More than a year has passed since the last post on this thread. Any new endorsements, criticisms or second thoughts about the Kindle and LingQ?
I don’t use Kindle for LingQ, but I do use it to read books in other languages. It’s a very useful tool if you want to access texts from Gutenberg, for example.
Well I would say that the Kindle is pretty good for reading in your target language. I have, in the time since my last post in this thread, gone from reading uninteresting Elementary lessons to reading Chinese translations of Harry Potter and “The hitch hiker’s guide to the galaxy”
As for LingQ and the Kindle, I have not used LingQ very much in the last year and I have not used it on my Kindle at all. I haven’t used it on my Kindle because the browser is slow and I feel like reading other things instead of waiting for the browser.
@Chris and bobafruit
Thanks to both of you for responding. Bobafruit, I was curious to know whether a year had changed your thoughts about Kindle very much. I am spending more and more time with LingQ, but my eyes are getting very tired of staring at a computer screen. I think I am willing to be patient with a slow browser just so I can benefit from the non-glare of e-ink technology. I suppose if the browser is too slow, I can study vocabulary of something else while I wait.
I think the problem with the slowness is not so much loading the page but creating lingqs. The popups, dictionary search, etc., are all done with JavaScript/AJAX and require a server hit and this is slow with a tiny processor. On top of that, you’d have to try to make any changes with the little keyboard. I’m happy to read that it at least works on the Kindle. It doesn’t on my Android tablet. The problem is the mouseover which is emulated on Android with a very unintuitive touch and swipe. Apple has handled this much better on the iPhone/iPad and the first touch on a link serves as the mouseover (if mouseover is being checked by the page). Lingq.com seems to work quite well on the iPad but that doesn’t solve your glare problem. However, I wonder if it is actually the glare that bothers you, or the fact that your eyes have to focus on something close (accommodate) for a long period of time. Can you read a book for long periods without eyestrain?
@schongut “However, I wonder if it is actually the glare that bothers you, or the fact that your eyes have to focus on something close (accommodate) for a long period of time. Can you read a book for long periods without eyestrain?”
Good point. “Can I read a book for long periods without eyestrain?” Yes and no. If the type is rather small, say less than 11 point, and I’m guessing here about the size, then, yes, I get eyestrain after about 30 minutes. If the type is larger than 11 point, then, no, I don’t get eyestrain while reading a book or magazine.
On a computer monitor, I can compensate for type size by increasing the size of the font, but I can do very little about the glare. If I use an anti-glare screen, then I have a hard time seeing the screen at all. So after an hour or so of reading against the glare, my eyes begin to feel fatigued.
I do take breaks, and when breaks no longer suffice, I turn to reading books. But I miss those comforting LingQs. I’ve gone so far as to imitate them in books I enjoy and expect to read again. I highlight unknown words in yellow and write their definitions in the margin. Just like the days before LingQs. Obviously those yellow words don’t show up in new reading, and equally obviously the LingQ system on a computer is far better. So that’s why I’m thinking about buying the Kindle.
@donhamiltontx
So I just checked out the performance in the Kindle browser on lingQ.com and I was pleasantly surprised. Loading a lesson page takes 30 seconds to a minute and once the lesson is loaded everything works very fast; the lingqs pop up and creating new lingQs is fairly fast. The mouse cursor seems to be a problem, when you press down it skips down several lines and it doesn’t stop on individual words.
I just spent an hour or so looking for a way to get the cursor in the browser to move slower and couldn’t find anything. So I would say that a Kindle 3(now called the kindle keyboard) is not the best thing to use with lingq because of the cursor.
You might see if you can find a store with a Kindle touch and see how the touch is implemented in that browser. The Kindle browser seems good enough to handle lingq.com, but controlling the browser seems to be the weak point.
I appreciate your devoting the time to testing the performance of lingQ in the Kindle browser.
