5 ms·

I hope that doesn't mean they're abandoning development on their e-ink devices, or relegating them to third-class citizens. The only reason I'd buy a reading d

by acabal 15y ago

I hope that doesn't mean they're abandoning development on their e-ink devices, or relegating them to third-class citizens. The only reason I'd buy a reading device is if staring at it for 2+ hours didn't give me a headache like a backlit tablet does. (And an all-purpose tablet like an iPad still doesn't interest me enough to buy anyway.)

ZeroGravitas 15y ago
Have you tried the various OLED (AMOLED, SAMOLED etc.) devices? When showing black they are effectively off, so white (or green or gray) on black text is relatively soothing. My main reading use case is in bed at night. I have a little booklight for reading actual paper books, but I think I'm waiting for an AMOLED 8" tablet for e-book reading. It works pretty darn well for my phone in low light conditions. (In fact the main competition for an 8" tablet would be one of those giant 5" phones with AMOLED).
- 1880 15y ago
  Sometimes, OLED screens are even worse than your average LCD. For example, the Galaxy S has beautiful colors and the bright of a thousand suns, but it's awful for simple white-on-black text. The glyphs are very irregular and have jaggies. I think it's because of the PenTile arrangement of the pixels: http://pentileblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/pentile-sharp-text1.jpg http://pentileblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/pentile-sh...
  - ZeroGravitas 15y ago
    I have an OLED device, with probably the cheapest version of this technology available, it's using pentile, and I haven't noticed the issue with white text on black though it is occasionally noticeable (though never annoying) to me in other contexts. My device does have a small screen and therefore a relatively high pixel density though. Until the jump to Super AMOLED HD a lot of phones seemed to be putting the same pixel density (and pentile arrangement) on phones with screens an inch bigger e.g. my device is 266ppi vs 233ppi for the Galaxy S. People seem to get a bit religious about pentile. It doesn't make any sense to dismiss (or accept) it without considering all the other parameters. It's designed to make it easier and cheaper to hit certain resolutions and densities. If I could get more pixels or density for the same money then I'd happily take pentile. If there's not much extra gain over not using it, or not much extra cost, then I'd happily leave it out. It also, for whatever technical reason, seems mostly to be associated with OLED technologies, though OLED does not necessarily imply pentile. I think Samsung brands their non-pentile AMOLEDs as SAMOLED plus and they have them either on the market or due very soon in both big phone, massive phone and mid-size tablet varieties. However, OLED does have the one advantage I mentioned about reading in the dark which decides this for me. For that reason alone I personally am waiting for a sufficiently high-density AMOLED tablet for reading purposes. Pentile will be just one factor in weighing up my options, certainly not a deal breaker.
pietro 15y ago
The iPad won't give you a headache. That might be a good enough reason to buy it.
ctdonath 15y ago
I'm watching this introduction with an eye on the long-running theory that the standard Kindle will drop to $0 by November. For those unaware, the pricing v. price-drop dates graph has the Kindle on a straight-line path to $0 by November 2011. Word is when Amazon CEO was asked about that, he responded "ah, someone noticed" and changed the subject. How, when & whether this will happen is interesting.
- ableal 15y ago
  Bezos was around for the CueCat scanner. He will not drop the price to zero. He knows that would be giving free hardware to anyone who can find out how to jailbreak a device.
  - ctdonath 15y ago
    "Free with Prime membership" seems the vector for controlling access to "free" stuff from Amazon. Arguably not "free" in all terms, but akin to "free phone" with cellular service.

by acabal 15y ago

ZeroGravitas 15y ago

Have you tried the various OLED (AMOLED, SAMOLED etc.) devices? When showing black they are effectively off, so white (or green or gray) on black text is relatively soothing. My main reading use case is in bed at night. I have a little booklight for reading actual paper books, but I think I'm waiting for an AMOLED 8" tablet for e-book reading. It works pretty darn well for my phone in low light conditions. (In fact the main competition for an 8" tablet would be one of those giant 5" phones with AMOLED).

1880 15y ago
Sometimes, OLED screens are even worse than your average LCD. For example, the Galaxy S has beautiful colors and the bright of a thousand suns, but it's awful for simple white-on-black text. The glyphs are very irregular and have jaggies. I think it's because of the PenTile arrangement of the pixels: http://pentileblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/pentile-sharp-text1.jpg http://pentileblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/pentile-sh...
- ZeroGravitas 15y ago
  I have an OLED device, with probably the cheapest version of this technology available, it's using pentile, and I haven't noticed the issue with white text on black though it is occasionally noticeable (though never annoying) to me in other contexts. My device does have a small screen and therefore a relatively high pixel density though. Until the jump to Super AMOLED HD a lot of phones seemed to be putting the same pixel density (and pentile arrangement) on phones with screens an inch bigger e.g. my device is 266ppi vs 233ppi for the Galaxy S. People seem to get a bit religious about pentile. It doesn't make any sense to dismiss (or accept) it without considering all the other parameters. It's designed to make it easier and cheaper to hit certain resolutions and densities. If I could get more pixels or density for the same money then I'd happily take pentile. If there's not much extra gain over not using it, or not much extra cost, then I'd happily leave it out. It also, for whatever technical reason, seems mostly to be associated with OLED technologies, though OLED does not necessarily imply pentile. I think Samsung brands their non-pentile AMOLEDs as SAMOLED plus and they have them either on the market or due very soon in both big phone, massive phone and mid-size tablet varieties. However, OLED does have the one advantage I mentioned about reading in the dark which decides this for me. For that reason alone I personally am waiting for a sufficiently high-density AMOLED tablet for reading purposes. Pentile will be just one factor in weighing up my options, certainly not a deal breaker.

pietro 15y ago

The iPad won't give you a headache. That might be a good enough reason to buy it.

ctdonath 15y ago

I'm watching this introduction with an eye on the long-running theory that the standard Kindle will drop to $0 by November. For those unaware, the pricing v. price-drop dates graph has the Kindle on a straight-line path to $0 by November 2011. Word is when Amazon CEO was asked about that, he responded "ah, someone noticed" and changed the subject. How, when & whether this will happen is interesting.

ableal 15y ago
Bezos was around for the CueCat scanner. He will not drop the price to zero. He knows that would be giving free hardware to anyone who can find out how to jailbreak a device.
- ctdonath 15y ago
  "Free with Prime membership" seems the vector for controlling access to "free" stuff from Amazon. Arguably not "free" in all terms, but akin to "free phone" with cellular service.