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I'm not sure you can really call Nook dead. All that article says is that B&N isn't going to continue selling Andorid tablets past fiscal 2014 and the rest is rumor that Microsoft may buy Nook Media. So, no matter what the outcome, existing Nook devices will continue to operate and work with their ecosystems just fine. The writing on the wall, for the entire industry, is the days of the dedicated eReader are likely numbered. We all know the advantages (cheap, lightweight, last a long time on charge, can read in full sun), but for the vast majority of people those aren't huge selling points. Advances in screen and battery tech over the next 5 years is likely going to go even further towards narrowing the capability gap and full tablets are now less than the original kindle in cost. The big thing that needs to happen, to free the whole industry and provide real competition, is the widespread abandonment of DRM. Once the casual user can purchase an eBook from any service and be sure that it works in their device/app of choice, you relieve a lot of anxiety about digital purchases and eliminate vendor lock in for hardware.
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May 9, 2013 15:31
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There is still a huge difference in price between the dominant tablet and the dominant ereader though, so I wouldn't say the end is night just yet.
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May 9, 2013 16:04
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I still don't really get what Microsoft gets out of the Nook digital business purchase, unless they're looking to just roll it into the windows store and start selling books ala Google Play/iTunes.
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May 9, 2013 16:29
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Rapey Joe Stalin posted:There is still a huge difference in price between the dominant tablet and the dominant ereader though, so I wouldn't say the end is nigh just yet. I dread any demise of the electronic ink reader. Surely someone would still cater to the market for these no matter how niche it becomes? My (now) ex-girlfriend read a few books on an Android tablet. When she picked up my Kindle Paperwhite and read a bit she suddenly got WTF I was raging about since 2010 when I got my first 3rd gen Kindle.
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May 9, 2013 17:24
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Martytoof posted:.. Kobo? I actually posted much of my saga of Kobo over the past five pages so the recap which was previously in this space is redundant. Sufficed to say, Kobo's customer service has their heads up their rear end. The only smart rep so far has said they'll send me a pre-paid return slip should I be unable to reject the device on delivery. That is, after I rejected the oh so kind offer to fully refund my money once the Kobo went back to the warehouse. I guess nobody got the memo that I've already done the charge-back. Which brings us to today. The Kobo Touch e-reader was delivered despite everything that has occurred. The device box is covered in dirt. There wasn't really any padding in the shipping box, just a loose bit of construction paper. The USB port won't work (when doing device setup it doesn't register being plugged in), the chassis creaks when flexed, and the reset button is non responsive. As one final gently caress you, I've been shipped a broken device. If this is Kobos standard business practice then they can go out of business and I won't shed a tear. gently caress Kobo. Edited for clarity. MC Hawking fucked around with this message at 18:14 on May 9, 2013 |
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May 9, 2013 17:26
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Rapey Joe Stalin posted:There is still a huge difference in price between the dominant tablet and the dominant ereader though, so I wouldn't say the end is night just yet. I think it's happening a bit quicker than you may want to admit. Google fired the first volley with the N7 last year and are likely going to refine that this year and other manufacturers have jumped on board for these lower priced smaller screen variants as well. In all honesty, if I hadn't already owned a Nook SimpleTouch when I purchased a N7, I probably wouldn't have bought a dedicated eReader as the N7 fits my reading habits nicely. Yeah, I would lose out on the ability to read it on the beach once a year when I go on vacation, but most of my reading is done in bed before I go to sleep. I don't need eink's advantages there. Full featured GOOD tablets are at the pricepoint that the Kindle was at 2.5 years ago. That's huge and the pace is only accelerating. We are eventually going to get to the point where having a cheap "consumption" tablet is going to be assumed and eink reader buyers are only going to be those who feel they need a dedicated product for reading. It's going to be the same type of differentiation between hardback buyers and paperback buyers. The big issue is, there's not going to be enough of a market to support a whole ecosystem. So it's either going to be an add-on product that's almost a loss leader (like Kindle) or it's going to have to be a cheap no-name Chinese eReader that has broad format support but no ecosystem. For the later to happen, DRM needs to go away. bull3964 fucked around with this message at 17:49 on May 9, 2013 |
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May 9, 2013 17:45
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Maneki Neko posted:I still don't really get what Microsoft gets out of the Nook digital business purchase, unless they're looking to just roll it into the windows store and start selling books ala Google Play/iTunes. That's pretty much it. A built-in pre-existing customer base/brand name is better than trying to start from scratch (in theory)
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May 9, 2013 18:22
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WattsvilleBlues posted:I dread any demise of the electronic ink reader. Surely someone would still cater to the market for these no matter how niche it becomes? My (now) ex-girlfriend read a few books on an Android tablet. When she picked up my Kindle Paperwhite and read a bit she suddenly got WTF I was raging about since 2010 when I got my first 3rd gen Kindle. Well, you consider that the Paperwhite has pretty much every main feature you need for an E-Ink ereader (it stores your books, it reads like a book, it has backlight, and amazing battery) and I would say overall you should see that continue onward, maybe just more of a niche and not pushed as much as tablets. Color eink would be great, but if it doesn't happen I won't cry. I already just use my kindle for reading, and everything else I just use whatever other device for.
