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Amazon Kindle |OT| of eInk superiority

Frostburn

Member
If the bezel on all but the button side were thinner, it was waterproof and costs $250 with the leather charge cover I'd probably be in. It is thin (besides the side with the buttons) but beyond that and the fact that it comes with an official cover I just don't see enough of an improvement to justify the extra cost. I currently use the Voyage.
 
If the bezel on all but the button side were thinner, it was waterproof and costs $250 with the leather charge cover I'd probably be in. It is thin (besides the side with the buttons) but beyond that and the fact that it comes with an official cover I just don't see enough of an improvement to justify the extra cost. I currently use the Voyage.

I was getting worried I'd regret my recent-ish Voyage purchase when I saw there was an announcement coming out. I no longer have this worry.
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
I know it's been said a billion times, but I just can't understand justifying the Oasis over a Voyage... furthermore, I don't know how many people justify the Voyage over the PW. I have a first gen PW, and it's FANTASTIC. Damn near perfect. The PW2 is supposed to be better.

*shrug*

20 month battery life is pretty awesome, tho
 

Nymerio

Member
I'm on a first gen PW as well and I'm usually someone who goes for the newest stuff, but with the kindle I just can't find a reason to upgrade. The upgrades seem far to incremental to me and there's no way I'm getting an Oasis for that price.
 

yyzjohn

Banned
I know it's been said a billion times, but I just can't understand justifying the Oasis over a Voyage... furthermore, I don't know how many people justify the Voyage over the PW. I have a first gen PW, and it's FANTASTIC. Damn near perfect. The PW2 is supposed to be better.

*shrug*

20 month battery life is pretty awesome, tho


Except it's not 20 month battery life, Amazon's site says 8 weeks battery life.
 
Hey guys, I want to upgrade my Glo.

Thinking Glo HD is the better option for me, but I'm pulled in by Paperwhite 3.

Is epub to mobi conversion flawless? I dont want the headache of dealing with conversions that are missing page numbers or have text misaligned or whatever

My only other issue with Paperwhite is that there is no way to track reading stats for free. Glo HD seems like it's totally on par with the Paperwhite 3. Is there anything from a hardware or software perspective that makes PW3 superior?

I think I can live without reading stats if the conversions are perfectly flawless. I *think* PW3 is superior in terms of build and hardware, but I swear Ive been reading that the Kobo Glo HD actually has the superior screen/lighting for once.
 
Hey guys, I want to upgrade my Glo.

Thinking Glo HD is the better option for me, but I'm pulled in by Paperwhite 3.

Is epub to mobi conversion flawless? I dont want the headache of dealing with conversions that are missing page numbers or have text misaligned or whatever

My only other issue with Paperwhite is that there is no way to track reading stats for free. Glo HD seems like it's totally on par with the Paperwhite 3. Is there anything from a hardware or software perspective that makes PW3 superior?

I think I can live without reading stats if the conversions are perfectly flawless. I *think* PW3 is superior in terms of build and hardware, but I swear Ive been reading that the Kobo Glo HD actually has the superior screen/lighting for once.

Use Calibre for conversions. Every epub book I've bought has converted perfectly. I would suggest you convert them to AZW3 format though for more formatting options. The options I use in Calibre for each conversion are:

(Go to "Common Options" in the Conversion settings menu)

8ZbGxqD.jpg


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fgRtIzz.jpg


iYH4cGu.jpg


(There is a "Kindle Paperwhite 3" setting under the one I have marked)

I can't answer the questions about comparing hardware (never used a Glo, not familiar with it), but at least if you do get one you don't have to worry about bad conversions. Also, I would recommend installing the Hypenate plugin for Calibre as well for even better formatting. If you want some screenshots of a book a formatted using these options, let me know.
 
Use Calibre for conversions. Every epub book I've bought has converted perfectly. I would suggest you convert them to AZW3 format though for more formatting options. The options I use in Calibre for each conversion are:

(Go to "Common Options" in the Conversion settings menu)



I can't answer the questions about comparing hardware (never used a Glo, not familiar with it), but at least if you do get one you don't have to worry about bad conversions. Also, I would recommend installing the Hypenate plugin for Calibre as well for even better formatting. If you want some screenshots of a book a formatted using these options, let me know.

As long as I dont get weird hyphens or margin errors or weird symbols, etc I dont mind.

