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Amazon has made its premium Kindle Oasis e-reader an inch larger and given the device an IPX8 waterproof rating (in this case, immersion in up to 2 meters of fresh water for up to 60 minutes):
Amazon has been selling Kindles for 10 years now, but "waterproof" hasn't appear on its list of incremental technological advancements until now. The company just announced a new version of its popular e-reader that builds on last year's Kindle design and now has an IPX8 waterproof rating.
The new Kindle Oasis — the same name as last year's premium Kindle — has jumped up in size, moving from a 6-inch screen to a 7-inch screen. It has an aluminum back, which gives it a more premium look and feel than the Kindles with soft-touch plastic.
It supports AZW, TXT, PDF, MOBI, and PRC, but lacks EPUB support. Storage starts at 8 GB ($249) but there is a 32 GB option. Amazon has brought back physical buttons for page turning as an alternative to the touchscreen, and comes with an accelerometer to automatically change page orientation.
Still no color e-ink.
What's that book to the right of The Hobbit? Does it support that book?
Also at CNET and TechCrunch.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday October 12 2017, @06:49PM (3 children)
I've had the pleasure to use the original Nook (Horrible, Horrible, Design, Who thought it was a good idea to include a skinny lcd bar?) and the Nook Simple Touch (Lovely, Lovely, Design). I've owned a Simple Touch for quite some time and have re-read a series or two on the device, easily added Project Gutenberg books (and read them), some other random free books, and have purchased quite a few books that I wouldn't have otherwise (Quite a bit of Sci-Fi stuff). Being more open (than Amazon) to easily side loading your content onto the device is a Huge bonus. Just plug it into your computer, drop your free Gutenberg books in the right folder and you're off. Reading on the device is easy on the eyes and simple. At least some of the books I've purchased on my Nook have a No-DRM (So, please don't pirate our stuff) notice in the front of them as well. From my experience, E-Ink readers are extremely awesome. You just have to weigh your pros and cons when you're looking at the devices. At $130 for a Nook Touch with Glowlight, I'd be hard pressed to recommend a Kindle, if only due to the philosophy behind behind not allowing simple side loading of books on the Kindle. Oh, and the Nook includes all those free books in one list, right along with your purchases.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday October 12 2017, @07:05PM
Side loading onto a Kindle is easy. You just use Calibre [wikipedia.org].
Finding free content [ebook3000.com] to put on it is not hard. Bestsellers are a bit easier to find since there are montly NYT bestseller packs.
I have used up to Kindle Paperwhite [amazon.com] (gen 1?), see the chart near the bottom. Which is priced at $120 apparently. That sounds like an equivalent for the Nook Touch with Glowlight, but it has double the storage.
I don't think I would buy a Kindle again unless I can get a killer feature like color e-ink. The storage capacity has been slow to reach 8-32 GB. High storage is needed for illustrated book PDFs, which can easily be 100-300 MB a pop. E-readers don't handle these as well as a tablet can, but better refresh times and processors could make it a thing, and color e-ink could make it worthwhile. The lack of an SD/microSD slot is disappointing and if they are going waterproof it seems like they will never add one.
Amazon does a good job of improving Kindle and they deserve some credit for keeping the e-reader alive in the face of tablets (which have been declining last time i checked). But if someone releases an e-reader with color e-ink, the same dynamic lighting system, decent and expandable storage, with support for all formats including EPUB and CBZ, I would give that e-reader a serious look.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by richtopia on Thursday October 12 2017, @07:32PM (1 child)
I had the Nook Glow, which I liked but found the battery life poor in suspend mode (battery was always dead when I would get on an airplane). I've since moved to a Kobo when the Nook finally died, and I do prefer it. Kobo runs Linux and does not drain batteries when off, unlike the Nook. Also, if you are looking for a waterproof version they have had one for years already.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @05:16AM
I've had a Nook Simple Touch for four years now which goes with me almost everywhere, rooted, the battery life on average is three weeks with daily use for several hours, that, coupled with the micro SD slot and the fact that the thing is apparently near indestructible (it's survived many a fall and at least two soakings, reckon it's travelled about 12,000 miles ) makes me dread the day it gives up the ghost.
I looked at the Glow but the things that put me off it were; no sd card slot and reports of screen problems, The Kobo range I might revisit, though I'm looking at one of the Onyx books as a primary future replacement for the Nook.
Kindles? no bloody way...