Hacker News Reader

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.)

It’s the IE6 when it comes to rendering quality too. Zero support for any sort of standards, bugs everywhere you look, and it’s users complain bitterly if you don’t go out of your way to support their entrenched ways of working.

I use goodreads as well and find the UI/UX very old fashioned. The lag is astonishing as well. What are some issues you have with it?

The mobile app is horrible. It's a webview or something, and works like total crap on old devices. If you open a notification for a group discussion post, it tells you what the title of the discussion is--but not what group it's for.

As much as possible, I find myself interacting with Goodreads through calibre plugins; I've got a library with zero actual book files that contains an entry for every book in my library, and I mainly use that to browse my collection. Since syncing that list takes so long, my actual calibre libraries are also synced to Goodreads, as that's where I actually make my changes.

With Library thing's recent removal of library limits, I'm thinking more and more about abandoning Goodreads--except I don't know if there's a calibre plugin for PT, and I've spent so much time adding and updating book records for items in my goodreads library, which would have to be redone for LT.

FYI the mobile opera browser uses the webview and is superfast, but the Kindle app is all native code.

Kindle and Goodreads I think are both crap for the same reason: the goal is to kill the competition not make great products.

Amazon should never have been allowed to buy Goodreads.

The barrier to entry for an alternative to Goodreads isn’t exactly high. But does anyone care enough to do so?

The barrier is actually quite high. Sure, its easy to make a CRUD app that would aggregate ratings. The difficult part is to get people to use it instead of the leader. These are called network effects, and they are very hard to break.

This is why big social media sites have such high valuations. Any small group could develop an alternative to Facebook. However, the chances of that usurping them is almost zero. The same goes for Goodreads.

The barrier was not high. Now that it’s baked into Kindle (automatic sync, instant review, etc), Goodreads has a significant moat.

The problem with Goodreads is more than just an old-fashioned website. The community there, the whole "social" angle of the site, has been taken over by the same phenomena as on Amazon.com: publishers send free copies of their books to certain reviewers, who often don’t even actually read the book before writing their review, and then those reviewers exploit this attention to build up their own reputations as "influencers" and eventually monetize those reputations. Because their reviews have bright colours and image memes, and cliques support each other with mutual likes, those reviews show up at the top of any book listing.

If you are one of those reviewers who honestly reads and reviews books, then you can feel like your signal is lost in the noise of the shill reviewers. Also, for those who were initially interested in what their real-life friends were reading, the majority of those IRL friends will have dropped off the site over the years, either because of a natural attrition or because they have come to prefer snackable web content over books.

This is actually what I was trying to get at: GoodReads could be so much better, but that would require the maintainers to care. And they don’t, because they’ve got the market lock and have moved into other things. Like Microsoft did with IE6.

Agree completely the broken community is much more important than the aged look of the website.

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/

As far as I can see, that device costs around $1000 (can't see the exact price on the page you shared because I'm not in a country that Amazon deliver to). I would expect it to be much, much better than a kindle when it costs four times as much.

The 10" one seems to cost $380 or so.

Sony Digital Paper costs around $700 for 13.3"; Kindle Oasis $270 for 7". Considering Amazon's scale they can easily bring 'Sony's type' of reader price down considerably if they choose to make such device.

https://gizmodo.com/sonys-beautiful-e-ink-tablet-made-me-fee...

Sony has the same scale. It's the scale of sales not manuf that dictates the price. Not sure if you remember the Kindle DX. It did not sell well but boy did I covet one.

I bought a DX. It's still a wonderful machine. I worry when the battery fails and it'll be gone for good.

I recently replaced the battery in my Kindle Keyboard (I love physical buttons). It was easier to replace than I expected, and after half a year of daily use, haven't noticed any issues with the battery.

There are probably at least a few good places to buy replacement batteries; I got mine from batteryship dot com. I have zero association with them except that I bought this one battery, and will probably buy a phone battery from them in the future.

Thanks for the tip!

The DPT-RP1 linked to is now discontinued, and has unfortunate reviews that seem to indicate the potential went to waste:

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/sony-digital-paper-dpt-rp1

"Sony is creating a new version of their Digital Paper 13.3 to replace the aging DPT-RP1 that came out in 2017. It was supposed to be released this year, but the company made the internal decision in Japan to delay it until April or May 2020. Sony Japan primarily designs the Digital Paper and they do the manufacturing in China. The software experience is undergoing a bit of a tweak, due to professional feedback from their business customers in the US."

https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/next-generat...

