A useable Kindle dictionary

SameOldStory · 05-29-2010, 01:34 PM

In another area "Bloomberg: new Kindle in August" I had a thought for the Kindle dictionary problem. I don't know if Amazon can do this but it's worth asking them.

Quote:

Right now I am reading "The Penal Colony" by Richard Herley. The book is VERY good. But one problems with the British books is that we don't use the same language.

A useable dictionary is very useful in looking up the words that they use but we rarely if ever use. Hopefully Amazon will come up with a dictionary that looks up words like my GPS. As I start typing it starts searching and brings up the most likely answer.
Actually that might be something to suggest to them.

Just a thought.

tomsem · 05-31-2010, 05:04 PM

You can purchase a variety of dictionaries for Kindle, you aren't stuck with the one that comes with it. The problem is that there aren't enough choices.

I've been using the WordNet 3 dictionary. It seems to pick up both American and British spellings, where New Oxford American seems not to.

Or maybe I don't understand what the 'dictionary problem' is that you are referring to.

SameOldStory · 05-31-2010, 07:55 PM

I'm referring to another thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

In another area "Bloomberg: new Kindle in August".

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

It doesn't bother me much for simple novel reading. But it kills using the devices for reading anything I want to skim through like a research article etc. since it takes so long to flip through several pages etc.

For novel reading it only comes into play if I can't remember who someone is etc. In a paper book it's very quick to flip back a few pages, on my Kindle I don't bother.

But mainly where I'd like to see things sped up is things like looking up a word in the dictionary, getting back to the home screen, opening books etc. The current Kindles are painfully slow to do anything like that. I often don't look up words as it just takes to long to click the line, hit look up, have it pop up, then hit back to go back to the text.

I don't have a Kindle. But if it's a pain to use a dictionary, then a dictionary that STARTS looking up words AS YOU TYPE could be an answer. That way you wouldn't have to type in the whole word.

Another way to look at it would be the way that Google auto-suggests words as you type.

It was just a suggestion as dmaul1114 seemed to not like the way it worked with the Kindle.

tomsem · 05-31-2010, 09:30 PM

Oh, okay - I looked through the thread but only found the issue with British vs American English. Now I understand your suggestion, thanks.

I do have a Kindle, and while I agree that navigation can be sluggish when compared to non eInk devices, dictionary lookup functionality is pretty good, and certainly nothing I'd complain about specifically. 'Flipping through pages' is not something the current crop of eInk devices is any good at, unfortunately. eInk may get a little faster, but it will never approach LCD performance, as it relies on physical rather than electronic pixels. That's just physics...

For dictionary lookup, you just locate the word using the joystick (touch screen would be better here, but...) and a short definition pops up at the bottom of the screen. 'Enter' takes you to the full def, Back takes you back from there. No typing is involved. The joystick is a little awkward, but the effort to use it is not very great, and certainly it is a lot easier than looking up in a print dictionary, or having to type in each word to look up.

When you do start typing something it is the beginning of a search of: current item, all items, kindle store, google or wikipedia search, or dictionary search. After typing your search term, you then have to declare the search scope. To be useful, autosuggest would have to default to dictionary scope, but that's usually not what one would be searching when typing in a search term. On Kindle anyway...

I have navigation complaints more generally - should be able to jump to a link with a keyboard shortcut rather than having to locate it with joystick, for example.

SameOldStory · 05-31-2010, 10:46 PM

Perhaps the problem is tha dmaul1114 has a K1 and ti may be slower than a K2.

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05-31-2010, 05:04 PM	#2
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,644 Karma: 26963509 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	You can purchase a variety of dictionaries for Kindle, you aren't stuck with the one that comes with it. The problem is that there aren't enough choices. I've been using the WordNet 3 dictionary. It seems to pick up both American and British spellings, where New Oxford American seems not to. Or maybe I don't understand what the 'dictionary problem' is that you are referring to.

05-31-2010, 09:30 PM	#4
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,644 Karma: 26963509 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	Oh, okay - I looked through the thread but only found the issue with British vs American English. Now I understand your suggestion, thanks. I do have a Kindle, and while I agree that navigation can be sluggish when compared to non eInk devices, dictionary lookup functionality is pretty good, and certainly nothing I'd complain about specifically. 'Flipping through pages' is not something the current crop of eInk devices is any good at, unfortunately. eInk may get a little faster, but it will never approach LCD performance, as it relies on physical rather than electronic pixels. That's just physics... For dictionary lookup, you just locate the word using the joystick (touch screen would be better here, but...) and a short definition pops up at the bottom of the screen. 'Enter' takes you to the full def, Back takes you back from there. No typing is involved. The joystick is a little awkward, but the effort to use it is not very great, and certainly it is a lot easier than looking up in a print dictionary, or having to type in each word to look up. When you do start typing something it is the beginning of a search of: current item, all items, kindle store, google or wikipedia search, or dictionary search. After typing your search term, you then have to declare the search scope. To be useful, autosuggest would have to default to dictionary scope, but that's usually not what one would be searching when typing in a search term. On Kindle anyway... I have navigation complaints more generally - should be able to jump to a link with a keyboard shortcut rather than having to locate it with joystick, for example.

05-31-2010, 10:46 PM	#5
SameOldStory My True Self Posts: 3,126 Karma: 66242098 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Trantor, Galactic Center Device: Galaxy Tab 2 7.0	Perhaps the problem is tha dmaul1114 has a K1 and ti may be slower than a K2.

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