Showing posts with label readability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label readability. Show all posts

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Readability Android app 'right-sized' for Kindle Fire, Amazon Appstore exclusive release 1st wk. Also, remember web SendToReader for e-Ink Kindles. Push to Kindle app for other Android devices. UPDATE2

READABILITY FOR ANDROID AVAILABLE MONDAY BUT ONLY AT AMAZON APPSTORE FOR FIRST WEEK

At 11am ET, Monday, Readability's Android App will finally be available, but only at the Amazon Appstore on your device, for the first week.

Readability's CEO Rich Ziade told The Verge
' We've been talking to Amazon for a while because their heritage is so grounded in reading with the Kindle products... We even went to great lengths to scale up the Readability experience on the Kindle Fire so that the type and interface is right-sized...
...
Readability jumps immediately to the head of the Android class thanks to a beautiful, typography-based UI, and functionality identical to its iOS counterpart.

It's clearly designed for Android 4.0 and beyond, with basically no support for the Menu button, but those without Ice Cream Sandwich should get used to it quickly.  We're fans already, and we're betting Monday's going to make a lot of Android users into happy new Readability users. '


ADDED NOTE
SendToReader [to Kindle]
Most popular, so far, with those I know, for this type of capability for the e-Ink Kindle readers, has been the web tool SendtoReader, and for reasons why that is so, see the many comments and feedback on that.

I haven't tried the regular web SendToReader with the Kindle Fire yet.  Would really like to hear/read feedback by any readers who have.

Update
Question about another Android App of this type, which I've never heard anything about and the one review is not a verified Amazon purchase.
ALSO, it is an Amazon store app for Android devices in general but not shown as available for Kindle Fire owners (as is true for the popular Dropbox).
Push to Kindle by Fivefilters.org, released July 2, 2011, so, apparently an Android app before the Kindle Fire existed.

  One never knows if Amazon just hasn't allocated time to test it or it proved to be not trouble-free.

  It's $2.30 on the Android Market (now known as Google Play and has 33 reviews and 4.9 stars average there from regular Android phone and tablet users (twenty-nine 5-stars, four 4-stars). For the Android Market, that's a high average.

 Since many of us have Android smartphones or other supplementary tablets it might be of interest, but is $2 at Amazon and the coming Readability app for Android will be free, from what I can see.

Even with the web edition of Readability, there are web pages the content of which it won't send completely, so I'm always curious about other utilities like this and what experiences people have had.

Details and reader reviews are at Google Play [Market]


Update2
The authors of SendToReader (Sergey Pozhilov) and PushToKindle (Keyvan) have added comments below.

As many Kindleworld readers know, Sideloading non-Amazon apps from other websources that you have reason to trust is allowed by Amazon.  See How to Sideload non-Amazon apps for the steps.

  SendToReader offers a 3rd-party Kindle Fire app done by another software developer as an AddOn for SendToReader which gives the same results as when done via a computer browser, and it would probably work only with the Kindle Fire default web browser (Silk) but I've asked that question in Comments.

  PushtoKindle's current Amazon-sold Android App apparently allows the web-articles sent, to be read by the Kindle Apps of other (non Kindle Fire) Android tablets.  You can contact either author with questions via their linked names under the Comments area.

  I personally haven't tried the apps and am just providing info for others like me who like to use this type of utility to be able to read longer web articles on the Kindles.
 Instapaper has decided not to do an Android app, from what I've seen there.

As ever, appreciate any feedback on these.



Kindle Touch 3G, US-only   Kindle Touch WiFi (US)   Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US    Kindle Basic   (UK: KBasic)   Kindle Fire
Kindle Keybd 3G   (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G)   K3 Special Offers   K3-3G Special Offers   DX

Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle


(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Sony reader screen comparisons and the Kindle

The enlarged version of the photo at the left, from the article by Simon Cohen at syncblog.com, shows the significant loss in clarity and readability with the touch screen technology used for the Sony PRS-700's e-Ink screen.

  After lamenting that the Kindle isn't available in Canada yet Cohen explains the touchscreen's effect on clarity:
'...Because Sony's engineers had to layer a capacitive membrane over the E-Ink display to enable the 700's touch-screen features, they reduced the amount of ambient light the eInk receives, and thus the amount it can reflect.  The result is (when compared to the 505) like reading through a thin layer of onion skin paper.  Contrast is reduced and some crispness at the edge of letters is lost.  Worse still, this top layer is quite reflective and depending on where your light source is located, you need to tilt the 700 slightly backward to avoid the glare...'
In this comparison of the two Sony Readers, there are also caveats that will be familiar to some Kindle users when it comes to the e-Ink screens, which most reviewers find far easier on the eyes for any length of time than reading from an LCD screen (which can do color and backlighting at a cost to battery drain in addition to eye fatigue, though with better refresh rates).
'Some people might be aware of the light gray background of the screen itself – indeed this is probably the cause of my perception that the ink could stand to be a little darker.  We're all used to seeing black ink on a white page, or at least off-white and there's no escaping the fact that the light gray doesn't provide as much contrast as a piece of paper.

The good news is: you get used to it quickly and after a few chapters you barely notice it at all.'
Then he explains the black flash between page turns:
'Turning pages on the Reader produces a momentary flash of black before the ink resolves itself into the new set of words. This happens anytime the display needs to change what it's showing.  While a little disconcerting at first, you again grow accustomed to it. The transitional effect is caused by the nature of eInk displays.  The "pixels" work more like an etch-a-sketch tablet than like a typical LCD display.  With LCDs, each pixel can change on it's own, very quickly, and go from one colour to another in an instant.  eInk on the other hand exists in more of an ON or Off state.  To switch between these states, an electrical charge is needed.  Moreover, it seems that the entire area that is to be re-drawn must be first "cleaned" by turning all of the pixels on, then off.  Only then can the final image be rendered.  Odd as it is at first, I'm so used to it now that I wonder if a transitionless page turn would be an improvement.'
Cohen goes on to detail quite thoroughly the many differences between the two Sony readers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle


(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

[Valid RSS]