
The Kindle is fine, but could’ve been much more - ingve
https://sixcolors.com/post/2019/08/the-kindle-is-fine-it-couldve-been-much-better-than-that/
======
ruddct
I was in the Kindle org when it was blowing up at Amazon. Started when there
were a few dozen people in Seattle working on it, ended when there were a few
thousand.

They're right that it could've been more. Back in the early days, after the
launch of the second version, many people internally saw this. If this works
for books, it should work for magazines! Newspapers! Websites! Crosswords!
Apps of all sorts! Social networks! The possibilities were endless. Teams
scaled up, rapid category expansion ensued, Amazon started grappling for
dominance in eBooks and all these other categories.

Then the iPad came out. I remember going with my boss to the Apple Store on
launch day and buying one; the future of the Kindle felt pretty clear. Our
product was stuck with a shitty general-purpose display technology and a
clunky SDK not suited to external developers. Then, Android launched. The
writing was on the wall. eInk was going to be niche, the Kindle group pivoted
to the Fire, we all know how that turned out.

The failure of Kindle as a better, more general purpose device is a great
lesson in business strategy. Thousands of smart engineers and product people
were dedicated to making it the next big computing device, but in the end they
failed to build a platform, and the platform players ended up on top. They're
still trying to get over this failure with the Alexa series of products, we'll
see if they succeed.

~~~
k__
Isn't eInk a bit like OLED, but way more ahead of our time?

I think it's a cool technology, but probably needs more money/time to be
general purpose.

~~~
GuiA
With the recent customer desire of devices that are better at not sucking up
our time & attention, eInk becomes an interesting technology. A few product
attempts:

Light Phone: "dumb" phone
([https://www.thelightphone.com](https://www.thelightphone.com))

Freewrite: word processors
([https://getfreewrite.com](https://getfreewrite.com))

reMarkable: notepad ([https://remarkable.com](https://remarkable.com))

~~~
fyfy18
I think the recent trend of anti-blue screens is something e-ink could get
onto even more. A Kindle with a low colour temperature backlight that
integrated well into something like Paper would be the perfect device to read
HN on.

------
VvR-Ox
That's the problem with many proprietary consumer devices (take the iPad into
this category as well).

1\. Vendor lock: You can't install or change most of the things including OS
and Apps.

2\. Locked down OS: You can't do anything with your device. If you try to
change the OS you'll maybe brick it.

3\. Planned obsolescence built in: If the vendor decides it's "time to say
goodbye" you won't get updates anymore and probably feature by feature your
device won't work any longer. After some time it's so old, insecure etc. you
don't even want to use it to do even the simple tasks it was designed for.

The kindle isn't a reference for me in this sector at all. If you want to
start the discussion about nice e-Readers you should consider comparing the
Sony DP, Onyx Boox Note and the Remarkable. Those are the leading innovators
and so far I'm afraid I haven't seen any device that can compete.

Personally I'm waiting for an eInk device with color (at least some colors),
wacom pen that works without battery (like in Onyx & Remarkable) but an open,
real linux on it so you can do anything with it. The Onyx comes close to this
as it uses android but as we all know it's not really the linux you want when
you wish for a "real linux" ;-)

I'm a bit sad that innovation in this sector stopped and I'd be willing to pay
up to 1k $ for the described features.

~~~
e12e
I'm with you on the disappointment. Devices like remarkable and onyx book do
give me hope that we might be going somewhere (finally).

I remember there was a company that sold laptops with hybrid screens - that
could do e-ink when used outside - but I think the screen manufacturer folded.

Good color would be nice - but it doesn't look like anything will beat oled in
that department for the forseeable future.

If the remarkable or onyx devices were a bit more open - I would probably buy
one. But as it is, both appear to be stubbornly making it difficult or
impossible to install modified kernel/os :/

~~~
sohkamyung
> I remember there was a company that sold laptops with hybrid screens - that
> could do e-ink when used outside - but I think the screen manufacturer
> folded.

Could you have been thinking of Pixel Qi and its LCD panel that could operate
in transflective mode in daylight?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi)

~~~
e12e
That's it.

I think there was also a small manufacturer that shipped laptops with e-ink
(or pixel qi) screens for use outdoors, like on a sailing boat - but I forget
the name. Something with "sun"?

~~~
hondadriver
SunBook

[https://web.archive.org/web/20120219172031/http://www.clover...](https://web.archive.org/web/20120219172031/http://www.cloversystems.com/SunBook.htm)

~~~
e12e
Yep, that's the one.

