# How can the Kindle be improved?



## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

I know we all love our Kindles. Infact, it's pretty much my fav gadget in the house. But how do we think they can be improved? If, at all ....


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## Nebula7 (Apr 21, 2011)

I'd like to see a clock on the bottom of the screen.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

More rugged, a less fragile screen. 

Lower cost, as the cost of the e-ink displays decrease, the cost of the reader should decrease as well.

Make a solar powered case: I would suggest that the Kindle itself be solar, but since most people put them into a case, the solar panels would be covered up, so it's better to have it on the case.

Faster refresh times, so there isn't a pause when turning a page.

Perhaps the web browser could be more like a cell phone browser, it might be more useful on the small screen.

And one more thing, I'd like my locations back. I find that locations are more meaningful than pages on an ebook, and just the percentage alone doesn't tell me how much I have to go. I realize you can still see the location by clicking menu, but I would like the option of seeing it by default.


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## valleycat1 (Mar 15, 2011)

Easier navigation on the web interface.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

A solar powered case. Great idea


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Speed of page turns and menus and dictionary lookups can still be improved a lot.

E-ink can continue to improve in terms of contrast--blacker text and whiter background.

Better organization system.  Sub-folders, ability to specify order of things in collections without having to rename books, etc.

Bring back the number keys and the inward pressing buttons (harder to bump accidentally) of the K2.


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## Labrynth (Dec 31, 2009)

Better organization and a better way to import things from another Kindle.  having just had to replace my K3 because of a power switch, I will now spend a week trying to put everything on the new one.  What a PITA.


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## beckyj20 (Jun 12, 2010)

The only thing I really want is to be able to put the books in the order you want. I read a lot of series and I would like to be able to order them. It could probably be faster, but that really doesnt bother me to much.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Better keyboard (bring back the number keys)
Control of hyphenation and paragraph spacing/indents
Removal of social media features  
Change 5-way controller to be like the one on the K2
Better handling of revised books



Mike


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## pomtroll (Oct 5, 2010)

*Please this is just my opinion ...don't pick on me  I'd like a touch screen & a smaller screen. I love the touchscreen on my Sony 350. If Kindle had had something like that, I probably wouldn't have gotten the Sony.*


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## kindlegrl81 (Jan 19, 2010)

Well for me, I would like the size and buttons of the K2 with the screen of the K3.  I would also like to have sub-folders and a way to reset the "last page read" on the Kindle itself rather than calling Kindle CS.


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## teralpar (May 18, 2010)

1.  Bring back number keys on K3.
2.  Sub-folders for collections.
3.  Transfer collection folders from one Kindle to another.


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## GrouchoKindle (Apr 14, 2011)

Parental controls (turn off 1-click access, limit what books a device can access, etc).


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## grizedale (Sep 2, 2010)

Have an option for fullscreen display to remove the percentage bar, I just want a screen full of readableness...


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## Cardinal (Feb 24, 2010)

1) Mandatory chapter indexes on every Kindle book so the five way controller can jump to the start of a chapter.

2) When looking at my highlights and bookmarks I want to be able to jump to a page by typing the number, the same way we are able to jump to a page when we are on the homepage.

3 I want to be able to edit the metadata without a third party program, or better yet have Amazon insist on a standard for author's names (so all the book's by an author sort together in author view) and the published year is when the DTB was published, not the Kindle version, and to be able to sort by year ascending and descending.

4) Sub Collections.

5) I wish we could have books in our archives organized into Collections in the archives.

6) I'd like the option of having the page number and or location visible on the book's page rather than hitting the menu button.  A setting would allow the reader to choose what they want displayed.

7) Being able to lock a collection(s).  And to have the option to have the Kindle only receive downloads, but not make purchases from it.

 Include cover art in the book.


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## dpinmd (Dec 30, 2009)

GrouchoKindle said:


> Parental controls (turn off 1-click access, limit what books a device can access, etc).


^^^^^^^^^This.^^^^^^^^^


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## Me and My Kindle (Oct 20, 2010)

I'm probably more of a power user, but I think there's room for improvement in the way the Kindle handles special files like PDFs and .mp3 music files.

I'd also like to see them improve the web browser -- though I understand why Amazon doesn't want to do that. If they make the web browser too attractive, everybody will want to use it -- and then Amazon will have to pay a lot more for the cost of all the bandwidth we're using!


