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572 points bookofjoe | 7 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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pfooti ◴[] No.41864842[source]
I have a pretty old paperwhite. When it started deleting books i had side-loaded via calibre, I decided to get a kobo. I have a libra color, and I have to say: price notwithstanding, it's a great device. I don't have a lot of experience with more recent devices, but compared to my 2nd gen paperwhite, it is _amazing_.

Color is good enough to read comic books on it, the google drive integration means it's not too hard to get my CBR/CBZ files on directly. The annotation / notetaking featureas are nice (I haven't leaned into them yet, but they work well even on the small screen size), plus all the regular stuff with normal book reading. Also, since it's kobo/rakuten, the libby integration is better (search and select library books right from the device).

The actual reading app is maybe 90% as good as reading on the kindle (or a more specialized reader like perfectviewer on android). There's some annoyingly fiddly features- font size is kind of weirdly variable, when going through CBR files there's no "read next in the folder" gesture nor is there a "this is read/unread" state in the google drive ui, so you always have to remember which book you are finishing when opening the next in the series.

I tried out one of those boox readers with the android apps, which would be even better software-wise, but the boox hardware seems like garbage (for an N=1 at least). My display came with several rows of stuck pixels, and apparently it's a good thing that I ordered from amazon instead of the boox store, because the reviews indicate getting an RMA from boox directly is a pain.

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al_borland ◴[] No.41865600[source]
I switched from a Kindle to a Kobo (monochrome), and simply having the book cover as the lock screen makes me like it so much more. I always paid to not have ads on the Kindle, but it would show a bunch of generic images. The book cover is the obvious choice. Kobo gets it.

The reading experience is a little more bare bones, but good enough, and still offers things a physical book does not.

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notatoad ◴[] No.41865705[source]
kindles have displayed the book cover on the lock screen for approximately the last decade.
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1. bongobingo1 ◴[] No.41866134[source]
https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/16/22387146/amazon-display-c...

2021.

People have certainly been asking for it for at least the last decade. Jail breaking doesn't count.

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2. ffsm8 ◴[] No.41866553[source]
I bought a Kindle Paperwhite in 2020, it's been doing that since day 1 of my purchase without jailbreaking or anything.

It's not a new thing that journalists cover old features as if they've just been added, because they just found out about it and feel they're newsworthy

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3. yftsui ◴[] No.41866774[source]
It's definitely not "a decade". I have the 2013 Kindle Paper white and it doesn't have that feature without JB, the oldest device supported is Kindle Paperwhite 7th Gen which is released in 2019.

It's likely you are just lucky to buy a KPW with that feature just rolled out.

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4. ffsm8 ◴[] No.41867457{3}[source]
I cannot speak on when it was actually introduced.

I only added my experience because bongobingo said 2021 and cited a tabloid "article" as proof.

The feature definitely predates April 2021, how long? I have no idea, possibly only 6-7 months, as I bought mine in October 2020.

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5. bongobingo1 ◴[] No.41867795{4}[source]
Reddit nerds only notice in April 2021, https://old.reddit.com/r/kindle/comments/mo67x9/the_new_kind...

More "tabloids" in April 2021 https://www.tomsguide.com/news/amazon-kindle-update-adds-kil...

More nerds in August 2021, https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/30x1qmxj "the setting that was added a few months ago in Settings/Device Options to show the "Display Cover" of the book you are currently reading"

Amazon discussing rolling it out during ... April 2021, https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D54P00008A1VpoSAF/di...

Maybe you were in a pre-release A/B or region, or simply didn't notice the update.

6. goosedragons ◴[] No.41868505{4}[source]
I think it's more likely you just didn't notice for 6-7 months. It's not just "tabloid" articles that noticed it in April 2021. This wasn't noticed by users on places like mobileread.com until April 2021 either and that place is comprised of some of the biggest eInk fans out there.

By all accounts your Oct. 2020 date is the earliest reported date for it being an official feature. Kobo has had it since day one in 2010, Kindle not so much.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4110557

7. hiatus ◴[] No.41870427{4}[source]
First archive of the amazon announcement page was in April 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210419114306/https://www.amazo...