Kindle 3 gripes

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by carld

I find that kind of amazing. Looking at the home pages on my K1 and K3 side-by-side the difference to me is dramatic. The K3's paper is much whiter than my K1's, there really is no comparison at all.

I was looking at the two outdoors on a nice sunny day? Were you perhaps indoors? Fluorescent? incandescent?

[JeremyR]

Even if it's better than a K1, it's still pretty darn grey.

Basically like an Etch-A-Sketch.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

Even if it's better than a K1, it's still pretty darn grey.

Basically like an Etch-A-Sketch.

Apt comparison.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by grizedale

#User preferences for Reader Booklet
#Sat Sep 04 22:50:20 GMT+01:00 2010
FONT_SIZE=17
DICTIONARY=Oxford Dictionary of English
LINE_SPACING=1
JUSTIFICATION=left
LAST_BOOK_READ=/mnt/us/documents/The Stand-asin_B0037TPMP4-type_EBOK-v_0.azw
HORIZONTAL_MARGIN=10
FONT_FAMILY=condensed

Are those complete options?
Is there possibility to display text without spaces between paragraphs with a first line intend?

[babyd]

Originally Posted by vega07

1. Why can't the Kindle show more metadata? I want to be able to read the synopsis on books I purchased but forget what they're about.

2. I've had 5 freezes and had to do a forced reboot. I had zero on my K2.

You can read synopsis of purchased books, by pressing the 5 way right on the book title then Book Description, it takes you to the book page on kindle store so you can read ratings, synopsis etc........I love that feature, very handy as I am always forgetting my books and why I go them lol

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I'm looking for the equivalent - something limited to the written appearance of the word.

Mimesis would cover both.

(Gee, this might be the opportunity to make up a word! Something from the Latin or Greek should do the trick - but I don't know those languages.)

You have me intrigued, Sir!

What exactly does "limited to appearance of word" mean here. All that comes to my mind is that a word is either long or short, alternatively easy or difficult. Are you suggesting something that describes a long and difficult word as opposed to a short and easy? I suppose you could also make a difference between rich in vowels (like Hawaiian) and rich in consonants (pick any Slavic language).

[grizedale]

Originally Posted by kacir

Are those complete options?
Is there possibility to display text without spaces between paragraphs with a first line intend?

Those are the complete options as listed in the reader.prefs file. Paragraphs without spaces and indents are possible with the use of the calibre software. My books initially started out that way as epubs and I have converted them to my preference.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by grizedale

Those are the complete options as listed in the reader.prefs file. Paragraphs without spaces and indents are possible with the use of the calibre software. My books initially started out that way as epubs and I have converted them to my preference.

Thank you for clarification.

[DThor]

My only gripes:

1. Position of the page forward/back buttons are too low. You need to balance the book on the low end and constantly fight gravity in order to be right next to the buttons. If the Forward button was around where the Back button currently is, it would be perfect. Frankly, on a design level, this is a real shocker. Maybe it's because they think everyone holds books with two hands?

2. Lame lame lame organizational tools. They give you tons of storage space but woe betide unto you should you want to actually use that memory and organize a few hundred books. The 'Collections' approach is the lowest level brute force approach to organizational tags, and add to that the *only* interface to this is on the device itself. Open up the API and allow someone to use proper tags and let you setup as many as possible on a computer or in a browser, where typing is fast.

Having sounded like I hate my Kindle, couldn't be farther from the truth! I absolutely love it. It's my second e-reader, after a Sony PRS-600, and the improvement is tangible. It's a great device, thus the aggressive sounding criticisms - so much is done correctly, the things that are off grate all the more!

DT

[blkhawk]

Originally Posted by DThor

My only gripes:

1. Position of the page forward/back buttons are too low. You need to balance the book on the low end and constantly fight gravity in order to be right next to the buttons.

2. Lame lame lame organizational tools.

DT

1. I noticed that too. Maybe adding a bit of weight to the bottom of the kindle would help. Curiously it's 30g too light anyway.

2. Won't argue with you there. I do all my managing off-device with Calibre. Can't stand having too many already read books on my devices. Having Calibre run directly on the kindle would be nice tho.

-blkhawk

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by DThor

My only gripes:

1. Position of the page forward/back buttons are too low. You need to balance the book on the low end and constantly fight gravity in order to be right next to the buttons. If the Forward button was around where the Back button currently is, it would be perfect. Frankly, on a design level, this is a real shocker. Maybe it's because they think everyone holds books with two hands?


DT

Try the following.

Push the AA button
Change orientation 180 deg,

How is that working out for'ya?

[ian-ep]

Originally Posted by kacir

Have a look here
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kind..._Change_Margin
Besides the Margin option, there is also Justification option.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...83#post1088583
Give it a try.

Oh, and come back and tell us if it works. ;-)
You will be the first to report working left justification working. Full justification would be a bid dealbreaker for me if I wanted to get K3.

Ahh! Thank you. Yes it works. And it makes reading on the K3 almost bearable - at least in bright, diffuse light. But why is this option not in the interface? Very odd ...

[ian-ep]

Originally Posted by Harmon

It's an opportunity for Amazon to greatly improve the reading experience, yet for some reason they don't. What can that reason be? Sheer ignorance? Failure to include a font designer on the team? Failure to include a reader on the team? Failure to include ME on the team?

Well, at a guess, on-the-fly hyphenation is probably too processor intensive for the Kindle. And other typographic nicities would mean upgrading the file-format, which in turn could mean compatibility issues for older ebooks. Every 'feature' means added support costs for Amazon, which of course means less profit ... It's still disappointing though.

[carld]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I was looking at the two outdoors on a nice sunny day? Were you perhaps indoors? Fluorescent? incandescent?

Indoors, both in slightly dim lighting and directly underneath an incandescent lamp. I'll try taking them both outdoors into the sunlight and report back.

Edit: Finally got a chance to take both Kindles outside in direct sunlight. The bright light does bring up the whiteness of the K1 a bit, but it's still not anywhere close to the K3. I guess it's just different eyes seeing different things, or your K1 is has a much whiter background than mine.

[jayne80]

my main gripe is when reading 'The Help' it comes up with (Press "return Key" to show number of highlighters) i don't want to see other peoples highlights or the possibility of other peoples highlights i find it distracting and can't work out how (if it can be) to switch it off.
I assume that this is something that could turn up on any book downloaded from Amazon and will definitely put me off buying from them.

Edited
found out how to switch it off, it's on the second page of the menu, I am now a happy camper