[Edit]

Sony might be closing down the Digital Paper division

https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/sony-might-b...

Is it discontinued? I couldn't find it on Sony's site, only covers and accessories for it.

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

[1] https://remarkable.com

I used it initially for sometime but then slowly fell back to the iPad. I mean the comparison between an iPad and Kindle/Remarkable isn’t fair, but if a tablet is the go-to form-factor for books and note-taking, I’d stick to the iPad.

There was a time when e-ink seemed pretty compelling versus a tablet for certain uses, but that gap has shrunk to the point where it's hard to justify another special purpose device. I do have a Paperwhite in addition to an iPad but honestly don't use it very much. don't want to travel with yet another device and the iPad is actually a much better reader if the book isn't just flowing text.

Tablets are too large and heavy for use cases that eink readers can fulfill. Nobody's going to hold up an iPad one handed over their head while lying in bed. Months of battery life make them more of a book than a tablet will ever be.

They're also so small and light I don't even question putting them in a travel bag.

In the tablet vs laptop for travel I'm going to go laptop every time. So laptop + Kindle.

For a short trip, I'll sometimes take laptop and Kindle. But, especially for long plane trips, I can't comfortably use a laptop and a tablet just gives me a lot more entertainment options. (It's also sometimes useful for taking notes by hand.)

And to another comment, yes the Kindle is small and light but it's something else I need to keep track of so I tend not to bring laptop + tablet + Kindle. (And I've never been able to make an iPad work for me as a laptop replacement.)

My backpacks have these real small pockets for notepads still. Kindle just goes in there. On really long trips (Australia for a month) I bring all 3. Well actually I also brought my Switch, NC headphones, monster battery, and work laptop (loaner 13" mb) as well as personal. I had to pay the extra fee on carry ons on Jetstar (and it did get weighed).

Really tablet is just crappy movie watcher or smaller webpage reader. Having all this was good since on that trip my SSD de-soldered itself from my motherboard on my Laptop, forcing me to use USB Sticks and turn it into a $3200 chrome book.

I basically equate the kindle to a charging or backup set of wireless earbuds in weight.

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

*

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

You know, I've been reading books on my Kindle device(s) for probably 9 or 10 years now, on a monthly to daily basis, and had no idea there was an app store or apps for kindles.

Sony's original reader was crippled in many many ways. I considered buying one back in the depths of time before the g2 Kindle came out. The I used a g2, and bought it right then and there (while sitting at the bar at a Texas Roadhouse).

For context Sony's reader required a windows app. Kindle had whispernet.

I wasn't a huge fan of either company at the time but ended up working at both in the following years.

You really need to organize your thoughts better, I have no clue what you’re trying to say here but it sounds interesting.

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

If you mean the kindle is not advancing because it's "done", no way. Objectively, it's a pretty terrible device. The reason it hasn't advanced is lack of competition.

I have one. It works flawlessly for me

This both is and isn't the case for me.

I read fiction on a Kindle oasis. Its fantastic. I can't think of a single improvement.

Its impossible for me to work with technical materials on the Kindle. Specs, tutorials, tech blogs, tech books. All are unusable because of resizing figures.

That’s always been the case for technical content. The form factor and the document structures are fairly unsuited to pocket devices. I use mine for fiction only.

I crank out the desktop for technical content almost universally. iPad doesn’t cut it either.

But at the same time I have actual physical books for very technical stuff. They are still easier to use.

The trouble is all the things you would need for reading technical material (large size, note taking, etc) would detract from what you need to read fiction.

They probably should be two different devices. Personally I'm waiting for the new Remarkable.

That's why I still have a Kindle DX. It's way out of updates and it's very slow, but it still works.

> I read fiction on a Kindle oasis. Its fantastic. I can't think of a single improvement.

I have one and I can. The case is too slippery. It's hard to operate one-handed while lying on the couch because it slips out of your hand. My old Kindle 3 is very easy to operate one-handed at any angle, no slipping.

Sync hasn't worked for me in months. Let's hope they start 'overdoing' the kindle any day now.