Stories and lessons from working with Jeff Bezos on the original Kindle

Was just gearing up to type this. Onyx is a known GPL abuser and won't get a cent from me unless and until they fix that. Chinese company or otherwise, the FOSS community is clearly going to have to help support GPL when the courts can't or won't.

That sucks! Well, there are other notetaking e-ink devices out there which I hope are compliant with the GPL. ReMarkable is good for notetaking but I have heard it is not much use for actual reading. There is Supernote and Bouye Likebook which support notes as well. I'm not sure of their license compliance though, all I'm saying is that there are other options for those wanting that kind of device.

I am not a lawyer, so take this with the grain of salt it needs.

Can’t the FSF or other entity file an injunction against the company from selling in other countries by filing the lawsuit with said countries? Based on copyright infringement/licensing infringement (not sure here it would fall)

Again, Not a lawyer, but I feel like corporations have done this in the past

I know that the goodereader.com store has it and they ship world wide. I'm not affiliated with them and am considering buying one myself.

Strongly agree about the PocketBook website. It was so slow to load I assumed it was broken and left.

This product might appeal to someone who hasn't had an e-ink reader. Many people wrongly assume the experience with a Kindle will fatigue their eyes the same as reading on their phone or computer. In fact, it's very easy on the eyes.

I haven't owned another e-ink reader, but I've had a couple of Kindles and they offer a lot more than just downloading and storing books (although vacation readers like me appreciate those features too).

- Built in "backlighting" which is actually coming from the sides of the screen. Easy to read in dark rooms or direct sun

- Change fonts and font sizes to suit your preference. Near sighted readers can increase the font size. Open dyslexic is available. Now they're allowing user fonts so you can bring almost any font to the experience.

No web app is going to be better than an e ink screen. Reading a book on your phone is hard on your eyes and reading book on your desktop is way too clunky.

I don't have first hand experience with eReaders with pen digitizers. I've played with some devices owned by friends but I never had a device like that, which is quite odd considering I was a Apple Newton user, then iPAQ, and now my machine is a Surface, so I am all about pen computing. I know that someday I'll get one of those e-ink devices with pen support but I can't really recommend or talk about them besides telling you that they exist and some people really like them. One thing I've noticed is that note taking tends to be available in larger screen sizes. I think that is done so that using the device with fixed-layout media is easier. Most people who are doing annotations are doing it on top of PDF files from what I can tell.

As for smaller devices, I really enjoyed the Kobo Mini, all it missed was a frontlight but it was a device that came out at the same time that those features were moving from premium ereaders into budget ereaders. That device is discontinued (even though mine still works fine) and I recommend small devices for anyone reading fiction, people reading non-fiction, especially technical programming books should be better served with larger devices. Reading wrapped source code in a small device sucks.

I have been looking at a small device from Onyx but from what I have learned here is that Onyx appear to be a GPL violator, so I can't really recommend them even though they make very interesting devices. I think that between them, pockebook and Bouye there is a lot of action happening. Oh and there are multiple Chinese e-ink smartphones in the market, which might be tempting to some people but feels like "too early" for me.

Throughout the years I have used almost every single Kindle device all the way up to the Oasis, Kobo Mini and Forma, Nooks, and Odyssey rebranded devices. From that list you can see that I kinda married my choice of device with having some sort of large bookshop behind it. Kobo is the main competitor for Amazon, Nook had B&N behind it, and the rebranded Odyssey device had a large Brazilian shop backing it. I never owned those independent devices that were not being sold without a book distribution channel bundled with it. That was because I really hate Adobe Digital Editions and will go back to pen and paper before using that crap. Lucky for me many of the books I buy are being sold without DRM so I think that I'll soon be able to enjoy those more advanced and open ereaders in the near future. The Pocketbook Color is the one I'm currently interested in.

I think that the most important factor in chosing an eReader is first figuring out what you want to do with it. If you're buying because you're an avid reader that will consume a ton of fiction, the most important aspect becomes not the device but where you get your books from. In this case I'd recommend a Kobo mostly because I think that Rakuten is a better company for the publishing industry than Amazon and want to see more competition. Kobo devices are as good as Kindles. The only feature from the Oasis that I miss in my Kindle Forma is Audiobook support. Having to go to my phone to listen to my Kobo audiobook sucks.

