Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Kindle 2: Reading Just Got Harder

So the K2 is the same experience as the K1, or should that be a better experience. You would not expect it to be a worse experience would you? According to a stream of reports, some 500 posted on Amazon forums, there’s a problem with reading the text. Well books are in the main text, so what up with K2?

According to an article in Wired the problem is the new K2 font smoothing algorithms and increased levels of greyscale. Pictures look better but text as it gets smaller in size goes fuzzy. Some users have even downgraded and exchanged their K2 for the K1.

So why isn’t everyone complaining? Does it only affect a certain group? Did someone test it out on a range of different eyesight levels before it was realised?

The K2 offers a single thinner and lighter default typeface that users can’t change and the grey shades have been increased from 4 to 16 "for clear text and even crisper images." However K2 users who don't have 20/20 vision are finding the smallest three font sizes fuzzy. The font smoothing algorithms render the pixels along the edge of a letter in several shades of grey as opposed to the earlier version where they were black. Apparently this works on conventional backlight screens but not well on reflective ones such as the K2.

We wonder whether the answer is a K2 set of glasses in funky colours and designs. Imagine not only do you have to carry the slab around along with the mobile and laptop and accessories but you can now have a dedicated pair of specs just to read what you could read on paper without them.

Can’t wait for them to get to K9.

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