Amazon Restores Some Heft To Helvetica For Kindle E-Ink Readers (teleread.com) 85
David Rothman writes: Props to Amazon. The Helvetica font will be restored to a more readable weight than the anorexic one in the latest update for E Ink Kindles. Let's hope that an all-bold switch—or, better, a font weight adjuster of the kind that Kobo now offers—will also happen. I've queried Amazon about that possibility. Meanwhile thanks to Slashdot community members who spoke up against the anorexic Helvetica!
Re:all life matters initiative reunveiled (Score:5, Funny)
Word salad dances singingly dogs into the breeze?
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Lungha, her sky gray.
I'm anorexic! (Score:1)
You insensitive clod!
Why is this a story? (Score:1)
Don't get me wrong, it's worth posting about. But it's a pretty small follow-up to a previously posted story. This is exactly the kind of thing that belongs in Slashback, which I'd really like to see the editors bring back. There are plenty of other stories with follow-up news that never makes it on Slashdot. We actually need more of this, but not each as its own story. Please bring back Slashback!
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If you search around the 'net, you can find a documentary called "Helvetica." It might not seem like it but it's actually a pretty good documentary. Because that's pretty much all I want, I was scrounging the 'net for documentaries and found that. I wasn't expecting a whole lot when I watched it but it actually turned out to be pretty good. I was actually pleasantly surprised.
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Re: Why is this a story? (Score:2)
New stories with back and forward references would make more sense. If you pull up a Slashdot story from Google and read it you'll never know there's a Slashback with an update or correction. A filter could be applied for exclusion or presentation changes based on tag from that point forward.
Put a feature request into the Soylent github - hopefully /. will finally go open-source under @whipslash's leadership.
[I'm expecting these tags will magically start working one day.]
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It's not a pretty small follow-up because it shows us that Amazon has responded (correctly) to the complains of their users. Those of us without a Kindle would never have known about what Amazon did.
So what I've learned is that Amazon made a mistake, people complained and Amazon fixed it. Unlike Apple* and Microsoft, who keep doing things that their users hate and don't fix those mistakes later.
* and I say this as a Mac and iPhone user.
It's a wider issue (Score:5, Insightful)
A wider issue is the general trend for devices with behaviour that is remotely changed after you buy them thanks to software updates. What is the situation if you bought an e-reader you were happy with and could use comfortably, but then after this kind of update it no longer works for you because, for example, your eyesight isn't good enough to read the new font? It's obvious why hardware and software vendors might want this kind of capability, but how do we protect the buyers who are using the products to make sure they're still getting what they paid for when they decided to buy?
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By not upgrading unless it adds something you need?
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By not upgrading unless it adds something you need?
But... but... 1.1.3 is soooooooooooooo much better than 1.1.2!!!!!
It has a +0.0.1!!!!!!!
Re:It's a wider issue (Score:5, Insightful)
By not upgrading unless it adds something you need?
That can often times be difficult, since the description of upgrades are often dumbed down to the point of uselessness in the name of user friendliness or deliberately obfuscated to hide what they contain (looking at you, Microsoft). Figuring out if it contains something you need isn't as simple as your flippant comment suggests. Not to mention the fact that updates on devices like the kindle are delivered in a single monolithic update file, so there is no opportunity to selectively reject changes such as the one OP describes while accepting needed security updates.
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That's why you wait a couple of weeks, at least, before even thinking of upgrading. Let some 'oh, shiny' poor shmuck test it.
And, please, what securiity updates for a freking e-reader? It's a device for reading documents, nothing more, nothing less. Do you apply security updates to a paper book?
Yeah, yeah, I know, you can browse the web, read mail, install apps and so on. But why should you do it? You bought it for reading books, right, else you'd have bought a tablet.
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Funny you should say this. I've been using a Kindle (4, non-touch) for a quite a while now and calibre is doing a damn fine job of managing my e-book collection. Why would I let somebody else manage my device? If you don't know, Amazon can and will delete books from your device.