This cNet review of the Kindle Touch seems to show tapping a word on the screen is easy and straightforward. The tap comes at the 2:00 minute mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqlI-P1jTZU
However, that tap does not come in the browser, but this Engadget review speaks of links in the browser that can be touched effectively:
Bottom line: I like what I see, there is no other alternative to reading glare-less, the Touch can play MP3 files and I want an eReader for other books anyway. I’ll order one, and when it comes and I’ve checked it out, I’ll report back here on what I find.
Thanks for your comments.
My Kindle Touch arrived. Some results of my testing:
- Everything you said you could do with your Kindle, @bobafruit, I can also do on the Touch. LingQ comes up in the “experimental” browser, lessons can be loaded and read, highlighting shows up and so on.
- Getting all that to happen takes some time and effort.
- Individual highlighted words can be tapped easily enough, but nothing happens. The dialog box with the hint, phrase and so on does not appear. Maybe there is a trick that I don’t know about, but I don’t think the web-kit browser can perform that function.
- Reading on the Kindle is definitely easier on my eyes.
Bottom line: Kindle is not (yet) a good match for LingQ, but I can still read some of the lessons in Kindle and spare my eyes a bit.
I do not have Kindle, but probably I could share some of my thoughts.
@donhamiltontx
The issue No. 3 you have encountered is most probably because of JavaScript/AJAX as schongut mentioned earlier, however it runs on the client side instead of on the server side 
I will not go into deep of these technology terms, but I doubt the built-in browser in Kindle supports it. If the browser does not support JavaScript/AJAX, the functionalities you are expecting will not work at all.
Event it supports, according to the property of E-Ink, it will refresh the entire page every time you click on the screen. I do not know if this would cause you inconveniences while reading.
I total agree that reading on these E-Ink ebooks is much comfortable to my eyes. I have other eReader, and it is an old one without any Internet access. What I usually do is converting the materials I want to read on the way to ePub format and load them into my eReader. It is a little bit old-fashioned but it works pretty well for me
Perhaps these issues will be resolved in the coming future.
my 2 cents
@kigoik: You’re right. It’s easy enough to copy lessons and convert them to a format an eReader can handle.
If I use QuidkLingQ View first to mark new words as Known or to LingQ unknown words, then I can read the lesson that has been ported to the Kindle.
If some words are unfamiliar, and there always are some, then I can look then up in the lesson, or look them up in the Vocabulary section, or look them up in a list of vocabulary items for that lesson exported from the Vocabulary.
Not as convenient as doing everything on LingQ, but I’m satisfied enough.
@donhamiltontx
Glad to hear that you are happy with the kindle touch, but it’s unfortunate that touching the words doesn’t do anything.
His issue should not be caused by JavaScript/AJAX problems on the browser side, because the Kindle 3’s browser can handle the necessary JavaScript/AJAX to render the dialog boxes with hints, etc. The issue is more likely that the browser does not interpret a tap as a mouse-over and so does not trigger the dialog box.
Also the screen refresh on the newer kindles has improved so it doesn’t have to refresh the whole screen, just the parts that have changed.
@bobafruit
Thanks for your information. It seems that I don’t get with the latest technology. Probably I should try to get one to test a little bit.
Amazon just announced many new devices yesterday. At the same event they announced with Audible.com a new feature, Immersion Reading. This lets you see words highlighted as someone narrates them.
Interestingly, Audible’s press release mentions research on LR approach.
- 20 free titles of 15,000 in the library
- no mention of foreign language titles
- works only on Kindle Fire devices
- must buy book from Amazon and audiobook from Audible
Excerpts of press release below:
Audible and Amazon Introduce “Immersion Reading” and “Whispersync for
Voice”—Two Momentous Steps Forward for Reading
“Immersion Reading”—the revolutionary multisensory reading experience that
intensifies the power of great stories and helps readers retain more of what
they read—available exclusively with the all-new Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire
HD family
Business Wire NEWARK, N.J. – September 06, 2012
New “Immersion Reading”
With Immersion Reading, owners of new Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD can now
synchronize Kindle text with the corresponding Audible.com audiobook to create
a more immersive and engaging experience, as well as deepen learning and
comprehension. As customers read their books on Kindle Fire, text is
highlighted while it is professionally narrated via the Audible audiobook.