------
nindalf
It doesn’t need to be so much more. It does one thing and does it well. Doing
more things would distract me from the book I’m trying to read. I have a 2013
kindle on which I’ve read nearly 20 books this year.

I have a few complaints - I wish the device wasn’t so slow or that the e-ink
display didn’t take so long to update. I wish the keyboard had autocorrect
because I’ve come to rely on that quite a bit. I wish it would use a USB-C
cable so I could carry around fewer chargers.

But otherwise, I’m pretty happy.

~~~
cgb223
> I wish the device wasn’t so slow or that the e-ink display didn’t take so
> long to update.

I’ve had this complaint with the kindle for 12 years

~~~
microtherion
Yes, I used to be a big fan of the Kindle DX, but everything but reading a
book cover to cover was a painfully slow experience.

And additionally, Amazon seems to have given up on the large form factor.

------
celticninja
If it did anything else then I would end up distracted and not reading books.
When I read a paper book I have no other distractions,that's what I want from
my Kindle. I already have a phone, a laptop, a desktop, that can do all these
other things. I'm on holiday right now, if my Kindle did all those things then
I wouldn't feel like I was lying by the pool reading,rather I was lying by the
pool on the internet.

~~~
WarDores
Exactly, it was this quote

> For all I love about it, it seems unlikely to ever progress beyond its
> current role as a pleasant book reader largely disconnected from all other
> sources of content.

that summed it up for me. That's all I want. I want it to be disconnected from
all other sources of content. I don't want to be interrupted with a
notification saying that x website uploaded a new article or whatever.

~~~
yiyus
I don't think anyone is asking for that. But I would gladly pay a small fee to
have an app with my newspaper that gets updated in realtime and give me a
great reading experience without ads, where I can choose the topics I am
interested in. I would also love to have an application to manage lots of
scientific articles or that allows me to review papers. And I would like to do
those things in my "disconnected" device with the nice e-ink screen.
Notifications? Of course not.

------
nickcw
I love my kindle, but I really miss one thing from paper books - the cover.

When you have a paper book whenever you pick it up you see the title and the
author and the cover image. I find I still remember these from books I read
long ago.

However on the Kindle you only see the cover of the book you are reading if
you make an effort to scroll to the start of the book - by default the kindle
starts you at the first bit of text.

Kindles also don't show author and title on each page like (some) paper books
do.

I find I can read a Kindle book then have no idea who the author is or what
the title of the book I've just read was.

I'd really like it if the Kindle (as an option as it wouldn't suit everyone)
showed the book cover of the book you are reading when it is off. Then when
you come to pick the kindle up and turn it on you see the cover, title and
author.

That tiny change would really improve the reading experience for me.

~~~
m4lvin
If you have a model for which a jailbreak is available, this is possible:
[https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195474](https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195474)
Enjoy :-)

------
mikestew
The Kindle _is_ fine...but for one thing. The author says using the software
is like walking through soft sand. Eh, more like mud to me. C'mon, you've been
making these things for over ten years, and I still hesitate to do any action
more involved than turning a page.

Fix that, and I don't need anything else. It's the paperback book I always
carry with me, only the book can be swapped out at a whim.

~~~
draw_down
> The author says using the software is like walking through soft sand. Eh,
> more like mud to me.

Sorry, what distinction is being made here?

~~~
mikestew
You’re shadow-banned, BTW, but I think your question is valid, so I’ll vouch
your comment so that I can reply.

Walking through soft sand is simply slow and tiring. That’s it; you can do
normal things, it is just slower. But the Kindle is like walking through mud
in that mud tries to pull your boots off, you get filthy, if you get in too
deep, it’s hard to get out. I’ll walk through soft sand, but I avoid mud if I
can, just like I avoid clicking on anything other than the Kindle’s page turn
area if I can avoid it.

~~~
draw_down
Well, okay. I’d say sand is a lot harder to get rid of than mud.

------
WalterBright
The Kindle Keyboard is still the best. All it needs is an update for
backlighting and higher resolution. DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE!

I bought the Kindle Oasis, really wanting to like it. At least it brought back
the page turning buttons. But they got the buttons wrong. The KK got it right.
You can read and turn pages with one hand. Not so on the Oasis. And the Oasis
is so slippery it's hard to hold it vertically. I was astonished at that.

