How would you change the Kindle 3? - Page 7

tomsem · 10-19-2010, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leep

I'm surprised that work on "folders" does not have a larger following on the wish list. That to me would be the most important feature. The current system is better than nothing, but needs work.

cheers

Amazon probably believes that the Collections feature addresses the organizational requirements of most users. I believe they are correct, for the most part. The feature is kind of half-baked, however, like navigation and PDF support. Perhaps we'll see some refinements as time goes on.

LakeLoon · 10-19-2010, 05:42 PM

After a couple of weeks with the K3, I'm quite happy with it. A few, generally minor, improvements I'd like to see:

For PDFs, zoom/nudge in smaller increments (e.g. "Alt-5way" could be a smaller nudge than "Shift-5way"). A "reflow" option for simple PDFs also sounds useful.
Ability to adjust "sleep mode" delay.
Toggle between justified/ragged right.
More zoom options for images in regular (non-PDF) books. I'm thinking in particular about maps.
I'm not sure about "page numbers" per se, but I would appreciate an option to divide the "location" by 10 and not display the decimal portion. Maybe come up with a term for this, e.g. "frame." So instead of "Locations 2753-62 out of 9915" (my current place in "Moby Dick"), you would see "Frames 275-6 out of 991". Less precise, but good enough for navigation, and more like a "page" of a paper book.
Silkscreening numbers onto (or above) the Q-P buttons would be nice. Or, just provide a (transparent) sticker and let us decide whether to apply it. The sticker would be a single piece with all 10 digits, and would go above the keys, not directly on them. We could even have a choice of type color and size!
Provide an option that groups collections into a single item on the home screen that can be expanded/contracted when selected. That way, my list of collections can always be the first item on the first screen, but the rest of the screen is available for my sorted or most recently read books. A similar option to group books in a series would be nice too.

Reading the other suggestions has been interesting. I tend to agree with the commenters who note that we're not likely to see modifications that don't suit Amazon's business model (e.g. supporting other DRM schemes). In that vein, I'm not sure I see an upside to Amazon from offering a Kindle without keyboard or wireless. This functionality makes it easier to buy books, and that's very much in Amazon's interests. It's sort of like asking for a version of a newspaper/magazine without any advertisements, and saying it should be cheaper because less paper and ink is required!

WT Sharpe · 10-19-2010, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by el_brio

Folders only become important if you have a lot of books. I don't really see the point of keeping the whole library of congress on my Kindle. I have maybe 10 books tops at a time. Everything else stays on my hard-drive. I never understood why people want to have 1000 books at a time on their device.

While I don't have anywhere near 1,000 books on my Kindle, I do have quite a few, and I think I can give one reason why some people like having so many books at their fingertips.

Research.

monkeyluis · 10-19-2010, 08:56 PM

One feature I would like is a daily welcome screen when I get up in the morning. Just a quick weather check, top headlines from google news (or any other news source), maybe a famous quote. I don't know, something like that. Get my drift?

JellyFish · 10-19-2010, 10:30 PM

I would dump the social media stuff and the web browser. I don't want amazon turning the Kindle into an iPad.

desertblues · 10-20-2010, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

Amazon probably believes that the Collections feature addresses the organizational requirements of most users. I believe they are correct, for the most part. The feature is kind of half-baked, however, like navigation and PDF support. Perhaps we'll see some refinements as time goes on.

I agree that it can be refined. But it has more choices than one would think at first sight. I was surprised that the Kindle also sorts by alphabeth within a collectionname if ' show by title' is chosen.

For example: - C. Novel A-D, - C. Novel E-H, - C. Novel I-L, - C. Novel M-R,
- C. Novel S-Z. It sorts the whole of the given collectionname alphabetically, and I didn't realise it before.

ProfCrash · 10-20-2010, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

While I don't have anywhere near 1,000 books on my Kindle, I do have quite a few, and I think I can give one reason why some people like having so many books at their fingertips.

Research.

I just like being able to carry my library with me. Collections has worked fine for me, I can sub-divide my collections pretty easily. It would be nice to have another layer in the collections folders but I have been doing just fine without that.

Then again, I only have 400 books on my Kindle.

desertblues · 10-20-2010, 10:33 AM

2000

most of them free; I'm a speedreader; read 4 or 5 at the same time.

WT Sharpe · 10-20-2010, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JellyFish

I would dump the social media stuff and the web browser. I don't want amazon turning the Kindle into an iPad.

