Do you have a color eink device?

[cgsmom]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, it is an issue. I don't want the screen of my ereader to be full of fingerprints like the screen of my phone is.

Yes, this! I got out my PW4 and read on it for a while just to see if I wanted to consider one of the new Kindles. Besides being much more awkward to turn pages when holding it in my left hand, the screen was very fingerprinted in no time at all. No thank you.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, it is an issue. I don't want the screen of my ereader to be full of fingerprints like the screen of my phone is.

I don't find fingerprints and issue on my Libra 2. I don't tap. I swipe to turn the page. I've swiped ever since the Sony Reader PRS-650.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I also wonder if some part of it is that Kindle=ereader to most people, so there's likely many buyers who were expecting the Colorsoft to look like a tablet. The images on the Colorsoft page and the hype about their unique technology don't do a lot to dissuade this belief. And then there's the price.

I'm not a Kindle guy. But I bet I would be fine with the Colorsoft as is. But I do understand the wave of disappointment as well.

I would not be happy with the Colorsoft. Images can be muddy with a noticeable lack of detail.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I would not be happy with the Colorsoft. Images cam be muddy with a noticeable lack of detail.

But is the Colorsoft any worse than the Libra Color? If not, then it's not worth singling it out as especially egregious. Except it's Kindle and it is prohibitively expensive, considering the Libra 2 give you buttons at a cheaper price.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I don't find fingerprints and issue on my Libra 2. I don't tap. I swipe to turn the page. I've swiped ever since the Sony Reader PRS-650.

Not all people have naturally dry skin, you know. Swiping makes fingerprints actually worse.

[theducks]

It is odd the Amazon is now doing what originally made the Kindle great for new adopters as well as main stream buyers that just want SIMPLE, but allows advanced users freedom.

Whispersync was brilliant in that it could take you direct to their store without needing anything other than a credit card (Amazon account). But they did not restrict you, thus making their device a GoTo choice for many people. KISS

Enter modern Retail Greed. Higher Walls around their device (remember when they blocked the use of Kindle Collections PI in Calibre?).

This philosophy has led to the downfall of many retail giants.
I shop where I get the goods and services that have what I want. Not because you locked me into your ecosystem .

Remember Sears? They offered Good, Better, Best. Good was NOT junk, just lacking extras. MANY USA households had Sears (sold) items because they were decent and obtainable (delivered) almost anywhere. The folk at the top let the competition and newbies walk away with their business because they refused to modernize their backend.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

But is the Colorsoft any worse than the Libra Color? If not, then it's not worth singling it out as especially egregious. Except it's Kindle and it is prohibitively expensive, considering the Libra 2 give you buttons at a cheaper price.

In the comparison videos I've seen yes the Colorsoft is worse. You lose detail and in one case, some text was hard to read in a cover on the Colorsoft where on the Libra, the text was easy to read.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Not all people have naturally dry skin, you know. Swiping makes fingerprints actually worse.

I find tapping can make fingerprints worse and more noticeable.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

It is odd the Amazon is now doing what originally made the Kindle great for new adopters as well as main stream buyers that just want SIMPLE, but allows advanced users freedom.

Whispersync was brilliant in that it could take you direct to their store without needing anything other than a credit card (Amazon account). But they did not restrict you, thus making their device a GoTo choice for many people. KISS

Enter modern Retail Greed. Higher Walls around their device (remember when they blocked the use of Kindle Collections PI in Calibre?).

This philosophy has led to the downfall of many retail giants.
I shop where I get the goods and services that have what I want. Not because you locked me into your ecosystem .

Remember Sears? They offered Good, Better, Best. Good was NOT junk, just lacking extras. MANY USA households had Sears (sold) items because they were decent and obtainable (delivered) almost anywhere. The folk at the top let the competition and newbies walk away with their business because they refused to modernize their backend.

We are not going to have Make Amazon great Again. No way.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

We are not going to have Make Amazon great Again. No way.

Yeah, the visionary leaves and the company settles in to being a regular ol' company. It's happened to all of the FAANG companies (twice at Apple!) except for Facebook.

Microsoft seems to have dodged that. Maybe because they were jerks from day one?

[Sydney's Mom]

Several years ago I was reading graphic novels and would have enjoyed a color reader. But I no longer read graphic novels, and no longer see the reason for a color reader.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by theducks

Enter modern Retail Greed. Higher Walls around their device (remember when they blocked the use of Kindle Collections PI in Calibre?).

This philosophy has led to the downfall of many retail giants.
I shop where I get the goods and services that have what I want. Not because you locked me into your ecosystem .

Remember Sears? They offered Good, Better, Best. Good was NOT junk, just lacking extras. MANY USA households had Sears (sold) items because they were decent and obtainable (delivered) almost anywhere. The folk at the top let the competition and newbies walk away with their business because they refused to modernize their backend.

Enshittification is the concept you're referring to.

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market", where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.

