Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on February 27, 2018, 11:13:05 AM
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I hope this isn't going to be the way of things. I LOVE my Kindle Paperwhite. I can't read comfortably on a color device, to include the Kindle Fire, and I especially hate reading anything lengthy on my phone.
I suppose as long as the software formats remain the same, or convertible, I'll still be using my E-Reader for a good long while (heck, I still have my first gen Kindle with the physical keyboard). However were it to break, and no equivalent (for easy on the eyes reading) were available, I would immediately go back to dead trees -- if they're still even available in 20 years. It seems the article comments are running in my favor, so I'm not alone. :)
The secondary story - people migrating from books to "social news feeds" was rather disconcerting to me as well.
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/is-the-ereader-dead,review-5158.html
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My kindle is probably about five or six years old, and it is one of my favorite possessions- would rather read on e-ink than paper any day. I can enlarge the print, hold it and "turn" pages with one hand, more compact, and I have hundreds of books on it.
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E-what? I still believe in dead trees.
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My wife and I each have a Nook, which we both really like, but with Amazon prime unlimited we tend to just read on our tablets. Not as nice on the eyes as the e-paper, but not too bad. I adjust the backlighting down pretty far in the dark.
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Mtnbkr and his family gave me a Kindle a few years ago for Christmas.
I absolute adore the thing.
Right now I'm reading the memoirs of a soldier of the Union Army.
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E-what? I still believe in dead trees.
Why do you hate the environment? :'(
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My wife and I each have a Nook, which we both really like, but with Amazon prime unlimited we tend to just read on our tablets. Not as nice on the eyes as the e-paper, but not too bad. I adjust the backlighting down pretty far in the dark.
You could always jailbreak the Nook and install the Amazon e-reader app. I did this with mine just for the fun of it.
Steve
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E-what? I still believe in dead trees.
Have you tried any of them?
I'm a book guy too, and still get/keep certain books, but for my general reading, I'm sold on the E-reader and the capabilities. It really does feel like reading a book, and as BTR mentioned, the ability to change text size, etc. is great.
I also have come to really love the dictionary feature. So easy to get a quick word definition, especially if reading somebody pedantic, like Robert Kaplan. Also works great for me as a German dictionary. Plus not just words. It will call out to the web if you want to know the origin of some obscure phrase or whatever.
Also to the OP, E-readers seem like something very long lasting. I've had zero issues with the Kindles. It seems the only failure point (if E-readers die and one is looking to the long haul) is the battery. I've not heard of anyone replacing the non-user replaceable battery in one.
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I've got an early Kindle with the keyboard. While I like real books I can't carry many at one time. Several dozens on the Kindle.
I am noticing a slight decrease in battery life on mine though.
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Amazon still sells the normal Kindles. I finally broke down and got one last year. Got my Dad one for Christmas. His has the backlighting option.
I agree with the mentions above. The ability to enlarge the text to easily read in any situation is nice. The ability to buy a book online and have it on my kindle in minutes is cool also. My Dad and I can also loan books to each other (2 weeks max is appears).
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You could always jailbreak the Nook and install the Amazon e-reader app. I did this with mine just for the fun of it.
Steve
They are Nook Simple Touch Readers, not the tablets. Not sure if they run a Jail-breakable OS.
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Have you tried any of them?
Do any of them smell like old paper, and have a bookmark from the bookshop in the distant city, in which they were orginally purchased in 1963?
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I read a lot of books on my iPad Mini. Prefer regular books, but with the iPad, I can take a library with me
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Do any of them smell like old paper, and have a bookmark from the bookshop in the distant city, in which they were orginally purchased in 1963?
No, but after the nuclear holocaust, while you're reading the labels on the can of pinto beans in your bunker, I'll be in my bunker (get it?) reading hundreds of books on my Kindle. :P =D
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No, but after the nuclear holocaust, while you're reading the labels on the can of pinto beans in your bunker, I'll be in my bunker (get it?) reading hundreds of books on my Kindle. :P =D
(https://78.media.tumblr.com/cb198c4f425b7436605fde84ffac432e/tumblr_moywtoHsOA1s2o9v1o1_500.gif)
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(https://78.media.tumblr.com/cb198c4f425b7436605fde84ffac432e/tumblr_moywtoHsOA1s2o9v1o1_500.gif)
Well done. :)
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We both have NOOKs. When we got them Kindle could not be read in sunlight and NOOKs could. We have hundreds of books in there.
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I've been wanting to get one.
I've been reading books a lot less since acquiring a facebook addiction.
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Do any of them smell like old paper, and have a bookmark from the bookshop in the distant city, in which they were orginally purchased in 1963?