The web browser comes in handy. Just yesterday I checked out a bio on Wikipedia for an unfamiliar name that popped up in my reading.

The social media stuff I can do without, but seeing what others have underlined in books is fascinating.

nemof · 10-21-2010, 11:22 AM

I got my first kindle less than 4 hours ago and it's already got several fingerprints on it from me forgetting it isn't a touchscreen. I don't mind fingerprints really, but it just shows how quickly I've become used touchscreens through having an ipod touch. The navigation buttons for the kindle feel clunky in comparison, but everything else about it is beautiful.

So yeah, to touchsreen would make my K3 perfect.

WT Sharpe · 10-21-2010, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nemof

I got my first kindle less than 4 hours ago and it's already got several fingerprints on it from me forgetting it isn't a touchscreen. I don't mind fingerprints really, but it just shows how quickly I've become used touchscreens through having an ipod touch. The navigation buttons for the kindle feel clunky in comparison, but everything else about it is beautiful.

So yeah, to touchsreen would make my K3 perfect.

I have the same problem with my phone. It isn't a touchscreen, but for some reason I keep forgetting that fact.

But it's OK. I'm old.

Dusty Star · 10-21-2010, 11:34 AM

For us vision-impaired, I'd be thrilled to be able to read the home page/menus without a magnify glass. Why not allow us to adjust font/size? The voice menu is great...for those who have decent hearing...but not all senior citizens are so fortunate.

biskyt · 10-27-2010, 12:04 PM

Here is my wish list:

MUST HAVES:-

MUCH better 'home' screen. Seriously, the current one is terrible!
- I would like to see the cover-art for the books, either in the list or preferably in a book shelf format (a la iBooks)
- Better organisation into folders, etc. - Why does the Kindle not support the 'Series' metadata for organisation?
Keyboard shortcuts for commonly used sybols (e.g., @, -, ', /)
Keyboard shortcuts to be silkscreened above the buttons (especially for numbers)

NICE TO HAVES:-

Customisable Screensavers
Customisable margins
PDF reflow support - although this can often be overcome by using Calibre to convert the PDF to .mobi
(Larger) Touchscreen. It does feel a bit old-fashioned without one! Would also mean that the keyboard could be removed, leaving space for a larger screen and a smaller case size.

I think that in general the device works well as a dedicated reader. My main gripe is just the visuals and organisation of the home screen. This is the main portal into the device. It's the 21st century, text-based interfaces died out with DOS. Please throw a few graphics (i.e., cover-art) in there and sort out the poor organisation.

eBooks support various metadata, such as series, description, etc. It would be nice if these were easily accessible and used to help with organisation.

Almost all my real gripes can be solved by a firmware update, so fingers crossed somebody from Amazon is paying attention...

WT Sharpe · 10-27-2010, 01:37 PM

The only way I would even consider a touchscreen would be if there was a dedicated button to call up the keyboard from any screen at a moment's notice. I have a touchscreen with a virtual keyboard on my Sony PRS-600 and it is vastly inferior to the physical keyboard on the Kindle.

Desertway · 10-27-2010, 01:38 PM

*More document formatting options: Margins, justification, more fonts.

*PC side software with the ability to create collections, sub-collections, edit metadata, and enter series information which would group those novels in series properly on the device.

*An option to show the last 2 (or 3 or 5) books read at the top of the Home screen at all times.

10-19-2010, 05:42 PM	#92
LakeLoon Wanderer Posts: 49 Karma: 318 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New Amsterdam Device: Kindle 3	After a couple of weeks with the K3, I'm quite happy with it. A few, generally minor, improvements I'd like to see: For PDFs, zoom/nudge in smaller increments (e.g. "Alt-5way" could be a smaller nudge than "Shift-5way"). A "reflow" option for simple PDFs also sounds useful. Ability to adjust "sleep mode" delay. Toggle between justified/ragged right. More zoom options for images in regular (non-PDF) books. I'm thinking in particular about maps. I'm not sure about "page numbers" per se, but I would appreciate an option to divide the "location" by 10 and not display the decimal portion. Maybe come up with a term for this, e.g. "frame." So instead of "Locations 2753-62 out of 9915" (my current place in "Moby Dick"), you would see "Frames 275-6 out of 991". Less precise, but good enough for navigation, and more like a "page" of a paper book. Silkscreening numbers onto (or above) the Q-P buttons would be nice. Or, just provide a (transparent) sticker and let us decide whether to apply it. The sticker would be a single piece with all 10 digits, and would go above the keys, not directly on them. We could even have a choice of type color and size! Provide an option that groups collections into a single item on the home screen that can be expanded/contracted when selected. That way, my list of collections can always be the first item on the first screen, but the rest of the screen is available for my sorted or most recently read books. A similar option to group books in a series would be nice too. Reading the other suggestions has been interesting. I tend to agree with the commenters who note that we're not likely to see modifications that don't suit Amazon's business model (e.g. supporting other DRM schemes). In that vein, I'm not sure I see an upside to Amazon from offering a Kindle without keyboard or wireless. This functionality makes it easier to buy books, and that's very much in Amazon's interests. It's sort of like asking for a version of a newspaper/magazine without any advertisements, and saying it should be cheaper because less paper and ink is required!

