kindle2 - some thoughts on ebook reading

[HaemishM]

Yes, self-employment taxes suck monkey ass for authors, btw. You are basically paying your own FICA taxes and payroll taxes that an employer might have handled for you as if you were an actual business with employees. I hate 1099-MISC's.

[Numtini]

In terms of fanfic, I suspect it won't be the money as much as it will just be the PITA aspect of it.

Every year we get contractors into the office wondering what this 1099 thing is because they've worked under the table for their entire lives and suddenly they did a job for the town and "huh what? well you already took out taxes so I don't have to file right?"

[WayAbvPar]

Just had ANOTHER Kindle keyboard crap out on me. Same issue as last time (screen looks broken/part of it doesn't refresh), but this time there was nothing at all that could have physically caused it. Was reading it, closed the case, walked to my car, got in, opened it...screen is fucked. As it stands now, I believe Amazon is replacing it with a Kindle Touch now (apparently they are finally out of KKs, which is a blessing and a curse), but I am not entirely sure...get very mixed messages from customer service. I would like one of the new Paperwhites coming out later this month, but with the track record I have had, I am leery of buying anything new until it is proven.

Anyone have experience with the Touch or Paperwhite? How are they for durability? I am especially annoyed that my $35 leather KK case won't fit a Touch (I assume), so this is still going to cost me money. ARGH. I love the technology, but they really need to work on the robustness. A book should be damned near forever.

[Baldrake]

Somewhat similar theme to Wayabvpar... My KK gave up the ghost a few months ago, and since then I've been reading using my iPad. I'm surprised how good the iPad is for reading, after being an e-ink zealot for years. My only issue with the iPad is its weight, so I'm also thinking of getting the new paperwhite, and am also interested in peoples' thoughts.

[HaemishM]

Get an Android tablet, download the Kindle app, forget there ever was hardware called a Kindle. I've been using a first-gen Xoom tablet from work and that thing is awesome for reading e-Books, comics and it isn't locked into only Amazon apps.

[Numtini]

Last year I ordered a PW within minutes of it becoming available on the site and I absolutely love it. Best ereader I could ever imagine, though that didn't stop me from ordering this year's model the minute it was announced. I feel a bit silly upgrading from a device I'm so deliriously happy with, but it's not that much money and I can write it off as an expense. I can't say enough good things. The screen is clear. It's easy to read. The front light has zero eye fatigue. (FWIW I have a ipad retina and you couldn't pay me to read on it.)

I don't know about durability though. I'm very gentle on electronics. My partner and I both have Kindle 2's and hers is still going strong and mine only has issues with the USB connector because my daughter tripped over it and that would have killed pretty much any device. I suspect the PW might be more durable than the K2/Keyboard simply because it's a smaller device and there's less room to "flex" and pop a screen. It's also lighter. The case for it is form fitting with a magnetic auto-on/off closure and seems very durable--definitely get the official one.

[Tebonas]

What Numtini said.

I have a nerve defect of the left eye that makes me cross-eyed when my eyes get too tired (even with glasses). On the iPad that happens after a few hours of intense reading, on the Kindle only if I do nothing but read the whole day without resting the eyes (but then it happens with a normal book as well).

The Paperwhite is much impoved and not as fragile as the Kindle Keyboard. In the case it seems to be safe from wear and tear as well.

[naum]

I have the Paperwhite and while I like it, and while I prefer it over iPad/Nexus, it's entirely unusable for me as it literally gives me intense migraine headaches (an arc of pain that goes from my eyeballs to the base of my neck) to use for any significant length of time. No matter what I toggle the backlight brightness to -- if it's too low, I have difficulty reading as the contrast is not enough and if it's too high, the 'headache' effect is exacerbated. Never experienced this before with previous Kindles, or even with the clamp-on light -- from the keyboard Kindle to the Kindle Touch that predated the Paperwhite.

It makes me sad because the Kindle app on Android blows (even in comparison to iPad Kindle app) and the increased resolution and improved typography features on the Paperwhite make it unfeasible to go back to the old Kindles.

[Quinton]

Last year I ordered a PW within minutes of it becoming available on the site and I absolutely love it. Best ereader I could ever imagine, though that didn't stop me from ordering this year's model the minute it was announced. I feel a bit silly upgrading from a device I'm so deliriously happy with, but it's not that much money and I can write it off as an expense. I can't say enough good things. The screen is clear. It's easy to read. The front light has zero eye fatigue. (FWIW I have a ipad retina and you couldn't pay me to read on it.)

