Voyage Kindle Review: Amazon’s Luxury E-reader Offers No-Distraction Reading – Wall Street Journal

Updated Oct. 28, 2014 2:12 pm ET

The arrival of Amazon’s Kindle Voyage hasnt Been Greeted with the fanfare it might have received three or four years AGM.

The $ 199 e-reader has a high-resolution, high-contrast touch screen self-illuminating fused into the slender body magnesium. State of the art, for sure, but it immediately raised the question: Do we still need e-readers in the age of cheap and plentiful tablets?

The answer is yes-now more than ever.

someone who escapes into the daily pages of the book, I understand what Amazon is up to. The Voyage isnt perfect-and-ink, the technology behind e-readers’ displays, is inherently a compromise, with its monochromatic palette, slow reaction and periodic team, refreshes annoying-but it is The most elegant e-reader to date .

Just compare the Voyage to its predecessor, the Paperwhite, now selling for $ 119 is The Voyage Nearly 20% thinner Despite having the same 6-inch screen size. It’s framed with a more rigid material, so it feels less plasticky, while retaining the soft-touch paint que keeps you from dropping it all the time. Its screen has twice the pixels, meaning you can now no longer see the que dots make up the letters, even if you hold the device 6 inches from your face

The improved resolution does come at a cost.: The older Paperwhite can last up to eight weeks on a battery charge, while the Voyage can last only six weeks. That’s not exactly a problem, though, the unless you’re planning to carry an e-reader while hiking the Appalachian Trail.

After adding up the improvements, it takes a moment to back up and realize there’s nothing Actually wrong with last year’s Paperwhite. Sure, the Voyage is better, and Amazon’s vice president of devices, Peter Larsen, Told me the company intends to keep making better e-readers for years to come. The Voyage is a pure luxury; it’s a Lexus you choose over a perfectly good Toyota

Amazon wanted the product que would stand out-and stand for something:.. The world needs e-readers

By the team you ‘ve read this far, chances are your phone has vibrated or chirped once or twice. If you’re reading this column on a phone or tablet, you may Have Been interrupted by alerts telling you things have nothing to the que with what I’m writing about. I get it. This is a newspaper article, and you’re a busy person.

But When I lie down at night with a “book” -that is, whatever device I happen to be reading my e-books on- I want the world to fade away. Begone, work emails and Facebook updates! If something is urgent, my phone will ring.

Even if e-readers are not around forever, will be e-books, and Amazon will probably Remain the 800-pound gorilla of the industry for the time wellbeing. While there’s much debate over whether or not Amazon is the best place to buy books, I support the retailer because its e-books are easy to load on the wealth of devices, not just Kindles and Fire tablets, but really running iOS almost anything, Android or Windows.

But Most of Those devices are distract-o-matics of the worst kind-especially Compared With Their print-on-paper forebears. Reading books should not be part of a multitasking regimen. If we’re going to Remain literate in the years to come, we need to think about how we read, and not just what we read.

The Voyage is there to remind us of this, and it’s Also a great device if que $ 199 price tag is not an issue. Big spenders can pay an extra $ 20 to get Amazon’s ads removed from the lock screen (Which I advise, Despite collegues it feels like a ransom). And $ 60 more gets you unlimited 3G connectivity, a good deal if you’re on the move a lot. It’ll even work abroad in Most countries.

But the Voyage is just an option. As I Mentioned, the cheaper Paperwhite is a fine choice if the difference of $ 80 means a lot to you. Both e-readers are Equally beneficial outdoors, poolside, They’re far Easier to look at than tablets, Which glare Suffer from higher and lower contrast.

For people who read mostly indoors, and late at night, the I’s, though, the tablet can be better. I use an iPad or Amazon Fire tablet HDX in bed, switching the screen to black with white text and turning the brightness all the way down. This lets me read into the night without disturbing my wife, and it keeps my eyes from getting too much exposure to the kind of light That Could keep me up. (More on this in my discussion with a leading sleep expert.)