The KK doesn't slip out of your hands.

I like the KK so much I bought two of them, so I have one when the other dies.
I don't understand why each successor is worse.

Bring back the DX!

~~~
LordN00b
\+ All the votes for the DX. Apart from having to replace the battery (and
having the ability to do so.), it has been the most trouble free electronic
device I have ever owned. I love the screen size, and I can read textbooks,
and code at the same time etc. It has niggles (PDF viewing being a bete
noire), but it's reliable, coupled with Calibre I can read anything, it hsa
handled my lazy attitdue to device care admirably.

~~~
WalterBright
Oh, how I wish the DX would show the last page read as the screensaver. I
could open a page on a "cheat sheet" and just keep it at my desk.

~~~
lisnake
It's possible to do that on a jailbroken kindle

------
lukifer
I'm more of a fan of the Nook and Kobo series (ability to sideload DRM-less
ePubs is non-negotiable). But I like the less-is-more approach for e-readers;
if anything, I'd prefer they had even more spartan/minimalist UIs, mimicking
the "zero UI" affordances of a physical book as much as possible.

I'm just being finicky, but I still find the e-ink screen flash a little
distracting from the flow of reading (even in newer screens that only need it
every 6 pages or whatever). Just had a stray idea: what if an e-ink reader had
an accelerometer and a screen on either side; the next page is already ready
to read, and flipping it over silently preps page n+2 on the screen you were
just reading? :)

~~~
jhbadger
Epubs and Mobis are for all purposes identical and can converted back and
forth with ease (they are both just HTML containers), and you can certainly
sideload DRM-free Mobis on Kindle, so I don't see that as a major problem.
What is a problem is the very poor handling of PDFs on Kindles.

~~~
manojlds
Amazon whispersync automatically converts PDFs that you send as well.

~~~
fouc
Convert how? Does it actually resize pdfs, reflow text or something?

~~~
manojlds
Converts to mobi.

------
zippergz
I absolutely love my Kindle Paperwhite, I don't want to read books on any
other electronic device, and I totally agree that it's in a weird spot, and I
am afraid for its future. But I don't agree with the author that the lack of
an "app story" or good web browsers is an issue. I like the Kindle
specifically because it doesn't have apps and isn't designed for web browsing.
Adding that stuff would not make it better at its purpose.

~~~
lykr0n
This. I bought it for one reason- to read eBooks. Nothing else. The fact that
I can buy eBooks on there is great. Spelling and a dictionary? Even better.

The one thing I did not buy it for was to use as a tablet. The fact that there
is a web browser on there is a neat feature at best.

~~~
yiyus
I think that what the article suggests is not to turn Kindles into tablets,
but add specific applications. For example, there may be applications of The
New Yorker or the Washington Post which are real reading applications: with no
distracting ads or notifications, but with updated content and a tailored
experience. Web sites may also have specific Kindle versions. This sounds like
a terribly ambitious goal, but we are talking about Amazon. Amazon has been
capable of much more in the last 10 years.

------
TwoNineFive
I have an old Kindle that I don't really use anymore, a Kobo Aura 2, and I
recently bought an Onyx Boox Note Pro.

The Boox is awesome. It was expensive, but I think it was worth it. It's a
huge 10" paperwhite tablet that runs custom Android. You would not want to lay
in bed with it because of it's size and weight, but you can read large PDFs
that are difficult to view on smaller screens (mostly due to obnoxious margins
and font choices).

Because it's Android I can install browsers and other apps that I might want.
I mostly just use it as a boring reader though.

The Onyx software isn't perfect, but it's pretty good considering. They are
innovating, which is more than I can say for Amazon or Rakuten/Kobo.

~~~
Fnoord
I own a Kobo Aura One, partner owns a Kobo Aura Two. I cannot recommend the
One because it is too big; the other Kobo however are great.

Onyx Boox Note Pro and ReMarkable are a completely, utterly different price
tag and purpose than a Kobo or Kindle. A Kobo goes for 100-200 EUR (expensive
~40 EUR smartcover recommended though). Onyx Boox Note Pro and ReMarkable go
for 350-500 EUR or so, and are also meant for drawing / note taking.

I'm wondering what innovations you need on your Kobo though. I would like to
have Calibre support, so that I don't need to have my books stored on the
device, but 8 GB is a lot of space for books anyway. Other than that, it Just
Works (tm). Syncing works. I can even put the radio off to save battery. FWIW,
you can even run custom apps on them.

