So What would YOU change about the Kindle ?

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by naypalm

I miss having the number buttons on the top row. Sure I could hold down the alt button, but a button fan is a button fan.

Plus give us that second SHIFT KEY fer goodness sakes, lawds knows there is all the room needed for this.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

It does seem like there's room for the number buttons, so I'm not sure why those weren't included on the K3. That would be nice.

Also, I'd like to have a brief book description download with the book. I have so many books on my Kindle that after a while I forget what the book was about, which makes my next-to-read decisions more confusing.

likely the reason is they were trying to shave as much power drain as possible. Depending on how they designed the device and keyboard internally could be it takes power to constantly poll the keyboard or keep the keys active so less keys means a bit of power needed by the device even when they are not being used.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by Shiren

- Completely white background and even darker text
- Epub
- Better resolution
- Listing your books with their cover (in color)
- More control over font sizes, types and margins

Ya really do not want a completely white background under all conditions. If, for example one likes to read outside in the sunshine then it is just too much light being reflected into your eyes, in fact probably MORE than with an LCD and a white background because, well the sun has just a few more candlepower than the typical CCFL or LED backlight...

It would be interesting if there was either a sensor that could auto adjust the background to compensate for ambient light so it gets a bit more grey in brighter light then less grey under dimmer conditions. That would be interesting. Of course there is the need for true white particles and a fully transparent polarizing layer in front of the screen itself. Add to that an ambient light sensor is a power drain so it might be better to be able to turn it off or even let us users select from some predefined options. Not sure we'll see this, even though it's a pretty common desire. I even wanted it until I took a sheet of white paper outside and tried to read it compared to the Kindle screen. That got me remembering the whole purpose of the E-ink brand screen it to decrease the intensity of the light reflected back into our eyes and that whole issue of the sun being juuuuust a bit stronger than a backlight.

completely agree about fonts but Amazon would either need to create their own or license the rights to any and all fonts used on the reader. That's an overhead cost which I'm not sure Amazon wants to deal with. Best option might likely be to allow the consumer to buy additional fonts. If you ever want to watch an surprisingly interesting movie rent "Helvetica". I NEVER would have thought that much about something seemingly as basic and trival as a typeface/font. But the movie was fascinating and I also learned a lot about the fact fonts are artistic/intellectual creations and property.

[Histerius]

I even wanted it until I took a sheet of white paper outside and tried to read it compared to the Kindle screen.

Absolutely. There are books and magazines absolutely unreadable, with so much reflection that my brain hurts. We must take care of our eyes and too much strain on them is not a good thing.

[Snorkledorf]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

Now since I am betting the K4 is going to have a touch screen, I mean Amazon did buy that small touch screen company last year for just this purpose. Well, I am assuming that was why they bought the company anyway. but once this comes the side buttons might go away.

I definitely want to retain actual buttons (though making them quieter might be nice). I can read the Kindle on the train platform with my gloves on, while my iPhone is utterly useless until I strip down to bare skin and freeze my knuckles off. Using a stylus might work, but that'd be one more thing to drop...

[cathie]

I just had an epiphany!! Make it waterproof!!! (for us dedicated readers who like to read in the bath).
As to a touch screen..... NO! after a short time (a VERY SHORT TIME) they are impossible to read because of fingerprints smears. Optional touch screen I could live with.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by cathie

I just had an epiphany!! Make it waterproof!!! (for us dedicated readers who like to read in the bath).

Brilliant! But unlikely...

Agree about the touch screen too.

[Victoria]

I love my new Kindle, but I miss Kobo's location marker - at the bottom of each page it names the chapter you are reading, and how many pages in (ie 36 of 41).

It's great as it helps me decide if i want to keep reading to the end of the chapter, or pack it in. Kindle doesn't seem to display the chapter anywhere on the screen...unless I am missing something.

[chamekke]

1. Sub-collections, sub-collections, sub-collections.
2. When adding items to Collections, the ability to sort by Author and Collections, same as on the homepage. Specifically, I'd like to be able to sort by Collection because this would make it much easier (in the absence of a Sub-collection feature) to consolidate existing collections.
3. Related wish: some actual consistency to the More Recent First sort order. The first items in my list are never the most recently read nor the most recently added!
3. User-uploaded /customizable screensavers.
4. A 'Forward' (to previously browsed-to location) button! Alt+Back = Forward would be fine.
5. The ability to save complex searches for use when connected to the Kindle Store.
6. The ability to determine the play order of mp3s.
7. A way to send feedback to kindle-feedback@amazon.com directly (perhaps via the Kindle Store) rather than having to log in to one's own e-mail account using the web browser and do it the laborious way.
8. Expandable memory would be great. It's not an issue for me right now, but given how many illustrated books I've been downloading, who knows what the future may hold?
9. A selectable option that allows you by default to open a book at its cover. I like seeing covers, dammit.

