This is really going to sound stupid, but I’d like a little remote control for the Kindle- just for page turns. You could have the Kindle on an articulated arm and be completely under the covers or relaxing on the couch, and not have to hold the device up.
I had a 3rd generation kindle and a paper white. I read a few hours a night in bed, the paper white needs to be recharged about every 2 weeks. The 3rd generation needed to be charges about 1/3 as much.
It’s not stupid at all. I’ve wanted the same thing for ages. Here’s the XKCD guy’s solution for a similar problem. I tried it, but didn’t find the right strength hanger wire. Still came out to be almost workable though, so it can probably be improved.
Sigh. No. We do not know what the Kindle margins are. We do not know the specific cost of implementing the buttons vs implementing the extra light switch.
What we do know is that adding two things is more expensive than adding one thing. We also know that maintaining supply and support for one extra model is more expensive than maintaining supply and support for fewer models. And we know that movable parts, such as buttons, breakdown more than non-movable parts, adding to the supply demand.
All of those are true statements.
We don’t need to see a specific spreadsheet to know that adding a button version would have resulted in increased costs for Amazon.
Here’s another true statement: Amazon is losing money. They lost money in 2012 and they’re going to announce on Thursday that they lost money in the third quarter here, too.
Would adding buttons to the Paperwhite contribute to their problems? Yes. It Would. Again, the cost is not just the couple pennies for the button. The real cost is in manufacturing, storing and shipping a different model with more breakable parts. All of that would be a significant outlay at a time when Amazon is swimming in revenue but still coming in short on profits. (See this NYT article for more on that -
Sigh. Again - it would add some weight. Not a lot of weight. Not an insurmountable weight. But some weight, yes. On a device that’s being measured in ounces, adding even a little bit of weight can change people’s opinions.
And honestly, the idea that you’re basing your assessment on the probability of button failures on your impressions of the threads on their execrable forums is just laughable. A device with buttons suffers more button failures than a device without buttons. This is a statement of fact. Any amount of button failures costs Amazon money that they don’t have to spend on the Paperwhite - or on your proposed Paperwhite With Buttons model.
Amazon, a company that is losing money overall, saves themselves money by limiting the manufacturing, supply and support of their Paperwhite Kindles by not offering a second model that includes a nice but totally unnecessary feature, while also maintaining the device’s desirable thinness and light weight. That’s pretty much textbook good decision making.
Meh. Keep the sanctimonious sighing to yourself. They have a number of different models of the Kindle out there. An additional one isn’t going to be the burden you assume it will be. For non-paperwhite kindles, they already have the split by touch screens and page turn buttons. As a matter of fact, with an established and mature system for handling multiple product lines like they have, the additional cost could easily be negligible.
Nor does additional marginal cost on each unit automatically imply more losses. It only does so if it does not bring in additional marginal revenue, otherwise nobody would ever make any design decision that increases cost. My position is that the marginal cost increase is bound to be small, and the willingness of more people to pay a price for that feature would offset inclusion of page turn buttons.
Your position on page turn button failures automatically being more prone to failure than a touch screen model within the warranty period(or otherwise) and thus costing Amazon money is unsubstantiated. I’d be willing to bet that Amazon doesn’t lose a significant(i.e non negligible) amount of money through replacements coming from page turn button failure. As for the doubling down on the weight of page turn buttons being a consideration…I don’t even know what to say, except to suggest that you try dialing down the smugness if you’re going to make such patently foolish observations.
To me, it’s not the hardware so much as the software.
I have a Nook Simple Touch (their lowest end tablet). But it’s an e-ink, b&w type device. I didn’t enjoy reading on it at first. But I rooted it, tried out other readers and am happy with FBReader. (I could also run the Kindle reader on it if I was perverse enough.) Calibre is a must.
I also set it up to read in landscape mode. Much better line lengths that way. (Something you oddly cannot do with the standard software.)
Slight touch on the edge of the screen to page. There are 4 side buttons for paging and such, but they are a pain to use.
No built-in light but the battery charge lasts forever. (I used to use it for other things and drained the battery fast. Now I have a Nook HD+ that I use as a general purpose tablet.) For night reading I use a small clip on light that works fine. I think this works better for me than if I got the NST Glow version.
I now read ebooks instead of paper books almost exclusively. Traveling with one ebook reader instead of a stack of paper books is so much easier.