------
damontal
I've been struggling with this in a weird way. I have an iPhone 8, and kindle
keyboard, a paperwhite, and physical books. Each has it's plusses and
minuses...

The KKB's screen looks better to me than the paperwhite's (the text seems to
be more on the surface rather than below it) and it's got buttons -- but no
back light.

The paperwhite's backlight makes it convenient because I can read it in bed --
but no physical buttons and the backlight is very blue, which I find annoying.
Sometimes it hurts to read it in a dark room.

The phone is almost perfect. I can set the text to white on black, use Night
Shift to make it even warmer, so I can read for hours in a dark room. It's
always with me so I can read anywhere -- but I don't feel like I'm reading a
book when I read a book on a phone. It feels like I'm cheapening the
experience somehow.

Physical books are the least convenient. The reading experience is the best
here though and it feels most like what I think reading should feel like. I
can easily flip around if I've forgotten some reference. I can easily see my
progress. I can put it on a shelf and see it as a reference to a reading
experience.

It gets to the point of me buying a book, starting it on a kindle, switching
to the phone, buying the physical copy, reading that for a bit, then back to
the phone. And the problem here is that switching formats feels even less like
I've read the book than reading it on the phone alone. It's like it wasn't a
homogenous experience.

I just want to settle on one way of reading a book but can't. I think this is
what is called option paralysis.

~~~
hairofadog
Very much with you on this.

I wish Apple would make a backlit e-ink tablet for books. It really is the
best way to read things cover to cover and it eliminates the distractions that
come with reading on the phone. I don’t expect they’ll ever do it, but in this
world where you have to opt in to an ecosystem, that’s the one I’d prefer to
opt into.

Setting aside the dream of a DRM-free world, what I’d love is

\- aforementioned backlit Apple e-ink reader

\- iBooks app to work with Overdrive (the library-lending app)

\- iBooks app to make its margins adjustable or at least not take up 20% of
the horizontal width of the screen

\- iBooks store to have a wider range of books (I was recently unable to get
both _Theory of Bastards_ and some other notable book there that I forget the
name of)

\- I actually sorta like the way kindle handles comics and graphic novels

Looking at the list above a same person might ask why I don't just go with
kindle instead of iBooks; the reasons are that a) there are certain aesthetic
things that get under my skin about the kindle, and b) using the kindle means
investing in the kindle ecosystem, and I'm not sure I want to do that for
reasons.

I've been thinking of going back to paper books but reading in bed at night is
so much nicer with a lightweight, backlit device. I know it sounds pathetic
but trying to read one of Neal Stevenson's tomes while lying in bed is a
challenge.

Anyhoo. Option paralysis! Right on.

Edit: billeted list

~~~
frosted-flakes
I think you mean a front-lit screen, not a back-lit one. LCD screens are back-
lit (from behind), so that the light shines directly into your eyes. Front-lit
screens like on the Kindle or Kobo are lit from the sides/top/bottom, so that
the light reflects off the e-ink surface and into your eyes, just like paper.

On my Kobo, I can just make out the individual front light LEDs on the bottom
of the screen if I tilt it up.

~~~
hairofadog
You're right, that _is_ what I mean, thanks!

------
vlunkr
So in the past ten-ish years, the kindle has remained the same, the amazon
store has been flooded with knock off products, and the only other notable
consumer products Amazon makes are unremarkable Android tablets, buttons that
let you accidentally order more laundry soap, and eavesdropping devices.

I say lets let it be.

~~~
eli
They gave up on the buttons, actually. They sell a lot of Alexa devices
though.

------
jshaqaw
The Kindle isn’t perfect but it is a useful device which doesn’t feed the
dopamine craving destruction of my attention span like my iOS devices. In many
ways I’m grateful it is just reserved for the slow reading of real books and
nothing else.

------
liability
The demise of TTS was truly unfortunate. I got a 'Kindle Paperwhite' a few
years back but I still primarily use my 'Kindle Keyboard' because it has TTS
and the paperwhite doesn't.

From what I understand, the publishing industry is to blame, thanks to their
fear of cannibalizing audiobook sales. I will never forgive them for this.

~~~
hombre_fatal
Why assume everyone knows an acronym instead of spending the extra 1000ms to
type it out once for us?

~~~
liability
Text-to-speech.