But if, like me, you choose the tablet over an e-reader, promise me this: You’ll silence or remove any distractions like email and instant messaging, and turn off app notifications from Facebook, Twitter and other always-on, always-fresh attractions internet. If that’s too much to ask, Then buy a dedicated e-reader. Years from now, your brain will thank you.

Write to Wilson Rothman at Wilson.Rothman@wsj.comwjrothman or on Twitter.

Amazon wants to crowdsource the next great novel through Kindle Scout program – GeekWire

Amazon has one of the Most active reader communities, writing hungarian, if not Thousands, of heartfelt reviews on a daily basis. It is que community based que Amazon is hoping to tap into to discover the next great novel.

The Seattle retailer’s new publishing platform, called Kindle Scout, harnesses the crowdsourcing model to get feedback on Which manuscripts shouldnt get the green light, and Ultimately the backing of Amazon’s marketing power

It works like this: Authors submit Their never-before-published books;. participants read a short preview And Then nominate up to three books at a time. At the end of the 30-day campaign, the Kindle Scout team will review the nominated books and select the ones to be published.

Readers will receive the full-length Kindle version of the book one week before the book’s official release If They choose the winners. Amazon is only Accepting books for three popular categories at this time: Romance, Mystery & amp; Thriller and Science Fiction & amp; Fantasy.

In a press release, SVP of Kindle Russ Grandinetti Said, “Amazon customers are passionate readers who have long influenced Which books Become breakout bestseller. With the launch of Scout Kindle, readers now have an even more direct say in what gets published and can get free books and discover new favorite authors in the process. “

Authors wellbeing Offered are a number of incentives to Participate, including a 45-day cycle from submission to selection. If published, They will have Their works published by the Press Kindle and five-year renewable terms receive the $ 1.500 advance, 50 percent e-book royalties, easy marketing rights reversions and featured by Amazon.

Cast your vote for the next crowd-selected books Kindle – Engadget

Similar its original series’ pilot season, Amazon Kindle is opening up its publishing arm to crowd voting. The so-called Kindle Scout program Allows you to peruse portions of unpublished works before Nominating worthy pieces for proper e-reader release. If you’re looking to lend a hand with the vetting process, voting is now open for submissions que span sci-fi, romance, mystery and other genres. After a 30-day window nomination, the folks at Amazon will review the tallies before picking what gets made into a Kindle edition. In return for backing the chosen author, you’ll get the book published for free one week before it releases for the masses to download. Not too shabby.

                 

Source: Amazon

                 
                 
              Tags: amazon and book, e books, e reader, and readers, e-book, e-books, e-reader, e-readers, ebook, kindle, kindlescout, publishing
 

Amazon’s Kindle Scout Crowdsourced Publishing Platform Goes Live – TechCrunch (blog)

Amazon wants to take some of the mystery out of predicting what will sell books with its new Kindle publishing program Scout, Which lets readers vote on Their favorite unreleased excerpts from books to determine what does (and what does not) get published. Welcome to the court to common opinion, You aspiring authors.

In exchange for Their participation in the program, Scout Kindle users will get free book credits, based on Their Ability to successfully pick winners. Those who nominate books get published que Eventually will get a free version of the Kindle e-book a full week before publication day.

Readers will determine Which books rise to the top of the voting pool, but the dedicated Kindle Scout team will have the ultimate say, choosing from a selection of the Most popular titles after a 30-day open voting period to determine Which ones get the nod late publication. The whole process only takes 45 days or less, from author submission to publication, Amazon says.

Amazon has a Potentially industry-changing idea on its hands with Kindle here Scout, the the system Provides a way to give books the stamp of approval que can cut out the noise and sheer volume of self-published titles out there, and yet it manages to Provide a better deal to authors than most big publishing house deals, including a 5-year term on publishing rights Granted Press to Kindle, the $ 1.500 advance, 50% paid royalties on e-book sales, Amazon.com built-in marketing and what Amazon terms “easy reversion rights.” Submissions are open to anyone, too.