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Carl Ashmore said:


> I know we all love our Kindles. Infact, it's pretty much my fav gadget in the house. But how do we think they can be improved? If, at all ....


The only improvement I can think of is that I'd like it to be in color, so I can see book covers without the boring grayscale. Also, if I could check my email on my Kindle that'd be pretty cool.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Me and My Kindle said:


> I'd also like to see them improve the web browser -- though I understand why Amazon doesn't want to do that. If they make the web browser too attractive, everybody will want to use it -- and then Amazon will have to pay a lot more for the cost of all the bandwidth we're using!


They could add a better browser and make it only work on wifi I suppose.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Cardinal said:


> and the published year is when the DTB was published, not the Kindle version,


+1

Mike


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## RobertK (Aug 2, 2010)

The only thing I really ache for, other than it just becoming better over time: sorting / archiving / managing libraries is tedious. Drag & drop functionality through the desktop would be FANTASTIC!


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## N. Gemini Sasson (Jul 5, 2010)

mooshie78 said:


> E-ink can continue to improve in terms of contrast--blacker text and whiter background.


Yes, whiter background so it looks more like paper.

And the up/down/right/left/enter (5-way controller?) button needs to be enlarged or separated. I don't know how many times I hit enter when I meant to just go in a direction when highlighting.


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## TLH (Jan 20, 2011)

I would love to have a digital clock at the top so I don't have stop reading to go check what time it is.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Oooh, agreed, Robert


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## violingal13 (Dec 12, 2010)

Am I the only one who misses being able to read a summary of the book without needing wifi? I download so many promotional freebies that I can't keep track of them; if they look remotely interesting, I grab them, figuring I can always delete them later. I would love to be able to read the equivalent of the back cover of the book without having to go into the kindle store. 

And yes, backup/transfer-ability of collections!


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

Non-English character support (specifically Japanese) and an up-to-down display option.


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## kindlegrl81 (Jan 19, 2010)

violingal13 said:


> Am I the only one who misses being able to read a summary of the book without needing wifi? I download so many promotional freebies that I can't keep track of them; if they look remotely interesting, I grab them, figuring I can always delete them later. I would love to be able to read the equivalent of the back cover of the book without having to go into the kindle store.


This would be an awesome feature.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

violingal13 said:


> Am I the only one who misses being able to read a summary of the book . . .


A good summary feature would be wonderful. Ironically, the data is often already captured in the file - all the Kindel need do is access it.

This is one of the reasons I use Calibre. Highlight the book and the summary, review information, etc. is all there.


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## BJHunter (Mar 24, 2011)

A touchscreen like the Sony has,  an option to have the time displayed at all times in one of the corners, and the same casing as the sony reader has, I think it is aluminum, so our casing will not crack.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

Now that I have "killed the dead authors", there is nothing else I would want to change.....fits my lifestyle just perfect.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

I'll add this to the others. I have trouble seeing how low the battery is. I have to use a magnifying glass.  It's just too small, so either make the battery shown larger or add a percentage of how much battery is left or do both.
Also, make a white, wifi only kindle as well as the graphite.


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## teralpar (May 18, 2010)

Toby said:


> Also, make a white, wifi only kindle as well as the graphite.


That would be nice. Either that or make it so that the letters on the graphite one doesn't rub off.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

I use the keyboard a lot and the letters haven't rubbed off for me. I just wish that they keys didn't have so much glare, it can be hard to read them.

I think the Kindle will go in multiple directions. The basic functionality - reading books - will be the core, but there will likely be "premium" readers that do more. You might have a barebones lowcost Kindle that you could give to kids. Or a more expensive one that is more like a tablet.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Ahh, I wouldn;t want a touchscreen. I like buttons


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## belfastbiker (May 11, 2011)

Allow it to connect to ad-hoc wifi networks, so that I can tie into my iPhones MyWi wireless...


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## mattquinley (Jan 3, 2011)

Add the ability to display pages or locations remaining in the current chapter.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Belfast, great idea


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## violingal13 (Dec 12, 2010)

Elk said:


> This is one of the reasons I use Calibre. Highlight the book and the summary, review information, etc. is all there.


Elk:

Do you mean that by using Calibre you can access all that information on your kindle? if so I would love to know how! Or are you referring to the information you can find while inside the Calibre program?


