The New Kindle DX "Graphite" | Hacker News Reader

The New Kindle DX "Graphite"

amazon.com

12 pointsComputerGuru18 comments

I'm tempted to buy a Kindle, especially with the Woot deal on the Kindle 2. I tried a Kindle at work the other day, and I couldn't help but notice the 'flashing' of the screen when I move to a new page. I'm talking about this thing it does where the screen gets erased and redrawn, a process that seemed to take 1-2 seconds. I thought that was quite.. awkward. Kindle users: does that bother you when reading? Or is it something you don't notice at all during normal operation? (Or even non-existent on current models, maybe).

It's never bothered me. After a short while you learn to start turning the page a bit before you're done reading the current page, and the actual page turn happens just as you're ready for it.

As noted by the others, you get used to the transition time very quickly, and I don't think it takes any longer than turning a page in a physical book.

I've been hoping that they would release a new version of the DX. Alas, the one feature that I want - next and previous page buttons on the left side, isn't there. I realize lefties only make up about 10% of the population or so, but that's still 30 million potential customers in the US alone that they missed a chance to make the device more attractive for.

You could turn the device by 180 degrees. The orientation flips automatically, or you can lock it that way.

It makes keyboard access very awkward, of course, but for reading it should not really matter.

That's an interesting thought. I've never considered whether or not the auto-orientation would let you flip the device 180 degrees. Have you actually tried this, or is it just a theory? :)

Just tried it with auto-orientation, and it worked. I generally keep auto-orientation off, but I knew that you can manually lock in all 4 orientation.

Amazon's definition of "global wireless" apparently doesn't include Finland. The whole country is a conspicuous patch of white on the coverage map.

This seems weird – Finland has a densely built 3G network and Amazon has coverage over practically all of Europe. The only explanation I can think of is that they couldn't make a deal with the local operators.

I believe Amazon use AT&T's roaming relationships rather than having to do deals with operators in each country, so the device is always using roaming data when it's not in the USA, thus the reason they turn off some of the features that use more bandwidth for international users.

Okay, that would explain it. Turns out that AT&T has no data roaming in Finland, at least according to this list: http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/dataconnect-...

It's AT&T who doesn't have a deal with Finnish operators and not Amazon, then. I still have to wonder why, though.

>better contrast

As a former kindle dx owner, I don't see that this changes anything. The real problem is the glacial refresh rate, which means the iPad is still a much better reader.

The kindle uses ePaper, which as you say has the disadvantage of a slow refresh rate, but the advantage that it is better visible in strong light.

Do you find that this trade-off is in the iPad's favour? i.e. that you never read in strong light, but all the books that you read require animation?

For me the major downside of the iPad for reading is not the lack of strong light tolerance, but the annoying glare on the screen. For me, the ipad is in the 'good-enough' league of eBooks.

Easily in the ipad's favor, yes. You encounter problems with the refresh rate when trying to read somewhat more complex books, eg anything that requires flipping back/forth, or large scanned books. Then the kindle browser is horrible, & I've been downloading educational videos from iTunes, etc. Id go as far as to say the kindle is only good for novels.

But yeah, the iPad glare is pretty bad, I have to read indoors.

I was surprised to find out how adequate the iPad is as a book reader, especially when using Amazon's Kindle app. I ended up buying more books from Amazon than from Apple because of the better choice available on Amazon's store.

The Kindle DX is way overpriced. It should cost $250 at most. The iPad and the coming Android tablets changed everything.

My problem isn't with the initial cost. But I honestly don't see myself paying 10 dollars for fake (well, you know what I mean) version of books that I can get used from the corner bookstore for a dollar or two.

Give me a selection of books older than 5-10 years at a discounted price (hint: the same cost as a new paperback at the time of release is NOT discounted), and charge me whatever you want for the Kindle itself.

Amazon is really aggressively pushing their Kindle platform. We've got the Android app just released, the price reduction of Kindle 2 to undercut the 3g Nook, the new improved and sleeker looking DX, and new Kindle 2's are $155 on Woot today.

That's all in about a weeks time.

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