Personal ergonomics, software and hardware

[zartemis]

A few thoughts after a day's use -- some contrary to popular experience:

The mirrored LED: unlike most, I do not like it much. In some light and angles, I cannot see it at all and have to shift the book around to figure out what I'm selecting.

The scroll wheel: as at least one other person has mentioned, it can sometimes be hard to click it without scrolling it, resulting in the wrong selection. Several times I hit the back key automatically since it felt intuitively as though that would be the 'enter' after scrolling. I use a logitech mouse with the free-spinning scroll wheel on my PC and wish I had similar ability move the Kindle wheel.

The case: I like it. I find it attractive and one person at a coffeehouse who came up to check it out said that in the case, it wasn't so ugly. I also find that the case enables me to hold the Kindle without pressing the buttons -- I fold back the cover and wrap the strap around the backside -- I can then wedge a thumb or finger in between and hold it securely or just grab the case at any edge. My Kindle stays in securely to the little latch, I haven't had it come loose yet.

The next/prev page buttons: Yes, they do make it hard to hold without pressing. This is very annoying. I might get up to make an order at the coffehouse and by the time I sit back down, who knows what page it will be on and how far from where I was -- there is no fast way to flip through the book and get back -- the slow page refesh means that finding my place may be a several minute ordeal. (Yes, I've played with go to location). Like others, I'd very much like the ability remap the keys -- the prev page button is in the perfect place for one of my preferred one-handed holding methods to have a NEXT page function instead. If those two keys on the left were swapped it would be a much better one-handed experience for me.

Samples: I love the length of the samples, but transitioning to buying the book is awkward. You buy the book, then you have a copy of both the sample and the full book on the kindle. If you switch to the full copy, then you've lost where you were in the text and have to refind it (which given refresh is a slow process). I would be much better if the sample could be converted to a full book seamlessly. As a partial solution, the full book should come with a bookmark where the sample ends. But this partial solution has the annoyance that:

Removing books/samples: What a hassle! Every book should have a 'remove from kindle' option on the book's main menu page. Right now I have to remember what book/sample I want to remove, go to the content manager, page through my now very long list of books, newspapers, audible books, blogs, samples, etc, check the item, then select remove. The confirmation screen does not say which one(s) it's removing so you hope (given how the scroll wheel selection click might have moved before the click) that you didn't mis-check an item. If there's an easier way I missed it. I makes me somewhat hesitant to try a sample of a book I'm iffy about since I know what a hassle it will be to remove it.

Amazon book recommendations: Since I like Amazon's online recommendation engine, I was happy to see that you got Kindle book recommendations when shopping on the Kindle, but I would also like to access them online from my PC. I could not find a way to view them online or to limit the regular recommendation engine to Kindle books. Also the Kindle books don't seem to update as well as the online engine, nor can you tell it you already own it and rate it from the recommendations view on the Kindle as you can when you view recommendations online.

Wireless and battery life: I wish there were a 3rd setting for the wireless switch instead of just on/off: on demand. I.e. it would be off until I told it via the software to check for new items, go to the store, or browse the web, then it would connect and stay connected until the connection was idle for a set period of time and then turn off. I keep forgetting to turn it off, I usually notice when the battery starts draining appreciably.

Despite these annoyances, I love reading on it for the most part. The real test will be how well it can keep up with getting the sorts of books I like to Kindle format (I'm not a fiction reader). Although, if The Economist ever comes to Kindle format, that alone would make it worthwhile! I'd even half-way considered getting a second Kindle for bathroom reading until I realized they wouldn't share bookmarks, so I'd have to waste time figuring out where I left off each time I switched Kindles. Way too much trouble.

[Alisa]

Great review. It really makes me hope Amazon reads this forum.

[zartemis]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Great review. It really makes me hope Amazon reads this forum.

Well, I also forwarded a copy of my comments to: kindle-feedback at amazon.com, so depending on how swamped and spammy that address is, someone at Amazon may eventually read it.

That said, some of the annoyances listed are somewhat rare. Mistakenly roll-clicking the scroll wheel only happens maybe once out of 20 times. Same with not being able to see the mirrored LED -- although that seems to happen more in my bedroom, since walls and bed covers are white/cream so that the mirrored surface reflects the same color as the device, making it disappear.

What I love most: the instant gratification of getting new reading material, whenever, wherever.

[jmdor]

I completely concur -- you've matched my summary to a nutshell. I'd also like to be able to file books into categories like on my Sony, and to have a clock on the screen. If they made that wireless switch software-based, it would be much better.

We can hope for some software upgrades, perhaps, as time goes on...

[tsgreer]

Originally Posted by zartemis

The case: I like it. I find it attractive and one person at a coffeehouse who came up to check it out said that in the case, it wasn't so ugly.


The next/prev page buttons: Yes, they do make it hard to hold without pressing. This is very annoying. I might get up to make an order at the coffehouse and by the time I sit back down, who knows what page it will be on and how far from where I was --

I also like how it looks in the case and the case feels very solid to me. Very "book like" when closed. As for losing your place when you get up, I always put the screen lock "sleep mode" on. It's very fast to put on and off and that way you don't lose your place when you carry it around. But, yes the bottons on the side are a tad too big and being able to at least remap them software wise would be handy.

Since the page buttons are the first thing almost everyone complains about, I bet the next Kindle will be different in that respect.