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## Labrynth (Dec 31, 2009)

If touchscreen becomes my only option, I'd stop using Kindle.  I. hate. touchscreens.

I wish we could legally add our own screensavers.  I'm not asking them to give me something new, but being able to add them myself without the jailbreak would be nice.  I like seeing my puppies on there


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

violingal13 said:


> Do you mean that by using Calibre you can access all that information on your kindle? if so I would love to know how! Or are you referring to the information you can find while inside the Calibre program?


Unfortunately the later; you can see the information only while on a computer running Calibre.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I think, for me, the only real improvement I would welcome would be color. As an author, I would also appreciate people being able to see the covers in color.  

I know a lot of people love the tablets and touch screens, but I am not that big of a fan.  I like a dedicated reader.


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## Stu707 (Apr 18, 2011)

I would like to be able to see illustrations, maps, etc. more clearly--in color if possible.


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## Lorem Ipsum (Sep 16, 2010)

use the book cover as the screensaver when switched off while in the middle of that book. Switched off anywhere else (home, browser, etc), use amazon kindle screensavers.


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## Trulte (Apr 2, 2011)

I would like that whenever I added a new book I was asked if I wanted the book cover added as a screen saver! That way every Kindle owner get their own, "tailormade" screen savers - kind of neat, I think! AND, - when (not "if") Amazon fixes this you just get the sw update next time you turn on your wi-fi 

@loremipsum
Just now saw that you had kind of the same idea! Great minds think alike


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## StephenLivingston (May 10, 2011)

I would like the directional buttons to be a bit bigger.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Agreed, Stu.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I would also like to say I support buttons rather than a touch screen.  Even my phone has to have a slide-out keyboard for me to use.  Apparently my fat fingers and touch screens do not get along well.


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## teralpar (May 18, 2010)

balaspa said:


> I would also like to say I support buttons rather than a touch screen. Even my phone has to have a slide-out keyboard for me to use. Apparently my fat fingers and touch screens do not get along well.


I prefer buttons as well. I have and iPhone and I am constantly wiping fingerprints off the screen. And when I type on the virtual keyboard my fingers tend to hit the wrong letters.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Touch screens on phones are tough to use at times as the screen is so small (so the "buttons" are small etc.).  I seldom have issues with my iPad.

I don't really have a preference on buttons vs. keys for simple things like page turns.  When reading on my iPad I just tap the side of the screen to turn the page rather than swiping, so it's really no different than pressing the button on my K3.

For typing, I definitely vastly prefer a physical keyboard.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

book cover viewing in the home screen would be cool


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Oooh, agreed


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

After putting on wifi, I would like the sync  to be put right under the wifi, instead of scrolling down to click on it.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

Give us back locations.
Give us back number keys.
Give us customizable screensavers (I like the idea of having the book cover if you "sleep" from inside the book).
Give us a way to batch download all books from our Amazon account at one time (in case we get a new Kindle at some point).


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## Anniehow (Oct 28, 2008)

Maybe it could have a "library smell" piped from it so that I could stop hearing, "I would miss the touch and smell of a book if I had a Kindle" from my thick headed friends. 

All Kidding aside I would like a better folder/organization system,a faster dictionary look up feature and I'd like mine to be brighter in the sun, but I have a K2. (I don't think that is a problem with the K3) 
Gisele


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## Carld (Dec 2, 2009)

Give me PDF reflow and I'll be happy.


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## gatecitycanes (Feb 10, 2010)

The only thing I really miss are the bigger page turn buttons from K2. I have never liked the buttons on the K3. 

A clock would be nice too. Otherwise I'm pretty happy with the thing.


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## TLM (Apr 8, 2010)

As I use my K2i only for reading 99% of the time, games the other 1%, I don't care about the PDF or mp3 or e-mail features.

I prefer to keep my numbers on my keyboard, I prefer the 5-way controller to the one button of the K3.  (I have used a K3 that others own).  

I would LOVE to have sub-collections and have collections and their subs in the archives.

I don't care so much about color or touch screen.  I like them on the phone app.  Color covers help me remember the book, but it isn't a deal breaker.  I love e-ink and wouldn't want a regular screen with the glare and fingerprints of a nook color or my phone for long reading sessions.

Custom screen savers, YES.  Hate the dead authors, scary looking.

