Two Weeks Now of Kindle Touch and I've Learned Something

[ApK]

Originally Posted by shinew

Those are terrible comparisons. If people were to compare them like that, one could argue that if you want to look up a word right in the middle of the page, say 15th line & 6th word, without the touch screen it'll take you 20 clicks,

Nonsense. You can hold the five-way down and do the look up with barely having to change your hand position. (I'm sure touch is somewhat more efficient for this, but not nearly so much as the far more applicable "back" example you are trying to refute.)

but to say the Touch is mostly a step backward in comparison to its predecessor is ridiculous.

Not ridiculous in the slightest. It is a step backwards to have to bring another hand into play to do what could previously be done one-handed, or to have to risk dirtying your screen to do common operations, or to need to use your eyes for what you could previously do by feel. Those factors may not be important to you, so it may not be a step back for you but to call it ridiculous seems to be a sign of either closed-mindedness or arrogance (I wouldn't presume to judge by guessing which. )

ApK

[shinew]

Originally Posted by HarryT

LOL . I have to confess that when I got my Touch I assumed that it was indeed a speaker grill . I was touching everything in sight on the screen and thinking "where the heck is the "Home" button?".

Before I received mine, I thought it was IR sensor and thought, "that would be a pretty bad idea to accidentally go back to the home screen all the time by swiping pass it!"

Originally Posted by ApK

Nonsense. You can hold the five-way down and do the look up with barely having to change your hand position. (I'm sure touch is somewhat more efficient for this, but not nearly so much as the far more applicable "back" example you are trying to refute.)

It's as sensible(or nonsensical) as the examples I was comparing to, which is counting "taps". And no the "back" button is not always a 2-tap process(very rarely needed actually). I won't go into details to explain since anyone who owns & knows how to use a Touch would know what I'm talking about(not just someone who tried it in a store for 2 minutes).

Originally Posted by ApK

Not ridiculous in the slightest. It is a step backwards to have to bring another hand into play to do what could previously be done one-handed, or to have to risk dirtying your screen to do common operations, or to need to use your eyes for what you could previously do by feel. Those factors may not be important to you, so it may not be a step back for you but to call it ridiculous seems to be a sign of either closed-mindedness or arrogance (I wouldn't presume to judge by guessing which. )

That would be arrogance

**waning, incoming rants**
And who uses the Kindle to listen to MP3s anyway?!(pretty sure I'll get flamed for this since I know some people actually do )
It's bulkier than my Sony Walkman from the 90s, has only ~3GB of combined & shared storage with your ebook/documents, and it's clumsy to operate(yes KK too!).

What about TTS you say? I used it once on mine, it made "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" sound as dull as a dishwasher. If you want to listen to a book, use Audible! It's like listening to a great musical performance when the narrator is good, it enhances the book instead of destroying its flavors.

For all your audio needs, get a more suitable device like one of those! It has tons of features, weighs almost nothing, has 16GB of storage, and much easier to use than any Kindle!

[ApK]

Originally Posted by shinew

What about TTS you say? I used it once on mine, it made "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" sound as dull as a dishwasher. If you want to listen to a book, use Audible! It's like listening to a great musical performance when the narrator is good, it enhances the book instead of destroying its flavors.

One, I agree about TTS, and two, Feynman was a great book. He's quite the character.

But as for using the Kindle to listen to mp3's or especially those fine Audible books, I can certainly see it, especially if you're going to carry the Kindle anyway.
I have been using an old iPod for audio books, but it's easier to get an Audible book onto the Kindle via wireless than by just about any other method of accessing Audible content that I've found. Very handy for grab and go, and the built in speaker makes it doubly versatile.

That's one of the things I like about the Kindle. The bonus features can be useful, and they don't compromise the prime function. IOW, I see the Kindle as an excellent reader, that also adds a lot of useful side features, and not a Swiss Army toaster that tries to do several things and ends up doing none of them well.

ApK

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by abookreader

I really, really love that Kindle Keyboard.

I tried it out. My objections pretty much what I thought they would be. I just don't much like reading with touch screen devices. I accidentally turn pages. I accidentally skip to the next chapter. I want a page turn button to rest my finger on. I try to adjust the font and I end up highlighting words and looking them up in the dictionary instead. Mostly, I'm hopeless.

It just hit me today that I should just get another of the keyboard device that I loved, while I can still buy one, rather than continue to make myself like this one. Because I'm pretty sure that in the next couple of years, touchscreens will probably be all that is available. Plus, I already own a Kindle Keyboard lighted cover that is just sitting here empty and unloved. New Kindle Keyboard will be here tomorrow.

And I'll be able to put the pictures of my kids back on with the screensaver hacks and I'll be able to use the Calibre Collection Plug-in again.

Yup. Totally agree.

[catsittingstill]

I love my Kindle Keyboard, though for me the deciding issue was that the KT cannot access the web through 3G. Yes, it's a feature that I've only really needed a couple of times. But those couple of times there was no wifi available and it saved me a lot of time and trouble. (Mapquest directions take a while to get through the slow, clunky browser, but they work, and with 3G, they work from anywhere. Including a moving car. No, I was not driving. :-)

I am often brushing small bits of fluff and such off my viewscreen; I hadn't thought about how that would interact with a KT.