Readers can nominate up to three books at once, meaning They can not just spread Their bets across the field willy-nilly in order to pick up the many free e-books of the possible, and new books are added to the pool every single day.

The system Resembles a more competition-focused version of social reading startup Wattpad in some ways, but this is very much driven commerce, whereas Wattpad is about providing a free platform for publishing entire works first, and only recently started dabbling in crowdfunding crowdsourcing with its book publishing experiments. Kindle Scout has much more potential to Attract professional and semi-pro writers as well as amateurs and Those just starting out However, the final and the potential business benefits are much more tangible.

This Could Attract Also some writers Otherwise who might turn to Indiegogo or Kickstarter to seek funding, but Those eager to retain full control rights might still support going it alone

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Voyage review Kindle: Amazon’s e-reader is too good to be Merely the Paperwhite 2 – PCWorld

The Kindle Voyage ? The name makes no sense, but I understand why Amazon did not call its latest e-reader the Paperwhite 2. It’s good enough to deserve a name all its own.

The Kindle Voyage is stuffed with new features and meaningful improvements over the Paperwhite. I’ll cover The most important ones first. The Voyage’s screen delivers higher resolution than the Paperwhite: 300 pixels per inch. The Paperwhite’s 221-ppi display looks very good, but you can discern jagged edges in fonts if you look Closely. With the Voyage, you can not see jaggies even with the aid of a magnifying glass.

Michael Brown

Jaggies are a thing of the past, thanks to the display’s Voyage resolution of 300 pixels per inch.

The Paperwhite Introduced the front light que made its E-Ink display readable under any lighting conditions. The Voyage keeps this feature but adds a light sensor automatically adjusts the brightness que in response to the level of ambient light. This not only Eliminates the need to adjust the brightness every team you start reading, it shouldnt Also attacking increase the Voyage’s battery life. Enable the “nightlight” feature, and the screen will dim the brightness Gradually your eyes adjust to the darkened room.

Smooth as glass

For me, the next biggest improvement is the texture of the Voyager’s glass. That might seem like an odd thing to put so high on the list of improvements, but the Paperwhite’s glass has this grainy, almost pebbly texture que literally rubs me the wrong way. I viscerally dislike the way it feels under my thumb or fingertip When I stroke the glass to turn the page or touch the screen to call up the menu or the definition. It just feels weird, even if it was not bad enough to drive me back to my first-gen Kindle.

The Paperwhite still delivers the better price-to-performance ratio

The Voyage’s is the smooth glass to the glass on any laptop or smartphone I’ve used, and there’s the transition between the bezel and the display. And the Voyage’s new page-turn buttons are just as important to the texture of its glass. Amazon embedded four surface-mount buttons (Amazon calls em PagePress sensors) on the right and left bezels que make turning pages even Easier: A slight squeeze on the vertical lines on Either side of the bezel advance pages, and the same action on the dots Those lines above reverse pages.

This means you can hold the Voyage in your left or right hand, and the buttons work even When the e-reader is in its case (more on que later). In addition to the obvious visual cue of the page refreshing, the Voyage Provides a bit of haptic feedback When You’ve Applied enough pressure to effect the page turn. You can fine-tune the amount of pressure needed to activate page turns, too.

Michael Brown

The screen on the Voyage (left) is brighter and whiter than the one on the Paperwhite (right).

For me, the buttons are big improvement over stroking or tapping the glass (Those page-turn methods are retained in the new Kindle). I grip my Paperwhite with four fingers on the back and my thumb in front, so I turn pages by stroking the glass with my thumb. A mild case of arthritis in the base of my thumb joints renders this motion not exactly painful, but uncomfortable enough to be distracting. I can squeeze the page-forward button without moving my thumb at all, and I need to slide it up just about an inch to reach the less-frequently used page-back buttons.