I just want a conversion that works. I have heard that mobi is outdated compared to the one you mentioned. So it's flawless, eh? I dont mind tweaking a few options in Calibre, I just hate to imagine that I have to do it for each book.

Is it possible to turn off the recommendations on the home screen? I dont mean the ad banner, but the list of books that appear. If so, is it replaced with more books from your library? Seems like it takes up half the home screen.

I dont really mind the recommendations, but would prefer not to see them. I hate the idea of the ads you have to pay to remove, but Ill get over that.

Im strangely drawn to the new Kindle homescreen. It looks really neat and clean.

And since it's almost Mother's Day, do you guys expect to see a sale?
 
As long as I dont get weird hyphens or margin errors or weird symbols, etc I dont mind.

I just want a conversion that works. I have heard that mobi is outdated compared to the one you mentioned. So it's flawless, eh? I dont mind tweaking a few options in Calibre, I just hate to imagine that I have to do it for each book.

Is it possible to turn off the recommendations on the home screen? I dont mean the ad banner, but the list of books that appear. If so, is it replaced with more books from your library? Seems like it takes up half the home screen.

I dont really mind the recommendations, but would prefer not to see them. I hate the idea of the ads you have to pay to remove, but Ill get over that.

Im strangely drawn to the new Kindle homescreen. It looks really neat and clean.

And since it's almost Mother's Day, do you guys expect to see a sale?

Once you set those settings, you never have to touch them again. They will automatically be applied each time you convert a book. I've never seen any strange margin errors or symbols. I've converted over 100 books. I highly suggest you get the Hyphenate plugin too, since that will keep everything uniform. You apply Hyphenate to the book after you convert to AZW3. You can batch convert a bunch of books at once if you'd prefer.

You can turn off recommendations for the home screen. It will show 6 books per page. With the ads, yeah they suck, but I got them removed by politely asking Amazon customer service. But, wait before you ask them though, you don't want to ask the day you get your kindle. ;)

And yes, I usually see them have a deal on Mother's Day. Since it's so close, may as well wait and see.
 
Once you set those settings, you never have to touch them again. They will automatically be applied each time you convert a book. I've never seen any strange margin errors or symbols. I've converted over 100 books. I highly suggest you get the Hyphenate plugin too, since that will keep everything uniform. You apply Hyphenate to the book after you convert to AZW3. You can batch convert a bunch of books at once if you'd prefer.

You can turn off recommendations for the home screen. It will show 6 books per page. With the ads, yeah they suck, but I got them removed by politely asking Amazon customer service. But, wait before you ask them though, you don't want to ask the day you get your kindle. ;)

And yes, I usually see them have a deal on Mother's Day. Since it's so close, may as well wait and see.

Thank you!

Can you show me a pic of the home without the book recommendations + ads please?
 

Josh5890

Member
Does anyone with a 3rd generation Kindle Fire have these similar problems?

My e-books keep disappearing from my device. Most of them are my college textbooks, which is what I purchased this for in the first place. Sometimes I go to open them and the device won't let me. Other times the books disappear altogether. It is aggrivating since I bought this mainly as an e-reader for textbooks and I keep comng up with these problems.

I also have similar problems with documents that I create and save. They magically disappear as soon as I save it.
 
So, I decided to consider the Voyage...

Until I realized it was $300 Canadian! So disappointed.

If it matched the U.S $200 price tag, I could have probably bit during the Mother's Day sale. Seems like the build quality + uniform screen + page press are all really worth the upgrade.

Do you Voyagers use the Page press feature? I imagine it feels as useful as a button, simply having to squeeze down as opposed to get finicky with the touch screen.

Is the discount usually around $20 for Kindle readers (during Mother's Day)?
 

Frostburn

Member
I've had the Voyage since release and use the page press turn just about exclusively while reading. It allows for much easier reading not having to move my hand when reading in bed and laying on my back.
 
I've had the Voyage since release and use the page press turn just about exclusively while reading. It allows for much easier reading not having to move my hand when reading in bed and laying on my back.

Cool! It looks like such a premium device

The one big thing that Kobo Glo HD seems to have over PW3 is that the screen is whiter, more like the Voyage

Im not sure which has more natural lighting in the dark. Seems like one of them is more yellow/natural and the other is bluer.

