Microsoft Surface Duo with Kindle

[poczynek]

So i already have a Kobo Forma and love it.

However i have ordered the new Duo and it looks to be a great device for reading too with each page like a book and the Kindle app compatible.

Anyone else getting the Duo?

[Gibbo]

Originally Posted by poczynek

So i already have a Kobo Forma and love it.

However i have ordered the new Duo and it looks to be a great device for reading too with each page like a book and the Kindle app compatible.

Anyone else getting the Duo?

If I had money to spare maybe...

[pata]

Originally Posted by poczynek

Anyone else getting the Duo?

If I had money to spare definitely!

[hobnail]

I missed the part about the Kindle app being updated to support the dual screens on the Duo.

I prefer reading on eink but maybe this is the innovation we can hope for from Kobo and Amazon, a folding dual screen eink device.

[pata]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I missed the part about the Kindle app being updated to support the dual screens on the Duo.

Kindle on the Duo:


Kindle on the Fold (from The Verge video review @6:27):


The Duo is the lightest and thinnest tablet on market and has highest DPI* as well. I was hyped for the Samsung Fold last year but they didn’t get the experience right; just look at that photo — you have to hold it in landscape to get the tablet experience (i.e. with the crease running horizontally instead of naturally along a book’s spine). I expect the reviews coming after the embargo is lifted today will say the Duo is not worth the price for a phone, that the camera is poor etc but as a Kindle/Graphic novel reader it looks amazing too me


**excluding the Huawei folding phone which doesn’t have Google Play/ Kindle anyway)

[pata]

So I might have gotten hyped too quickly. The previous pictures were of optimized apps; the Kindle on the Duo looks great. I heard unoptimized apps that try to span across the two displays were wonky but I thought that was just the controls. Once you started reading how bad could it be, right? Here's a screen grab from MrMobile's review:



Instead of half of the content shown on each side of the screen, unoptimized apps see one whole screen and content is missing in the middle where the hinge is. Microsoft presents the hinge space as part of the screen So I do have to wait for every pdf/comic/manga app to update with span support...

[hobnail]

What was the app they're using in the MrMobile review? I'm wondering how it would look with a comic book made for a Kindle.

[pata]

Originally Posted by pata

The previous pictures were of optimized apps; the Kindle on the Duo looks great.

Instead of half of the content shown on each side of the screen, unoptimized apps see one whole screen and content is missing in the middle where the hinge is. Microsoft presents the hinge space as part of the screen So I do have to wait for every pdf/comic/manga app to update with span support...

It's worse than I thought. Even the optimized Kindle app doesn't figure out the hinge:


(that title across the spine is supposed to be 'Evil Geniuses' not 'Evil Uses').

And this is by design!?

Bad: Apps that simply expand to fullscreen are somewhat impaired. For instance, if you're browsing the web on Edge or Chrome in spanned mode, the hinge actually hides the pixels that would normally be there. This can be really annoying if you're reading an article in "book mode" and a word falls between the two screens; letters go missing. Your brain can usually fill in the blank. But when it doesn't — I hate to be that guy — but it (ahem) takes you out of your flow. There's an imperfect workaround for this, dare I say, optimization, which Groene tells me was intentionally designed this way and isn't a flaw: rotate the device to "Nintendo DS mode" as I like to call it. Swiping up and down on an article with the hinge's seam running horizontally instead of vertically still cuts off pixels, but it's less disorienting.

Perplexing video

I'd rather deal with the Samsung Fold hole punch than this mess

[JSWolf]

For the price of the Microsoft Duo, I'd rather something that runs a full version of Windows 10. I'd rather spend the extra and get a Surface.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by pata

It's worse than I thought. Even the optimized Kindle app doesn't figure out the hinge:

That's easy to fix though; maybe in the next update for it. Having the optimized Kindle app available when the Duo is released is great. That's one of the things that's nice about Microsoft; they provide pre-release units to software developers. Same as they do with their software.

[pata]

Originally Posted by hobnail

What was the app they're using in the MrMobile review? I'm wondering how it would look with a comic book made for a Kindle.

Originally Posted by hobnail

That's easy to fix though; maybe in the next update for it. Having the optimized Kindle app available when the Duo is released is great. That's one of the things that's nice about Microsoft; they provide pre-release units to software developers. Same as they do with their software.

MrMobile says that Calvin and Hobbes comic is in the Kindle app! If this is what Microsoft/Amazon considers an 'optimized' app I shudder to think what the unoptimized ones look like.

The cardinal rule of early adopting is buy based on what the product does and not based on any promises of updates. It's not even clear yet that Microsoft considers this bug instead of a feature; who knows if a fix is even being worked on. I have no more interest in the Duo until Microsoft changes this paradigm of a hinge pixel gap.

poczynek did you receive your unit yet?

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For the price of the Microsoft Duo, I'd rather something that runs a full version of Windows 10. I'd rather spend the extra and get a Surface.

Are you buying for productivity or for reading?

[hobnail]

I wouldn't buy one planning to read books on it; I only use e-ink devices for that. But I do think it's a cool idea/concept. Folding screens where the screen really does fold, instead of the two screens this one has, strikes me to me as something that wouldn't last. Maybe a true folding screen is a viable concept but I'll pass for now.

[HLS]

I want this but I have few months before I qualify for an upgrade. I thought about this or the galaxy fold. i as hoping for apple to get a fold but tired of waiting

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pata

Are you buying for productivity or for reading?

I would not be buying for reading. I have my H2O for that.Thing is, why do I need a device that has a hinge that will get in they way and doesn't run the software I want. If I was going to read, I'd use Calibre's viewer. But, the hinge has to go.

[barryem]

I'm surprised at a number of the reactions to this thing with respect to reading. First, I don't know why having two pages is an advantage. A single page seems much more practical except that it's not really possible with paper books so a paper book reader is forced to hold two pages in hand to be able to read one. A Kindle or a tablet gets rid of that problem. Why would anyone want it back? Isn't that kind of like wanting a buggy whip for your car?

That said, the picture of the Kindle app with the title cut across two pages seems to be such a very minor problem that I'm surprised anyone cares that much. Sure it's a mistake but how often do you read the title at the top of the page? Chances are that'll be fixed with the first update but even if it isn't at least you get to hold up two pages to be able to read one. It's kind of like complaining about the buggy whip that came with your new car.

I'd love to have one of these things to play with, not for reading but because it's something new and interesting. I doubt I'd read with it. I read on my 5" phone and on my Kindle. At that price, however, there's no way I can get one. Even my 5" phone and my Kindle were things I had to save for.

Barry