And like the idea of accessing a synopsys of the book from the menu somehow.  I also download lots of samples and forget what it was about them I wanted to read.  I also like re-reading books and just from a title can't always remember which one it is I am looking for   

But most of all I want my Kindle to remain a Kindle - reading device.  Not a mini-laptop or a tablet.


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## SneezyCharmed (Oct 13, 2010)

I'm fairly certain that I read someone wanted a flexible kindle (it may not have been this thread but I'm on my phone so am unable to search efficiently!) However I saw this on the BBC's website and thought of that want - news.bbc.co.uk/1/mobile/programmes/click_online/9491789.stm - obviously a good few years away from use until research has been completed but there's a possibility


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## MoonStarRaven (Mar 4, 2011)

As I have a couple of books I'm currently reading it occurred to me how nice it would be if there was a "Currently Reading" button that would flip through the books you have most recently read. It would be so much easier then going back to the menu and search trough to find the other book(s) you are reading. 

For example I'm currently reading Shelters of Stone, Great Expectations and Dracula. Instead of going to menu, find my Favorites folder and flip through 5 or six pages I could just push the "Currently Reading" button to flip from the last page I was reading of Dracula straight to the last page I was reading of Shelters of Stones and so on. It would be very convenient for those of us who read several books at a time.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

that would be convenient.
I keep a currently reading folder and put those books in there.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Agreed, Chad


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## laurie_lu (May 10, 2010)

The biggest way to me the Kindle could be improved is if there was a way to stream online music from sites like PANDORA or SLACKER RADIO while reading my books.  I've stopped purchasing music from iTunes because I enjoy the variety of music from these free online streaming sites.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Chad Winters (#102) said:


> that would be convenient.
> I keep a currently reading folder and put those books in there.


I only read one, maybe two at times, book at one time so it's not much of an issue for me. I just leave what ever I'm currently reading on the home page and put it in the relevant collection after finishing it.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Laurie, great pic. And great point


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## Labrynth (Dec 31, 2009)

It technically goes back to organization, but I wish there was a way to organize series books in the proper order...


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

How true.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

I would like the ability to flip randomly forward and backward - say 5,  10 or 20 pages at a time.  Maybe with a keyboard shortcut?

Apart from being able to get a sense of a book quickly, as one would with a paper book, I also find sometimes that I need to search for a passage without being able to remember any particular word that distinguishes it.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

Yes, me too. That would be great if there was a way to flip either every 10 pages or so through a book. It should also work forwards & backwards.


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## tsemple (Apr 27, 2009)

My list is rather long, here is a sampling, in no particular order:
1. PDF reflow, PDF links, popup PDF TOC, maybe some PDF viewing modes like Sony (2 column paging etc.)
2. navigable popup TOC (like ePub)
3. touch screen, kill the keyboard off, leave page turn buttons on top and side (supporting right or left handedness in either portrait or landscape). Which leads to...
4. auto-orientation like DXG and...
5. bluetooth to hook up wireless audio and external keyboard
6. voice control so you can do simple navigation without touching (it already has a mic), accessibility
7. reading statistics (time to finish, page turns to end of chapter, etc.) 
8. native support for ePub (DRM free is ok for now)
9. faster operation (faster redraw, navigation, page scan mode)
10. ability to add personal or 3rd party content in any supported format to Kindle archive (including synching, note backup etc.)
11. organize archive using the same set of Collections as used on the Kindle in question
12. higher dot pitch screen (iRiver's 'Story HD' has a 6" 1024x768 eink screen)
13. Ability to zoom into and pan images beyond just 'full screen' as you can with PDF, or with Android/iOS Kindle apps.
14. accelerometer (#4) also enables a 'scrolling' mode controlled by tilt of the screen, again, obviating need to touch anything (Amazon can license the patent from makers of the iOS app iFlow Reader, which Apple killed off recently)
15. RSVP (Rapid Sequential Visual Presentation) reading mode. You could look it up, it lets you read 50% faster for at least short bursts without loss of comprehension. Stanza (Amazon owned) has a version of this on their desktop app.
16. Syncing of text to Audible content playback, or vice versa. The ultimate in TTS...
17. official support for adding additional fonts, new TTS voices, etc. I'd buy them if they sold them.
18. support for inline audio playback (enhanced ebook)


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## shalym (Sep 1, 2010)

Some things on your list would be great, others would make me not buy it. It sounds like you want a tablet with the Kindle app on it, rather than the Kindle itself. I've had a Kindle since the Spring of 2008. The only 2 things I really wanted were a built-in light and wi-fi. I got them with my K3.