If you're buying directly from the publishers with non-DRM epubs then you can use anything you like (except the Kindle, you can still use it but it require some hops). In this case it is good to checkout what those independent vendors are selling.

If you're interested in buying your first e-ink device, I'd recommend you pick a cheap entry level offer. Don't go spend a lot in a premium device such as the Oasis or the Forma without actually knowing if such devices are for you. I'm OK paying a ton to have multiple premium devices because not only I fancy myself as an author but because books are an integral part of how I see myself and experience the world. Since my younger years all the way to my current 40s, books have always been a constant source of knowledge and happiness for me, so I can burn some money towards devices that makes such experience better.

Some non-Amazon brands you might want to check out:

* Rakuten Kobo: I consider them Amazon main rivals. I really enjoy "Kobo Writing Life" achievement system which gamifies your reading experience; Overdrive which lets me borrow books from my local libraries; Pocket integration that allows me to send articles from the web to my device. https://kobo.com

* Pocketbook: A major European device maker that just released a quite impressive color e-ink device. Be aware that their site sucks. https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/catalog/color/color-ch

* Supernote: A device for those that want to take notes. https://supernote.com/

* ReMarkable: Kind of the gold standard in note taking, really. https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2

* Bouye: They make nice ereaders. I coudn't find their site but it is easy to find their devices available in online shops. Never used one.

* Sony Digital Paper: Yes, that Sony, they make some kickasss digital notetaking devices. https://www.sony.com/electronics/digital-paper-systems/t/dig... (so does Fujitsu, check them out as well).

* HiSense: is making ereaders and e-ink smartphones.

Barnes & Noble still selling Nooks and Amazon of course has Kindles. Aliexpress has a ton of devices as well, mostly running unlocked Android, but the experience of using such devices might not appeal to you as they tend to be a bit half-baked in terms of UX.

Check the link I posted on the parent comment, the refresh rate is not bad at all.

And I think the critical implementation of that was "firing" Steve Kessel. Don't have him worry about his old P&L at the same time.

> Which eReader is better than the Kindle in the same price range?

Kobo. But how is this relevant here?

But the opposite could be argued as well? Taking on a new disruptive problem is a huge risk, and big corps are generally risk averse...

The touchscreen makes the Kindle unusable with one-hand operation. I'm glad the Oasis went back (at least partially) to buttons, though the buttons are too small.

The Kindle 3 did buttons right. You don't even need to push the page advance/retreat buttons, just flex your palm holding the Kindle. Very nice.

> It’s also possible that people who read on these devices aren’t tech savvy enough to care about how awful of an experience it is.

Absolutely.

Some people who don't quite "get" computers seem to find it really difficult what they should expect from a device. They can have a laptop that needs 5 minutes to boot and a broken mouse that jumps to a random location on the screen once every minute, and the only thing they'll complain about is that Windows doesn't let them select a lot of files properly(because the mouse jumps around like crazy).

The skit in IT Crowd with the "laptop from the exorcist" is sometimes more accurate than one might like.

I think for the reasons mentioned in the tweets we are all commenting on.

Maybe a tablet maker will one day add a second, e-ink screen to the back of the tablet and run the Kindle app on it.

There is actually competition to the Kindle, although you often wouldn't know it, reading "mainstream" US-centric forums such as HN.

Kobo offers a complete ecosystem similar to the Kindle, with bookstore, devices and syncing. There are a number of regional players as well in this space.

Then, of course, there are all the device makers that simply expect you to bring your own content.

Dan Luu has some insight into it:

https://danluu.com/input-lag/

Apparently, Kindles are the worst in the terms of input latency and performance, but then this is also expected given their specification and the price point.

Maybe it was a Remarkable [1] ? A new version is coming out soon.

[1] https://remarkable.com

If Sony then perhaps this: Sony DPT-RP1/B 13” Digital Paper https://www.amazon.com/Sony-DPT-RP1-13-Digital-Paper/dp/B072...

reMarkable would perhaps fall in the same category (eInk readers which are miles ahead of Kindle) https://remarkable.com/

Same is true of goodreads. Amazon have their market lock now, it’s the IE6 phase now. (Except it was way easier to get people off IE6 than it will be to get them off the platform with all of their books.)