Sorry, I assumed people here were familiar with accessibility tech. (If I
recall correctly, the marketing material for Kindles used to use the term
'TTS', I don't think it's that obscure.)

~~~
hombre_fatal
I had just realized it must've been the tenth time I've had to google an
acronym on HN over the last couple days. You're probably right that it's fair
jargon in the context of e-readers. It's just that context is constantly
changing as you click between HN comments. I might just be in a sassy mood. :P

------
macawfish
I recently got a Dasung Not-eReader... and it's amazing!

It's a quality android tablet with a high speed e-ink display.

[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/not-ereader-first-e-
ink-m...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/not-ereader-first-e-ink-mobile-
phone-monitor#/)

~~~
TwoNineFive
Yikes based on Android 6!

It looks cool and the idea of an eink monitor is appealing. I have a Onyx Boox
Note Pro that I bought a few months ago that can apparently do something like
this but I've not actually tried it.

~~~
ChrisLTD
According to the Onyx website, the Boox Note Pro is also based on Android 6.

[https://onyxboox.com/boox_notepro](https://onyxboox.com/boox_notepro)

------
stared
> The Kindle can’t even display web pages well! Its browser is slow and bad,
> though if you do manage to navigate to a page with an article on it, you can
> enter “Article Mode” and have a mediocre reading experience.

For me, it is the biggest feature! Normally I cannot read - I get distracted
every few minutes or so.

(Though, there are things missing. I would love a better experience of reading
previously saved articles, on Pocket or with subscribed newspapers. There are
workarounds with Calibre, but it gives an overall experience too bad to read
it regularly.)

~~~
agundy
Next time you are looking at eReaders check out some of the Kobo models. My
Kobo Aura One has Pocket and Overdrive integration and it’s awesome!

------
knorker
I've had kindles since version 1 (yeah, the big ones). They've all been great
except the Voyage. Voyage moved the power button so that it constantly gets
pressed in your pocket, unlocking and losing your place in your book. I had to
put a screen lock on as a workaround.

I don't know if this is a sign that "people who care" have left the Kindle
team. It's just so plainly wrong.

Other than that, if you're listening: Please give me Dvorak keyboard. My
kindle is the only device I own that can't do Dvorak.

------
SergeAx
For humanity sake, please buzz off the Kindle. If you want color,
interactions, fresh articles any time, stylus and other bells and whistles -
just buy yourself a tablet.

Kindle is a perfect tool for one and just one task: longreading. It's display
is optimized for hours of non-eyes-violent usage, including before-sleep time
with internal lighting only. It has a great battery life, it's compact and can
be fit into almost any inside pocket, it's really lightweight — 33% to 50%
less weight compared to similar form-factor tablets.

It doesn't need an internet connection and it is great: no distraction! It is
a natural selection for airplane or time far from civilization. I like
sailing, and there were tons of great books and articles read during sea
passages and anchorage evenings.

Maybe, just maybe, it can be better with file transfers. Something like
Bluetooth or direct WiFi. But I have a small USB OTG adapter for my Android
phone, always tucked into a Kindle's soft case, so when once a month I want to
read something on my Kindle immediately - I just use it as an external drive.
My condolences to Apple ecosystem inmates.

(I actually understand that it is not in Amazon best interests to have a good
file transfer for Kindles — it messes with their business model. $1.5 OTG
adapter is just fine)

------
BIackSwan
The remarkable tablet is attempting to address everything mentioned in the
post.

If it succeeds then maybe amazon will get off its butt and do something about
it - [https://remarkable.com/](https://remarkable.com/)

~~~
Sendotsh
How does the Remarkable store notes? Do you need to use their cloud service or
can I use it as an offline notes/sketchpad then access the files via USB? And
can I load ebooks directly via USB?

I’m happy to use the cloud service in general but I also am regularly in areas
with absolutely no internet access and love that I can load ebooks directly
onto my kindle via USB and that Highlights/notes in Kindle are a standard .txt
file. I also want to be able to back up all my notes to my PC and access them
there for safe keeping.

That’s the only thing holding me from buying a remarkable, a fear of lock-in.

~~~
olah_1
Their cloud is hosted on Google Cloud.

And you can use the device without the cloud connection.

Source: [https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-
us/articles/36000264829...](https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360002648297-Connecting-to-the-reMarkable-cloud)

------
rptr_87
Why doesn't kindle support epub out of the box. Is there a some reason for
it?. It seem to support mobi out of the box though.