Shari


tsemple said:


> My list is rather long, here is a sampling, in no particular order:
> 1. PDF reflow, PDF links, popup PDF TOC, maybe some PDF viewing modes like Sony (2 column paging etc.) All of these would be nice, except maybe the 2 column--I think the 6 inch screen would be too small for that--maybe on the DX.
> 2. navigable popup TOC (like ePub) Most books that I read already have a navigable TOC--this is dependent on the way the author formats the book, not on the device.
> 3. touch screen, kill the keyboard off, leave page turn buttons on top and side (supporting right or left handedness in either portrait or landscape). Which leads to... I am in the "no touchscreen, please" camp for my Kindle. I have 2 tablets and a phone with touchscreens--I love them for what they are, but don't want to read on them. Fingerprints make me crazy. If the keyboard goes away, I won't be buying a new Kindle.
> ...


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

I used to be anti-touch screen until I started reading some library e-books on my iPad.

I really like just being able to touch anywhere on the right and left side of the screen to turn pages.  The tiny page turn button on the K3 bugs me as it limits where I can hold the device to easily reach the key without out having to move my hand/thumb a long ways.

A touch screen would also be great for dictionary look ups--just touch a work rather than having to scroll to it with the 5-way switch that I find a bit small and awkwardly placed.

Not a deal breaker, but a touch screen on a K4 is something that would probably get me to upgrade.  And I like his ideas of keeping the small page turn buttons there so that people who don't like touch screens can just ignore that it's a touch screen.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

I'm just not convinced by touch screens.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

They're definitely not for everyone.

I'm a big tablet fan personally, so I really like the.  The main improvement I want is for something like Mirasol screens to really come out and really work well, as I'd rather just have a table with a good "e-ink like" mode to do my reading on rather than having to have a separate e-reader and tablet like I do currently with the K3 and iPad 2.


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## valleycat1 (Mar 15, 2011)

I'd like for the default, when opening a book for the first time, to go to the book's cover instead of the beginning of the first chapter.  I actually like to read prefaces & TOCs!  I know I can use the 'go to' feature.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

valleycat1 said:


> I'd like for the default, when opening a book for the first time, to go to the book's cover instead of the beginning of the first chapter. I actually like to read prefaces & TOCs! I know I can use the 'go to' feature.


Agreed. I like to see the cover etc. as well, and hate having to use the "go to cover" option every time.

I've even had a couple of books that started on chapter 1 and skipped a short prologue that was story related! Only one or two, as most do start on the prologue.


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## Bogbuilder (May 26, 2011)

N. Gemini Sasson said:


> And the up/down/right/left/enter (5-way controller?) button needs to be enlarged or separated. I don't know how many times I hit enter when I meant to just go in a direction when highlighting.


Yeah, what she said - I love the device, but that bit is really annoying...


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

I prefer the K3's 5-way controller over the K2's. I suppose its a matter of what you're used to.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

QuantumIguana said:


> I prefer the K3's 5-way controller over the K2's. I suppose its a matter of what you're used to.


I do too. The K2 one I'd click accidentally too often when I was still trying to just move the cursor. I don't have that issue with the K3's 5-way.


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## Labrynth (Dec 31, 2009)

valleycat1 said:


> I'd like for the default, when opening a book for the first time, to go to the book's cover instead of the beginning of the first chapter. I actually like to read prefaces & TOCs! I know I can use the 'go to' feature.


I'd like to see this too.

And touch screen? Deal breaker for me. I'd never upgrade if it were my only option. I despise them.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Labrynth said:


> And touch screen? Deal breaker for me. I'd never upgrade if it were my only option. I despise them.


Yeah, I don't think a touch screen should ever be the only option as too many people are opposed to them.

I'd just love if the put out an e-ink touch screen device along side the traditional ones like Sony always had/has with their e-reader series. More options are always a good thing for consumers.


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## tsemple (Apr 27, 2009)

shalym said:


> Some things on your list would be great, others would make me not buy it. It sounds like you want a tablet with the Kindle app on it, rather than the Kindle itself. I've had a Kindle since the Spring of 2008. The only 2 things I really wanted were a built-in light and wi-fi. I got them with my K3.
> 
> Shari


Wow someone actually read everything I wrote! thanks for the interesting comments.