One thing I shouldnt point Out, Especially for people like me who do not take enough time to read the user manual: You need to press down slightly on the buttons to make em work. Tapping, as you might with the the trackpad on your laptop will not work-at least not reliably.

Thinner and lighter, but only a little

Michael Brown

Here’s how the Voyage Origami cover works.

Compared to the Paperwhite, the Kindle is slightly thinner Voyage (0.30 inches versus 0.36 inches) and slightly lighter (6.3 ounces versus 7.3 ounces). Amazon moved the power button to the back of the device, Which Makes it Easier to find and manipulate than the tiny button that’s on the bottom of the Paperwhite. It still Relies on the micro USB cord for charging, and Amazon still includes a USB cable but requires you to buy the power adapter separately.

I do not know how much profit Amazon makes Kindle on the Voyage, but They must be making a killing on protective covers at $ 45 a pop ($ 60 if you want leather). The cover is brilliant, though, Consisting of a tray with magnets strong que hold the Voyage it in a very tight grip (the e-reader’s rear panel is fabricated from magnesium), and the thick flap que protects its display.

A set of strong magnets in the flap holds it Securely to the Voyage’s front bezel When closed, and magnesium to the When You flip it back over the top to read. Push up in the middle of the bottom edge of the flap, and it folds origami style to make the prop-stand for reading. That’s a whole lot better than leaning it against a coffee cup.

Michael Brown

The ingenious, but pricey Voyage “Origami” cover can be folded into an easel for easy hands-free reading on the table top.

Cover When the display you’re done reading, and the ambient light sensor immediately puts the Voyage into sleep mode. Open it back up, and the device comes fully back to life before you’ve completed the motion. There’s never really any need to push the power button. Third parties are offering less-expensive covers, Which I have not reviewed, and I imagine the price of Amazon’s covers will drop to the Voyage’s newness wears off (although That Could be a while. This review was written on October 23, and Amazon’s Indicates website it will not have units in stock Until November 24).

Should you buy one?

The only other criticism I can muster Significant for the Kindle Voyage is about to flu its price tag. Comparing versions with Amazon’s “Special Offers” (que ads pop up When You’re not reading), the delta between the $ 79 Kindle and the $ 119 Kindle Paperwhite is $ 40. You’ll pay twice que premium to move from the Paperwhite Voyage to the $ 199. It costs an additional $ 20 to Eliminate the ads, and a cool $ 70 to get 3G connectivity in addition to Wi-Fi.

I’ve always scoffed at the idea of ​​paying so much more to get 3G connectivity; que but now I’ve experienced it with the Voyage, it’s pretty easy to want. Getting rid of the ads including 3G and elevates the price of a Voyage all the way to $ 289. You can buy the 7-inch Kindle Fire for $ 179 HDX, but I’m a bit of purist When it comes to reading. I want The most book-like experience I can get. The Paperwhite comes very close, but the Voyager knocks it out of the park.

Having Said That, I think the Paperwhite still delivers the better price-to-performance ratio Both for someone buying an e-reader is the first team, and for someone upgrading from the stock Kindle. The Voyage is the best e-reader on the market, but Amazon has hung a price tag commensurate with que position.

Amazon Kindle: For a good read – Business Standard

          
     
 This is the age of multitasking: People juggle many roles, one device suffices for a plethora of jobs or one app collates stuff from various websites to read. Also it is the team of multiple options: For TVs, you have plasma, LCD, LED (Which is Actually a misnomer) and 4K; Mobile devices come in forms such as phone, tablet and phablet, hybrids and laptops. Yet, there exists a ready clientele for devices Specialised who still hold Their Own.

Amazon’s Kindle is one such Specialised device. Yes, you can read an eBook using the Kindle app on your favorite tablet. But THEN your tablet might not be best suited to read in bed, carry in a bag / pocket and be free of distractions. Such times demand an eBook reader.