Epub seems to be present everywhere and I always need to convert it to
mobi/azw3 while uploading...

~~~
techer
Rename it png and email it.

~~~
e12e
Seriously? I can't tell if this is a joke or not.

But you do bring up an interesting point - I'd forgotten about ingestion via
email. Worst case I suppose one might construct a pipeline that does
conversion from epub to mobi and emails the result.

Is there a limit to the size of the library I wonder?

~~~
wibble10
You can send epub to your send to kindle email address with the word “convert”
in the subject line and it’ll transform it into a mobi... as far as I know..

Edit: apparently you need to change the extension to .zip for it to work
_shrug_

------
rramadass
The Kindle's real failure is the lack of a bigger screen. For effective
reading of Textbooks/Technical papers etc. a 10-13 inch screen is a must. They
did start off with a 10 inch screen but have regressed to the current 6-7 inch
format which are good only for the "popular" books.

The best would be to design a dual screen book-like device like the "Surface
Neo/Duo" but with e-Ink display (preferably colour) and give me an easy and
affordable way to download Technical papers/Textbooks (mainly in PDF format).
Allow markup/annotations and the ability to print/export notes/everything and
every Student/Teacher/Professor will buy one. Bonus if i can use it as a
second monitor (ala Onyx Boox Max 2). No other distractions are needed. All
the money goes into the display and giving me a complete immersive book-like
experience.

------
danso
> _The Kindle can’t even display web pages well! Its browser is slow and bad,
> though if you do manage to navigate to a page with an article on it, you can
> enter “Article Mode” and have a mediocre reading experience._

This statement is made as if the author thinks rendering the contemporary web
is a trivial achievement.

~~~
mcherm
It IS trivial.

Now, I'll admit that there is an enormously complex process required to render
modern html and css properly. But there are several engines that do this
rendering and are available as open source. So it is easy to render web
pages... use one of these engines.

~~~
danso
What examples are you thinking? Are you talking about Chrome and Webkit, and
that these would be trivial for a Kindle to adopt? The Kindle Oasis is the
highest spec Kindle, and it tops out at 512MB RAM. I see that Firefox 70.0 has
512MB for its minimum requirements, but how performant is that kind of
computer on today's web?

~~~
notus
With the example of Firefox, you wouldn't use Firefox, you would use Gecko
which is going to have much lower requirements. There are usually ports for
embedded systems that have even less requirements as well (WPE for Webkit for
example)

------
PeterStuer
Love my Kindle Paperwhithe. Reading on an eInk display is far superior than
any other kind of screen.

Also love that it is a pretty dumb device just for reading. Since it has no
camera or potential to attach one, it means it is allowed into places like the
sauna where phones and tablets are prohibited.

~~~
RandomBacon
Do you ever run into temperature issues with the device?

~~~
PeterStuer
Just to clarify: With 'In the sauna' I did not mean inside the sauna-cabin,
just into the other areas (bar, restaurant, relaxchairs, outdoor area etc.) of
the sauna complex.

------
thrower123
The older generation of Kindles were nearly perfect devices. I have the last
model that was not touchscreen and had the physical paddle buttons on both
sides to turn pages, so you can easily read with either hand. It doesn't have
a ton of storage, but you can fit hundreds of text-only .mobis in a GB. The
battery lasts for weeks, with the wifi turned off.

I'm not so impressed with the newer models. Switching to a touchscreen instead
of the physical buttons is a huge regression. If mine ever dies I'll have to
fix it or find a refurb.

~~~
WalterBright
Yeah, a touchscreen and an ereader are a match made in hell. Just try to hold
the reader and swipe with the same hand.

Reading with one hand on the Kindle Keyboard is great. You can stand in the
security line with one hand on your luggage and the other reading the KK.

I have no idea how the touch interface ever got through Amazon usability
testing.

~~~
funnybeam
You don’t need to swipe, just tap the screen lightly and it turns the page. I
often read my paper white one handed

------
DaniloDias
My kindle is my most reliable piece of tech. I like that it does exactly one
thing, really well. I appreciate a desire for more- but honestly, isn’t that
what an iPad/iPhone is for?

------
muddi900
Kindle is stuck in the iPod model; it is a device that supports the wider
Amazon market place, like the iPod was a way for Apple to lock-in people to
itunes. It is great if you want to sell hardware, but don't expect any
innovations on the software side.

