This week I’ve been trying to do reading in the Kindle Papetwhite which is a nice device but I basically never use it because I’ve zero time to read. But recently I joined a study group where there are no audiobooks for the readings. There is a kindle version or a pdf. Sort of a sad story because I realize that devices are so cheap now it’s nice to have a dedicated reader instead of flipping apps on an iPad but there are two problems:
First is that not all kindle books don’t display on a Kindle. Apparently editors can turn this on and off. I suspect this is because it’s a textbook and they want to use a pretty layout but what pain!
The second problem is with pdfs. While regular kindle books look fine and certain PDFs but if you have a pdf with a fixed layout it will not repaginate properly. The document I have is a paper from 1939 so I suspect it’s really just a bunch of images inside a pdf. The result is that you have to use a really inconvenient zoom method. Just changing the zoom doesn’t work. Instead Ou have to long press on the document t. It shows a magnify icon and by the gesture spread without fingers and close it will zoom. Really inconvenient.
Final thing is the Kindle user interface is pretty opaque on one thing. It’s easy to tap to get into a book but then you are in immersive mode and can’t get out. A tap goes to next page but a long tap gives you select. The trick is that a short tap at the upper 10% gets you to the back button so be aware.
Note taking: iPad Pro vs kindle scribe or remarkable
I found that it’s hard to use an iPad pro for this with Nebo handwriting recognition. The pencil feel is so slick and I always forget it. And the handwriting correction is pretty bad. It’s really tiring to use.
I got the kindle scribe to try but two people I’ve seen have been using remarkable for this. Could be a good solution. If not it’s larger so maybe a good dedicated research paper reader? So the paper white is for novels and things but the larger is for papers?
I’ll report back. The Remarkable 2 is supposed to be good too but I don’t know what I’ll do with not OCR notes on the Kindle but the OCR on the Remarkable is supposed to be great. It’s expensive for sure at $378.
The other choice is the Onyx Book Note Air 2. It uses Android could theoretical take notes and email them. It does have a note taking app and the screen is rough so provides some resistance which the iPad Pro needs desperately.
