logoalt Hacker News

two_centstoday at 5:21 PM5 repliesview on HN

  > We are still dealing with a home screen that prioritizes advertisements and promoted recommendations over your actual library. Navigating a large collection of books remains a chore, with sluggish animations and a lack of robust folder management that has been a standard feature on rival devices for years.
Such claims make me think that this article is biased.

There are two tabs on main Kindle screen - Home and Library (and also pretty good search). In Library you can see all your books AND collections as folders.

BOOX devices have their own issues https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33353640

I think Kobo has same issues with DRM as Amazon does.

Also, Kindle devices are cheaper, last time I checked, low end models of competitors, didn't have flush-front screens, like Paperwhite.

I never had problems described in this article (but YMMV of course).


Replies

sobjornstadtoday at 6:07 PM

Very frequently when I turn on my Kindle it starts on “Home”. I have never found anything on “Home” remotely useful, and just want to see the books that I already have on the device, but they keep pushing me over to the screen full of ads (and it often takes >5 seconds to switch screens after I tap on “Library” for some reason). I think that's what they're talking about.

tanjtanjtanjtoday at 5:25 PM

The kobo store has problems with DRM but Kobo devices do not. they’ll open whatever you put on the file system (and it’s treated as a first class citizen along with anything you’ve bought from them). They also are extremely easy to install custom firmware on.

pickleglitchtoday at 5:36 PM

Kindle's are cheaper because Amazon sells them at or below cost to lure users into their ecosystem. This helps them control the market from both the seller and consumer sides, in keeping with their overall business model. Add to that the fact that you don't really own the e-books you "buy" through Amazon, just like pretty much every other digital "purchase" these days, and that's enough for me to never buy one.

Of course, the general state of e-book devices is pretty abysmal. There are no good options I'm aware of.

show 1 reply
themadturktoday at 5:55 PM

Most, if not all, ebook stores have "issues" with DRM because publishers demand it (and authors too often simply go along with it). Amazon and Kobo (and other ebook stores as well) let authors of self-published books decide whether or not to put DRM on their books.

turtlesdown11today at 6:42 PM

> There are two tabs on main Kindle screen - Home and Library (and also pretty good search). In Library you can see all your books AND collections as folders.

Two tabs, which one do they default you to? Which one do they default you to?

Such claims make me think that this post is biased.