4 ms·

Just another reason to totally love my Kindle. As an aside, I just traveled with my Kindle to Europe and was ecstatic by the ability to load up on (free, from

by Jun8 16y ago

Just another reason to totally love my Kindle. As an aside, I just traveled with my Kindle to Europe and was ecstatic by the ability to load up on (free, from Gutenberg) books, and easily switch between them on the long flight. However, those who herald the end of books is here are very wrong. Except from the "many books on long trip" or "Netflix-like instant book delivery" (and a few other, like reading long web pages) use cases, I wouldn't event think about switching to Kindle full-time. Gripes are: * All books appear almost the same, little or no typesetting * The note taking interface is shockingly primitive, e.g. just to get a questions mark requires several clicks * AFAIK, pagination depends on you display, so bookmarks may change place among Kindle readers on different devices. Of course, all of these are easily addressable. The question is: can the device that does these and other cool stuff (e.g. color) be sold around ~ $150.

rdl 16y ago
The main thing I'd like to see is a Kindle DX with Wifi support.
hobbes 16y ago
Pagination doesn't actually exist because (except for pdf's) there are no pages, only locations (see bottom of screen). Bookmarks mark locations, not pages.
- Jun8 16y ago
  Exactly, which take quite a bit of getting used to (see my comment above), because it doesn't work that way for real books. In fact when people cite references with page numbers, they usually give the precise editions of the book, since different editions may have the sentence or point being referenced on different pages. So it's important for the "bookmark" to hold the information about the whole text that the user sees a that time, I think.
  - allwein 16y ago
    In case you didn't know, "Locations" are actually sentences, images, etc. I don't know how you can get much more specific than identifying the exact sentence that you'd like to bookmark and remember.
- euroclydon 16y ago
  Which makes it impossible to do anything other than read certain books straight through. I wanted to skip around in Infinite Jest, but since the chapter names are meaningless and all the book guides have page number references, it's impossible to know the book's outline.
philh 16y ago
> The note taking interface is shockingly primitive, e.g. just to get a questions mark requires several clicks Do you normally make notes in your physical books? > AFAIK, pagination depends on you display, so bookmarks may change place among Kindle readers on different devices. The start of the page you bookmarked will still be the start of the page you jump to, whatever display layout you use. The pages might be different length.
- pedanticfreak 16y ago
  Some people do annotate in the margins. Especially non-fiction books. At the very least I've been known to add a bookmark (i.e. shred of paper) to a particular spot with some notes written on it. My criticisms of the Kindle are for its page transitions and poor interface. The Kindle is really like the Blackberry of of digital readers. The interface is beyond clunky compared to simple taps and swipes that much more closely emulate the act of reading a physical book. My best hope is that Mirasol comes to the Nook Color sooner rather than later as I highly doubt the iPad will come with a non-backlit display for several generations.
  - thwarted 16y ago
    The interface is beyond clunky compared to simple taps and swipes that much more closely emulate the act of reading a physical book. I've often felt that the "need" to emulate something in the real world on new devices and new interfaces has held back significant innovation. Despite that "the desktop metaphor" is supposed to be familiar, people still can't manage their files effectively. And now new interfaces are rare/difficult to gain traction because people are used to the desktop metaphor despite that it becomes less and less a good metaphor.
    - pedanticfreak 16y ago
      Regardless of whether we should or shouldn't emulate the real, I still stand by my statement that swipes and taps are superior to the Kindle interface. Perhaps in your case despite rather than because that interaction is more like reading a physical book.
Zeuf 16y ago
From these you said, I only miss the typesetting. If they add some new fonts, and differente typography. It would be more awesome! And one thing, I think all books for people more then 14 years old, are in black and white. Lol.

by Jun8 16y ago

rdl 16y ago

The main thing I'd like to see is a Kindle DX with Wifi support.

hobbes 16y ago

Pagination doesn't actually exist because (except for pdf's) there are no pages, only locations (see bottom of screen). Bookmarks mark locations, not pages.

Jun8 16y ago
Exactly, which take quite a bit of getting used to (see my comment above), because it doesn't work that way for real books. In fact when people cite references with page numbers, they usually give the precise editions of the book, since different editions may have the sentence or point being referenced on different pages. So it's important for the "bookmark" to hold the information about the whole text that the user sees a that time, I think.
- allwein 16y ago
  In case you didn't know, "Locations" are actually sentences, images, etc. I don't know how you can get much more specific than identifying the exact sentence that you'd like to bookmark and remember.
euroclydon 16y ago
Which makes it impossible to do anything other than read certain books straight through. I wanted to skip around in Infinite Jest, but since the chapter names are meaningless and all the book guides have page number references, it's impossible to know the book's outline.

philh 16y ago

> The note taking interface is shockingly primitive, e.g. just to get a questions mark requires several clicks Do you normally make notes in your physical books? > AFAIK, pagination depends on you display, so bookmarks may change place among Kindle readers on different devices. The start of the page you bookmarked will still be the start of the page you jump to, whatever display layout you use. The pages might be different length.

pedanticfreak 16y ago
Some people do annotate in the margins. Especially non-fiction books. At the very least I've been known to add a bookmark (i.e. shred of paper) to a particular spot with some notes written on it. My criticisms of the Kindle are for its page transitions and poor interface. The Kindle is really like the Blackberry of of digital readers. The interface is beyond clunky compared to simple taps and swipes that much more closely emulate the act of reading a physical book. My best hope is that Mirasol comes to the Nook Color sooner rather than later as I highly doubt the iPad will come with a non-backlit display for several generations.
- thwarted 16y ago
  The interface is beyond clunky compared to simple taps and swipes that much more closely emulate the act of reading a physical book. I've often felt that the "need" to emulate something in the real world on new devices and new interfaces has held back significant innovation. Despite that "the desktop metaphor" is supposed to be familiar, people still can't manage their files effectively. And now new interfaces are rare/difficult to gain traction because people are used to the desktop metaphor despite that it becomes less and less a good metaphor.
  - pedanticfreak 16y ago
    Regardless of whether we should or shouldn't emulate the real, I still stand by my statement that swipes and taps are superior to the Kindle interface. Perhaps in your case despite rather than because that interaction is more like reading a physical book.

Zeuf 16y ago

From these you said, I only miss the typesetting. If they add some new fonts, and differente typography. It would be more awesome! And one thing, I think all books for people more then 14 years old, are in black and white. Lol.