{"id":7370,"date":"2015-04-30T10:34:02","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T09:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=7370"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:45:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:45:52","slug":"a-new-kindle-every-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2015\/04\/30\/a-new-kindle-every-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"A new Kindle: every cloud …"},"content":{"rendered":"

All my life I have enjoyed reading and it remains a source of entertainment that engages me more than TV can ever do. As I have written about before, I am a strong advocate of e-reading, which. over the last 5 years or so, has motivated me to read even more.<\/p>\n

This past week, however, change was thrust upon me …<\/p>\n

It is now almost exactly 4 years since I purchased a Kindle. Prior to that, I had used my iPad for reading. Although the idea of having just one device is attractive, I concluded that, with current technology, having both makes sense, as each has its virtues. The iPad is incredibly versatile, but can only run for about 10 hours on a charge; this is OK most of the time, but a long flight stretches it a bit. Also, the display is unusable in very bright sunshine. The Kindle, on the other hand, is a single use device, but it has an incredible battery life and can be read almost anywhere. Having both also insulates me from the “all my eggs in one basket” issue.<\/p>\n

I still read “real” books sometimes and might be inclined to purchase reference books in this form, but, for everyday reading, a Kindle is just better. It is very easy to carry about – a large paperback or, worse, a hardback is quite an encumbrance. I can easily read one-handed. I spend a lot of time standing in line for things like boarding planes – all that dead time can be used productively. I also read no-handed. If I am eating alone – as is often the case at breakfast- and lunch-time – I have the Kindle on the table next to me and my hands are free to work on my food. This has the added benefit of making me eat more slowly.<\/p>\n

The other day, disaster struck. I was taking a short train journey and, as I left the house, I popped my Kindle into the back pocket of my jeans. I have a great fear of being bored. By having reading matter with me, I was unconcerned about any delays waiting for the train and could use the 15 minutes duration of the trip. I got onto the train. I was just about to sit down and bent forward slightly. I heard a slight click and immediately knew that something bad had happened. I took my old friend out of my pocket and confirmed my fears: the display was trashed. Almost all the pixels on the screen are stuck showing the screen saver; only about two lines of text appear at the bottom of the screen when I switch the device on.<\/p>\n

\"Evernote<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Evernote<\/a><\/p>\n

By the time I reached my destination [15 minutes later], I had placed an order for a new Kindle. For a while I have been pondering the new Kindle Voyage, which is expensive, but gets some very good reviews using words like “the best e-reader on the market”. This seemed like an auspicious time to invest.<\/p>\n

My new Kindle arrived about 3 days later [I was too mean to pay for expedited delivery]. I quickly got it loaded up with my vast number of books waiting to be read – they make this process very easy. I have been using it for nearly a week now and, although I cannot yet comment on battery life, I am very impressed. It is fast and slick and very enjoyable to operate. I always hope to learn stuff when I am reading, even if it is a novel. As a result, I have always liked the instant access to a dictionary that e-readers afford. But now I have more. I clicked on the word “Crohn’s”. This was not in the dictionary, so the device instantly took me to the Wikipedia page. Perfect!<\/p>\n

When I ordered the new device, I did so knowing that a repair of the old one might be possible, but would most likely be expensive. I was right. I may take it apart and see whether there is anything that I can do, but I suspect that it is a write-off. Doing the sums, I concluded that it cost me about $0.10 per day to own, which was very good value IMHO. I am sad to lose my old friend, but “every cloud has a silver lining” and I am sure that I will enjoy my new best friend.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All my life I have enjoyed reading and it remains a source of entertainment that engages me more than TV…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10361,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370\/revisions\/10361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7370"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=7370"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=7370"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}