would rather keep my ebooks on my ereader, and I've been rethinking the whole "locked-in" situation and trying to figure out where I want to invest, and why, when it comes to ebooks in particular, but also with movies and music. I think across the board there will be big changes as everything is eventually in the cloud and we will pretty much own nothing, and be paying rent on the things we do 'own'.
Rant over with :-)

[speakingtohe]

Well in the long run we don't actually get to keep anything forever. We pay for the convenience of having things at our fingertips or available for our use. I am happy with media etc. to be able to read the books, watch the shows, play the games etc. even though I am by nature a collecting kind of person and would be overrun with physical objects if I was to follow my inclinations. Probably be on hoarder TV.

I do take pleasure in having things but whether I am renting, leasing etc. only comes into play when I would be saving money or adding other value through ownership.

I think I am just as happy and have always been just as happy reading a borrowed book as one I bought. Never even gave it a thought for most of my life, and still don't unless someone brings it up on MR. Just weird I guess.

Helen

[Rizla]

I'm pretty shocked at the lack of formatting options on the PW2.

1) There are very few fonts available. Fortunately it includes Caecilia, but it there is no bold option. The condensed font is much lighter than the bold version of this font.

2) Enforcement of margins. I like to use ALL the scree to read on. Very poor that a book cannot formatted to use all the screen.

Crap really. Fortunately the device can be jail-broken. But the PW2 is heavily dumbed-down device. I would still consider getting one as it can be jail-broken.

Regarding the space issue, 2 GB is okay for simple text books. If you're using image-based books (comics and pdf) you'd have a problem. Obviously that's not what the PW is designed for. It is designed for a very narrow application. Each to their own. Not for me.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rizla

I'm pretty shocked at the lack of formatting options on the PW2.

1) There are very few fonts available. Fortunately it includes Caecilia, but it there is no bold option. The condensed font is much lighter than the bold version of this font.

Each to their own, obviously, but personally I find the default font (whatever it is - I've never looked) to be extremely readable. I don't see the need to have a hundred different fonts available.

If a specific font is required for some purpose (eg if it includes glyphs that are not present in the standard fonts) it can be embedded in the book that requires it.

[Rizla]

Oops double-post

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Each to their own, obviously, but personally I find the default font (whatever it is - I've never looked) to be extremely readable. I don't see the need to have a hundred different fonts available.

If a specific font is required for some purpose (eg if it includes glyphs that are not present in the standard fonts) it can be embedded in the book that requires it.

I don't need hundreds as you exaggeratedly put it. I need two: Caecilia and Caecilia Bold, and I like to switch between the two. That's simply not possible on the PW2. Embedding fonts is a horrible kludge that would require I have two different copies of the same book on the device. And I would lose my place when I am forced to switch between the two of them.

Kobo has really out-shone the Kindle on this IMO key-point.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rizla

I don't need hundreds as you exaggeratedly put it. I need two: Caecilia and Caecilia Bold, and I like to switch between the two.

May I ask why you need them? I can certainly appreciate that they may be your favourite fonts, but why are they a necessity, rather than merely a preference, for you?

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by HarryT

May I ask why you need them? I can certainly appreciate that they may be your favourite fonts, but why are they a necessity, rather than merely a preference, for you?

I generally use the Bold version, but in bright sun-light I use the non-Bold because the Bold becomes ugly and clunky. Probably with the front-light, I might not need the Bold font. But I really don't think *need* is the point here. I could manage without hot running water if I had to. Or e-readers.

But each to their own. Personally, the PW2 options are too dumbed-down for me. Why remove functionality? It's not a question of compatibility vs stability that is so often cited as a justification for the very narrow options offered on the PW2 (as compared to the Kobo). I run Coolreader on a Nook ST with multiple options (including being able to set margins to exactly what I want), and it never crashes or requires a reboot or even slows down.