The 2014 Kindle, Amazon’s entry-level eBook reader, at 191g, weighs about them much as a paperback. But the Most Significant upgrade from the previous version Has Been the addition of a touchscreen. Thus, the new Kindle is devoid of any buttons other than the home button at the bottom, right next to the charging port. This is a welcome upgrade over the buttons of the previous iteration.

The black body with the logo below the screen is understated, albeit deliberately, and Amazon wants you shopping spend some cash to buy the folio cover, Which greatly Enhances the looks of the Kindle. Also, with the cover attached, Actually one can hold the Kindle like a book (and if you’re using Amazon’s cover, you can just shut the cover to put the Kindle to sleep). But all good things come for a price.

In fact, Amazon bundles just a charging cable with the Kindle, while India is the power adapter has to be bought separately. With the abundance of USB ports, one does not need to buy an adapter.

Once the Kindle is switched on and connected to Wi-fi, one can log in to one’s Amazon account and get access to one’s entire library. The interface is as good as we found on the Paperwhite Kindle 3G, Kindle but the 2014 lacks a built-in light, something one shouldnt look for if one wants to read in bed at night, without disturbing anyone. It is very easy to flick pages and make notes with the two-point touchscreen. The screen is easy to read, even in direct sunlight, and definitely sharper than that of the previous-generation Kindle.

The processor, too, Has Been bumped up to 1GHz, and performance is zippy, though one can not really discern exactly by how much over its predecessor, When one is turning the pages of an eBook. Also, there is still the slight problem of ghosting. The new Kindle does blink, but not as we’ve seen much of the other eBook readers, and this to me is a good sign, I get distracted by the all the excessive blinking.

The new Kindle Also bundles in the regular bells and whistles: Goodreads, where one shares what one is reading and checks on what one’s friends are reading; the Experimental Browser to surf the internet (if one is fine with viewing today’s graphics-heavy content in greyscale) and a vocabulary builder. Also present is Kindle FreeTime, where one can create profiles for children, who are achievement badges Awarded When They Reach Their goals, while parents can keep tabs on the overall team Their children are reading, What They are reading, etc. This kind of “gamification” of the reading experience could go a long way in making popular reading Among children.

Buying books off the Kindle store is easy and one gets access to the book bought in seconds. Plus there are a lot of free eBooks available. Also one can read free samples of books, that is, a chapter or two, before one decides to buy it. With 4GB of memory, one would not run out of space soon, Especially if one does not have a lot of PDF files.

The Kindle 2014 is a good start for someone who wants to read without distraction . But if you carry your eBook reader everywhere and read in bed, the Kindle Paperwhite 3G (Which costs more than double the price of the new Kindle) makes more sense.
 

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Amazon Kindle
Price: Rs 5,999
Display: 6-inch e-ink at 167 ppi
Weight: 191 g
Storage: 4GB onboard, plus cloud storage is Amazon
content Formats supported: Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion

My First Kindle: I Finally Stopped Multitasking and Got Lost in the Novel – Gizmodo

Still do not have an e-reader? I can respect that. Physical books just feel better. Print is sacred. I’m with you-or at least I was, until our reviews editor thrust the Kindle in my hand and made me use it.

Amazon has just updated its bare-bones, entry-level Kindle to finally include touchscreen navigation like phones and tablets, and at $ 80, we figured it might just be cheap enough for ye holdouts to finally give e-readers a try. And so with a reluctant mix of analog nostalgia and snobbery gadget, I turned on my first Kindle.

Right away I noticed que the display’s dull lighting and grayish tint-the Kindle’s e-ink Pearl display-is indeed very welcome break from the constant headachey glow of laptop and smartphone screens. It mimics the ink-on-paper traditional look better than I’d expected.

