Re: The war is not being waged on the device
Its a real YMMV question which device you prefer. I bought the Kindle Paperwhite because I needed something to replace the iPad app I was using, so I was already using some Amazon resources (but I also have Calibre on the Mac and a boatload of PDFs).
The replacement was simply functional: an iPad you need to feed daily because it is overkill for text, whereas a Kindle keeps going for weeks on a single charge, even if you don't bother to disable the backlight.
My impression of the software is less than that of the hardware: it is crude, and gives the impression not having been updated for years.
1 - There are no usable tools to group and manage a large collection of books (calling Amazon's "collections" usable would redefine the term), PDFs you insert yourself more or less disappear in the library (the lack of grouping or even categorisation means you are entirely dependent on the name of the document to find it again) and the e-ink screen is not exactly fun if you need to scroll through a list to find something either. Put another way, the UI doesn't offer ways around the display deficiency by grouping and other tools to minimise screen rewrites other than a search function.
2 - you may be able to scale the view of the book you're reading, but the rest of the interface is fixed size, so if you need reading glasses I would suggest not to put them away just yet
3 - there is no way to change the appearance of the lock screen, so the idea of adding your name to the device details is utterly pointless as anyone who can use the device can change it. This is less an issue with professional users, but it is IMHO a serious barrier to school use where on-device naming still works a lot better to prevent theft than a sticker that can be peeled off.
In short, the Kindle software is a considerable distance from perfect, I would call it just about functional. It does not match the excellent quality of the hardware.
As for books to read, the Amazon system is a bit of a mess between countries. It is not as butchered and broken a mess as Apple's iTunes and App Store are when you live in multiple countries, but it too can get weird at times. I have it set to the US (explicitly use amazon.com instead of amazon.<country code>) which seems to solve most of the problems. It also makes using books clubs for discounted and free books easier.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
