6 ms·

Why buy a kindle at all then? Any cheap budget tablet can read ebooks and stay off the internet.

Mediterraneo10 6y ago
Any cheap budget table isn't e-ink, which matters for battery life and, at least for some people, reading pleasure. Also, I mainly use my Kindle for reading research papers in academia, into the hundreds of publications each year. So, after years of using these devices its UI (which I find admirably simple and straightforward) is burned into my muscle memory. So, switching to another series of devices would mean having to adjust to a new workflow that may well bring unwelcome complexities.
- soledades 6y ago
  Do you have any tips for reading papers on Kindle? My experience with pdfs is they get pretty shrunk up.
- int_19h 6y ago
  There are many cheap e-ink readers on the market these days, though.
  - dexterdog 6y ago
    I've never seen one that has the bang for the buck of a basic paperwhite. I got my last one for under $100 and I never use the amazon nonsense. I just keep it in airplane mode and load my own books.
vaylian 6y ago
eInk is a lot nicer for reading books than LCD screens. The downside is that eInk currently only supports black-and-white and turning pages is roughly only as fast as turning the page of a book. Also, battery life is counted in days (and sometimes weeks) and not in hours.
- ryzvonusef 6y ago
  > The downside is that eInk currently only supports black-and-white E-ink Kaleido with 4096 colors at 100 ppi are available commercially since past few weeks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqiCOheb1jo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqiCOheb1jo
  - rtkwe 6y ago
    Those are really neat, the big issue is they’re still pretty low saturation so the images don’t look as good as an actual LED/LCD screen.
  - vaylian 6y ago
    Thank you! I did not know about this. This is a really cool development. Even if the saturation (as mentioned by rtkwe) is not the greatest, this is a big step towards reading more analytical texts with colored graphs.
- ed312 6y ago
  The new Kindle Oasis is incredibly fast on page turns - feels almost instant coming from a Paperwhite
imglorp 6y ago
One reason is value. They produce so many, the quality is decent and the price is subsidized so it's artificially low. Why is it subsidized? Obviously to make it more fun to buy books, but also collecting valuable data on your reading habits. Obviously they know _what_ you're reading but it seems useful to them also to know what you bookmark etc. They also have all the hardware they need for location history tracking by remembering wifi broadcasts seen. Is it known if that's being uploaded?
unionpivo 6y ago
For people who read a lot, it makes sense to purchase device that is optimized for reading. E-ink gives you Better screen for text, a lot better battery life, no apps, no notifications, no video ads, o ads in general, nothing flashy. And kindles are relatively cheap, and available almost everywhere.
trey-jones 6y ago
Kindle is just a great reading device. The only feature that I _might_ consider using that requires connectivity is the Wikipedia lookup, and the verdict so far is that Airplane mode is more valuable than that.
pwinnski 6y ago
I haven't seen any cheap budget tablet that even comes close to the quality of a Kindle Paperwhite for reading.
SamuelAdams 6y ago
There's also Kindle competitors, like the Kobo. You can also bet that if this becomes a wide-spread concern, another e-ink reader may come to market that offers privacy and security, maybe some sort of open-source, secure-by-default, ereader. Some attempts at this have already been made [1], but its not clear how strong the market demand for that is and if it will be successful. If you really want a privacy-centered reading experience, the easiest way to do this is just borrow the printed book from your local library. [1]: https://hackaday.io/project/168761-the-open-book-feather https://hackaday.io/project/168761-the-open-book-feather
paxys 6y ago
Kindle is easily the cheapest and most functional reading device out there.

Any cheap budget table isn't e-ink, which matters for battery life and, at least for some people, reading pleasure. Also, I mainly use my Kindle for reading research papers in academia, into the hundreds of publications each year. So, after years of using these devices its UI (which I find admirably simple and straightforward) is burned into my muscle memory. So, switching to another series of devices would mean having to adjust to a new workflow that may well bring unwelcome complexities.

soledades 6y ago
Do you have any tips for reading papers on Kindle? My experience with pdfs is they get pretty shrunk up.
int_19h 6y ago
There are many cheap e-ink readers on the market these days, though.
- dexterdog 6y ago
  I've never seen one that has the bang for the buck of a basic paperwhite. I got my last one for under $100 and I never use the amazon nonsense. I just keep it in airplane mode and load my own books.

vaylian 6y ago

eInk is a lot nicer for reading books than LCD screens. The downside is that eInk currently only supports black-and-white and turning pages is roughly only as fast as turning the page of a book. Also, battery life is counted in days (and sometimes weeks) and not in hours.

ryzvonusef 6y ago
> The downside is that eInk currently only supports black-and-white E-ink Kaleido with 4096 colors at 100 ppi are available commercially since past few weeks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqiCOheb1jo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqiCOheb1jo
- rtkwe 6y ago
  Those are really neat, the big issue is they’re still pretty low saturation so the images don’t look as good as an actual LED/LCD screen.
- vaylian 6y ago
  Thank you! I did not know about this. This is a really cool development. Even if the saturation (as mentioned by rtkwe) is not the greatest, this is a big step towards reading more analytical texts with colored graphs.
ed312 6y ago
The new Kindle Oasis is incredibly fast on page turns - feels almost instant coming from a Paperwhite

imglorp 6y ago

One reason is value. They produce so many, the quality is decent and the price is subsidized so it's artificially low. Why is it subsidized? Obviously to make it more fun to buy books, but also collecting valuable data on your reading habits. Obviously they know _what_ you're reading but it seems useful to them also to know what you bookmark etc. They also have all the hardware they need for location history tracking by remembering wifi broadcasts seen. Is it known if that's being uploaded?

unionpivo 6y ago

For people who read a lot, it makes sense to purchase device that is optimized for reading. E-ink gives you Better screen for text, a lot better battery life, no apps, no notifications, no video ads, o ads in general, nothing flashy. And kindles are relatively cheap, and available almost everywhere.

trey-jones 6y ago

Kindle is just a great reading device. The only feature that I _might_ consider using that requires connectivity is the Wikipedia lookup, and the verdict so far is that Airplane mode is more valuable than that.

pwinnski 6y ago

I haven't seen any cheap budget tablet that even comes close to the quality of a Kindle Paperwhite for reading.

SamuelAdams 6y ago

There's also Kindle competitors, like the Kobo. You can also bet that if this becomes a wide-spread concern, another e-ink reader may come to market that offers privacy and security, maybe some sort of open-source, secure-by-default, ereader. Some attempts at this have already been made [1], but its not clear how strong the market demand for that is and if it will be successful. If you really want a privacy-centered reading experience, the easiest way to do this is just borrow the printed book from your local library. [1]: https://hackaday.io/project/168761-the-open-book-feather https://hackaday.io/project/168761-the-open-book-feather

paxys 6y ago

Kindle is easily the cheapest and most functional reading device out there.