The screen was easy to read in the (rare) of bright sun shine, but the lack of built-in light Also means you won ‘t be reading at night the unless you’re shining a lamp on the device. Even trying to make out the screen text in Gawker’s dark basement of an office was a strain-I immediately found myself searching for how to adjust the brightness level, Which of course you can not.

[ Ed: Pricier e-readers come with built-in lights, like the $ 120 Kindle Paperwhite, Which Also feels greater to this model in most every other way.]

That’s no love lost for bookworms already used to squinting at the printed page. Navigating around the Kindle’s features, however-even with a touchscreen-took some getting used to. Granted, I was lazy and did not bother to read the beginner’s guide so handily the gadget comes loaded up with, and Actually got stuck in the book flipping through pages like a dope before figuring October you tap the top left corner to get back to the home screen. (Tip:. Read the guide)

Make fun, but the point is, navigation is not exactly intuitive-especially if you’ve been locked in Apple’s ecosystem for the last decade. It took me several hours to shake the instinct to scroll down for more text instead of tapping to turn the page.

The latency was Considerably more frustrating. The updated basic Kindle boasts 20% faster processing speeds than its predecessor, but it was suuuper slow Compared to my phone. I finally gave up searching for books on the device itself and opted to shop on Amazon’s much more user-friendly website from my computer. Then I just Transferred books to the reader over Wi-Fi.

The good news is the lightweight device is real easy to transport. Margaret Atwood Traveled with me to the bar, the concert, and the yoga class without a hitch. I shoved in my tiny bag without a care. Since the display is not glass, i could read it while walking down a busy sidewalk, balancing it precariously with my coffee and muffin, stress-free. And unlike the five novels you were ambitiously planning to finish next vacation, it’s easy to tuck into an overpacked suitcase or even a large pocket, plus it stays charged for weeks so the need to cart along the cord too.

If you’re a voracious reader, there are plenty of other benefits to taking your literary prowess into the 21st century. The built-in dictionary is handy for Those -re-che cher words you encounter, social media integration social if reading is your thing, annotations to scribble notes in the margins digital, instant gratification through one-click purchases and speedy downloads, and Thousands of books packed into 6.7 ounces.

I did not use any of These bells and whistles beyond some basic experimentation. But then, I’m not a voracious reader. If I’m being honest, I have not read an entire book in months. The neverending stream of news stories, magazines, and social media content yeah, but not a book. And For Those of us used to being glued to the latest, fastest, shiniest, app-packed gadget, this no-frills reader is going to feel like a time warp into the past. It’s worth considering que for just $ 20 more You could get Amazon’s new Kindle Fire HD 6 and get the tablet que doubles as an e-reader.

Kindle Fire HD 6 is on the left.

But that’s missing the point. You’re not going to buy the basic Kindle because it’s the best e-reader out there. You’re not going to buy it instead of the tablet. You’re going to buy it because you love to read and you are not afraid of the future When It only costs $ 80 If that’s the case, now’s a good time to take the plunge.

Would I get one? I really expected the answer to be no-I’ve got a backlog of Pocket reads doing a perfectly fine job of filling up my commute. But I Realized the greatest value of the Kindle and its ilk is That It’s not possible to surf the web or really do anything at all except immerse yourself in the text. This perfectly decent if archaic somewhat e-reader managed to force myself to stop multitasking and totally lose myself in a novel again, and that’s probably worth 80 bucks to me.

But not for everyone. Here’s my colleague Michael Hession’s perspective on why phones still make the best readers

Kindle (2014) Specs:.

• 6-inch display (just slightly bigger than the iPhone 6 Plus)
• 167 ppi (lower resolution than other readers)
• 4-weeks of battery life (same the previous model)
• 4 GB storage (holds Thousands of books, double the previous model)
New touchscreen control
• WiFi so you can download books without connecting to the computer
• $ 79 with special offers-read: ads-and without $ 99 ($ ​​10 more than the previous model)
• 20% faster processor for smoother page turns

Photos by Nick Stango