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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   2506 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 4, 2025

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Little by little my Nook ST is beginning to wear out so I'm thinking about what I should look for when it's time to buy a new one. What are some of your must have features / biggest annoyances / missed opportunities in e-readers?

It's table stakes but I still love having an instant dictionary. Instant translation would be nice. Instant wikipedia would be good too. The more quick-look-up reference resources the better.

I like the idea of bookmarks and highlights/margin notes but I don't use them as they're not well implemented, for example when moving books between devices and different software. That raises the issue of software and hardware. Call me old school but I'm a firm believer in removable local storage as a means to preserve data should the device fail.

Not once have I wanted to install additional apps. I also don't particularly care about having a fancy OS/UI since I spend 99.999% of the time inside the book, not outside. I guess that audiobooks could be a relevant feature but I never listen to them and it's a slippery slope to podcasts, music, and just using a fully featured tablet. Ideally there would be a read-out-loud feature that used the ebook as the source rather than a separate audio file, and I imagine it's not far off if it hasn't been done already but again it feels like that would require a much more powerful device for only marginal benefit.

If you want to invest, there are options for fancy ones I don’t know much about, but for me the kindle paperwhite is easily hits the perfect portability price and convenience factor combination. Also press and hold brings up the dictionary on a word, just confirmed. Recommend to buy a nice leather case for it - some also have grips on the back side you can even fasten them sorta to your hand! Adds to the feel though some might like the original size and thinness. Brightness and color temperature settings are good as well. And apparently the new version is a bit more responsive too

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