New Kindle Touch [Proposals and Thoughts]

[judith009]

Originally Posted by Blog Kindle

While I agree that touchscreens are a pain (especially when combined with slow technology such as eInk) I'd have to admit that they are very nice in eReaders because they save space. You don't use keyboard in ereaders that often and having a full qwerty keyboard for the rare times you do is an overkill.

I completely agree with that

[kindlekitten]

I loathe and deplore touchscreens. as someone else mentioned I have been saddled with a touchscreen phone for far too long. it decides it will do its own thing way too often. waiting desperately for the windows 7 phone for Verizon

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I loathe and deplore touchscreens. as someone else mentioned I have been saddled with a touchscreen phone for far too long. it decides it will do its own thing way too often. waiting desperately for the windows 7 phone for Verizon

Wait... I'm confused. If you loathe touchscreens why are you desperate for a Windows 7 phone?

[Blog Kindle]

Windows 7 is the least useful phone I've seen so far.

iPhone has loads of apps and is polished but closed.
Android has true multitasking and is open (and also has many apps) though it is buggy

Windows 7 is just a nice toy with no useful scenarios or apps.

[TheKindleWorm]

I love the touchscreen on my iPhone but eink touchscreens are nowhere in that league so I'm not sure whether it would be such a great thing to have a Kindle touchscreen ...

You can get away with fingerprints on the iPhone because it is backlit but on a reading non-backlit device like the Kindle? This would annoy the heck out of me and I hated it on the Sony Touch Reader. Smudgy screen which you want to read from eugh.

And I personally don't want to lose the physical keyboard as someone who does make a lot of use out of it.

[janvanmaar]

While I agree that touchscreens are a pain (especially when combined with slow technology such as eInk) I'd have to admit that they are very nice in eReaders because they save space. You don't use keyboard in ereaders that often and having a full qwerty keyboard for the rare times you do is an overkill.

I personally do not think it is an overkill and would always choose a device with a physical keyboard - no virtual keyboard I have ever tried is nowhere near the physical keyboard typing experience and I do use the keyboard a lot (also while reading a book - searching dictionary for parts of words, taking notes, not talking about the special navigation buttons which are certainly more convenient than any virtual buttons). I do think that a touchscreen would be nice once in a while but I would only like to have it together with the physical keyboard and the current keyboard-based organization.

[TheKindleWorm]

Originally Posted by janvanmaar

I personally do not think it is an overkill and would always choose a device with a physical keyboard - no virtual keyboard I have ever tried is nowhere near the physical keyboard typing experience and I do use the keyboard a lot (also while reading a book - searching dictionary for parts of words, taking notes, not talking about the special navigation buttons which are certainly more convenient than any virtual buttons). I do think that a touchscreen would be nice once in a while but I would only like to have it together with the physical keyboard and the current keyboard-based organization.

Completely agree with you there. Amazon could easily design a Kindle which incorporated a touchscreen AND a physical keyboard. I think a neat idea would be to have some kind of pull-out keyboard like you do on some cell/mobile phones. This should satisfy me and those who want a proper keyboard while keeping the device neat and not much bigger than the size of the actual screen.

[judith009]

Do you think Amazon workers read these forums, hence our opinions here might actually sway their thinking?

[TallMomof2]

I absolutely loathe the iphone/touch touchscreen. I cannot type well on them probably because of the small screen. The only phones I will use must come with a physical qwerty keyboard. That's why I'll probably never own an iphone because it only is available in one model. My Droid is fine since it has a slideout qwerty and using the touchscreen isn't too awful. Typing on the Pocketbook IQ isn't too bad but it's a 7" screen and the experience is acceptable. What's really nice about the Sony touchscreen is that you only need a light touch. With my arthritis that is an important consideration.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Wait... I'm confused. If you loathe touchscreens why are you desperate for a Windows 7 phone?

I'm hoping the Verizon version is different. regardless, I would find many of the apps useful for my job

Originally Posted by Blog Kindle

Windows 7 is the least useful phone I've seen so far.

iPhone has loads of apps and is polished but closed.
Android has true multitasking and is open (and also has many apps) though it is buggy

Windows 7 is just a nice toy with no useful scenarios or apps.

don't the different carriers have different phones? I'm waiting for Verizons

Originally Posted by judith009

Do you think Amazon workers read these forums, hence our opinions here might actually sway their thinking?

we hope and pray

[JLeighs]

Originally Posted by TheKindleWorm

You can get away with fingerprints on the iPhone because it is backlit but on a reading non-backlit device like the Kindle? This would annoy the heck out of me and I hated it on the Sony Touch Reader. Smudgy screen which you want to read from eugh.

This is why I did not want a touchscreen ereader. I'm fanatical about keeping smudges and fingerprints off screens, and I would be very annoyed at having to constantly clean off my Kindle screen.

[runtmms]

Originally Posted by JLeighs

This is why I did not want a touchscreen ereader. I'm fanatical about keeping smudges and fingerprints off screens, and I would be very annoyed at having to constantly clean off my Kindle screen.

+1

No interest in fingerprints all over my reading surface.

Also, I used to think the keyboard was overkill until I got my Kindle. The size isn't intrusive and I really appreciate the full keyboard for when I do searches.

-M

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by runtmms

+1

No interest in fingerprints all over my reading surface.

+2! I do not want a Touch eReader. I don't want it to change pages if something accidently touches the screen

[Baldrake]

Originally Posted by Blog Kindle

Windows 7 is the least useful phone I've seen so far.

Windows 7 is just a nice toy with no useful scenarios or apps.

This is so wrong that I don't even know where to start.

Back to the original topic -- when I got my new Kindle 3, the first thing I did was tap the screen to open a book. Oops. I knew that wouldn't work, but I forgot.

I showed it to my wife, and the first thing she did was tap the screen to open a book.

Touch technology is so ubiquitous now that Amazon has little choice but to add it in. And as Daffy indicated, their purchase of Touchco indicates this is the way their going.

[judith009]

^^That was a good response!

My guess is that they'll make two versions: one touch and one standard, since we see here how divided peoples' opinions are. Plus then they could keep the costs lower on the non-touch version.