Firmware Update What a 2.6 update should include....

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

I just want my 2.5 update for my two K2 US readers!

Here! Here! I'd settle for that, too!



Don

[TallMomof2]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

I just want my 2.5 update for my two K2 US readers!

Me, too!

But, I would love ePub support.

[Roy White]

The ability to add my own photos to the sleep mode. (And delete those lame pre loaded ones!)

[Dharmabum]

I'm with Roy. Easily modifiable screen savers. No hack required.

[dmin7th]

The ability to reset the "Furthest read page" for any book from my Kindle. I'm really surprised that you actually have to contact customer service to accomplish this.

Arbitrary PDF zoom values (or at least more options than just 150% and 200%). I seem to have a lot of PDF books where 150% is too much and doesn't fit the width of a paragraph.

The ability to set the PDF zoom level for an entire book and not just the current page.

[Roy Hinkley]

I would like to see more features relating specifically to book reading.

The 2.5 release was due at the end of the month, so in all honesty, I don't fault Amazon about how they are doing it. I'm sure they want to do it in such a manner as to send it out evenly throughout their entire geographic area, not bogging down the 3G network of any area at any one time. Just my thought, though.

My wish list would include:

ePub support
more font support (support windows-fonts and allow the user to install custom fonts?)
more "display" customization: justification, line spacing, etc.
basically features you can use to make the book look and feel nicer - nicer to you.

[dmin7th]

Originally Posted by Roy Hinkley

ePub support
more font support (support windows-fonts and allow the user to install custom fonts?)
more "display" customization: justification, line spacing, etc.
basically features you can use to make the book look and feel nicer - nicer to you.

I'd agree with all of those as well.

I'm still kind of baffled at how I can have a ton of fonts on my Macs, but Kindle for Mac won't let me use any of them.

[Giddeaon]

Not listed in order of personal importance, but all things I'd like to see.

1. ePub support, please.

2. More font choices and easy justification selection so that I can make the books look/read how I'd like them to. This should be a big selling point for ereaders and I can't understand why it isn't developed more. If I buy a print book I have VERY limited choices on how it is presented unless it's a popular classic with multiple iterations/publishers. Being able to make a book be presented in a preferred fashion could be a big selling point for ereaders.

3. An option or setting in my preferences that opens a book to the cover and not the first chapter. I realize that the publishers insert a tag that tells the ebook where to open, and I hate this. I miss the cover, toc, any review comments, lists of other works, etc, and everything else that comes before the first chapter. This is part of the book reading experience we're missing unless we open the book and then select to go to cover and page through. I'd like to be able to change one preference or setting that then does this for ALL of my books. It doesn't require the publisher to change anything...the Kindle will simply realize via the setting that when I open a book I want to go to the cover. It's not that hard and should be an option.

4. Page Numbers. I would like to have the option to turn on page numbers in place of the current % that we get on the bottom bar. A simple way to do this without hardcoding a total # of pages per book is to base it on the number of page turns based on current font size. Thus, if I'm reading a book at the smallest font size it may say something like "Page 129 / 345" where as if I use the largest available font size it would say "Page 36 / 678". It's a simple calculation based on font size and total # of page flips needed to get to the last position in the ebook. This would make ereading on the Kindle much more natural to me. I hate talking to a friend with a Nook (which has page #s!!!!) about a book we're both reading and he tells me he's on page 210 and I say I'm at 31%. It's such a simple addition and it's always been one I trumpet when these questions about what we want in the next firmware come up on different kindle boards. NOTE - this is obviously an arbitrary system of determining page #s and isn't to be used for reference in text books, etc. I look at is being akin to different page #s in different versions of the same publication. I may be on page 100 in the hardcover, which may be page 153 in the mass market paperback version of the same book. It's really more about making the reading experience more natural. I hope I explained that correctly.

That's it for now....I'm sure I have a few other gripes I'll remember in a bit.

[Giddeaon]

Dang it...just after I posted.

5. Easily customizable screen savers instead of a hack! I'd much rather have pics of my nieces than dead authors!

And one other thought on the screensavers. I always thought it would be cool if the screensaver defaulted to the book cover of whatever you're currently reading. That should be an option/setting that is available and I think it would get a lot of use.

That's it for now!

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Giddeaon

3. An option or setting in my preferences that opens a book to the cover and not the first chapter. I realize that the publishers insert a tag that tells the ebook where to open, and I hate this.

I especially hate this when they have it start at chapter 1 but there's a prologue.

[Giddeaon]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I especially hate this when they have it start at chapter 1 but there's a prologue.

Exactly! I also read a lot of fantasy-fiction with maps and such at the beginning. I always miss these unless I go looking for them. It should be an option.....

[iphitus]

We're not exactly asking for much, the most popular ones so far being:
- ePub
- Improved PDF support (scalable zooming, annotation)
- Custom Fonts
- Screensavers

Two of which we've already figured out on our own. Kinda shows how awesome the K2/DX are already.

Fingers crossed the Kindle Dev kit & store open up soon. I've found very little about this since it's announcement.

[Giddeaon]

I thought of something else I'd really like to see, though it's more of an Amazon.com change, than a Kindle update.

I want to be able to specifically review JUST the Kindle edition of a book. Right now, if a book has multiple versions (Hardcover, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, Audiobook, Kindle), the reviews are all lumped together. I think that is a mistake considering that many ebooks have formatting errors that may keep others from buying if noted clearly in reviews.

Here's an example. I just purchased and read Peter V. Brett's The Warded Man (excellent story btw). There was a major formatting error that became very distracting. Anytime the author meant to use "we're" it was printed as "we've". The same thing happened with "you're" and "you've". Over a few hundred pages this became annoying and distracted from a lot of the dialogue. I checked this in a physical copy of the book and it doesn't appear.....it's ONLY an ebook problem. I'd love to be able to review that to point out the problem to other Kindle owners who may want to pass until the publisher fixes the mistakes.

If Kindle books ONLY showed Kindle user reviews, we could easily notify each other of formatting problems. As it is, we'd have to dig through the reviews and hope to find that someone identified themselves as a Kindle owner. I know this has been kicked around before, but it really needs to be addressed.

[w126]

Originally Posted by iphitus

Fingers crossed the Kindle Dev kit & store open up soon. I've found very little about this since it's announcement.

I also hope it's not very far away. It will be interesting to see what external developers will offer and what will be possible with the final version of the KDK.

[lene1949]

Originally Posted by rcuadro

I just want ePub support...

I agree, and I don't think it'll hurt Amazon much to provide it... People are lazy (should be: I'm lazy) and sometimes use the 1-click option, even though I could save money going through Smashwords... and save at least 2 bucks.