"Ummm. How? No keyboard, no stylus support. From a hardware perspective, how would you tell it what to search for?"
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We were kicking that around in the "software update" thread:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...2120#post42120 is an example of a "no new hardware" approach. No worse than a entering text on a cell phone.
If search is something that a user frequently needs they're probably better off with a computer though, particularly if they are referencing documents too complex for the Reader to do a good job displaying (e.g. 8x11 PDF's).
There are rapid navigation features in the reader (jumping by "tenths of a book" using the hard buttons and ten page forward/back with a press/hold of the page key) that simulate flipping through a paper book, to some extent. To search a paper book I use the index, which can be implemented in the Reader easily enough if the publisher takes the trouble to do so.
But I think the reason for these "design mistakes" is that the Reader was designed as a reading device, not a reference device. I suspect the flat file structure and the keyboard removal changes made since the Libre were to keep the Reader from appearing too intimidating to John Q. Customer, and to maximize battery life.
If you buy your books from Connect, read them straight through and move on, the file structure is fine, as is the interface. It's when we started getting "off label" that we started bumping up against the limitations. The question left hanging is will the average Reader buyer be a Connect customer or are they more interested in "off label" uses. (If you go by megabytes, I certainly fall into the latter camp.)
The good news is that some of the limitations can be fixed in firmware, and some by external software (e.g. for RSS capture). I'm hoping the next firmware release will add some interesting new features.
Cheers,
Bob