Academic research supports the assertion that all readers can benefit from
listening while reading. In an influential 2007 study, “Learning through
Listening in the Digital World,” neuropsychologist David Rose and professor
Bridget Dalton drew upon cognitive educational research to report that “both
learning to listen and listening to learn are critical to literacy in the 21st
century as new technologies rebalance what it means to be literate and to
learn.” Professor David Dockterman commented on Rose’s and Dalton’s findings,
“For struggling readers, narration can provide decoding support, but there’s
an added benefit to well-narrated text that helps even competent readers.
Hearing something read with expression provides additional clues to the
meaning beyond the words themselves.”
“At Amazon we are missionaries when it comes to inventing on behalf of authors
and readers. We’re excited today to unveil our latest innovations that will
help people read more and retain more of what they read. Reading and listening
together has been shown to increase the motivation to read, and it can have
meaningful impact on reading retention—Immersion Reading on the new Kindle
Fire family sets a new standard for deep reading by engaging the eye and the
ear simultaneously with beautifully narrated audiobooks,” said Jeff Bezos,
Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Anyone who wants more time to read, or never
wants to put a great book down because it’s time to drive to work or exercise,
will love Whispersync for Voice—it offers our customers the profound gift of
more time to read.”
Starting today, nearly 15,000 Kindle books and 15,000 Audible audiobooks
across a wide array of categories and genres are available for customers to
experience using Immersion Reading and Whispersync for Voice. Customers are
invited to try both products for free for a limited time with 20 Kindle and
Audible audio titles, including full-length classics like “Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn,” narrated by Elijah Wood, and popular children’s books like
“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” narrated by Anne Hathaway. Customers who
purchase or already own the Kindle edition of one of the nearly 15,000
Whispersync for Voice- or Immersion Reading-ready titles available at launch
can add professional narration at a special limited time discount off the full
audiobook price, with the discounted price ranging from $4.95 to $12.95.
To see a demonstration of Immersion Reading, visit http://www.audible.com/immersion.
Academic research supports the assertion that all readers can benefit from
listening while reading. In an influential 2007 study, “Learning through
Listening in the Digital World,” neuropsychologist David Rose and professor
Bridget Dalton drew upon cognitive educational research to report that “both
learning to listen and listening to learn are critical to literacy in the 21st
century as new technologies rebalance what it means to be literate and to
learn.” Professor David Dockterman commented on Rose’s and Dalton’s findings,
“For struggling readers, narration can provide decoding support, but there’s
an added benefit to well-narrated text that helps even competent readers.
Hearing something read with expression provides additional clues to the
meaning beyond the words themselves.”
I have been saying this for years. I have tried to interest basic literacy teachers in LingQ, with no luck. They want to “teach” people how to read, how to infer, higher level thinking, and other such “cognitive” skills rather than just letting them listen while they read, and enjoy whatever interests them.
BTW keke , thanks a lot for this information.
keke_eo, That’s quite interesting. Thanks for posting it. It could be useful for people learning English, or for children learning to read, perhaps. However, with the price of books for kindle and of books from audible.com, it will be rather expensive, per book. A relative of mine buys books from audible.com, and many of the readers are very good.
Perhaps things have improved, but foreign language support (non-Latin alphabet) on kindle has been quite limited.
You’re welcome. I thought it might interest the members here.
If someone does try it out, please post a review.
Hey Everybody!
Just wanted to update people on the Kindle Chinese language support.
They have finally added support for Chinese dictionaries on the Kindle 3.
I suppose that is because of the recent launch of the Kindle in China, I suppose that’s because they want to bring it in line with the newer kindles.
You can now use a Chinese to English dictionary while reading Chinese books in the Kindle 3 and newer (or so I’ve been told)
I don’t think there is a Chinese to English dictionary available on the Kindle store… but there are a few .mobi C-E dictionaries available around the internet. I even posted one over on mobileread.com… anyhow I’ll post more later on.