No, but neither do they have silverfish or weird unidentifiable stains.
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Have you tried any of them?
I'm a book guy too, and still get/keep certain books, but for my general reading, I'm sold on the E-reader and the capabilities. It really does feel like reading a book, and as BTR mentioned, the ability to change text size, etc. is great.
I also have come to really love the dictionary feature. So easy to get a quick word definition, especially if reading somebody pedantic, like Robert Kaplan. Also works great for me as a German dictionary. Plus not just words. It will call out to the web if you want to know the origin of some obscure phrase or whatever.
Also to the OP, E-readers seem like something very long lasting. I've had zero issues with the Kindles. It seems the only failure point (if E-readers die and one is looking to the long haul) is the battery. I've not heard of anyone replacing the non-user replaceable battery in one.
I have a Paperwhite with a bad battery. I bought a Kindle Fire cheaper than a new battery, but I don't like the Fire as much as the PW so I will probably try to replace the battery soon. AFAIK, Amazon does not sell replacement batteries so I have to go third-party.
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I have a Paperwhite with a bad battery. I bought a Kindle Fire cheaper than a new battery, but I don't like the Fire as much as the PW so I will probably try to replace the battery soon. AFAIK, Amazon does not sell replacement batteries so I have to go third-party.
Please update when you do it. I'm curious as to what is involved. I just now looked on my Paperwhite, and the only seam I see that might allow access is along the screen face. Since they refurbish them, there must be a simple way to pop them open.
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I have a Paperwhite with a bad battery. I bought a Kindle Fire cheaper than a new battery, but I don't like the Fire as much as the PW so I will probably try to replace the battery soon. AFAIK, Amazon does not sell replacement batteries so I have to go third-party.
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Kindle_Tablet (https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Kindle_Tablet)
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https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Kindle_Tablet (https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Kindle_Tablet)
Hey, that's cool. Thanks Andy.
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I tried to order a Nook but due to some crazy mix-up I was sent a Nork.
Awkward!
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I just ordered a battery and toolkit from batterymart.com It should get here right after I leave town for 2 weeks ;/
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I tried to order a Nook but due to some crazy mix-up I was sent a Nork.
Awkward!
And that's why you don't order from shady Chinese websites....
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I much much prefer the dead tree version, but I do have a paperwhite and it is really nice. Convenient to use in certain situations, like being on an airplane and they turn the lights all the way down because it's night technically.
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I tried to order a Nook but due to some crazy mix-up I was sent a Nork.
Awkward!
Are they happy to be out or are they trying to kill you?
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Hey, that's cool. Thanks Andy.
Ben, you are welcome.
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They are Nook Simple Touch Readers, not the tablets. Not sure if they run a Jail-breakable OS.
Mine was (I have since passed it on to someone who preferred B&N over Amazon) a Simple Touch as well. It has been quite some time so I don't remember exactly which instructions I followed but a quick search will get several hits. Here is one example https://lifehacker.com/5889158/turn-a-99-nook-into-a-fully-fledged-android-tablet-in-four-easy-steps.
Regards,
Steve
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Are they happy to be out or are they trying to kill you?
He sure seemed happy to be trying to kill me.
I was so looking forward to having 'Atlas Shrugged 2: Shruggin' Even Harder, Bitches!' read to me, but every time I tossed the book at him he just screamed "die, Yankee die!" And I'm not even a Yankees fan!
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He sure seemed happy to be trying to kill me.
I was so looking forward to having 'Atlas Shrugged 2: Shruggin' Even Harder, Bitches!' read to me, but every time I tossed the book at him he just screamed "die, Yankee die!" And I'm not even a Yankees fan!
:rofl:
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I got a paperwhite (black lit version with download capability (like a phone)) a couple years ago. I read VERY few books for pleasure on paper anymore. I did switch to using my tablet for most of my reading however because I like to be able to enlarge or zoom in a tiny book map (such as common in SciFi and fantasy novels) to get oriented geographically. I haven't used my Kindle this year yet, but I read just about every day on my tablet. I have probably purchased 10 books so far in 2018 in the kindle format.
At first I didn't want to read novels on a tablet, but they have become lighter and I prefer them now. The screen resolution is better than my kindle too. I don't see changing from the Amazon format (kindle) anytime soon. I honestly don't even know what aps to download for other e-readers. I've asked and I never get an answer other than someone waving their hand.
I like the convenience, but some authors/book publishers are pushing the prices up. Seems like $1.00/100 pages is about typical and anything higher than that I hesitate buying. Years ago I would have been in heaven with a Kindle if such a thing existed along with the cell towers/technology to support it because I lived way way out in the country and book store visits were events and I often spent hours browsing. Now, I do just about everything online.