Some of the blame lies on the publisher's feet. They literally colluded to
stop Amazon's rise. However, Amazon did not think of reading as an activity
you can create a platform around. You can, the rising popularity of Pocket is
testament to that fact.

------
criddell
I'll never understand why publishers insist on DRM. It seems like it only
harms readers and publishers and benefits Amazon. At the very least, why
didn't publisher's insist on a more open DRM scheme? Frankly I think books are
special enough that maybe some regulations should be created guaranteeing
certain reader rights.

I'm basically locked to Amazon now, especially since their latest DRM hasn't
been cracked yet (AFAIK). All the workarounds I know of result in a lower
quality file.

------
drewg123
The big problem for the kindle for news is the unreliability of updates. My
wife has subscribed first to the New York Times and then later to The
Washington Post on her kindle. Both subscriptions have randomly failed to
update for days on end at times, leading to frustration and amazon customer
support calls. We finally cancelled NYT and switched to the Washington post
after a period of several days with no NYT updates. Sadly, the post is not all
that much better.

------
mourner
I've used Kindles for 7 years now, it's by far my most beloved gadget and I
don't go anywhere without it. And I love it just the way it is — a reader of
books without any other distractions.

The only thing I really wish they'd do software-wise is add reading stats /
achievements — they have that for kid accounts but for some reason didn't
extend it to adult readers.

~~~
ericsoderstrom
If you link your account with Goodreads, you can get stats that way

~~~
nindalf
Is there a way to track time spent on each book?

~~~
TMWNN
Not time specifically, but if Goodreads is linked, it automatically records
the date the book is first opened, and the date the book is finished.

------
grepthisab
I have an Oasis, and have since the previous version came out (2017ish?). I
was just saying today it's my favorite piece of tech. So lightweight, works
great, battery lasts forever in airplane mode. I've been reading a book every
1-2 weeks for the past couple years because of it, and Audible, and
WhisperSync.

------
graaben
I got my Kindle in 2012 and it still runs like a brand new device. I think
Amazon's issue will eventually be that, unlike the iPhone, no one needs to
upgrade their kindle more than once per decade or so. Of course if the newer
models had dramatically better features or apps I would be tempted to upgrade.

~~~
anon4242
I also got my Kindle around then and have never felt the need to upgrade. It
works like a charm and I can read for weeks without recharging. I have
hundreds of books on it and have never needed to remove any for lack of space.

The only thing that tempts me to upgrade is the new water-proof version so I
finally can comfortably read while in the bath...

~~~
hrnnnnnn
I used to take my paperwhite regularly to the swimming pool so I could read in
the hot tub.

I used a zip lock bag to waterproof it. The touchscreen worked perfectly
through the thin plastic.

------
ctrager
I take my Kindle when I go backpacking. I like that it's light, sturdy,
waterproof,and lasts many days without needing to be recharged. It doesn't
compete with my phone. It competes with lugging a bunch of paperback books in
my backpack, and it's so much better.

------
throwaway69173
I wish electronic ink hardware were not so expensive. I have a lot of ideas
that would like to use it.

~~~
blacksmith_tb
Big displays are spendy, but small ones aren't so bad[1]. They would be good
for a sensor readout or something, at least?

1:
[https://www.adafruit.com/product/1028](https://www.adafruit.com/product/1028)

~~~
hombre_fatal
Thanks for this. Looks like a good excuse for playing with hardware finally
for me.

Had a chuckle at the garish nails on the model of this one:
[https://www.adafruit.com/product/4243](https://www.adafruit.com/product/4243)

~~~
Fnoord
"Weaponizing and Gamifying AI for WiFi Hacking: Presenting Pwnagotchi 1.0.0"
[1] is the one I am currently building. Waiting for my Waveshare 2.13"
monochrome v2 and UPS lite 1.1. Make sure you get v2, as it has a far better
refresh capability (less artifacts) than v1.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21301467](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21301467)

------
awiesenhofer
Does anyone have experience with eink "tablets" running android? Onyx,
Boyue/Lifebook or similar? Wondering how usable they are for browsing the web
or reading Pocket or larger Pdfs?

~~~
aus72
I have a Energy Sistem with Android 4.3. It's OK but I found apps run slowly
and some apps require a newer version of Android.

It has been replaced with a jalibroken 2019 Kindle running Koreader. This is
now the best ereader I have owned. Reads many formats, lots of customisation
and has a Wallabag client for reading long form web articles.

I have paired this with Calibre on my laptop for managing my library.

------
dmitryminkovsky
Does anyone have an alternative recommendation? I’ve been looking for a non-
Kindle e-ink reader and can’t decide. Don’t want Kindle because so much of my
life is already Amazon.