It seems perfectly reasonable to me to use a Kindle for mp3s in addition to books. Some people don't have other mp3 players, or want specific music (personally I would want something with NO WORDS) to read books to. 3GB is actually plenty enough for books plus a modest selection of music; my first mp3 player held 256MB as I recall.

I have to admit the smaller form factor of the touch is attractive, and touching the screen would be easier than using the D pad, but I wanted the 3G web, and I suspect that having menus pop up every time I brushed a bit of fluff toward the edge of the screen would drive me mad. And the OP wanted the physical buttons, the easy access to the mp3 player, and the screensaver hack. Those are all legit reasons to get something other than a KT.

It's nice that there are many options.

[mmbutter]

Originally Posted by thayerwilliams

Now take, for example, the Back button; arguably one of the most basic functions of the Kindle. The back function now requires twice as many actions. Want to go back 3 screens? That's 6 taps (tap > back > tap > back > tap > back).

Actually, with the KT to go back 3 screens involves tapping the "back" area 3 times. This is equivalent to pressing the back button three times on the KK.

Originally Posted by thayerwilliams

Want to play some background music? There's no shortcut; it's 5 taps to start.

Tap once in the menu area, tap the play button. This is equivalent to the two button ALT SPACEBAR on the KK.

[bounce]

I've read a couple books on the KT and after playing with the regular non-keyboard version at the store today think I might swap them. I'd rather have buttons on the side than look at my finger on the screen to change pages, somehow that takes me out of what I'm reading unless I'm speed scanning with my finger on the screen, and you obviously can't do that with the KT.

Also, I've had to read some real vocabulary dense material lately and the regular Kindle brings the definition up full screen default so I can highlight and clip the word, with the KT it's two steps to do that. Scanning through a book seemed much faster turning pages with the buttons on the side, but I didn't play with it for a long time so I'm not sure on that. My only reservation is highlighting things with the cursor with the regular Kindle, I have to do a lot of that and not sure how speedy that becomes (would like to hear about this)?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bounce

Also, I've had to read some real vocabulary dense material lately and the regular Kindle brings the definition up full screen default so I can highlight and clip the word, with the KT it's two steps to do that. Scanning through a book seemed much faster turning pages with the buttons on the side, but I didn't play with it for a long time so I'm not sure on that. My only reservation is highlighting things with the cursor with the regular Kindle, I have to do a lot of that and not sure how speedy that becomes (would like to hear about this)?

I'm a little puzzled by your post. Surely the extra tap on the KT to bring up a full-screen dictionary definition is vastly more than compensated for by the fact that you can directly go to the word that you want the definition of, rather than having to use the 5-way controller to select it, isn't it? It often takes 10+ clicks of the 5-way to reach the word you want.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by catsittingstill

I love my Kindle Keyboard, though for me the deciding issue was that the KT cannot access the web through 3G. Yes, it's a feature that I've only really needed a couple of times. But those couple of times there was no wifi available and it saved me a lot of time and trouble.

I suspect that most people these days have a smartphone with which to access the internet.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I suspect that most people these days have a smartphone with which to access the internet.

Even discounting that "most people" are peasants in China, data plans are still expensive luxuries. If "most people" (in the sense I know you meant) have them, then "most people" need to stop complaining about the economy, drop their data plans and put that money into a savings account.

OK, I feel the same way about smokers. But my point it, I don't think most people have smart phones yet. Merely lots of them.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ApK

Even discounting that "most people" are peasants in China, data plans are still expensive luxuries. If "most people" (in the sense I know you meant) have them, then "most people" need to stop complaining about the economy, drop their data plans and put that money into a savings account.

OK, I feel the same way about smokers. But my point it, I don't think most people have smart phones yet. Merely lots of them.

I got rid of my smart-phone (actually mobile-phone, period) a long time ago. Having mobile internet access available was cool, and nifty, and all, but then I evaluated the monthly costs compared to the number of real phone calls I made/received in a month and the decision to dump that expense like a hot potato was made easily. Not to mention the fact that I'd rather spend the same amount of money on week's worth of meat & potatoes and a book.

[Pomtroll]

Okay...I've read each of the posts & I've come to the conclusion...Everyone is right. Like others have said over the years here, it is what you find meets your needs & your preferences. But the discussions have been interesting.

[bounce]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm a little puzzled by your post. Surely the extra tap on the KT to bring up a full-screen dictionary definition is vastly more than compensated for by the fact that you can directly go to the word that you want the definition of, rather than having to use the 5-way controller to select it, isn't it? It often takes 10+ clicks of the 5-way to reach the word you want.

Didn't spend enough time with the 5 way controller to find out. Actually decided to keep the touch and hope the next firmware updates address the laggy screen.

[haydnfan]

I don't have a smart phone because I didn't want to pay for the data plan which imo ends up being about the same cost of the phone over the 2 year contract. I instead chose a sturdy phone with large buttons making it easy to dial and text, which are the only two things I do with my cell phone.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that thinks that a data plan is a frivolous expense. For that same money each month I could buy 3-5 novels, or have streaming and dvd rentals from netflix, or buy 3 albums (music), or eat at a nice restaurant.

But then again I'm the same guy that didn't go for a cell phone until it became the same price as a land line!

[tubemonkey]

I touched my first Touch today at the grocery store.

Love the form factor and size, but hate the light color of the frame. Will have to handle it a bit more to see if the light color is going to bother me.