Bah, touchscreens

[bunn]

It looks like my ancient Kindle  has finally shuffled off.  The screen is frozen and will not unfreeze for any incantation or combination of buttons,  even when I take the battery out.  The machine itself is still working, but can only be communicated with via cable, which is no use at all.

It appears modern kindles now have touchscreens.  Is this a good idea?  I have a touchscreen on my current laptop and I am constantly accidentally brushing the thing and being carried off to places I don't want to go.  What I want from an ebook reader is the robustness of a paperback book, with free wifi.   Touchscreens do not suggest 'tough' to me.  I suppose now I shall have to decide whether I really need an ebook reader anyway.

Ironically, the Kindle died halfway through a chapter about procrastination.  HOW DID IT KNOW.

Comments

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know. The last couple ereaders I had were non-touchscreen but definitely didn't seem *that* durable.

I second the idea to look for a refurb. The only issue with that is that ime with buttons it makes a big difference where they are and it's harder to try things out physically with a refurb.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I am thrown into a loop of I like refurbished, it is recycling! and 'but the refurbs are not that much cheaper than new ones' and looking at various desirable attributes. Of course, none of the new ones have ALL the desirable attributes in one place (waterproofness sounds excellent, but free 3g is quite handy) so I am still plunged in Technology Indecision. I can see this is going to take a while...

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Well, in this case you'd be going for refurb not to save money, but to get a feature that's important to you (if you can't find it in a new model). It's a tough decision all around, though!