I'll second this.  Love my paperwhite to death and also immediately pre-ordered the new model when they announced it.  I've dropped mine a couple times (2-3 feet to wood or tile floor) and it's come through okay, no worse than a bit of scuffing on the edges.  Seems pretty solid to me.

I haven't had any issues with the frontlight causing headaches (I leave it on at about 40% brightness in almost all conditions), but wonder if maybe something funky is going on with the PWM (presumably they modulate the LEDs feeding the lightpipe and diffuser -- I'm not aware of any other typical approach) that some people are sensitive to...

edit: typo

[Baldrake]

Welp, that's good enough for me. Maybe it will be my Christmas present this year.

I also have a retina iPad, and like I said, am surprised how good it is for reading (apart from the weight.) This leads me to wonder - the advantage of e-ink was supposedly that it is using reflected ambient light rather than emissive. But once you start putting a mess of lights on an e-ink device, what, practically, is the difference versus back-lighting? Is there really still a readability advantage?

[Numtini]

There's a definite readability difference. It doesn't look lit unless you're in pitch darkness. Instead, it just looks like slightly off white paper.

[Quinton]

Welp, that's good enough for me. Maybe it will be my Christmas present this year.

I also have a retina iPad, and like I said, am surprised how good it is for reading (apart from the weight.) This leads me to wonder - the advantage of e-ink was supposedly that it is using reflected ambient light rather than emissive. But once you start putting a mess of lights on an e-ink device, what, practically, is the difference versus back-lighting? Is there really still a readability advantage?

It's still a reflective, not emissive display -- the built-in light and lightguide in front ensures light still hits it if you're in the dark, shadows, etc.  The main difference between the paperwhite and previous generations is I don't ever need to worry about getting the angle just right when I'm in non-optimal lighting conditions.

[Numtini]

Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that. I live on Cape Cod and we occasionally go to the beach. Tablet and phones are tough there. Kindles work fine.

[Venkman]

Welp, that's good enough for me. Maybe it will be my Christmas present this year.

I also have a retina iPad, and like I said, am surprised how good it is for reading (apart from the weight.) This leads me to wonder - the advantage of e-ink was supposedly that it is using reflected ambient light rather than emissive. But once you start putting a mess of lights on an e-ink device, what, practically, is the difference versus back-lighting? Is there really still a readability advantage?

16 pages late to the thread.

iPhone 5, iPad Retina and a Kindle PW.

I bought my wife a Kindle for Christmas. I liked reading it on more than my iPad 1, which I had been doing for a couple of years. But I also wanted touchscreen for the keyboard and they only offer that with backlighting, so I got the PW. Then gave my youngest the iPad 1 (my oldest inherited an iPad 2) and bought a Retina.

Love it. The iPad is great but the battery life sucks in comparison (my PW lasts a week or two with 1-2 hours of reading per day) and the e-ink is a much easier on the eyes.

And that's with the backlight off. I use the ambient light like a normal book. The PW light is a sliding scale. You can turn it off, all the way on, or a bit over a dozen levels of luminosity in between. I'll turn on the backlight in lowlight conditions, and they do recommend turning it on to actually get that "paper white" effect. Ironically, they recommend full brightness in full light conditions and dim in low light conditions. Or maybe not ironically because it makes sense based on their pitch (make it "white" in full bright conditions, make it legible in low light but not so much to strain the eyes).

Anyway, because it's illuminating a piece of paper, it's a lot easier on the eyes than an LCD.

Oh, it's also cheaper, lighter, and more durable than an iPad. But keep the iPad

[Quinton]

My 2nd-gen paperwhite kindle turned up today.  Definitely an incremental update.  The frontlight is a little more white (the 1st gen has a slightly more blue-ish tint) and the slight shadow/ghosting at the very bottom of the display appears to be gone (or so subtle now that I can't see it).  The touchscreen / display refresh might be a tiny bit more responsive, but it's hard to tell.  There are a bunch of little UI/UX improvements (which hopefully they'll update the older model to as well) -- most notably when you tap the top edge of the screen for the menu, there's an up-arrow at the bottom edge overlay which brings up a smaller page view and a scrub control for easier flipping through the book more than one page at a time, which seems pretty nice.

All in all a nice hardware upgrade, but probably completely skippable unless you really want the absolute latest or greatest.