Yeah, I know a lot of my suggestions are out there but hey, we are brainstorming here!

What I meant by PDF '2 column' mode is that Sony Readers have a mode for reading two-column PDFs by dividing the page up into quarters and visiting each in the correct order with the page keys. That way you are reading it at close to 100% scale without any panning or zooming, as you need otherwise. Apparently a lot of technical and academic papers are published this way - for Letter/a4 size paper, it just results in better typography, easier to read. It's not particularly my requirement but I see a lot of others who would like to see it on Kindle.

Actually audio+text would be a way for publishers to sell 'premium' content. The problem is that the rights-owners are often different. But since Amazon owns Audible, and has this Kindle Store, I just thought they could do something unique and creative with it all. The ePub3 specification actually includes a section on how this might be done, mostly derived from accessibility requirements previously addressed with the DAISY specification.

of course auto-orientation needs to be something you can toggle easily. Unfortunately that's not always the case. Drives me nuts sometimes on my iPod Touch.

Page scan would be useful for reference books that you don't read in a linear fashion.

Kindle does have 'zoom image to fit screen' (place cursor on the image and Select) but on a 6" screen it is not usually enough to make it readable. Of course the images have to have resolution greater than 600x800 to allow this and many do not, due to what the publishing guidelines used to say about how to prepare images for Kindle platform (and what the publishing workflow used to do to larger images). But even if they just had DXG screen resolution it would be good enough, if only you could zoom to 100% on the smaller Kindle.

In terms of voice navigation, I'm thinking of mostly sighted people who don't have the use of their hands for one reason or other (maybe they are just eating lunch, or walking on a treadmill - but also quadriplegics or disabled). Not so much for vision impaired.

What I mean by 'navigable TOC' is not the navpoints you can jump to with the 5way, though it is related to that. It would be a popup, scrollable list of whatever named locations in the book that you might want to jump to, or just refer to as a way of seeing what chapters/topics are coming up. It complements the 'HTML TOC' that most Kindle books have, but it is very much more efficient than that. And most ePub readers have this feature, though they don't always implement it well. For extra credit, it would merge in your bookmarks and the locations where you have notes or highlights (I've only seen one or two reading apps that did that). Lack of efficient navigation is one of my biggest complaints about Kindle. A touch screen will immediately be better but even without that there are some simple things that could be done.

The auto-scroll reading mode is something I became attached to with one of my iOS reading apps. It really worked well, particularly on a handheld screen. Unfortunately that app was pulled from the App Store there because of -- well lets not get into that here. RSVP mode is probably not something I (or anyone else) would use very much but it sounds cool and I'd like to try it on an actual ereader screen like Kindles. But I'm not holding my breath.

Touchscreen. Don't knock it until you've tried it. There are good touchscreen experiences and bad ones. I played with a sony, you don't see the fingerprints, and as long as there are page turn buttons and maybe a few more (Home, Back), it works well, you can operate it one-handed (for page turns). I'm not a big fan of 'swiping' to turn pages, it is just a gimmick. Most tablet reading apps support 'swiping', but a light touch on the edge is sufficient also.

In terms of reaching a larger market worldwide, the keyboard is a real handicap as it does not support locale-specific layouts and input methods, many of which are very small numerically. And Kindle's is one of the worst I've ever used, and so I avoid doing as much typing as I might like to. Allowing users to connect external, localized keyboards via USB or Bluetooth could solve both of those issues and save manufacturing costs that could result in less expensive devices for all of us.


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## valleycat1 (Mar 15, 2011)

Question about touchscreens (I don't have any device with one, as yet) - I've noticed that my friends' iphones or whatever, where they use the touchscreen all the time, end up with worn spots on the screen where they're always dragging their fingers.  Does that affect the readability of what you're viewing?  I read so much that one selling point for the K3 was that the text looks marginally crisper according to one comparative analysis I saw.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

I've never noticed worn spots on the touch screen phones or tablets I've used.  Maybe they have screen protectors on that have gotten worn?  Or maybe you're just seeing smudges/finger prints that could be quickly wiped off with a rag?