#5 onward are (for me) lower-priority nice-to-haves. I do think a direct method for sending feedback would be a good idea *for Amazon*, though.

And while I'd love EPUB support, I suspect that we're talking snowball-in-hell odds here, so... I won't bother adding it.

P.S. I do *not* want a touchscreen. The five-way and page forward/back controls suit me just fine!

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by cathie

I just had an epiphany!! Make it waterproof!!! (for us dedicated readers who like to read in the bath).
As to a touch screen..... NO! after a short time (a VERY SHORT TIME) they are impossible to read because of fingerprints smears. Optional touch screen I could live with.

well, then put down the bag of Cheesy Poofs when you are using the bloody thing!

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

Ya really do not want a completely white background under all conditions. If, for example one likes to read outside in the sunshine . . .

To my eye, the K3 already does have a white background in sunshine. It is only indoors, or in deep shade, that it appears to be a black-on-grey device.

As someone who still reads as many paper books as eBooks, I think the Kindle gets the edge on fonts, due to being able to resize, whereas paper books (except for some really old ones) get the edge for contrast ratio under normal lighting conditions.

Most paper books also get the edge for lack of glare. If improvements are technically feasible, black and white eInk has a way to go until achieving perfection.

[hamiltonian]

Things I would like, or things I just haven't figured out yet:

1) Alphabetical sorting for collections.

2) Notepad feature. This would be great for organizing a series of books. My current method is to create PDF, and then add it to the collection. A text file on the Kindle would be a huge advantage.

3) (Very minor) Call it backspace instead of delete. I am used to deleting from in front of a character.

4) A quicker on/off switch.

5) If I am at the beginning of my list of books, pressing back to take me to the end of the list would be huge. This is so simple, yet so frustrating I am hoping I just overlooked something.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

To my eye, the K3 already does have a white background in sunshine. It is only indoors, or in deep shade, that it appears to be a black-on-grey device.

As someone who still reads as many paper books as eBooks, I think the Kindle gets the edge on fonts, due to being able to resize, whereas paper books (except for some really old ones) get the edge for contrast ratio under normal lighting conditions.

Most paper books also get the edge for lack of glare. If improvements are technically feasible, black and white eInk has a way to go until achieving perfection.

Right and so does pretty much any E-Ink brand screen. Even the original was quite a bit whiter under either full-spectrum indoor lighting or outdoor in the sunshine. And then indoors under typical inside lighting the screen background will be a darker shade of grey. It seems to have to do with not only the fact that sunlight has all the colors in it, full-spectrum, but of course the intensity of the light. I read in a thread here a while back to try using full spectrum reading lights, I have both Ott Lights as well as a ton of full spectrum fluorescent bulbs and both do improve the white background in that it makes it look whiter.

My original comment wasn't that the background was not currently fine outdoors but odds are we really don't want a whiter background than the current Pearl screens should you like to read outside.

The point I was making earlier is if you have a reader with too white a background under indoor lighting then once outdoors it would be like trying to read something printed in a nice bright white paper. That white will really blast a lot of light back into your eyes. And the light from the sun is far stronger than any laptop/LCD backlight which people complain about causing eye strain. So my point was to be careful what we all ask for in the area of a white background screen because it might be defeating the one of the nice benefits of an E-Ink screen if you like to read outside or even by a window during the day.

And you make a good point about glare (or is it really reflected light) from a glossy page in a book or even matte finish reader screens. I have reference books with glassy true white pages which can be near to impossible to read under normal home or office lighting. Not sure if we'll ever get a screen that mimics the characteristics of non-glossy paper in the area of glare though matte finish screens are better than most of the glossy screens. Still even a matte screen can have that annoying glare if the light source is in just the right position.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by hamiltonian

5) If I am at the beginning of my list of books, pressing back to take me to the end of the list would be huge. This is so simple, yet so frustrating I am hoping I just overlooked something.

That would be nice! What I do to get to the last page of the book list is to use the Alt + letter combination to quickly jump to the last page.

For example, if I have 20 pages of books, I hold down the Alt button while typing the letters WP and then press the Enter button, and it takes me to page 20. It's not quite as easy as being able to press the page-back button, but much quicker than pressing page-forward multiple times!

[hamiltonian]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

That would be nice! What I do to get to the last page of the book list is to use the Alt + letter combination to quickly jump to the last page.

For example, if I have 20 pages of books, I hold down the Alt button while typing the letters WP and then press the Enter button, and it takes me to page 20. It's not quite as easy as being able to press the page-back button, but much quicker than pressing page-forward multiple times!

Thank you - that helps a lot!