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Comment by luigi | Hacker News Reader

I've owned a Kindle 2 (returned it within 30 days), Nook Touch (sold it), Kindle Touch (soon to sell it), and now the Kindle Paperwhite.

The Paperwhite is clearly superior to all of them. Gruber's points are all extremely nitpicky.

(1) It's not a big deal to move your thumb an inch to tap the screen. The device is so light that I suspect it would be hard to make a button with just the right resistance so that it could be easily pressed while holding it in one hand. But seriously, moving your thumb isn't hard. Gruber also harps on not being able to operate large screen Android phones with one hand. Just use both hands for crying out loud.

(2) The default Caecilia font is great. I think it's beautiful. Gruber loved picking on Droid Sans, but I think that's a great font too.

It's a worthy upgrade to any of the previous e-ink Kindles.

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Page turning buttons are the killer feature for me. I've tried reading for 4-5 hours with the touch, and having to the screen all the time made it as bad as reading on an iPad for me. The font is also kind of crappy, but I can live with it - not really a make-it/break-it deal.

After reading on the Gen1, and Gen2, I've stuck with a Gen 3 Kindle, and I'm hoping Amazon comes out with an eReader with a combination of backlighting (I have the Leather case with Light) and great buttons. (The Gen3 are a little stiff - much, much better than the "You touch it, you turn the pages Gen1" - but still not what I'm really looking for - I guess button are really hard to do properly.)

I'm also hoping for better battery life - I usually blow through my battery in a couple days of heavy reading, so I always end up having to carry a hyperjuice when camping to get through a full week of reading - it would be great to have a kindle that gives you a full week of nonstop reading.

> Page turning buttons are the killer feature for me. ... having to (touch) the screen all the time made it as bad as reading on an iPad for me

This is the exact reason that I have 2 Kindle's on my nightstand now. I much prefer the Kindle Keyboard because of it's page turning buttons. However, the Paperwhite has replaced my iPad as my reading device of choice for after my wife goes to sleep.

Concerning #2: I would love to hear a discussion on why Caecilia is great, or not in this instance. Or why font __ is great, or not in this instance. Gruber goes into that a little (which is insightful), however as most typography related discussions I see, it often comes down to "I prefer this or that and so don't like how they used this other one instead." But why? Do cases exist where it is strictly personal preference? In that case why bother pointing it out? Or is the actual reason not known? Or is it laziness?

Typography-tuned-people often claim there's a right way and wrong way, which is probably true. However it's fascinating to think that a vast majority of people aren't tuned into the existence of the subtleties, affected (true?), or care about most of the subtleties -- possibly because the actual impact it has is very very minimal. (Again, is it?)

> Gruber's points are all extremely nitpicky.

That's what we pay him for, isn't it?

>(1) It's not a big deal to move your thumb an inch to tap the screen.

No, but it IS annoying.

"It's not big deal" is defensive. It conveys the opposite message, that it _is_ kind of a deal.

Nope, not annoying either.

Oh, well, if Luigi says so.

Leave a little room for the possibility that others are annoyed by things that you are willing to tolerate.

Leave a little room for the possibility that John Gruber is annoyed by things that other humans do not notice.

I was immediately bummed when they announced the new Kindle without hardware page turn buttons. It was one of the best parts of the Kindle for me. It's a perfectly defensible gripe.

It's what is preventing me from purchasing it. The cheapest kindle has perfect page turn button placement. All I need it to do is turn on and turn pages, and when one of those is worse than what the cheaper model can do, I'm going for the cheaper model.

Ditto. I was going to upgrade for the light, but the lack of buttons are making me hold off. I can leave the lamp on. I love just barely squeezing my hand together to turn the page. It's almost a non-movement.

It's especially annoying to me, as I typically hold the book in my left hand. Now I have to either swipe right to left, or reach my thumb across the (invisible) previous-page touch area to hit the next-page area, or hold it with my right hand. Changing pages with my Kindle Keyboard was much more automatic, and I miss it. I wouldn't go back, though, the lighting and everything else makes it worthwhile.

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