Just about ready to flush (ie to the trash can) the many boxes of paperback books I have stored. Never or seldom ever go back to re-read something like I thought I might.
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because I like to be able to enlarge or zoom in a tiny book map (such as common in SciFi and fantasy novels) to get oriented geographically.
This is an area where, surprisingly to me, E-readers still lag terribly. Even if only in grayscale, you would think they'd be able to handle images, etc. well by now, but they still don't. Any reading material that's heavy on images, charts, etc., I still go dead tree if I'm reading the whole book, or computer/tablet if I'm just needing to see some images or whatever.
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On a tablet or phone or whatever have you tried adjusting the color options? I normally do audiobooks these days, but when reading an ebook I finding having it set to sepia makes it much more pleasing to my eye. Both for pure readability, and something about it just makes it seem more....bookish.
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
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Never read anything on a smart phone unless I have to and that includes emails as well.
I personally think e-readers (kindles and so forth) are the future for pleasure reading. Nooks are likely gone shortly.
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The new battery got here today and I just finished replacing it. The hardest part was getting the front cover off. In the videos it looks like it's a held under a little lip around the side cover. It's not, it's glued on. They sent a plastic spatula (I think it's called a "spudge") with the battery, but it's too thick to get the thing started. Use a dull single-edge razor blade to pry the front up, then slip the plastic tool in and use it to pry off the front. Don't be too gentle with it or it will pop back down and you'll have to start over; you're not going to hurt the display with the plastic tool.
After that it was pretty easy. Use reading glasses. I didn't and I got away with it, but I'm nearsighted -- and it still would have been easier with a pair of cheaters. If you lose one or two of the tiny screws, it probably doesn't matter. There are 11 of them, and that's way more than it needs. The battery also came with the right size screwdriver. I was congratulating myself for not losing any screws as I was putting the next-to-last in and I dropped it in the carpet. ;/ Found it w/o too much difficulty, but if it had been "lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry" I wouldn't have worried about it. Much.
It goes back together pretty easily, and the old glue is plenty sticky enough to hold the front down.
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Thanks for that update Bob. Especially about getting the cover off. That's always one of those areas where I'm always afraid to apply too much pressure for fear of breakage. Or sometimes I go the other way and figure it's okay to apply force when it's not. :laugh:
So always good to have a firsthand report! :)
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I used a hair drier to soften the glue before I popped the cover off my kindle to replace the battery.
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I used a hair drier to soften the glue before I popped the cover off my kindle to replace the battery.
That would definitely help. Mine was cold when I pried it apart; I didn't know there was glue until I had it halfway off.
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My wife and I each have a Nook, which we both really like, but with Amazon prime unlimited we tend to just read on our tablets.
Not sure where my Nook got off to, but IIRC, it was fairly easy to root it and install the Kindle app. Or you can often find older model NOS Kindles going for cheap various places.
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This is an area where, surprisingly to me, E-readers still lag terribly. Even if only in grayscale, you would think they'd be able to handle images, etc. well by now, but they still don't.
As I recall, the Nook did fairly well even before rooting. You weren't going to get millions or even thousands of shades, but it looked passable in 256 (as long as it didn't get confused about some of them) and not too bad in 16. Definitely plenty good for charts and line art.
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I honestly don't even know what aps to download for other e-readers. I've asked and I never get an answer other than someone waving their hand.
When I have a choice of formats on the tablet, I generally go with ePub, and use Moon+ Reader. It just seems more user-friendly than the Kindle app.
I really hope e-paper sticks around for a while, though, as I love the battery life when I'm not going to be near any charging opportunities for a while, but don't have to limit my use to save the battery. When the lighting is good, I'd also agree it's more comfortable to read on than a tablet.
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SOME Kindles can be "broken" and basically turned into "Android" tablets. Of course, ours aren't one of them...
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SOME Kindles can be "broken" and basically turned into "Android" tablets. Of course, ours aren't one of them...
Yet. Keep watching. There's a whole community out there dedicated to defeating whatever limits the manufacturers put on the devices.
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Yet. Keep watching. There's a whole community out there dedicated to defeating whatever limits the manufacturers put on the devices.
Yeah, I have had a guy at work tell me he knows how to break an Amazon fire stick and set it up to watch all sorts of stuff. Not sure if I want to do that.
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After my original kindle died a few years ago, Amazon let me send it in for a credit toward a Paperwhite. It’s an outstanding reader, but went into disuse when I eventually acquired an iPad. The paperwhite still beats the iPad for reading, but not enough for me to bother with juggling an extra device.