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

mooshie78 said:


> Yeah, I don't think a touch screen should ever be the only option as too many people are opposed to them.
> 
> I'd just love if the put out an e-ink touch screen device along side the traditional ones like Sony always had/has with their e-reader series. More options are always a good thing for consumers.


That would be the ideal situation. I was totally opposed to the idea of a touchscreen on a Kindle, especially after the LCD touchscreen on the original Nook - it's abysmal. Then the latest generation of Sony readers with the new touch screen technology got such good user reviews, and I played with it some in stores. Now I'm thinking a touch screen is what would get me to upgrade from my K2 to a K4. After reading on my iPad I'm liking the touch screen idea more & more. Love being able to just touch a word and have the definition pop up. But I still prefer reading on eInk. Honestly, if the new Nook were a Kindle I'd be all over it. But I've got the original Nook, & I'm pretty unimpressed with B&N overall, especially customer service (no personal experience there, just the stories I see on nookboards & elsewhere) and while I give them props for addressing many of the issues I and others had with the original Nook, I'd much rather wait for a Kindle with a touch screen. And if I end up with a touch screen K4, I'll probably gift the Nook to one sister-in-law and the K2 to my other sister-in-law.

And yes, there are a few other things I'd like to see on the K4, such as:

- the ability to add my own screensavers without a hack
- additional font choices, again without a hack
- yep, would love to see a quick synopsis of each book right after the cover, but I suspect that's a publisher thing
- improved Collections functions that others have mentioned, such as the ability to have collections within collections, and to work like Sony's reader does with Calibre and be able to have metadata tags & series info move from Calibre to the Kindle the way it does on the Sony

There are other improvements I'd like to see that need to come from the publishers, like making more books lendable, more available for library lending, standardizing how they input author names and titles, and dropping the DRM. And oh yeah, dropping the agency model. Not holding my breath for any of those, however....


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Meemo said:


> After reading on my iPad I'm liking the touch screen idea more & more. Love being able to just touch a word and have the definition pop up. But I still prefer reading on eInk.


That's exactly my situation. And I've found reading on the iPad LCD doesn't really bother my eyes as much as I thought. I mainly read newspaper apps on it and most don't have an in-app brightness control, so I think those tire my eyes more as they're usually too bright (and it's too much hassle to go change the iPad's overall brightness.

With the reading app (mainly Overdrive as I'm mainly just reading library e-books on it) I can easily keep the brightness at the ideal level for the ambient lighting I'm reading in.

That said, I still prefer e-ink. But I do love the touch screen. In addition to your reasons, it's just nice being able to touch anywhere on the side to the screen to turn pages, rather than having to stay within thumbs reach of the small K3 page turn buttons. So I'd definitely be interest in a touch screen K4 personally--though I know a lot on here hate touch screens.

However, my ideal device is just for mirasol or other screens to come out an do a really good e-ink like mode and a great LCD mode and then I'd just get a Tablet with that screen and not have a separate e-reader anymore.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

It doesn't actually count as an improvement, but it would be funny if there was a screensaver that looked like a cracked e-ink screen.


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## w280sax (May 28, 2011)

I'm assuming the K3 didn't improve footnote handling as I have a K2.

Regardless, I would like a button on the Kindle that cycles through the footnotes on a given screen so I don't have to use the 5 way to get to the footnotes or some other improved way of getting to them.  As it is, it can be pretty tedious on books with many footnotes


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## AshMP (Dec 30, 2009)

I would like a sexier kindle.  Right now the Kindle, while tiny and compact and all of that isn't as "pretty" as it could be.  I'd love to see Amazon revamp it with a nicer casing and maybe color choices for the device itself outside of white and graphite.


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## RiddleMeThis (Sep 15, 2009)

Labrynth said:


> It technically goes back to organization, but I wish there was a way to organize series books in the proper order...


You probably know this already, but for those that don't, it is very easy to organize your books in Calibre so that they show up in order on your Kindle.


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## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

Larger view screen


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Casper Parks said:


> Larger view screen


Well, there's the Kindle DX:


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

I love the screen.


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## Labrynth (Dec 31, 2009)

RiddleMeThis said:


> You probably know this already, but for those that don't, it is very easy to organize your books in Calibre so that they show up in order on your Kindle.


Honestly? I'm not a big fan of Calibre. Having to edit crap and then shuffle everything back over, get rid of the old file... too much work. Why isn't Kindle doing this for me?


