The issue with the Kindle 3 not being able to login into
SafariBooksOnline has been resolved. Now that I'm able to login, I am not having a happy experience. I attribute issues to not understanding best practices in using the service, issues that Safari can improve upon, and issues that Kindle development can improve upon.
Issues:
1. Insufficient readability. Most Kindle readability settings are unacceptable for reading Safari. For me, the best setting is to use font enlargement of 150%. It's not quite acceptable. Just doesn't seem crisp. Settings of Typeface, Line Spacing, Words per Line are not available. If they were available, it might help.
2. Settings don't persist. If I set the page for 150% and move to another chapter (a new webpage), the font size setting of 150% is lost. You have to set the preferred settings on every webpage.
3. Navigation unacceptable. Upon arriving at the bottom of a chapter, you are presented with a dozen navigation options. You have to use the device's jog wheel to move the pointer to select "Next Chapter". This is a miserable UI experience.
Non-Issues:
1. Speed. Once past the login process, I'm really impressed with how fast the chapters download. I thought this might be an issue but, for me, it's not. Next/Previous page is fast and new chapters take only 3 seconds or so.
2. Compatibility. Notwithstanding the above issues, I find the content (text and images) to be compatible with the Kindle's browser.
Is there anything I can do to resolve these issues? I believe all these issues are totally resolvable by Safari. As a minimum, what would help is if the entire book was presented as a single webpage. Thus issues two and three would be resolved and issue one would be more manageable.
The issues is not hardware as we know every Kindle version offers a pretty good reading experience. While Kindle development could probably provide some relief, I conclude that changes by Safari are the only practical solution.
Update 17-Sept-10: There's a Safari navigation/font size bar which is somewhat helpful for font size although it's settings don't seem to persist either.