E-books More Than Just Digital Facsimiles

[Conan46]

Amazon’s Kindle, and its less popular e-reader brethren, are great for fiction, but trying to consume content that isn’t meant to be enjoyed from cover to cover is an exercise in annoyance, frustration and misery. That’s a shame, because it doesn’t have to be that way.

http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/26/wil...8TechCrunch%29

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by Conan46

http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/26/wil...8TechCrunch%29

Some of the examples they note are just lazy ebook editing. For example, there's no reason why "see page 29 for scoring" couldn't have a hyperlink to the start of the section to which it's referring, and there's no reason why each answer couldn't have a hyperlink back to the question. If I were using that book, I'd probably ask for a refund also.

Also, the author seems to forget that while many ebooks have a poorer user experience when read on a greylevel reader, many people read on a color phone or tablet, or can switch to one if it's necessary because of color images. Finally, while phone apps and websites might make better travel guides, an ebook might be more useful if one doesn't have access to cellular data, and it might be easier to create bookmarks before going to the destination over trying to make notes in an app or using bookmarks on a web page.

[JSWolf]

Also, the author is very irresponsible and should be made to replace ever since Reader that gets broken. There is a picture is a woman putting a naked Kindle (with the screen active) in her coat pocket. That is very irresponsible to show that. It can make people who do not know better think this is OK when it's very much not OK.

[Dr. Drib]

Perhaps the sleeve is covered inside with industrial strength tinfoil.

One can never really know.

Or perhaps, even now, it is broken and she just joined Mobileread to ask if the screen is broken.

One can never really know.

[chrisridd]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Also, the author is very irresponsible and should be made to replace ever since Reader that gets broken. There is a picture is a woman putting a naked Kindle (with the screen active) in her coat pocket. That is very irresponsible to show that. It can make people who do not know better think this is OK when it's very much not OK.

That photo is from the Kindle page on Amazon.co.uk and nothing to do with the author. Though curiously the version in the article has "CHAPTER 1" on screen whereas the version on the Amazon page just has "1".

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

Some of the examples they note are just lazy ebook editing. For example, there's no reason why "see page 29 for scoring" couldn't have a hyperlink to the start of the section to which it's referring, and there's no reason why each answer couldn't have a hyperlink back to the question. If I were using that book, I'd probably ask for a refund also.

Also, the author seems to forget that while many ebooks have a poorer user experience when read on a greylevel reader, many people read on a color phone or tablet, or can switch to one if it's necessary because of color images. Finally, while phone apps and websites might make better travel guides, an ebook might be more useful if one doesn't have access to cellular data, and it might be easier to create bookmarks before going to the destination over trying to make notes in an app or using bookmarks on a web page.

If you are using the Kindle app on an Android tablet the link to another area of the book is useless. There is no way to get back to where you were when you clicked the link. When I use Moon+ and click on the same link I get an arrow to return back to where I was. The Kindle app used to be able to go back when you hit the back button but that was removed a long time ago. It was also very annoying if you had clicked a bunch of links. If you tried to use the back button to exit, you needed to hit back the number of times you used links before you could exit. This also lost your place in the book. I guess Amazon wasn't smart enough to figure out how to fix this and just got rid of it completely.

[Conan46]

Standard formatting for complex ebooks clearly doesn't work well. As mentioned, it also doesn't work well across all devices/apps. We need some out of the box thinking, perhaps a completely different formatting process for complex ebooks.
For instance, I would love to be able to actually to see maps in my ebooks. You can zoom in but it is worthless, barely bumps up the size on my Paperwhite.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

That photo is from the Kindle page on Amazon.co.uk and nothing to do with the author. Though curiously the version in the article has "CHAPTER 1" on screen whereas the version on the Amazon page just has "1".

It doesn't matter where the picture came from. The issue is the author used it in the article and is publicizing that it's OK to put a non-sleeping naked Kindle into a coat pocket. So I do blame the author for using such an image. It's irresponsible.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

If you are using the Kindle app on an Android tablet the link to another area of the book is useless. There is no way to get back to where you were when you clicked the link. When I use Moon+ and click on the same link I get an arrow to return back to where I was. The Kindle app used to be able to go back when you hit the back button but that was removed a long time ago. It was also very annoying if you had clicked a bunch of links. If you tried to use the back button to exit, you needed to hit back the number of times you used links before you could exit. This also lost your place in the book. I guess Amazon wasn't smart enough to figure out how to fix this and just got rid of it completely.