10-21-2010, 11:34 AM	#102
Dusty Star Member Posts: 23 Karma: 416 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: USA Device: Kindle 2G - Kindle 3 3G/Wi-Fi	For us vision-impaired, I'd be thrilled to be able to read the home page/menus without a magnify glass. Why not allow us to adjust font/size? The voice menu is great...for those who have decent hearing...but not all senior citizens are so fortunate. Last edited by Dusty Star; 10-21-2010 at 01:30 PM.

10-27-2010, 12:04 PM	#103
biskyt Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle K3	Here is my wish list: MUST HAVES:- MUCH better 'home' screen. Seriously, the current one is terrible! I would like to see the cover-art for the books, either in the list or preferably in a book shelf format (a la iBooks) Better organisation into folders, etc. - Why does the Kindle not support the 'Series' metadata for organisation? Keyboard shortcuts for commonly used sybols (e.g., @, -, ', /) Keyboard shortcuts to be silkscreened above the buttons (especially for numbers) NICE TO HAVES:- Customisable Screensavers Customisable margins PDF reflow support - although this can often be overcome by using Calibre to convert the PDF to .mobi (Larger) Touchscreen. It does feel a bit old-fashioned without one! Would also mean that the keyboard could be removed, leaving space for a larger screen and a smaller case size. I think that in general the device works well as a dedicated reader. My main gripe is just the visuals and organisation of the home screen. This is the main portal into the device. It's the 21st century, text-based interfaces died out with DOS. Please throw a few graphics (i.e., cover-art) in there and sort out the poor organisation. eBooks support various metadata, such as series, description, etc. It would be nice if these were easily accessible and used to help with organisation. Almost all my real gripes can be solved by a firmware update, so fingers crossed somebody from Amazon is paying attention...

10-27-2010, 01:37 PM	#104
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,072 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	The only way I would even consider a touchscreen would be if there was a dedicated button to call up the keyboard from any screen at a moment's notice. I have a touchscreen with a virtual keyboard on my Sony PRS-600 and it is vastly inferior to the physical keyboard on the Kindle. Last edited by WT Sharpe; 10-27-2010 at 01:51 PM.

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10-19-2010, 08:56 PM	#94
monkeyluis Banned Posts: 725 Karma: 656644 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Central Florida Device: iPad "3", Kindle Touch, Kindle Fire, iPhone 4S	One feature I would like is a daily welcome screen when I get up in the morning. Just a quick weather check, top headlines from google news (or any other news source), maybe a famous quote. I don't know, something like that. Get my drift?

10-19-2010, 10:30 PM	#95
JellyFish Member Posts: 12 Karma: 126 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kindle 2	I would dump the social media stuff and the web browser. I don't want amazon turning the Kindle into an iPad.

10-20-2010, 10:33 AM	#98
desertblues Home for the moment Posts: 5,127 Karma: 27718936 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: travelling Device: various	2000 most of them free; I'm a speedreader; read 4 or 5 at the same time.

10-21-2010, 11:22 AM	#100
nemof Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: kindle	I got my first kindle less than 4 hours ago and it's already got several fingerprints on it from me forgetting it isn't a touchscreen. I don't mind fingerprints really, but it just shows how quickly I've become used touchscreens through having an ipod touch. The navigation buttons for the kindle feel clunky in comparison, but everything else about it is beautiful. So yeah, to touchsreen would make my K3 perfect.

10-27-2010, 01:38 PM	#105
Desertway Addict Posts: 336 Karma: 1701842 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: Kindle Oasis 3	More document formatting options: Margins, justification, more fonts. PC side software with the ability to create collections, sub-collections, edit metadata, and enter series information which would group those novels in series properly on the device. *An option to show the last 2 (or 3 or 5) books read at the top of the Home screen at all times.