I know Kobo is more popular here in canada, but it seems like the #2 ereader, and fairly competitive
 

yyzjohn

Banned
Use Calibre for conversions. Every epub book I've bought has converted perfectly. I would suggest you convert them to AZW3 format though for more formatting options. The options I use in Calibre for each conversion are:

(Go to "Common Options" in the Conversion settings menu)



I can't answer the questions about comparing hardware (never used a Glo, not familiar with it), but at least if you do get one you don't have to worry about bad conversions. Also, I would recommend installing the Hypenate plugin for Calibre as well for even better formatting. If you want some screenshots of a book a formatted using these options, let me know.

I like your Calibre conversion settings except the "remove spacing between paragraphs" option. I find it pushes all the text together too much for my liking. It's great that you highlighted all these options though, people can customize their final output as they see fit.

Edit: I also have checked on "disable font size rescaling" as it keeps the font consistent with the original ePub. Example, in a book I had the first letter of the paragraph was a dropcap, so the letter is huge and spans multiple lines as a style thing. When you have the font size rescaling turned on it doesn't keep that effect in the kindle format.
 
I like your Calibre conversion settings except the "remove spacing between paragraphs" option. I find it pushes all the text together too much for my liking. It's great that you highlighted all these options though, people can customize their final output as they see fit.

Edit: I also have checked on "disable font size rescaling" as it keeps the font consistent with the original ePub. Example, in a book I had the first letter of the paragraph was a dropcap, so the letter is huge and spans multiple lines as a style thing. When you have the font size rescaling turned on it doesn't keep that effect in the kindle format.

Yeah, Calibre has so many options it can be overwhelming for people. It's so powerful when you realize how much you can customize it. Good catch on the font size option! I'm going to check that as well.
 
Guys! THe Paperwhite 3 is randomly $20 off here in Canada.

Should I bite? Or will Mother's Day have an even bigger sale? I dont want to miss out on this
 
Use Calibre for conversions. Every epub book I've bought has converted perfectly. I would suggest you convert them to AZW3 format though for more formatting options. The options I use in Calibre for each conversion are:

(Go to "Common Options" in the Conversion settings menu)



I can't answer the questions about comparing hardware (never used a Glo, not familiar with it), but at least if you do get one you don't have to worry about bad conversions. Also, I would recommend installing the Hypenate plugin for Calibre as well for even better formatting. If you want some screenshots of a book a formatted using these options, let me know.

Id love to see some of you don't mind.
 
Is this a common problem with Kindles:

1*F95hls7Ojb2qMuduFAjd9w.jpeg


I also was watching a review where some words were stuck together likethis.

Argh. Im so conflicted here.

Edit: Cant link image, but it's just text on a Kindle with........ lots of..........random spacing (ignoring the ...'s in place of space)
 
OK here is an example:

3046678-inline-i-2-the-kindle-finally-gets-some-typography-that-doesnt-suck.png


Apparently, the new Bookerly font fixes this issue. Does this mean that all the other fonts suffer from spacing issues like this? At the end of the day, fonts dont matter THAT much, but compared to Kobo, one working font type vs. literally any font type you want to download seems like a strange thing for Amazon to fall behind.
 
OK here is an example:

3046678-inline-i-2-the-kindle-finally-gets-some-typography-that-doesnt-suck.png


Apparently, the new Bookerly font fixes this issue. Does this mean that all the other fonts suffer from spacing issues like this? At the end of the day, fonts dont matter THAT much, but compared to Kobo, one working font type vs. literally any font type you want to download seems like a strange thing for Amazon to fall behind.

Yes, Bookerly fixes it and if you buy a book from Amazon that has "Enhanced Typesetting" it will be formatted properly in all fonts. If you come across a book with messed up formatting, you can use my Calibre settings to fix it.

Id love to see some of you don't mind.

Sure thing!


And here is a before and after with conversion and hyphenation applied to a free ebook:

Before


After

 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Guys! THe Paperwhite 3 is randomly $20 off here in Canada.

Should I bite? Or will Mother's Day have an even bigger sale? I dont want to miss out on this
How would anyone know

Buy it then return it if it's cheaper later, I guess.
 
OK, suppose I have an epub book. If I convert it through Calibre to a Kindle based format (AZW), will I be able to use the Kindle features like Word Wise, Vocab Builder, and X-Ray?

I am thinking that I cannot, and that it only works for native Amazon bought books.
 
OK, suppose I have an epub book. If I convert it through Calibre to a Kindle based format (AZW), will I be able to use the Kindle features like Word Wise, Vocab Builder, and X-Ray?

I am thinking that I cannot, and that it only works for native Amazon bought books.