Perusing the font / formatting options on the PW2, I was genuinely surprised. I remember the older Kindles providing a lot more formatting options (such as line-spacing). Perhaps I'm mistaken about that, or maybe the PW2 offers that. I couldn't see it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Perusing the font / formatting options on the PW2, I was genuinely surprised. I remember the older Kindles providing a lot more formatting options (such as line-spacing). Perhaps I'm mistaken about that, or maybe the PW2 offers that. I couldn't see it.

From within a book, tap the top of the page to display the menu bar, then tap the ""Aa" item on the menu bar. A dialogue box appears with options to change the font, margin width, and line spacing.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

From within a book, tap the top of the page to display the menu bar, then tap the ""Aa" item on the menu bar. A dialogue box appears with options to change the font, margin width, and line spacing.

Does anyone actually use anything but the default margin setting in a Kindle? I've never been able to quite figure out their margin choices. From too big of a margin, to way too big of a margin, to a thin little column down the center of the page. Why? At any rate, I like the Kindle 4 (Basic) much better now that I've figured out how to narrow the margins. If I root and hack my Touch, it'll be mostly because of the margin settings. The Nook Simple Touch's settings make a whole lot more sense to me. With the Nook Simple Touch I actually occasionally use the middle margin setting.

[joblack]

Originally Posted by HarryT

"Pathetic"? The PW will hold well over 1000 typical-sized novels. That's more than enough for the overwhelming majority of people. If you need more, you can store them in Amazon's Cloud and download them at any time.

Can't say I've ever found it to be "slow and unresponsive". What are you comparing it to?

The Paperwhite 1 is slow (in comparison to the 2nd release). And if you have e-books with pictures (e.g. IT books) your 1,000 e-books will be more like 40. Saving your e-books in the cloud is in the 'Post-Snowden-Era' not a good idea anyway.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I agree in one sense, but memory is so cheap these days, why not. In fact last week at Walmart 8 GIG USB drives were cheaper than 2. (not that I wanted either but someone must)

I wouldn't expect them to retrofit older devices, but why not design new ones with more memory?

Helen

I agree about memory being very cheap. I just purchased a 16GB SD memory card for about $15 (US) for my Sony PRS-505 ereader. Of course, the cost of all types of memory has dropped. When I purchased my first hard drive for my computer in the 1980s, I paid $300 for a 30MB hard drive. I thought I'd never fill it...

To me, a relatively small amount of internal memory is not an issue as long as the device has at least one memory card slot. In a related issue, I've wanted to see an audio player that has a small amount of internal memory (mainly for system management) and uses memory cards for music storage.

Originally Posted by jocampo

I can't understand why people want several Gigs of ebooks (which may translaters to hundreds, maybe thousands of books) in the same device and at the same time.

There is no human being that can read all of them in just a few weeks or days.

It would be different if we were talking about a PC or Mac with Calibre, but hey, this is a portable ereader.

I mainly read MS-SQL and IT books which are bigger in size (talking about ebooks, not PDFs) than most ebooks that people may read or buy here. And I have tons of MS-SQL books on my PW2 and I can add much more.

As far as why I'd want a large library available: I have a large number of ebooks (and also a large number of physical books) that I've enjoyed in the past and I like to have them handy so I can revisit my favorite passages whenever I choose. But related to this is that the ereader have a good collection management system, which I consider essential for a ereader.

My reason for wanting a large amount of storage is that I create ebooks for my ereader as PDFs. I have a 2GB memory card and it only took a few hundred ebooks to fill it. Although the size of a PDF is a disadvantage, for me the reliability of the formatting (my ebooks look on my ereader exactly as I intend) outweighs the added size. However, that's a matter of personal preference.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by joblack

The Paperwhite 1 is slow (in comparison to the 2nd release). And if you have e-books with pictures (e.g. IT books) your 1,000 e-books will be more like 40. Saving your e-books in the cloud is in the 'Post-Snowden-Era' not a good idea anyway.

Why isn't it a good idea? I mean, obviously one should not ONLY store them in the Cloud (you should have them backed up on your PC, too), but what's the problem with Cloud storage as a mechanism to facilitate easy downloading?