MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Amazon Kindle DX priced at $489, product link

catsittingstill · 05-06-2009, 04:24 PM

My thoughts:

I like the bigger screen, and I really like the ability to switch from portrait to landscape mode (and the ability to lock the screen, so it *doesn't* switch if I want to read in bed).

I love that it can display pdfs.

BUT

It can't highlight and annotate pdfs? (Page 66 of the user's manual) That makes it 50% useless for the kind of close reading and data-gathering I need it for. Not only that, it can't even *search* pdfs! It searches only the metadata, not the body of the document. That takes care of the other 50%.

Wait--in one place, page 67, it says it *can* search the document (as long as it's not one of those blasted every-page-as-a-separate-image pdfs). In another place (page 72) it says " For PDFs, Kindle searches for the term in the metadata only. " So I'm not sure what to think on the search issue.

But not being able to annotate is likely to be a dealbreaker for me all by itself.

I also don't like that it 1) STILL doesn't have folders and 2) doesn't support ePub.

I think I'm going to wait and see what Astak and Plastic Logic are going to offer in this department. Or maybe the Kindle 4 will be able to search, highlight and annotate pdfs.
-------------------
I've been skimming (rather hurriedly, I admit) through the user manual for the Kindle DX, which is online at http://s3.amazonaws.com/kindle/KindleDX_Users_Guide.pdf, so that's where I got this stuff. I'd be happy to have it turn out that I'm wrong; that I'm misunderstanding something in the user's manual, or that the user's manual is an early, hasty effort, with mistakes that will be corrected before the DX comes out.

05-06-2009, 04:24 PM	#133
catsittingstill Guru Posts: 643 Karma: 551634 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle 1.0.8, iPod Touch, Kindle Keyboard	My thoughts: I like the bigger screen, and I really like the ability to switch from portrait to landscape mode (and the ability to lock the screen, so it doesn't switch if I want to read in bed). I love that it can display pdfs. BUT It can't highlight and annotate pdfs? (Page 66 of the user's manual) That makes it 50% useless for the kind of close reading and data-gathering I need it for. Not only that, it can't even search pdfs! It searches only the metadata, not the body of the document. That takes care of the other 50%. Wait--in one place, page 67, it says it can search the document (as long as it's not one of those blasted every-page-as-a-separate-image pdfs). In another place (page 72) it says " For PDFs, Kindle searches for the term in the metadata only. " So I'm not sure what to think on the search issue. But not being able to annotate is likely to be a dealbreaker for me all by itself. I also don't like that it 1) STILL doesn't have folders and 2) doesn't support ePub. I think I'm going to wait and see what Astak and Plastic Logic are going to offer in this department. Or maybe the Kindle 4 will be able to search, highlight and annotate pdfs. ------------------- I've been skimming (rather hurriedly, I admit) through the user manual for the Kindle DX, which is online at http://s3.amazonaws.com/kindle/KindleDX_Users_Guide.pdf, so that's where I got this stuff. I'd be happy to have it turn out that I'm wrong; that I'm misunderstanding something in the user's manual, or that the user's manual is an early, hasty effort, with mistakes that will be corrected before the DX comes out.