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Amazon introduces a redesigned Kindle family

53 points · 105 comments · seam_carver

  1. Stratoscope · · focus · HN ↗
    I have a nice Kindle Paperwhite, but I hardly ever use it.

    Instead, I read my Kindle books on my S24 Ultra. Why?

    One reason is the classic photographer's question: "What is the best camera?" The one you have with you.

    The other is that I really like scrolling instead of page-turning. I can hold the phone in one hand and use my thumb to scroll up and down just like any webpage or document. This lets me keep my context instead of losing it at every page turn. If I forget the train of thought, I can scroll back a few lines and pick it right up.

    There are two steps to enable this.

    First, open any book and tap in the middle. Select the "Aa" icon at the top. Go to the Layout tab and turn on Continuous Scrolling.

    Now you will have a problem. The selfie camera's circular hole cuts into the scrolling area. To my eyes, it is disorienting and annoying to have everything else scroll but that camera cutout sits there.

    To fix this, go to Settings / Display / Camera cutout. Scroll down to Kindle and change its setting from "Auto" to "Hide Camera cutout". This takes away a few pixels at the top of the screen, but you have plenty of display space available. And no disorienting black circle as you scroll.

    You may still prefer a physical Kindle device, but with these two settings, the S24 Ultra is now my favorite Kindle.

    1. skydhash · · focus · HN ↗
      > Instead, I read my Kindle books on my S24 Ultra. Why?

      > One reason is the classic photographer's question: "What is the best camera?" The one you have with you.

      I have a Kobo Libra and while it’s bigger than the basic kindle I had (which I could put in my back pocket), it’s still fairly portable. The nicest thing is that I only need to press the power button to get back to what I was reading. Compare to unlocking the phone, open the app, locate the book and then opening it. Without being distracted.

    2. eternauta3k · · focus · HN ↗
      I realized my cellphone has a display that's almost as big as my Kindle, is less hassle to load with books, can scroll/zoom PDFs easier, and won't complain about lacking memory when opening big PDFs.
    3. mvid · · focus · HN ↗
      “The best camera is the one you have”, in this case if you still want a device, so the phone isn’t a potential distraction, the xteink are nice and can easily fit in the same pocket as a phone. Currently reading Neuromancer on mine
      1. CobaltFire · · focus · HN ↗
        I second this. I carry my xteink device everywhere and its vastly better for reading than my phone.
    4. MisterMunchkin · · focus · HN ↗
      Yeah once I realised you could just scroll-read on your phone I started reading a lot more. You can have an entire library of books without having to carry them.
    5. winrid · · focus · HN ↗
      Note that that Samsung display backlight modulation is pretty hard on your eyes
      1. Stratoscope · · focus · HN ↗
        Interesting! I haven't noticed any problem with that myself. The display doesn't cause me any eyestrain. But everyone has different eyes and vision.
        1. winrid · · focus · HN ↗
          I didn't either until I used all Samsung displays for a couple years and now I can't look at any of them for more than like 5mins without eye pain. I can only use IPS displays now. But it could be some kind of genetic issue or something.
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