Perhaps it’s “done”. Overdoing products is a massive problem these days.

The answer is very simple

Amazon didn't want to expand on Kindle functionality because

1) They were scared people would stop reading books

2) They were scared of it becoming something they couldn't control

3) They have their heads up their asses and think they can make software and hardware better than anyone else when all they can make is stuff like Kindle and Kindle Fire Phone and other useless crap

you know how originally Steve Jobs didn't want an App Store on iPhone

That's what Amazon was like

They are control freaks

EXCEPT

they are useless at hardware and software as far as it comes to devices (Kindle Fire Phone is a good example of how bad, though Kindle is also devolving fast)

Also they can't make a good ecosystem because they screw over everyone they work with

You see it in AWS where they copied and cloned successful AWS companies

You see it in Alexa where they steal ideas from companies in the Alexa Fund etc

It was the same story in Kindle eInk App Store

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We built apps for eInk and all the other developers who worked on its shared the same sentiment we did. None of the developers could believe how bad Amazon were at working with devs

It was the most godawful experience you could ever imagine working with anyone on anything

A) They were so bad at letting apps go out to customers they had to close down the app store

B) For every app that did well they started contacting other developers to clone the App

That's why you saw 2 of everything. One high quality version, and then a cheap clone because Amazon's mindset was to have 2 or 3 of everything that started selling well

So all the early developers who spent money and time on it, instead of getting rewarded, got screwed

C) I had an Amazon guy literally tell me on the phone - You've already made $200,000 this year. Why do you want to make more? Our development costs were not even covered with $200,000

D) We had one hit game in one area. Let's say (just as an example) card games. We had a separate card game pending approval, Game X. They kept delaying it

Meanwhile an Android developer contacted us saying - You guys have this card game. How is it doing? Because Amazon is contacting us saying card games are hot and asking us to make Game X

So, we put in the effort to do R&D and discovered card games were hot

And they stopped our READY FOR LAUNCH app in the same area (card games) and started contacting other developers to make that same app. It's the kind of stuff you can't even imagine a business partner ever doing to you

*

E) They kept one set of developers (ones who they thought 'had already made enough money') completely out of launch of the Kindle Paperwhite

So some of the people who invested in their Kindle eInk App Store, they Screwed over by purposefully keeping out many of them from the launch of the new device

What is crazy is they invited other developers to clone the same apps

Many of those were low quality devs from 3rd world countries who were asked to make clone apps. They found some unknown company from India (no disrespect, just implying that it was not some known game studio) to clone our card game app and launch for Kindle paperwhite (while our game was kept out)

So our apps were kept out of launch and meanwhile low quality knockoffs of our apps were sent to customers

We literally had customers emailing and writing reviews complaining 'why is it not available for Kindle Paperwhite'

*

you might be talking about the Sony eReader

It was the first mainstream eInk based reader. Amazon takes all the credit but Sony did it first

All Amazon did was get lots of authors to offer free books and use that to get market share. Now everyone thinks Amazon invented eReaders and eBooks

Well, guess in a sense they did as history is written by the winners

Amazon is very good where it can get subsidies from the government (no sales tax, USPS special rates) or where it can make a platform and invite people in and later screw them over and replace them with someone else

AWS is pretty impressive

Sooner or later they are going to run out of affiliates/developers/companies/suppliers to screw over

If that was the first-gen device, sure. But in comparison to older models, Kindle keeps regressing UX-wise. Before my Paperwhite, I owned the old keyboard version with no touchscreen, and it was much more useful as a device - it was easier to take notes, and it even made sense to use the built-in browser.

(Not that touchscreens are bad per se, but the responsiveness of the screens/whole OS on Paperwhite is bad.)

I have a 2nd-generation Paperwhite that I haven’t used in a couple of years because it keeps slowing down a few weeks after booting. It also slows down immediately if I sideload more than a handful of e-book files. I switched to an iPad Mini and never looked back.

I share a bed with my partner, and even the paperwhite is nearly too bright on its lowest setting for her. A tablet on low is a total non-starter.

