Comments on: The New Yorker Knocks The Kindle http://www.openculture.com/2009/07/the_new_yorkers_knocks_the_kindle.html The best free cultural & educational media on the web Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:59:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Richard Prince http://www.openculture.com/2009/07/the_new_yorkers_knocks_the_kindle.html#comment-9176 Richard Prince Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:55:33 +0000 http://www.openculture.com/?p=4275#comment-9176 I agree with Baker completely about the black and white screen. Oddly, Amazon claims they are trying to imitate the visual quality of a book. Bad mistake. In no way can this screen approximate ink printed on paper. There are a lot of mechanical design flaws with the Kindle. Keyboard sucks and it is stupid having a keyboard on primary a viewing device. Do you hear people complaining because there isn't a QWERTY keyboard embedded in every hard cover book they buy? So much of the valuable viewing real estate on the form factor is consumed by a useless QWERTY keyboard. The screen is poor quality, aside from the lack of color, it goes without saying this is outdated technology. Soooo 1975. The buttons to force page turns are poor implemented and SLOW. When I tested the Kindle, I kept thinking the system had crashed or did not receive the signal I wanted it to move the the next page. That's bad when the hardware and refresh are so slow you think it is broken. You can't enlarge the font size by zooming in or out and adjust it to your situation or vision, you must use only a few sizes in the settings. One thing I did like about the Kindle is that when you couldn't read the screen (for instance when the lighting isn't exactly right for the bad monitor) you could ask it to be read to you in a few different voices. And the voice is much better than normal electronic voices in PCs (altho it still had trouble with acronyms) The drawback is that the voice reader feature is NOT available on all books. Amazon failed to consider the user experience and caved to publishers who want to sell audio versions of their books separately. There are a long list of problems with the Kindle and I think in a years time we'll look back and say, "Wow, people actually bought that thing? Now the Kindle so dated and useless." And I think this is also true of Sony eReaders and Nook. They are all devices designed to satisfy greedy publishers and overzealous lawyers and NOT the consumer. Soon, someone will come out with a eReader that takes the consumers needs into consideration and puts us as readers first. I agree with Baker completely about the black and white screen. Oddly, Amazon claims they are trying to imitate the visual quality of a book. Bad mistake. In no way can this screen approximate ink printed on paper.

There are a lot of mechanical design flaws with the Kindle. Keyboard sucks and it is stupid having a keyboard on primary a viewing device. Do you hear people complaining because there isn’t a QWERTY keyboard embedded in every hard cover book they buy? So much of the valuable viewing real estate on the form factor is consumed by a useless QWERTY keyboard.

The screen is poor quality, aside from the lack of color, it goes without saying this is outdated technology. Soooo 1975.

The buttons to force page turns are poor implemented and SLOW. When I tested the Kindle, I kept thinking the system had crashed or did not receive the signal I wanted it to move the the next page. That’s bad when the hardware and refresh are so slow you think it is broken.

You can’t enlarge the font size by zooming in or out and adjust it to your situation or vision, you must use only a few sizes in the settings.

One thing I did like about the Kindle is that when you couldn’t read the screen (for instance when the lighting isn’t exactly right for the bad monitor) you could ask it to be read to you in a few different voices. And the voice is much better than normal electronic voices in PCs (altho it still had trouble with acronyms) The drawback is that the voice reader feature is NOT available on all books. Amazon failed to consider the user experience and caved to publishers who want to sell audio versions of their books separately.

There are a long list of problems with the Kindle and I think in a years time we’ll look back and say, “Wow, people actually bought that thing? Now the Kindle so dated and useless.”

And I think this is also true of Sony eReaders and Nook. They are all devices designed to satisfy greedy publishers and overzealous lawyers and NOT the consumer. Soon, someone will come out with a eReader that takes the consumers needs into consideration and puts us as readers first.

]]> By: JK http://www.openculture.com/2009/07/the_new_yorkers_knocks_the_kindle.html#comment-6590 JK Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:34:49 +0000 http://www.openculture.com/?p=4275#comment-6590 How on earth do people read books on an iPhone? I still have the first generation, so I can't get the applications the critic mentioned. While the contrast is great, the screen-size is prohibitively small, if you wanted to do any serious reading. I'm waiting to see how Sony responds with its next generation eReader. How on earth do people read books on an iPhone? I still have the first generation, so I can’t get the applications the critic mentioned. While the contrast is great, the screen-size is prohibitively small, if you wanted to do any serious reading.

I’m waiting to see how Sony responds with its next generation eReader.

]]> By: ster http://www.openculture.com/2009/07/the_new_yorkers_knocks_the_kindle.html#comment-6397 ster Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:29:57 +0000 http://www.openculture.com/?p=4275#comment-6397 Why is everyone so obsessed with backlight? How many of their books has it? Is this really the crucial feature? C'mmon! And noone critizes the pageturn "flash". Which should be more problematic for fast readers. Or the problem of device and ebbok pricing. Why is everyone so obsessed with backlight?

How many of their books has it? Is this really the crucial feature? C’mmon!

And noone critizes the pageturn “flash”. Which should be more problematic for fast readers.

Or the problem of device and ebbok pricing.

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