Who knows how long the sale will last, but for now you can buy a basic Kindle for $49 ($30 off), Kindle Paperwhite for $90 ($30 less), and a Voyage for $150 ($50 discount) if you’re an Amazon Prime member. Discount happen at checkout.
The basic Kindle’s latest incarnation came out just months ago, but could a new model or models of the Paperwhite or Voyage be on the way? Hard to say. For whatever it’s worth, more of the basics won’t be in stock until October 23; the Voyages, until October 25. Paperwhites will reach you October 12.
Alas, the sale does not include the $290 Oasis, the very machine most in need of it.
Now, if Amazon will only do something about the lack of optional all-text boldface in all E Ink devices! Just now, I heard from a man with cataracts who would be very appreciative of the change, which could happen very inexpensively within the firmware. Come on, Jeff. You can afford it.
(Via the Digital Reader.)
teleread.org 
Quote: “Alas, the sale does not include the $290 Oasis, the very machine most in need of it.”
Think status. Some purses, women’s shoes, and the like have to be grossly overpriced. Those who buy them, buy them for that price. They wouldn’t be caught dead wearing items that you and I wear. Why should ereaders be different?
Think of the old adage, “If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.”
http://wendybrandes.com/blog/2012/09/who-said-if-you-have-to-ask-the-price-you-cant-afford-it/
LikeLike
Not all of us who have the Oasis bought it as a status item. I could not give a rat’s a– about status. I buy most of my clothes at Kohls. I adore the Oasis because of its size, light weight and the ability to flip the text when you want the buttons on the other side. I use my other Kindles when I have run down the battery on the Oasis. And I agree with David that a software update on any or all of the Kindles could easily take care of the need for the option to make text bold.
LikeLike
Re the ‘all bold text’ issue: that’s entirely possible currently, using a jailbreak that was announced (apparently) back in July that I somehow missed until now.
Jailbreak the Kindle, add a few well-documented files, then add KoReader which is an alternate reading environment for Kindle. Among other things, it allows changing the font weight to make it as bold as needed. Its many other features also includes unlimited text sizes; avoiding that annoying (to me) big jump in size that occurs on the Kindle. All of this makes it much easier to read with vision difficulties.
I had done this on a previous Kindle awhile ago using the old method and I just did it on a PaperWhite 3 using the current method. Works fine. Google for directions. The process took about 10 minutes from downloading the needed files to starting up KoReader on the Kindle.
LikeLike
@BDR: Thanks. KoReader sounds great, but it almost surely can’t handle DRMed books.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog.
LikeLike