(emphasis mine)

To solve the problem, Doctorow has called for two general principles to be followed:

• The first is a respect of the end-to-end principle, which holds that the role of a network is to reliably deliver data from willing senders to willing receivers. When applied to platforms, this entails users being given what they asked for, not what the platform prefers to present. For example, users would see all content from users they subscribed to, allowing content creators to reach their audience without going through an opaque algorithm; and in search engines, exact matches for search queries would be shown before sponsored results, rather than afterwards.[10
  
• The second is the right of exit, which holds that users of a platform can easily go elsewhere if they are dissatisfied with it. For social media, this requires interoperability, countering the network effects that "lock in" users and prevent market competition between platforms. For digital media platforms, it means enabling users to switch platforms without losing the content they purchased that is locked by digital rights management.[10]
  

[christianbk]

I gave into the hype and got a Libra Colour. It’s nice that a dim color cover is shown on the device when the reader is on my nightstand. That’s it. I only read text novels and the screen quality is distracting.

[McGonigle]

I got one yesterday. Not because I felt I wanted one but because my old, trusty KA1 now takes ages to charge and seems reluctant to charge fully, while expending the charge very quickly.

I was really reluctant because there are several things with current ereaders that personally I am not keen on.

Ideally, I’d want an 8” display but the Sage is developed to be used in conjunction with a
power cover so I was not convinced it was a good option in terms of charge, weight and price.

The Elipsa is ultimately just too big and expensive for me especially if you want an original cover. And I just do not need any writing or note taking capabilities.

I dearly wanted a flush bezel because indents collect dust and dirt very quickly, and indented screens are difficult to get clean, imo.

I could personally do without physical buttons, tapping or swiping on the old KA1 worked perfectly for me.

I do like the Kobo gui and the glowlight, and rocking a KA1 all these years seems to be an indication of overall build quality.

Kindle? I have never owned one so I may be wrong but it seems to me like they might be in the category of too much a point of sale devices. The reviews of the new coloursoft do not seem encouaging either; 50% are 1 and 2 star reviews.

I’ve owned some Android or Linux powered devices outside of the Kobo/Amazon sphere but am no longer so keen on these other brands. Some are quite expensive and have been succeeded by far too many new devices (Onyx) some less so. I might be biased here and I clearly am ignorant on these latest offerings. As stated above, I really like the Kobo gui.

I’ll admit right away I could not find my unicorn, my ideal device. I had to compromise. I can’t claim it was best compromise, but the device I bought was the Kobo Libra Colour. It was on a Black week discount here in my country, and I’ll get a cheap cover from Amazon tomorrow.

Perhaps I should just mention why price is a parameter for me. You see, any battery powered device you use daily, will last you 7 or 8 years. After that period of time, until now at least, you had to throw it away and replace it. So I look for the basic functionality and less gimmicks or cost increasing functionality. I see no reason to pay more than necessary for a device which, after that number of years I can either replace, or in this case refurbish with a new battery. I’m the same with phones, I just get the cheapest, decent phone I can get, knowing they’ll only last until the Security patches cease.

So what do I like and what do I not like with my Libra Colour?

Overall it seems like a very nice device, light and well built.

The screen seems softer and easier on the eyes than on my KA1.

Actually, the colour screen is handy when books contain images in colour. Headers in colour, when present, look nice too. The power off image in colour looks quite appealing too. Graphs and illustrations in colour will also be easier to read.

I can’t read comics easily because the screen is too small and the speach bubbles and the text is too tiny for my eyes. The colours do look attractive to me though. Double-tap will insta-zoom, but it isn’t optimal.

The small screen has me swiping, tapping or clicking buttons to advance the page all the time. A larger screen with more text would mean less swiping, tapping and clicking.

I sometimes accidentally hit the page turn buttons just holding the device.

Now, here comes the weird part, and I suspect this might be general, and not just a Kobo related thing.

I’m left handed, and due to the bezels being different in size I like holding the device with the larger bezel, the one with the Kobo logo, in my left hand.

When I power on the device, the homescreen is upside down and it takes a flip of the device to flip the homescreen so it is no longer upside down. Clearly, the software developers did not think about people holding the device any other way than with the logo bezel in their right hand.

If you’re right handed and hold the device with the bezel containing the logo in your right hand,and you can’t possibly imagine why this is an issue for me, just try switching it to the other side. Awkward. Right?

It is early days yet and overall, I like this device. If my dream ereader gets available, I might switch, but the most important thing for me is to keep reading.

If you made it this far; congrats and thanks for reading.

[John F]

Originally Posted by McGonigle

...

Now, here comes the weird part, and I suspect this might be general, and not just a Kobo related thing.

I’m left handed, and due to the bezels being different in size I like holding the device with the larger bezel, the one with the Kobo logo, in my left hand.

When I power on the device, the homescreen is upside down and it takes a flip of the device to flip the homescreen so it is no longer upside down. Clearly, the software developers did not think about people holding the device any other way than with the logo bezel in their right hand.

...

Interesting. My Forma doesn't do this . Have you tried settings->Reading Setting->Reading orientation->Portrait?

I seem to recall this used to happen to me, but now it doesn't (on my Forma).