Quote:
Originally Posted by zamana
Kindle books are ONE BIG HTML page. The only difference is that instead of scroll up/down, you scroll left/right. So, it doesn't make much sense to me the concept of page numbers. If you change the font size, the book will grow up our shrink...
Am I wrong?
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The vast majority of other readers work like this:
They count how many pages (understand screen-fulls) they need to display the book using current font size, margin size, line space, hyphenation setting, and other format options. Then they display "You are on page 160 of 320". If you change the font size or other option the page number gets updated to "you are on page 250 of 500". Problem solved.
By the way ... At this moment I am looking at "ONE BIG HTML page" in a browser. There is a scrollbar at the right side that gives me a very nice indication about how long that "ONE BIG HTML page" is, how much of it fits on a screen and where in the text I am.
This is what many people want.
Other people actually like "locations", or the reference to the page numbers in the original paper book, so they can compare/swap/share their favorite quotes, or a list of typos. I personally strongly dislike Kindle Locations (TM).
There is relatively very powerful processor in modern e-ink readers so it would be no problem to provide an option.
Why is Amazon unwilling to provide such option for us? Do they need to dumb down the interface so even the most desperate technophobes aren't scared/confused?
Why are they actively fighting programmers that want to give us such option in form of third-party readers.
I have solved this problem by installing CoolReader by CrazyCoder.
CoolReader displays a status line where you have:
name of book and author, current page/total pages, percentage of book read, exact percentage of battery status (not just 1-5 bars), TIME, graphical progress bar with optional chapter marks.
All that was programmed by enthusiasts in their free time. Those enthusiasts had to spend *most* of their coding time fighting with Amazon that tries *very* hard to make development of third-party applications for Kindle as difficult as possible.
I have also installed Duokan, KUAL, JBPatch, early beta version of Kindlepdfreader and other stuff in search of solution that does what I want.
The minute a PocketBook (or a comparable device) with a front lit display is available for a reasonable price, I am selling my PaperWhite. I am sick and tired of pissing against the wind every time I want to set some option that many of other devices have available.
There are many people that like the default options, but I got used to some good stuff and I am dissatisfied with what "out of the box" Kindle PW offers.
I purchased Kindle Paperwhite because:
- I wanted to try it out
- *Sometimes* a front-lit display comes in handy - especially when I am traveling.
- I had unique opportunity to buy it for a very good price
- I thought that I would be able to install third-party stuff that would make it actually usable (older versions of Kindles have interesting stuff available)
- I wanted to read Amazon books (mostly purchased at deeply discounted price) that I have accumulated