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And, please, what securiity updates for a freking e-reader? It's a device for reading documents, nothing more, nothing less. Do you apply security updates to a paper book?
Yeah, yeah, I know, you can browse the web, read mail, install apps and so on. But why should you do it? You bought it for reading books, right, else you'd have bought a tablet.
Think it through. How do those books get on the device in the first place? It's a networked device with purchasing ability, tied to your Amazon account and payment information. That's enough reason to warrant security updates, even if the device is used for nothing else but buying and reading books.
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Defective by design. There shouldn't be enough information on a device to perform a complete purchase.
No amount of security updates will resolve a system that isn't design where convenience have been chosen over security.
There isn't. That information is tied to the account that the device is associated with and communicates with over the network.
I like the method my bank uses.
I'm glad to hear it. But your bank is irrelevant to a discussion about a networked e-reader and the many reasons there might be to perform security updates that have nothing to do with purchasing or banking, even if authorizing purchases by communicating with an online account is one of the things it can do that needs securing.
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I thought about it before buying it. In the end it's tied to a freaking debit card I don't care about. I need to buy something? I top up the card with the ammount needed and that's all.
It may help, though, I'm living in Europe. Over here banks are more careful with their customers (or, at least, my bank is).
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By not upgrading unless it adds something you need?
That can often times be difficult, since the description of upgrades are often dumbed down to the point of uselessness in the name of user friendliness or deliberately obfuscated to hide what they contain (looking at you, Microsoft). Figuring out if it contains something you need isn't as simple as your flippant comment suggests. Not to mention the fact that updates on devices like the kindle are delivered in a single monolithic update file, so there is no opportunity to selectively reject changes such as the one OP describes while accepting needed security updates.
Also the ability to rollback is getting more and more rare these days.
Not upgrading may not be a (realistic) option (Score:3)
Unfortunately, there is a trend for updates to be completely automatic and involuntary, both with certain devices and even now with Windows 10 on the desktop. All it takes is some sort of online component it depends on and you have a crank to turn the update wheel, even if the update actually has nothing to do with that online element. Again, it's clear why the developers would prefer only having to support their latest code base, but unfortunately it leaves users with no control over their own devices, inc
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There are other manufacturers that make devices that are much more configurable, such as above-mantioned Kobo. There are even Android based E-ink readers, even with Google Play enabled by default. No rooting necessary.
I personally find PocketBook devices to be the most configurable non-Android based devices. You can even install third party apps, such as Gvim editor, terminal emulator or sftp server.
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So what do you do with the update that:
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A wider issue is the general trend for devices with behaviour that is remotely changed after you buy them thanks to software updates. What is the situation if you bought an e-reader you were happy with and could use comfortably, but then after this kind of update it no longer works for you because, for example, your eyesight isn't good enough to read the new font? It's obvious why hardware and software vendors might want this kind of capability, but how do we protect the buyers who are using the products to make sure they're still getting what they paid for when they decided to buy?
Ultimately, the only way to do that is to give power to the users, and the only way to do that is to offer them a choice or a setting. I'm sad to say that the modern trend is to instead make the choice for the user, because this is not the only problem that results from this philosophy. What I don't understand is why nobody puts in an "advanced mode" or something like that into these devices, to allow that kind of crazy customizability, while still keeping the simple and minimalistic version for those who w
Advanced settings (Score:2)
I miss that too. But I think the problem is that QA gets much harder with lots of advanced options. You have test against all possible combinations of options or the users will whine.
Casus: I just bought a fancy photo camera with a 360 page manual describing all the settings and features. It didn't take long before I had activated a feature that disabled the autofocus mode selection. Took me a full hour of trying to figure out that enabling digital zoom does not go along with focus-to-faces... That kind of
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I think the OP was speaking generally. The settings you mention are simple enough. In hindsight (ie. back in the day), the advanced settings section often became a collecting point for many edge-case tweaks, so things could get complicated and messy if not unchecked. So in modern products that can of worms is often pre-emptively left closed.
