What happened to Landscape setting on Oasis?

Being an old fart, I read print books for decades before eReaders appeared. No print book I ever saw had "xx% Read" or "yy% Remaining" on the printed pages. Might be some out there that do, but I never saw one. Most printed books just simply have a page number or section number plus page number. A very few have "Page xx of yy". Print books nearly always required a visual examination of the physical book to see how many pages stacked up on the read side and how many stacked up on the remaining to be read side. That is why I think the dots across the screen on the K3 were the best at mimicking that visual cue. Unless someone is a moron, it was pretty easy to get a quick, visual ballpark estimate on how much of the eBook had been read and how much remained to be read. Putting a percentage is NOT visual, it is textual. It works well for some and that is good. But do we really fully comprehend the difference between being 72% finished and 73% finished? I think not. Obviously we understand the mathematical difference, but most of us are not really going to care what that difference in location fully means. We just want a ballpark estimate of where we are in the eBook. If a percentage floats your boat then great. Personally I would prefer the simple line of dots for a quick visual.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Being an old fart, I read print books for decades before eReaders appeared. No print book I ever saw had "xx% Read" or "yy% Remaining" on the printed pages. Might be some out there that do, but I never saw one. Most printed books just simply have a page number or section number plus page number. A very few have "Page xx of yy". Print books nearly always required a visual examination of the physical book to see how many pages stacked up on the read side and how many stacked up on the remaining to be read side. That is why I think the dots across the screen on the K3 were the best at mimicking that visual cue. Unless someone is a moron, it was pretty easy to get a quick, visual ballpark estimate on how much of the eBook had been read and how much remained to be read. Putting a percentage is NOT visual, it is textual. It works well for some and that is good. But do we really fully comprehend the difference between being 72% finished and 73% finished? I think not. Obviously we understand the mathematical difference, but most of us are not really going to care what that difference in location fully means. We just want a ballpark estimate of where we are in the eBook. If a percentage floats your boat then great. Personally I would prefer the simple line of dots for a quick visual.

Only if the book is exactly 100 page turns or some other nice round number.

[Julius Caesar]

Question: Currently, the built-in accelerometer that come with Kindle Oasis only works if you flip the device 180 degrees. Therefore, it only works if you want to switch holding the device between your left and right hand.

If you want to switch between portrait and landscape mode, you still need to do it manually. Is it technically possible for Amazon to make the accelerometer works for switching between portrait and landscape mode with the future firmware updates?

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by Julius Caesar

Question: Currently, the built-in accelerometer that come with Kindle Oasis only works if you flip the device 180 degrees. Therefore, it only works if you want to switch holding the device between your left and right hand.

If you want to switch between portrait and landscape mode, you still need to do it manually. Is it technically possible for Amazon to make the accelerometer works for switching between portrait and landscape mode with the future firmware updates?

Don't see why not. All accelerometers are surely capable of it. But whether this is desirable is another matter: people read lying on their sides sometimes (e.g. reading in bed) and you don't want the thing flipping over when you do that!

I've found that the sensitivity of the accelerometer is nearly perfect. I've had a couple of spurious flips when putting it down on tables, but the rest of the time the amount of hysteresis is right, and it doesn't flip over unless I *mean* to invert it, and never misses a flip.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by NullNix

Don't see why not. All accelerometers are surely capable of it. But whether this is desirable is another matter: people read lying on their sides sometimes (e.g. reading in bed) and you don't want the thing flipping over when you do that!

I've found that the sensitivity of the accelerometer is nearly perfect. I've had a couple of spurious flips when putting it down on tables, but the rest of the time the amount of hysteresis is right, and it doesn't flip over unless I *mean* to invert it, and never misses a flip.

Agreed. I read on my side in bed, and I definitely wouldn't want it auto-flipping into landscape orientation. I have "orientation lock" turned on on my iPad for that precise reason.

[Popup]

Originally Posted by jswinden

...
That is why I think the dots across the screen on the K3 were the best at mimicking that visual cue. Unless someone is a moron, it was pretty easy to get a quick, visual ballpark estimate on how much of the eBook had been read and how much remained to be read.

I agree. If I were in charge, I would add an option to have something like the K3 progress bar, but two of them, one for the current chapter, and one for the whole book. I would put these vertically, one in each margin. That would give an instant rough feel for where I am in the book / chapter.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by Popup

I agree. If I were in charge, I would add an option to have something like the K3 progress bar, but two of them, one for the current chapter, and one for the whole book. I would put these vertically, one in each margin. That would give an instant rough feel for where I am in the book / chapter.

I'd only put them vertically in the margins if they were very light. The last thing I'd want would be big black bars in the margins. Honestly, a light pair of bars in one margin, and one margin slightly larger than the other to make room for it, seems the right way (aymmetry is the In Thing, y'know).

[Julius Caesar]

Originally Posted by NullNix

Don't see why not. All accelerometers are surely capable of it. But whether this is desirable is another matter: people read lying on their sides sometimes (e.g. reading in bed) and you don't want the thing flipping over when you do that!

Agreed but Amazon could give an option to disable the the accelerometer for switching between portrait and landscape mode if needed. I still really want it for the following reason. Sometimes I want to enlarge an illustration like a drawing or a photograph that comes with the book. I want to enlarge it to full screen. If the illustration has its height longer than its width, I want to enlarge it at the portrait mode. If it is the other way around, I want to enlarge it at the landscape mode. But switching between modes while having to go to the option menu every single time is annoying. It would be great if it can be done automatically by simply reorienting the device.