Amazon Kindle (ebook thingy)

http://i.imgur.com/wW87h.jpg

I was on Amazon looking at the comparison chart of features between different models of Kindle. I was trying to figure out if the most basic e-ink Kindle or the paperwhite had an earphone jack and the ability to play MP3s. The chart didn't list MP3 as a supported file format and claimed those two Kindles had zero "audio support". This seems rather incredible to me.

My question is, was Amazon just overlooking these simple and obvious features and they really exist on all the Kindles? Or did they actually cripple the cheap ones that much?

my entry-level kobo doesn't have mp3 playback. at only 2GB it wouldn't be much use as a player anyway, but 2GB is >1000 books.

yeah I don't think the basic e-ink Nooks, Kindles, etc are meant to do anything but display books. That's actually what I like about my nook. There's no clicking away to check this or that or futz with the music.

I don't need mega-capacity for the music. I am thinking of using the Kindle while camping. I could scrape by with 200 songs and maybe only 100 books for the couple of weeks I'd be out.

No more audio support for eInk Kindles. I think the Kindle Touch has it, but not the Paperwhite.

No text-to-speech at all then? I don't really use it but I know a few people who do.

the old kindles had an experimental mp3 player option, it was really shitty though. new ones don't have it.

The idea was that people who wanted audio features would buy a Kindle Fire. Almost nobody used the audio on the eInk Kindles.

The el cheapo reader I had before I got a nook, the Skytex Primer, does everything. MP3s, videos, voice memos... sadly the battery life SUXXORZ.

I see that Amazon sells a refurbished Kindle Touch. It has a tiny speaker and MP3 support. Thanks for the tip, schwantz. I'm now thinking hard about getting one.

The front light on the Paperwhite is pretty nice, though. Don't want to bring your phone (in Airplane mode) camping? Or maybe buy a little iPod shuffle?

Everytime i buy a kindle book they try to get me to buy the audio version too so that's where the text to speech went

I feel like it's a bad look to have a product line where the more expensive version lacks features one of the cheaper versions has. This always just makes me throw up my hands and want to buy something else.

No smart phone for me. I am a geezer and I have mostly fallen off the techno-bus. I can see the attraction of the iPhone as a do-all gadget, but I've always shyed away from the stiff monthly service charges and my extremely barebones cell phone is of the no-contract type.

I feel like it's a bad look to have a product line where the more expensive version lacks features one of the cheaper versions has. This always just makes me throw up my hands and want to buy something else.

― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Thursday, January 17, 2013 12:08 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eh i kinda like that they've stripped out the extraneous stuff and made this a device just for reading, nothing else. kinda wish they'd take out the shitty web browser too.

The Kindle Paperwhite is the next year's version of the Kindle Touch, not a higher-end version (at least in Amazon's way of thinking).

and the mp3 capabilities were always listed as an "experimental" feature

Its mp3 capabilities are/were very limited but I managed to play an ebook from emusic using them

Is the Paperwhite worth getting as opposed to some other basic eReader? I have a lot of ebooks I want to read on something other than my computer monitor and I don't need anything fancy but I do want something nice that will last awhile. A friend of mine got some no-brand reader and it really sucked. Its battery stopped keeping a charge within two weeks and its screen was really dark.

if youre going camping get a regular kindle cuz the battery lasts forever, the kindle fire prob only lasts like 8 hours

the lighting and battery life are both really really nice. the only thing with the lighting is that it has some unevenness near the bottom of the screen - it's not awful but it is noticeable and would probably irritate some people. i think it's the way to go though, mainly because amazon's library is so much larger than what you would have access to with an anonymous ereader.

I don't know if that was directed towards me but I am definitely not going camping.

Naw, i'm the guy going camping.

i've seen the paperwhite light, were i you i might well get a separate clip-on light and a normal kindle touch aimless (have you a way to charge the light? mine charges off the same usb as the kindle itself).

i've got the fabled 4gb kindle keyboard with mp3 capability, never used that feature. used the browser a lot travelling last year tho.

My wife loves the Paperwhite.

haha that sounds like a druggy euphemism

i have a regular kindle and i couldn't be happier that all it does is display books. no music, no internet, no thanks. just books and my highlights/notes.

love my keyboard model, but tbrr i could drop the keyboard, mp3, browser, landscape mode and text-to-voice and it would only improve it. not worth getting a new one but they're not features i'd lose any sleep over.

i thought i would miss the keyboard in moving to the new one but i really haven't

somehow i've switched to reading everything on my new phone's kindle app :/

like 700 pages of the Instructions so far

honestly the biggest reason is because the backlit screen disturbs my girlfriend less at night than the light from the kindle case (which in turn was a big improvement from having a lamp on).

Carl really likes her paperwhite.

honestly, I think if you want to listen to mp3s while reading, you should get a cheap mp3 player

one of the great things about the entry level kindle is that it doesn't do five billion things

<3 my Paperwhite
I had a previous version with the cover w/ a built-in light at the corner and there's no comparison in evenness of light and ease of reading.
Also finding that being able to read comfortably in my pitch black bedroom helps my concentration immensely.

only thing that would improve the Paperwhite are physical page turning buttons

Also, the ability to shoot bullets.

Sorry, Milo, cheap shot, I concede. :)

it doesn;t have the buttons?!!

tho they have a pleasingly solid tiny click that drives a person mad at night

I thought I'd really miss the buttons (I still have my version 2 Kindle keyboard), but was surprised how natural it was to turn pages on a Touch when I picked up my daughter's.

ditto my kobo mini. also seems pretty resistant to fingerprints, which i thought would be a problem.

the one problem is picking it up without page turning - the bezel is quite small and the slightest touch on the screen is enough. and it's hard to tell which direction the page has turned (there's no animation) so you have to guess how to undo it. i've taken to bookmarking every 2 or 3 pages rather than let it remember my place.

out of the loop on actually *buying* books for these things (or equivalent). is paying hardback price for a new novel the norm? will it come down when the paperback is out?

no the norm is for the kindle version to be cheaper, hardbacks often in the $25-$30 range while the kindle version is usually in the $12-$15 range

but since the publisher sets the price, there is variation

ok fuck bloomsbury then.

ledge, they are often in the same order of magnitude in the uk. think hydrogen sonata, say, is £9.49 digital and £20rrp physical but the physical is available for £12 or so (amazon)

Never found much difference except in the ease of thieving it. Over to you mr pubisher.

classic typo

player of games, is £6.29 paperback, £4.99 digital so it appears that the digital price does come down with the release of the paperback. which i find slightly illogical.

over in Kobo world, they appear to be selling bundles. there's an alastair reynolds bundle of all 7 of the revelation space universe books for, oh, it was £15 last time i looked, now £28. less of a bargain...