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If amazon was able to retroactively change the font weight and not screw all of that up, then it must not be a big problem.
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Ultimately, the only way to do that is to give power to the users, and the only way to do that is to offer them a choice or a setting.
There is a middle ground: you separate updates for areas like security and reliability from updates to the UI and functionality. Got an existing system? Sure, you can patch your existing software to keep it as secure as possible, without also getting UI changes or new functionality. Want our latest features? You can update to a new version of the software, but you take it or leave it.
We successfully built software for some number of decades in this way, and in practice it wasn't a prohibitive maintenance bu
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Devices updating is both a good thing and a bad thing from a customer perspective. You can get new features, bugfixes, and security updates, of course. But what happens if functional changes are made and you aren't happy with it? That's sort of a tough one. Almost any functional change you make is going to make a small percentage of people unhappy, because people don't like change, or it may genuinely be a worse experience for them for whatever reason.
Does that mean a company shouldn't try to genuinely
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I think we need to start consciously distinguishing between fixes and other changes.
If a device doesn't properly do what it was supposed to do when the customer bought it -- there's a security vulnerability, it's not quite in spec and so doesn't work properly with something, that kind of thing -- then like any other purchase, the customer should get what (they thought) they were paying for when they decided to buy, and the manufacturer should fix the defect.
The manufacturer is under no equivalent obligation
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Yep, agreed. I don't think there have been too many blatant examples of actually removing functionality through updates, though - at least that I can recall offhand. While US consumer protection laws aren't quite as strong as in some European countries, a company that altered a product post-sale so radically would quickly find itself at the receiving end of a class-action lawsuit.
One could argue that Sony did this with the PS3 when they removed the "other OS" functionality, but I think they got away with
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As for Sony, to me it is inexcusable. I am under no obligation to be a mainstream user. The fact is, I bought a product for its feature set. If it now doesn't have some of those features, I no longer have what I paid for. The judge must be smoking crack IMHO.
Another example that comes to mind is VW diesels. Bringing them into emissions compliance by software update will reduce performance or mileage. The fact is that the cars were defective and if the defect can't be cured without degrading the specs, the b
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I made the same argument in another thread [slashdot.org] (and using the same example of the Qwerty keyboard, oddly enough) related to how changing a widely known user interface paradigm (a car's shifter) can actually be deadly. Sometimes ubiquity trumps "efficiency".
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I agree. [slashdot.org]
That said, I think there is a fundamental difference between Apple's behaviour and Mozilla's here, for the simple reason that users of Apple gear paid for it and should therefore get what they bought, in proper working order. While it's certainly frustrating for many Firefox users that things keep changing and often not for the better recently, those users never paid Mozilla anything and so Mozilla owes them nothing in return.
Things get much more complicated when you bought the device from a vendo
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This post brought to you by the First World Problems Department.
Also. Seriously, this is "news for nerds"? A minor font tweak on some ebook reader?
If it saves some other nerd from creating a product with eyestrain-inducing text, then yes.
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The new font, which was called Bookerly, had been hailed as more readable. Looks as though it wasn't. Fortunately, Kindle allows a choice of several fonts, including the monitor-friendly Verdana
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Not in my Kindle Voyage. All I have is Baskerville, Bookerly, Helvetica, Palatino, Futura, Caecilia and Caecilia Condensed. No Verdana here. Seriously, the only worthwile choices IMHO are Baskerville, Bookerly and Palatino. Caecilia is awful in its bold weight (almost indistinguishable from the normal one).
Seriously, Amazon needs to improve the font situation on its e-ink Kindles.
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Some of these choices may be in the tablet apps but not in the e-ink reader.
So What (Score:2)
If you had a eink Kindle and you found Helvetica to hard to read you probably switched to another font already
anyway I like white text on a black background
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Actually, white-on-black makes things worse - it makes skinny fonts skinnier and the black "creeps into" the white and makes fonts appear smaller.