Vocab Builder will work on anything, it's just recording words you've looked up while reading. For X-Ray, you can add it to side-loaded books but it is a very complicated process and wasn't worth it for me personally. You can google it if you want to see what is involved. Word Wise cannot be added to side loaded books at all right now.
 
Vocab Builder will work on anything, it's just recording words you've looked up while reading. For X-Ray, you can add it to side-loaded books but it is a very complicated process and wasn't worth it for me personally. You can google it if you want to see what is involved. Word Wise cannot be added to side loaded books at all right now.

Youre the best! Thank you for the info.
 
No GAF impressions of Oasis yet?

@Ben

I think Im going to go with the Kobo. For one, I can get $40.00 off the Kobo due to a friend who works there. In combination with any Mother's Day sale, it should be quite worth the price.

I will sorely miss Kindle's features and connectivity, and I desperately want a device with buttons, but it's unfortunate that they are behind the more premium models/unsupported by other companies.

The Oasis looks so lovely in that regard.
 
Yeah, I really wish the Oasis was cheaper. It's too expensive for my budget right now. I really want a newer device with buttons too. I would gladly grab a Kobo or Nook if the newer models had this.
 
Yeah, I really wish the Oasis was cheaper. It's too expensive for my budget right now. I really want a newer device with buttons too. I would gladly grab a Kobo or Nook if the newer models had this.

Im not sure how reliable this "New Kobo near Mother's Day" rumour is, but buttons and a flush screen would be a gamechanger for me.

The Oasis got a lot of flack for the design, but it seems like such a smart device (not a fan of the cover, but the handle seems so good)
 

Crazyorloco

Member
Currently using the 2nd Gen PaperWhite. Really thinking of getting of the latest Kindle (seems pretty cool)

Im using the first gen paperwhite and its slow as heck to use now. How's yours holding up? I think im just going to wait till it falls apart before getting a new kindle. I mean mine still does work, but it's tempting. I wish I didnt love gadgets so much.
 
Yes, Bookerly fixes it and if you buy a book from Amazon that has "Enhanced Typesetting" it will be formatted properly in all fonts. If you come across a book with messed up formatting, you can use my Calibre settings to fix it.



Sure thing!



And here is a before and after with conversion and hyphenation applied to a free ebook:

Before



After


Which settings are you changing? Because that's a hell of a lot more readable.
 
Im using the first gen paperwhite and its slow as heck to use now. How's yours holding up? I think im just going to wait till it falls apart before getting a new kindle. I mean mine still does work, but it's tempting. I wish I didnt love gadgets so much.

I have a PW1 and it's fine when reading a book, but navigating the home screen is so slow now. I reset the device and I have maybe 20 book on it now. I definitely want a new reader this year. I'll probably get the Voyage because I'm interesting in getting a new design.
 

Crazyorloco

Member
I have a PW1 and it's fine when reading a book, but navigating the home screen is so slow now. I reset the device and I have maybe 20 book on it now. I definitely want a new reader this year. I'll probably get the Voyage because I'm interesting in getting a new design.

Yup mine is the same...and i have like 15 books. Maybe they purposely slow them down to force us to buy the new kindles lol all those updates really effect it.

:(
 

Nymerio

Member
I've noticed that my kindle recently began having slowdowns again. Turning pages sometimes takes a couple of seconds. No idea why but last time I've had that problem it went away on its own.
 
Would you keep those settings the same for the Oasis?
Yes, I'd keep them all except for the ones in the "Page Setup" section under "Output Profile". I would change that to either Kindle Paperwhite 3 or Kindle Voyage since that is closer to the Oasis resolution. Oasis should be added to that section soon in an update.
 
Thanks, man. Any suggestion for the best way to replace all the stuff on my kindle with the newly changed books?

No problem! And yeah, when you connect your Kindle to your computer with Calibre running, go ahead and transfer them using the "Send Specific Format To..." option. Send your AZW conversions with that option. Calibre should automatically update any duplicates on your device. You can also get a list of books on the device in Calibre's device menu to make sure it didn't double-up on anything.
 

Hammer24

Banned
Yes, I'd keep them all except for the ones in the "Page Setup" section under "Output Profile". I would change that to either Kindle Paperwhite 3 or Kindle Voyage since that is closer to the Oasis resolution. Oasis should be added to that section soon in an update.

I used the Voyage profile and your settings - worked perfect, thanks!
 
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