Kindle Iphone app - Location??

[foghat]

Hi all,

Am giving the Kindle iphone app a go.

Can someone explain what the Location is (when you tap the screen). When using the smallest textI will get something like 18-24. The numbers change to 18-20 when using the largest text.

Is this trying to say that one page of iphone text is equivalent to pages 18-24 of a printed version (which would make little sense to me)?

Thanks.

[murraypaul]

These are position numbers, not page numbers.
Because you can choose your own font sizes, there isn't really a fixed idea of a page with an electronic book.
Amazon uses these arbitrary position numbers to give you some indication of progress, that is independent of font or screen size.

[foghat]

Thanks.

This seems pretty useless to me then - at least if you are using it to try judge your progress through or the 'size' of a book.

What do these seemingly arbitrary numbers tell me? I have no idea how many 'pages' the book is, nor does it give me a % complete. I guess you can scroll to the end of the book and find out what the last number is...

I understand this method gives you a definitive 'marker' so that regardless of font setting or device, you can find the same spot in your book, but that doesn't really matter to me.

I much prefer the way ibooks gives page numbers. Smaller font, less pages, larger font more pages.

[HarryT]

Each unit is a count of 128 bytes in the file; thus 8 = 1k, 8192 = 1MB.

[dwharrison]

Originally Posted by foghat

I understand this method gives you a definitive 'marker' so that regardless of font setting or device, you can find the same spot in your book, but that doesn't really matter to me.

I much prefer the way ibooks gives page numbers. Smaller font, less pages, larger font more pages.

Understood, but other people feel differently. In particular, people who need to cite works need an absolute reference that they can provide.

There are clearly other ways this can be handled, and personally I'd like to see page numbers encoded in the books based on a print edition (publisher to select which, of course) so that page numbers could be shown without them changing based on screen size.

Having said all of that, Amazon has done what they've done, and if you want to read Kindle books, you're going to see location numbers.

[foghat]

Originally Posted by dwharrison

There are clearly other ways this can be handled, and personally I'd like to see page numbers encoded in the books based on a print edition (publisher to select which, of course) so that page numbers could be shown without them changing based on screen size.

This would be kind of neat. I would imagine you would base the numbers on the hardcover (assuming the ebook gets released at about the same time).

I don't see why you can't have both the 'markers' that stay constant and also some sort of page number that shows a definitive number of pages (and what page you are on) that changes with font/margin/device differences.

Just bought the wife a K3 (which is the main reason I was checking out kindle on the iphone) so, I will see how that goes. It really does look like a pretty slick device. Plus based on the picture on Amazon, it looks like the % is shown, so that is something.

edit: and looking at the k3 pictures more, it does look like they display the last location number (which the iphone app does not do), so that in combination of displaying my current location (and the % complete) is pretty much all I need. Nice.