The eink Kindles can still use the back button that way, the Fires cannot so I now set a bookmark before taking the link.

Such problems can't be fixed without a better specification and also at some point the Android OS may prevent what you want to happen.

Recall that if you follow a book link to the browser 'back' is supposed to return you to the book in a similar way. An API to let you link to another book would be good and perhaps provide a suitable definition of what a return from an internal book link should do.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

The eink Kindles can still use the back button that way, the Fires cannot so I now set a bookmark before taking the link.

Such problems can't be fixed without a better specification and also at some point the Android OS may prevent what you want to happen.

Recall that if you follow a book link to the browser 'back' is supposed to return you to the book in a similar way. An API to let you link to another book would be good and perhaps provide a suitable definition of what a return from an internal book link should do.

It can be easily fixed. Moon+ figured out how to do it - just display an arrow on the screen that takes you back when you tap it. FBReader lets you use the back button, and if you visited more than one link it displays a list that includes an option to exit. Mantano displays a return button after you tap in the center of the screen. Amazon just needs to want to do it and they obviously don't think it's necessary.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Amazon just needs to want to do it and they obviously don't think it's necessary.

Are you kidding? What a mess. I didn't actually believe you, so I tried navigating in Kindle app. I promptly lost my place in the book . The only thing that works is the back button back to the book from full definiton in dictionary. But the dictionary is quite limited in the app as well - can't lookup the dictionary from within the open dictionary. Compared to the eink version that Kindle app sucks. On my Voyage I can open the dictionary from within and each back (<- ) button brings me one step back until arriving again in book. Or if it took too long I can go home and open book again at exact same spot I was in.

Oh well, just going to keep using the app in emergencies (e.g. forgot to bring Voyage).

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It doesn't matter where the picture came from. The issue is the author used it in the article and is publicizing that it's OK to put a non-sleeping naked Kindle into a coat pocket. So I do blame the author for using such an image. It's irresponsible.

Yes it matters that the picture came from Amazon. Look all around you how many use a naked smart phone without cover shoved into the back pocket of jeans. The cover is optional. Get used to it - to some their electronics are not holy objects, they are just things. You still have to be careful with a cover.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Are you kidding? What a mess. I didn't actually believe you, so I tried navigating in Kindle app. I promptly lost my place in the book . The only thing that works is the back button back to the book from full definiton in dictionary. But the dictionary is quite limited in the app as well - can't lookup the dictionary from within the open dictionary. Compared to the eink version that Kindle app sucks. On my Voyage I can open the dictionary from within and each back (<- ) button brings me one step back until arriving again in book. Or if it took too long I can go home and open book again at exact same spot I was in.

Oh well, just going to keep using the app in emergencies (e.g. forgot to bring Voyage).

I like my solution better . Download and strip the drm so I can read in an app that works much better.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Are you kidding? What a mess. I didn't actually believe you, so I tried navigating in Kindle app. I promptly lost my place in the book . The only thing that works is the back button back to the book from full definiton in dictionary. But the dictionary is quite limited in the app as well - can't lookup the dictionary from within the open dictionary. Compared to the eink version that Kindle app sucks. On my Voyage I can open the dictionary from within and each back (<- ) button brings me one step back until arriving again in book. Or if it took too long I can go home and open book again at exact same spot I was in.

Oh well, just going to keep using the app in emergencies (e.g. forgot to bring Voyage).

I have found a couple books where the Voyage isn't much better for navigation. Following a footnote can be frustrating with the touch screen. For example, I was reading a Terry Pratchett book which had a footnote in the upper right corner of the screen. I went to click on it and no matter how I pressed the only thing I could get it to do was bookmark the page. Grrr. Just let me follow the link!

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I like my solution better . Download and strip the drm so I can read in an app that works much better.

Works if you pay for books. I avoid paying as much as I can - most books I read are KU books. The only KU books that get their DRM stripped are the ones that come from Kindle First since they are technically free purchases for me. Everything gets DRM stripped that didn't come as library or KU borrow otherwise.