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May 9, 2013 18:33
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MC Hawking posted:I actually posted much of my saga of Kobo over the past five pages so the recap which was previously in this space is redundant. Sufficed to say, Kobo's customer service has their heads up their rear end. The only smart rep so far has said they'll send me a pre-paid return slip should I be unable to reject the device on delivery. That is, after I rejected the oh so kind offer to fully refund my money once the Kobo went back to the warehouse. I guess nobody got the memo that I've already done the charge-back. Anybody in Europe should just order the Kobo from FNAC (unless it's available at a brick-and-mortar store or very cheap -- also, if you don't understand French, use Google Translate as I did). 3 days after I ordered my Kobo Glo from FNAC, a DHL delivery guy was at my door here in Northern Finland and gave me the device, which was very well packaged, and I've been in love with the device from the first minute. It's sad to hear that Kobo's official webstore is such a shitpile in comparison. 
Zat fucked around with this message at 18:46 on May 9, 2013 |
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May 9, 2013 18:42
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Well it just goes to show that I'm a complete blithering retard. On a drunken whim I plugged the drat thing back in and let it idle on the setup utility for 10 minutes and shocker, it finally went and completed setup. This doesn't detract from the whole "Kobo's CSRs are completely inept" but it's nice to know that they didn't purposely gently caress my package up out of spite. Now to find out if this device is better than the $59 refurb Gen 4 Kindle I purchased. LIVE STREAM NEWS AT 11. Edit: I do not like that I can't change up my screen orientation easily. Font is a little smoother than the Kindle 4, but the Kindles screen has better white and black definition. I enjoy how all the icons for the Kobo are happy faces, much like early Macintosh computers. I'm going to continue playing with this over the next few days and if Kobo wants it back, (I sent them an email asking for a pre-paid shipping slip) I'll probably send it. MC Hawking fucked around with this message at 03:40 on May 10, 2013 |
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May 10, 2013 03:25
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There were patents filed like a year or more ago that was for a combination screen of e-ink and LCDquote:Been holding out on that Kindle Fire purchase because you just can't wean yourself off the eye-friendly e-ink? Well, this patent application from the folk at Amazon suggests this is something they're not unaware of. The patent outlines a device incorporating two or more displays, one being static in nature (a-la e-ink) and the other more suitable for video (that'd be LCD or OLED etc). If you're thinking this sounds like a fast route to flat-battery town, the patent argues to the contrary. The static display would save power by offloading the workload from the LCD, when its slow moving nature was more suitable to the content. http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/30/amazon-applies-for-dual-display-device-patent-where-e-ink-and-l/ I don't think e-ink will go away anytime soon, its strengths are just too great for reading, but maybe a combination device like this may do away with dedicated e-readers someday.
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May 10, 2013 19:36
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Zat posted:It's sad to hear that Kobo's official webstore is such a shitpile in comparison. Hello fellow FNAC-buyer from Finland. Kobo's webstore is functional. Just not as snazzy or as responsive like Amazon's. That said, nobody is forcing you to use Kobo's bookstore. You can just about use any e-bookstore that publishes in ePub or mobi-formats, which is pretty much the reason why I got the Kobo Touch in the first place. Although that means having to use Adobe's Digital Edition for DRM'd books. Which sucks, especially when I'm currently Linux only. Can't there be at least one good multi-platform DRM system for ebooks? Nevermind what Richard Stallman might say. Speaking of which, there's an interesting ebook bundle on offer.
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May 10, 2013 21:42
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Rexroom posted:Can't there be at least one good multi-platform DRM system for ebooks? N Actually, I wouldn't welcome that as we should be shifting away from DRM. Tor hasn't had it for almost a year now and they recent reported that it hasn't affected their business one iota. Hopefully, more publishers follow suit.