~~~
benhurmarcel
In some European countries, Kobo e-readers are quite popular.

~~~
dmitryminkovsky
Thank you.

------
mantlepro
Definitely glad that the Kindle _hasn 't_ succumbed to app store peer
pressure.

One feature I would really like to see is a decent hyphenation engine for
improved typography.

------
tjpnz
I bought a Kindle in 2012 and the thing just sits in a drawer now. The
hardware's great but it's crippled by the software/DRM which now refuses any
attempt to login. Can't work out whether it's due to the age of the device or
the fact I've since moved to Japan (Amazon JP is "special" compared to
virtually every other country). I won't be buying another one.

~~~
boredishBoi
You can use Calibre to side load books without an account. It can also convert
epubs to mobi’s.

~~~
nyolfen
you can also just plug it into your computer and drop files in it

------
B1FF_PSUVM
> My Kindle could’ve been a hub for all of my reading, from newsletters to
> newspapers to subscription sites to books.

Seems that a Kobo and [https://getpocket.com](https://getpocket.com) would be
right up his alley.

(The recent Aura HD is a 300 dpi pocketable device comparable to the Kindle
Paperwhite)

------
mrbonner
I started to buy physical books last year. Nothing beats the user experience
of a real book. I have had an iPad, big iPhone 7 Plus, kindle paperwhite but I
don’t use them of serious reading anymore. I occasionally read fictionals on
the kindle but that’s about it. It’s collecting dust.

~~~
IshKebab
A kindle beats the user experience of a real book in many many ways. It's
lighter and smaller than many books, and can store thousands of them. You can
read on your side in bed easier because you don't have to read both sides of a
book. It has a built in night light which works much better than those rubbish
clip-on ones. It remembers where you were automatically, and syncs with your
phone in case you want to read and forgot it. You can change the font size. It
has a built in dictionary. You can buy books instantly.

It's better in _almost_ every way. The only downsides are: DRM, no colour, too
small for books with diagrams and A4 PDFs (scientific papers), slower to
navigate through pages, requires occasional charging, more likely to be
stolen, doesn't appeal to people who like to make themselves feel superior by
eschewing new things.

------
sand500
There are a couple full android based e-ink tablets but apparently none of
them are that great?

~~~
TwoNineFive
I have a 10" Boox Note Pro. It's expensive but pretty good. Android based.
Hopefully Amazon will get some more competition here in the future and they
might be forced to innovate.

------
villgax
Remarkable paper to the rescue

------
dgarrett
Everything the author complains about is a feature of the Kindle.

Just use your iPad if you want more than an “electronic book”.

~~~
lemoncucumber
Bad typography on a device whose entire purpose is reading is not a feature by
any stretch of the imagination.

Even if all you expect from the kindle is an "electronic book," they should at
least attempt to reach parity with the typesetting of paper books, but they
clearly don't care to.

~~~
hombre_fatal
I read a book per week and don't notice any typography issues. Now, I'm sure
it can be improved, and I don't doubt that a typography nerd could certainly
spot issues. But "bad" seems like quite an exaggeration. I like to protest
against this modern trend of exaggerating how "bad" we supposedly have
everything just because someone can ID some improvements that could be made.

~~~
WalterBright
A higher res screen would be nice. It's surprising how improving the
resolution reduces eyestrain.

~~~
diffeomorphism
A kindle oasis is already 300ppi, how much higher res do you want?

And if you want larger for example a boox max 3 is 13.3 inch, "only" 2260 x
1650 for 200ppi though.

~~~
WalterBright
400 ppi :-)

~~~
diffeomorphism
Hm, supposedly even 600 ppi is coming:

[https://goodereader.com/blog/e-paper/will-we-
see-500-or-600-...](https://goodereader.com/blog/e-paper/will-we-
see-500-or-600-ppi-e-paper-displays-in-2019-or-2020)

I guess this makes more of a difference for japanese characters or I just
don't know yet what I am missing :-)

~~~
WalterBright
My scanner can be set to 300, 400, or 600 dpi. I find the 400 scans are just
easier on the eyes, and the 600 makes no difference (or perhaps that's just my
monitor).

