What's next for Kindle e-reader?

[binaryhermit]

Originally Posted by mikij1

2- Big screen.

They already tried that, it was called the Kindle DX, and if I recall correctly, it didn't sell particularly well

[Marseille]

See attached. I want a Voyage Mini, a.k.a., a Kindle Trek.

The idea would be to first shrink the screen, to say 5" or so. Then drop (as much as possible) bezels off all but one side, so the device is almost full screen. Place buttons on that one side (doesn't matter which) and then insert an accelerometer so the device can tell which hand you're holding it with and rotate the screen accordingly.

[haydnfan]

My wish list:

1. Better contrast!!!



2. Color
3. Georgia font
4. Ability to set margins
5. Ability to adjust sharpness and boldness of font
6. SD card slot

[Anthem]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

My wish list:

1. Better contrast!!!
...
5. Ability to adjust sharpness and boldness of font

I second your 1st and 5th wishes. Parity with print is STILL not there yet, for me, at least.

Love Kobo's font tweaking capabilities and wouldn't mind seeing some of these options (particularly font weighting) in a Kindle some day (but it doesn't look likely).

[Xanthe]

You'd think that Amazon would learn that:

Less font customizations = more eyestrain

More eyestrain = less reading

Less reading = less ebooks purchased

Seems very simple to me.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

They already tried that, it was called the Kindle DX, and if I recall correctly, it didn't sell particularly well

It had a number of problems unrelated to large screen.

1. High price (well that is slightly related).

2. 3G only, no wifi option. (part of high price

3 Poor PDF speed and ergonmics

Probably more reasons.

[mikij1]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

They already tried that, it was called the Kindle DX, and if I recall correctly, it didn't sell particularly well

I express bad.
I wanted to say big screen color.
Big screen white and black no sense. Monochrome is for models; big screen is not necesary.
Big screen color (10"-13.3"): comics, newspaper, pdf, science's books, magazine...
Big screen color with stylus: notebook, textbook... the future, I think. I hope. Imagine: Sony DPT-S1 with color screen. Perfect.

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

You'd think that Amazon would learn that:

Less font customizations = more eyestrain

More eyestrain = less reading

Less reading = less ebooks purchased

Seems very simple to me.

The problem with that is its just too simple. Amazon know a lot better than any of us how many ebooks Kindle users purchase. And if what you said was true, they'd do something about it. Don't you think?

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by Anthem

I second your 1st and 5th wishes. Parity with print is STILL not there yet, for me, at least.

Love Kobo's font tweaking capabilities and wouldn't mind seeing some of these options (particularly font weighting) in a Kindle some day (but it doesn't look likely).

I love Kobo's font management as well. I think it is the best. And that is what I'm thinking of-- parity with print. Even my mass market paperbacks have better contrast and font stylings. And the hardcovers and trade paperbacks blow the kindle out of the water. I want to see ereaders match that experience.

[Anthem]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

You'd think that Amazon would learn that:

Less font customizations = more eyestrain
...

Well, to be fair I think that the default Amazon fonts (without modification) are easily the best fonts on an e-reader.

Originally Posted by haydnfan

I love Kobo's font management as well. I think it is the best. And that is what I'm thinking of-- parity with print. Even my mass market paperbacks have better contrast and font stylings. And the hardcovers and trade paperbacks blow the kindle out of the water. I want to see ereaders match that experience.

I'm with you on this. I STILL think that print is better for sheer quality of the "image" (text) on the page (e-readers do so many other wonderful things that sort of make up for this). E-readers have gotten much better, but it still isn't there yet. That said, I still read mostly on my Kindle.

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

The problem with that is its just too simple. Amazon know a lot better than any of us how many ebooks Kindle users purchase. And if what you said was true, they'd do something about it. Don't you think?

Not really, because unless the people making the decision about the reading software's capabilities are from different age decades, then their visual experience of reading is going to be basically similar. They're not going to have the same visual changes in their eyesight that age brings on and which necessitates greater customization.