So much so if you're doing it, you must increase the size and weight of the font you're using to make it look "normal" again.
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Is this something specific to do with eInk? I thought (from photography back when I had copious free time) that light tended to bleed into dark.
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White text on a black background certainly looks thicker than black text on a white background to me on my MacBook Pro. That said, it may depend on the font rendering engine.
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Although this is a fair point, I also can't remember the last time I picked up a book I've read several times before off my shelf, and found it was suddenly now set in 6pt Comic Sans.
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No. I also have never had a physical book shift its font after I got it home.
Yes, yes, bring us back the workaround. (Score:2)
Yes, yes, bring us back the workaround.
The underlying problem doesn't have to be resolved, because we can just ignore it by installing a bolder font than the one that uncovered the underlying problem in the first place by making it more obvious.
Does anyone else see this as a crap solution to the problem?
Does anyone else see the actual problem is people with bad vision trying to use eReaders?
What about those of us with prosthetic hands who can't use touch screens for lack of capacitive coupling? We should d
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What about those of us with prosthetic hands who can't use touch screens for lack of capacitive coupling?
You know they have gloves with capacitive fingertips now so you can use such devices, right? They don't depend on your fingertip's capacitance. That's a solved problem.
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What about those of us with prosthetic hands who can't use touch screens for lack of capacitive coupling?
You know they have gloves with capacitive fingertips now so you can use such devices, right? They don't depend on your fingertip's capacitance. That's a solved problem.
Actually, it's a problem I solved for Bochs when I worked at Google. Because I had the need to solve the same problem for a robot that needed to be able to capacitively couple with touch devices. The gloves only work because they are conductively connected to a great big meat antenna (you), such that the cpacitive coupling works.
If you have an artificial limb, there's generally no electrical coupling to the meat antenna. So people with artificial limbs do not get to use touch devices.
The fix is to place
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No, the problem is the maker of a programmable device artificially limiting the font selection available to the owner.
Great - now they need to enable a night mode! (Score:2)
Re:Great - now they need to enable a night mode! (Score:4, Interesting)
Two problems with this.
1. You don't seem to be able to change the colour of the paper all the way to the border - not sure if this is a limitation of the paper, limitation of the kindle or limitation of my efforts to get inverted text.
2. (and why I gave up on 1) when the page refreshes, it goes to all white before it changes back to black. If you could *COMPLETELY* turn off the back light and use reflected light then this would probably be OK but it causes a very unpleasant flash when reading with a dark adapted eye.
One day I'll get around to attacking my voyage with a soldering iron and rooting it so I can turn off the backlight but I don't know when.
stop shilling kobo (Score:1)
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Get a grip. The site where the articles were posted is dedicated to books and reading gadgets. As enthusiasts, they would be aware of many ereaders, and mentioning one in the context of an article about a shortcoming of another makes sense. Just as an article about Ubuntu might mention Fedora, mentioning the Kobo in an article about Kindle makes sense. I see no advertising here.
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I recently bought a e-reader and bought a Kobo because it fitted my needs, my budget and was easily available for me. There were other options, including "no-name" stuff, but one that was out of the equation right off the bat was the Kindle.
Come on... an e-reader that doesn't support ePub, are you serious?
Now, if you don't mind selling your soul to Amazon, sure, get a Kindle. I won't blame you, Amazon is convenient after all.
update? (Score:2)
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You have no option other than disabling the WiFi or filling the flash memory completely with content so that there is no space for Kindle to download the update to. If you disable the WiFi you have to side-load all your purchases using USB cable The last update - the one with the new certs for connecting to the Amazon servers is only a few kilobytes.
Ageism at its most insideous (Score:2)
What this illustrates is the fact that tech companies often neglect a large segment of the population whose aging eyesight affects their ability to use the devices. Cataracts, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration are maladies that most people are going to have to deal with eventually. Those baby-boomers and Gen-Xers who have the money to buy the gadgets can't be ignored.