An e-reader battery lasts longer than a phone. Also, there are no temptations to constantly check news or social media (or even Amazon’s ecosystem: my Kindle has been in airplane mode since the very minute I unboxed it). I don't even take my phone into the bedroom because it is a proven source of distraction and poor sleep, but a Kindle allows me to do some long and productive reading at night or when I wake up in the morning.

Maybe because Bezos stops being involved and there is nobody inside the company who dares to change whatever Bezos has implemented?

Reading the tweets, it seems like Bezos made all the important decisions. If he is not around because he is focussed on other projects, who could do it instead? Judging by the story that Bezos didn't allow any pixel to be changed on the Amazon homepage, I can imagine that this is a pattern and whoever tried to implement a change doesn't dare to try it again.

From my experience at Amazon, products launch, and then the team starts building the next thing, and the previous thing only gets mandatory attention from then on. There was always just too much to work on to completely polish anything.

Prime video seems to have fleshed out its content with a lot of old, obscure, niche documentaries. Fortunately, I like old, obscure, niche documentaries and enjoy watching them. Netflix seems to stick with only mainstream content.

You need a 300ppi display. Then you won't have a reason to complain about quality. The Paperwhite 3 looks amazing.

> very shoddily digitized versions

Funny you should mention that. I usually watch old movies with the closed captioning on, and it's clear the captioning isn't even proofread. Lots of times it will be a sound-alike word that doesn't fit in the sentence. Perhaps they employ non-native English speakers to type in the text.

Location numbers, for "go to location".

I would concur with you if the latency of e-paper was similar to a LCD screen, but it is not. Typing in the Kindle PW is a really bad experience.

Most people don't take notes. It depends what you're reading for I guess - if you're reading for pleasure there's little reason to take notes IMO.

yes

there is one other factor that people are missing

there are over a million self published authors. They are all sending people to Amazon to buy books

Those book pages have ads for other stuff

The amount of money coming from that is not insignificant

To give you some idea. I know at least 4 people who were making $50,000+ a month from affiliate sales

Of course, most of them got screwed like all other affiliates

However, 90% of the money was from stuff other than what they were sending people to Amazon for

*

1 million authors, all desperate to get their books to readers, spending money on Facebook Ads and newspapers and radios

sending readers to Amazon

I know, I love it. It's there, but it's so bad that it's not keeping me from the eBooks for any appreciable amount of time, the actual intent behind the device.

Somebody would have created an ebook if not for Amazon. They were just well placed to do so, but they didn't invent any of the technology or concepts.

Much like Apple and touchscreen phones, or Tesla and electric cars. The might have advanced the tech by a couple of years but they were profiting off the inevitable.

>Perhaps a little bit breathless, but it was an amazing thing at the time.

I bought the first kindle and I thought it was great but "amazing" is a bit much. E-readers already existed, Amazon's main selling point was their catalog and aggressive pricing. I mean the Sony Reader predates the Kindle and is technically fairly similar AFAIK: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Sony_Rea...

On top of that e-paper readers so far have effectively been a fad, conventional smartphones and tablets have taken over pretty dramatically. Paper books are also going nowhere. So the impact of the Kindle is negligible when compared to something like the iPhone, that completely changed the standard for a mobile phone.

he might even have been "right", just won. so many "successful" products/services won despite the complete clownness of their founders.

sure, probably there are some small degree of correlation (and maybe even some kind of causal influence) between being a hard to work with hard worker (eg being a stubborn visionary who can kind of execute their vision), but that's probably due to how the world is currently set up, those are not universal rules of success. they worked in those scenarios, but might be completely maladaptive in others. (Eg Theranos trying to fake it till making it was a big no-no, but Uber sort of hit gold with it in the US.)

I recall shaving one or two bytes off one of the cell messages shaved something like $7MM off the monthly AT&T bill...

Some of the stuff they say are completely inaccurate

He claims Kindle as the first ereader to use an eInk screen

Sony ereader launched a YEAR before and had an eink screen

Also this guy seems to be a worshipper rather than an unbiased or somewhat objective observer

The photo of the wreck http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/amazons-jeff-bezos-helicop...