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May 10, 2013 22:05
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So, a few minutes ago I noticed my Kindle Paperwhite's frontlight didn't seem to go off when I turned the screen off. A friend suggested a hard reset, I tried that and Donraj fucked around with this message at 13:08 on May 13, 2013 |
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May 13, 2013 11:28
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Donraj posted:So, a few minutes ago I noticed my Kindle Paperwhite's frontlight didn't seem to go off when I turned the screen off. A friend suggested a hard reset, I tried that and Mine does that too. I'm not quite sure what does it, but it every few days the light decides to stick on even after sleep. Going to Settings > Reboot sets it right.
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May 13, 2013 16:00
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New question. I study Chinese. I'm decent at it and I'm looking to improve my reading abilities. As you can imagine the Paperwhite's ability to display Chinese text properly is a godsend for me, as is the built-in dictionary. Problem is that a good number of the Chinese ebooks I'm finding are registering as English to the Kindle and as such using the English dictionary. Is there any way to tell the Kindle to treat them as Chinese without changing my system language or editing them before I send them to my Kindle to begin with?
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May 14, 2013 13:31
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Donraj posted:New question. I study Chinese. I'm decent at it and I'm looking to improve my reading abilities. As you can imagine the Paperwhite's ability to display Chinese text properly is a godsend for me, as is the built-in dictionary. You can use Calibre to change the language setting on the book to Chinese. Do you have a Chinese dictionary on your Kindle? I'm a little behind the times, only have a Kindle 3G
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May 14, 2013 14:16
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SB35 posted:You can use Calibre to change the language setting on the book to Chinese. Do you have a Chinese dictionary on your Kindle? I'm a little behind the times, only have a Kindle 3G I tried that just a few hours ago and even with the language setting on the book set to Chinese it still gives me the English dictionary (yes there's a Chinese dictionary). Same thing happened even when I completely reset the system language to simplified Chinese, so I'm kind of at a loss now as to why some of my books/documents bring up the Chinese dictionary and some don't. The book in question was converted from epub, if that makes any difference.
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May 14, 2013 16:42
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Donraj posted:I tried that just a few hours ago and even with the language setting on the book set to Chinese it still gives me the English dictionary (yes there's a Chinese dictionary). Same thing happened even when I completely reset the system language to simplified Chinese, so I'm kind of at a loss now as to why some of my books/documents bring up the Chinese dictionary and some don't. Try changing your default dictionary? Instructions
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May 14, 2013 16:56
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Donraj posted:I tried that just a few hours ago and even with the language setting on the book set to Chinese it still gives me the English dictionary (yes there's a Chinese dictionary). Same thing happened even when I completely reset the system language to simplified Chinese, so I'm kind of at a loss now as to why some of my books/documents bring up the Chinese dictionary and some don't. You can open the book in Sigil, press F8 and change the language, then convert using Kindlegen. PM me if you need any help
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May 14, 2013 17:04
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SB35 posted:Try changing your default dictionary? Instructions Tried that; it only gave me the option of English language dictionaries to use in English. quote:You can open the book in Sigil, press F8 and change the language, then convert using Kindlegen. I'll try this sometime when it's not very early in the morning, but like I said I already tried changing the language by using Calibre to edit the metadata. Why will this work any differently? EDIT: Aha! Tried downloading the metadata in Calibre instead of setting the language manually and that did the trick. Donraj fucked around with this message at 18:04 on May 14, 2013 |
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May 14, 2013 17:58
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I hope Sony will release this in America at a decent price. Somebody needs to take the large reader market now that Amazon bowed out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvJuLK65dio quote:Sony has developed an A4 sized equivalent 13.3" digital paper notepad. Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 16:35 on May 17, 2013 |
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May 17, 2013 15:30
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Are there any good Nook Simple Touch screensavers out there? 600x800, Kindle wallpapers will work too. Most of the dedicated sites are filled with blurry or crappy stuff. Maybe some of you can share yours. I'm really looking for stuff that's visually interesting on an e-ink screen. I thought this reproduced very well on my Nook:  And there's this, because I love Calvin and Hobbes. 
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May 17, 2013 16:42
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There's a bunch still in the first or second post in this thread if you haven't checked those out yet. I'm still using all Wordle screensavers on my Nook ST, it's easy to make your own. The quick and dirty way is to go to http://wordle.net, copy and paste a plot summary from Wikipedia, change the color to black and white, and you're good to go. I've also had some luck searching for "high contrast black and white" on places like wallbase.net, if you can wade through all the terrible memes and anime and don't mind doing some resizing you can find some decent stuff. Here's a couple I've found and tweaked slightly:   And to finish out your Calvin and Hobbes wallpapers, I had a whole series of these that started with the one you posted:        
RightClickSaveAs fucked around with this message at 16:16 on May 18, 2013 |
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May 18, 2013 16:11
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Call Me Charlie posted:I hope Sony will release this in America at a decent price. Somebody needs to take the large reader market now that Amazon bowed out. I want this so loving much. Not to replace my PW but to compliment it.
