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Bob Russell · 09-30-2006, 10:51 AM

Here's where, when deciding whether to agree with Nathan or Ken, I can honestly say that I agree wholeheartedly with both! Nathan is right on about how word descriptions of the Sony interface is not nearly as complicated as how it sounds in words, and once you get to a book, it's obviously as simple as can be to read it.... push the button to turn the page. I think that's where you spend most of your time also.

But I do also think that the Sony interface has a lot of room for improvement outside of the simple page turning portion. It takes a while to catch on the menus and the joystick control. You can't go directly to a particular page number. And there are various essential features requireing the user to hold a button down for 5 secs (like move to landscape mode).

The book reader interface probably can and will be improved by all the various e-ink reader makers. But I keep coming back to the reading experience for someone who buys a book at the Connect store and then reads it. It will load fast, and it's easy to start reading, and then you just turn pages.

So yes, there is lots of room for improvement, and some things are too complicated. But I think the basic functions to read a purchased book provide a simple and sufficient interface. Like everything else, it will be very interesting to hear more input from users as they get the devices.

But I expect that the complaints will be related to wanting more functionality, or with the additional features. Not just opening a book and reading.

So complaints may come for non-BBeB books that can sometimes take a while to load or to change font/orientation the first time while the page information gets cached for that book. Or for people who are trying to navigate through a book.

But if you just want to read the book from front to back, there's just nothing to it, and for a book that's really where you "live" on the device unless you are a speed reader!

09-30-2006, 10:51 AM	#14
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Here's where, when deciding whether to agree with Nathan or Ken, I can honestly say that I agree wholeheartedly with both! Nathan is right on about how word descriptions of the Sony interface is not nearly as complicated as how it sounds in words, and once you get to a book, it's obviously as simple as can be to read it.... push the button to turn the page. I think that's where you spend most of your time also. But I do also think that the Sony interface has a lot of room for improvement outside of the simple page turning portion. It takes a while to catch on the menus and the joystick control. You can't go directly to a particular page number. And there are various essential features requireing the user to hold a button down for 5 secs (like move to landscape mode). The book reader interface probably can and will be improved by all the various e-ink reader makers. But I keep coming back to the reading experience for someone who buys a book at the Connect store and then reads it. It will load fast, and it's easy to start reading, and then you just turn pages. So yes, there is lots of room for improvement, and some things are too complicated. But I think the basic functions to read a purchased book provide a simple and sufficient interface. Like everything else, it will be very interesting to hear more input from users as they get the devices. But I expect that the complaints will be related to wanting more functionality, or with the additional features. Not just opening a book and reading. So complaints may come for non-BBeB books that can sometimes take a while to load or to change font/orientation the first time while the page information gets cached for that book. Or for people who are trying to navigate through a book. But if you just want to read the book from front to back, there's just nothing to it, and for a book that's really where you "live" on the device unless you are a speed reader!