Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Interesting new feature on Kindle

  Tags: Gadget
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4911 days ago

2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 1 of 8
04 September 2013 at 12:39am | IP Logged 
I just read on the Amazon.co.uk homepage about the new Kindle paperwhite (I assume it's a new version of the paperwhite, since that's not new). Here's the interesting new feature:
Quote:
Our new Vocabulary Builder automatically compiles words you look up in the dictionary into easy-to-use flashcards.

I'm sure the "easy-to-use" flashcards are rubbish, without SRS. But maybe they can be exported and used in another system. And, more importantly, it looks like Amazon is recognizing the value of the kindle for language learners. It so, let's hope for even more useful enhancements!


Edited by Jeffers on 04 September 2013 at 8:35am

5 persons have voted this message useful



Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4911 days ago

2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 2 of 8
04 September 2013 at 8:36am | IP Logged 
I've just been reading the product page, and here's another useful feature for us:
Quote:
Tap any word or highlight a section to translate instantly into other languages, including Spanish, Japanese and more. Translations by Bing Translator.


But it looks like you can't switch off the backlight, so I don't think I'll abandon my old kindle yet! Does anyone know if it is even e-ink technology? It doesn't mention it anywhere on the page.
2 persons have voted this message useful



patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4535 days ago

1546 posts - 3200 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 3 of 8
04 September 2013 at 9:35am | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
I've just been reading the product page, and here's another useful feature for us:
Quote:
Tap any word or highlight a section to translate instantly into other languages, including Spanish, Japanese and more. Translations by Bing Translator.


But it looks like you can't switch off the backlight, so I don't think I'll abandon my old kindle yet! Does anyone know if it is even e-ink technology? It doesn't mention it anywhere on the page.


I just bought a new Kindle after my old one died. I almost bought the new Paperwhite, but ended up deciding for the much cheaper e-ink version. The Paperwhite is using e-ink technology, but the light can't be turned off, and when it's down low the illumination on a friend's looked very uneven. In normal lighting conditions you don't need the light.

I think looking up words is also easier on the e-ink version using the cursor. I haven't tried the Paperwhite, but I wouldn't want to be constantly tapping the screen to look up words, and I don't believe the Bing translator is better than a professional dictionary, and I bet it's a lot slower (or non-existent if you don't have wifi).




Edited by patrickwilken on 04 September 2013 at 9:38am

1 person has voted this message useful



tricoteuse
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
littlang.blogspot.co
Joined 6680 days ago

745 posts - 845 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French
Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian

 
 Message 4 of 8
04 September 2013 at 9:52am | IP Logged 
I just got the new Kindle paperwhite, and even though I'm glad it can now read Cyrillic I
think it's ridiculous that they haven't been able to add keyboards for more languages and
dictionaries that actually work!
2 persons have voted this message useful



Darklight1216
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5102 days ago

411 posts - 639 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German

 
 Message 5 of 8
04 September 2013 at 11:12am | IP Logged 
I've been wanting the paperwhite since it came out, but I'm glad that this thread made me visit Amazon again. I have been wanting something like the upcoming Matchbook service ever since I got a kindle!

For those who don't want to go to the website: Matchbook will allow buyers of print books to purchase the ebooks more affordably.
1 person has voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4830 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 6 of 8
04 September 2013 at 12:10pm | IP Logged 
Darklight1216 wrote:
I've been wanting the paperwhite since it came out, but I'm glad
that this thread made me visit Amazon again. I have been wanting something like the
upcoming Matchbook service ever since I got a kindle!

For those who don't want to go to the website: Matchbook will allow buyers of print books
to purchase the ebooks more affordably.


Perhaps as sort of parallel move, I recently got an email from Amazon offering me free
MP3 versions of the music CDs I'd bought. Given that one can rip the CDs to MP3 easily
enough, perhaps not a big deal, but useful I suppose for anyone who has lost or damaged
their CDs.
1 person has voted this message useful



conroy
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 5076 days ago

36 posts - 51 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 7 of 8
14 September 2013 at 2:03pm | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
I just read on the Amazon.co.uk homepage about the new Kindle paperwhite (I assume it's a new version of the paperwhite, since that's not new). Here's the interesting new feature:
Quote:
Our new Vocabulary Builder automatically compiles words you look up in the dictionary into easy-to-use flashcards.

I'm sure the "easy-to-use" flashcards are rubbish, without SRS. But maybe they can be exported and used in another system. And, more importantly, it looks like Amazon is recognizing the value of the kindle for language learners. It so, let's hope for even more useful enhancements!


Exporting Kindle highlights for use in an srs would be possible right now. The highlights are stored in a text file on the kindle called "My Clippings.txt." I'm not a programmer but I don't imagine it would be a difficult job to write a short program to convert that file into a tab delimited format for import into Anki.

You could spend your day reading and highlighting interesting stuff then quickly convert it and import it into an Anki deck.

As for the new paperwhite ... bing translation is already a feature of the existing model, but as has been mentioned elsewhere in the thread, you need an internet connection for it to work. Still comes in handy sometimes.

I can't speak about other languages but for French the dictionary works well on the paperwhite, and you can install extra dictionaries which seem pop up when the word you are looking up is not in the default.

For me the light is worth having. I suppose it depends on how good your eyesight is but unless I have good light the old e-ink versions are rather hard to read. With the paperwhite I can read anywhere.

It's true that you can't turn the light off completely but the lowest setting is barely any brighter than the screen on the older kindles.


2 persons have voted this message useful



FuroraCeltica
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6867 days ago

1187 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, French

 
 Message 8 of 8
14 September 2013 at 3:09pm | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
I just read on the Amazon.co.uk homepage about the new Kindle paperwhite (I assume it's a new version of the paperwhite, since that's not new). Here's the interesting new feature:
Quote:
Our new Vocabulary Builder automatically compiles words you look up in the dictionary into easy-to-use flashcards.

I'm sure the "easy-to-use" flashcards are rubbish, without SRS. But maybe they can be exported and used in another system. And, more importantly, it looks like Amazon is recognizing the value of the kindle for language learners. It so, let's hope for even more useful enhancements!


Sounds excellent


1 person has voted this message useful



If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.4375 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.