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May 18, 2013 21:43
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I wonder what one of those would cost if all that it had to do was convert handwritten pages to pdf and save them in the cloud somewhere? No ebook/pdf rendering, no web browser, and no bookstore. Just infinite notepad.
withak fucked around with this message at 21:50 on May 18, 2013 |
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May 18, 2013 21:48
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withak posted:I wonder what one of those would cost if all that it had to do was convert handwritten pages to pdf and save them in the cloud somewhere? No ebook/pdf rendering, no web browser, and no bookstore. Just infinite notepad. I doubt it'd cost any less. Being able to render the stuff is logically going to be possible if it's able to create PDFs, being able to save the cloud is going to require similar capabilities to accessing a bookstore and browsing, and so on. Plus there's a few hundred bucks in just the screen itself...
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May 18, 2013 22:01
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It'll be awesome for studying, I'm pretty sure it will take off at universities, especially if they manage to price it reasonably. But even if it's expensive I'd say it's worth it. Keeping track of notes in classes like electronics design, math etc. where you draw a lot and write formulas was a pain in the rear end compared to using EverNote for mostly text-based notes in some classes. I'm getting one even though I'm done studying in a few weeks, just using this kind of thing to make notes in PDF's for work will make it worth it. And I guess I can make work pay for it too 
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May 18, 2013 23:12
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I have a kindle keyboard (I think Gen 3). It has been a couple of months since I last charged it due to just being too busy to read. I was using it yesterday and decided to plus it in with 10% or so battery remaining. It had been charging for 12 hours and it still showed the orange charging light. I exited the screensaver and it showed the warning to charge the battery. I turned off the unit completely and switched outlets (the plug in felt warm). I am still waiting to see if it charges but I wanted to see if this has happened to anyone else (or something similar). If it has, what did you do, if anything, to fix it or is this a scenario where my kindle has became a large paperweight?
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May 20, 2013 11:14
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Bizarro Kanyon posted:I have a kindle keyboard (I think Gen 3). I have. I've never been able to work out, but I suspected I might have left my wireless on and so it was using that constantly. Even then it should still put in more charge than that but I couldn't think of much else. If I disconnect it and reconnect it seems to charge properly.
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May 20, 2013 12:31
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Is it in an original Amazon (unlighted) leather case? The early ones have a habit of draining the charge.
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May 20, 2013 17:50
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Have Kindles always been able to automatically do software updates over wifi? I was just typing something and my eye caught my paperwhite flashing and it's doing a software update, completely unrequested. If I had a jailbreak or something I'd probably be pretty pissed.
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May 21, 2013 08:09
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Yeah, my Touch does that, although it'll be a bit after the update goes up on the Amazon website.
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May 21, 2013 08:32
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Martytoof posted:Have Kindles always been able to automatically do software updates over wifi? I was just typing something and my eye caught my paperwhite flashing and it's doing a software update, completely unrequested. I always thought they couldn't. Since after six months I just manually downloaded the update and installed it myself on my paperwhite. It had been on wifi the whole time.
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May 21, 2013 09:07
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Qualcomm's mirasol display has popped up again. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/05/this-is-cool-qualcomm-shows-off-its-mirasol-display/ No word on if this will start showing up in products anytime soon, but it still remains the "missing link" to bridge tablets and eReaders.
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May 22, 2013 04:01
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Mirasol is in a tough spot. I can't imagine it being cheap enough to put in a $100 e-reader, and at the same time, it's not good enough to really work in a $650 smart phone. Maybe there is a market in larger e-readers? Or smart watches, like the article suggests, although that is a pretty small market so far.
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May 22, 2013 15:20
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I think it's likely to get there eventually. I would think digital signage in stores would also be a good market for this tech (think pricetags on shelves). Once it ramps up in volume, the price could come down enough for it to work in low priced eReaders.
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May 22, 2013 16:10
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It'll have a market in rugged GPS units, aviation equipment, and military electronics, but that might not be worth the price of development.
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May 22, 2013 19:22
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Yeah, a large bistable display would probably be amazing for marine charts and GPS.
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May 22, 2013 19:59
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Speaking of digital signage in stores. http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/22/e-ink-three-pigment-spectra-displays/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedly eink has a 3 pigment display now that can withstand very cold temps. Perfect for showing the price of fishsticks in a freezer near you!
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May 22, 2013 20:16
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