Much talk about upgrades on the board lately. Made me think about what I really, really wanted my next e-Reader to be like.
I'm a tad ambivalent as to form factor. Sony 350 is what I like for carrying around with me, but truth be told the screen is probably a bit smallish for the amount of text I want on a single page. I have to set it to the smallest font to get the right text amount and that is a bit rough on ageing eyes.
I like the touch screen because it can give you a clean bezel, but I do prefer the side buttons on the K3. I don't like the keyboard on either Sony (on-screen) or Kindle (buttons too small).
Both have external lights, neither is optimal for reading in the dark. Bot have covers (with lights) and they add too much heft and weight. So if I was allowed to design the next generation, here is what I would do:
- 6" screen with touch sensibility that can be turned on or off and possibly be adjusted.
- Page turn buttons on the side of the bezel, one on left for going back (Western books) or forward (Eastern books) and one on the right (vice versa)
- Somewhat lighter* screen than today's e-ink with a 300 PPI resolution
- Four serif and four non-serif fonts to choose from, can easily be changed to user installed fonts.
- A timer clock in case you need to stop reading at a certain point in time.
- MicroSD card supported up to 64GB
- User configured bookshelves with easy to view icons of books
- Configure books to be sorted according to Hewey decimal system if so desired
- Glowlight front lighting and a built-in screen protector that can be slided over the screen eliminating need for cover.
- Support for Bluetooth keyboard for annotations and notes.
Things that are already available like 3G (4G/LTE) and Wi-Fi are self evident.
What have I missed?
*By lighter I actually mean brighter, that is lighter grey or brighter white.