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## RiddleMeThis (Sep 15, 2009)

Labrynth said:


> Honestly? I'm not a big fan of Calibre. Having to edit crap and then shuffle everything back over, get rid of the old file... too much work. Why isn't Kindle doing this for me?


Why get rid of anything? Download it straight to Calibre and then send it back over. I prefer it. I don't WANT the Kindle to do it for me. I want to edit my series the way *I* want them editted. Not the way Amazon/Kindle think they should be.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

And then there's me?   I don't see a thing wrong with the Kindle's inherent sorting and see no need for Calibre at all.  In the very rare event I need something converted to Kindle format, it's easy enough to send it to Amazon for free.

It's sometimes irksome when an author will be listed variously as Joe Smith or Smith, Joe which does confuse the 'sort by author' listing but I think that's gotten better over time -- publishers seem to be coming to some level of consistency.  And, anyway, I don't usually sort that way; for whatever reason, I tend to remember titles so if I'm just browsing for a new read I do it that way . . . and I mostly use the 'most recent' so that the books I'm currently reading are 'up front'.

It's good that there are options for everyone, though!


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## Labrynth (Dec 31, 2009)

RiddleMeThis said:


> Why get rid of anything? Download it straight to Calibre and then send it back over. I prefer it. I don't WANT the Kindle to do it for me. I want to edit my series the way *I* want them editted. Not the way Amazon/Kindle think they should be.


You apparently missed the part where I'm not a big fan of Calibre. Not to mention if I want to start reading something quickly, I can't just dump it onto the Kindle doing it your way.

The fact that a program like Calibre is needed tells me that Kindle needs to improve some things.


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## Tuttle (Jun 10, 2010)

The only thing I can really come up with is improved footnotes. Optimal would be mouse over the footnote number/symbol thing, and the footnote comes up in the bottom in a definition like box.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> And then there's me?  I don't see a thing wrong with the Kindle's inherent sorting and see no need for Calibre at all. In the very rare event I need something converted to Kindle format, it's easy enough to send it to Amazon for free.
> 
> It's sometimes irksome when an author will be listed variously as Joe Smith or Smith, Joe which does confuse the 'sort by author' listing but I think that's gotten better over time -- publishers seem to be coming to some level of consistency. And, anyway, I don't usually sort that way; for whatever reason, I tend to remember titles so if I'm just browsing for a new read I do it that way . . . and I mostly use the 'most recent' so that the books I'm currently reading are 'up front'.
> 
> It's good that there are options for everyone, though!


The issue is mainly for long series.

People would like the to be in a collection and listed in order. Sometimes I download a whole series and then have to go online and see what book is next when I finish one as the books don't have (book 1, book 2 etc.) in the titles.

If one doesn't read series, then year being able to order books how you want isn't as big a deal as alphabetical by title or author is generally fine otherwise.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

mooshie78 said:


> The issue is mainly for long series.
> 
> People would like the to be in a collection and listed in order. Sometimes I download a whole series and then have to go online and see what book is next when I finish one as the books don't have (book 1, book 2 etc.) in the titles.
> 
> If one doesn't read series, then year being able to order books how you want isn't as big a deal as alphabetical by title or author is generally fine otherwise.


I read series. . . .it's just that I keep track of them separately. . . I like http://www.fictfact.com/index.aspx.

I've also gone to http://www.fictfact.com/index.aspx and generated a list for seriess in order which I then copy to a text file and load onto my Kindle. With the notepad app I can even edit the list to mark what I've read if I so choose. . . . .

It works for me. 

Please understand: I completely appreciate that for some people Calibre is a great tool. . . .I just want to make sure people don't think they _have_ to master it to get the most out of their Kindle.


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## RiddleMeThis (Sep 15, 2009)

mooshie78 said:


> People would like the to be in a collection and listed in order.


That. I want them listed in the order I want them listed in so that they are just "there" when I look for them. Don't want to have to add extra stuff to my Kindle.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Tuttle said:


> The only thing I can really come up with is improved footnotes. Optimal would be mouse over the footnote number/symbol thing, and the footnote comes up in the bottom in a definition like box.


Excellent idea! This would be delicious.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

I don't read series fiction, so I apologize if the answer is obvious for those that do.

How do you keep track of the order of the series when you have the hardcover or paperback editions?  Why can't you do the same thing with your Kindle?

I ask as the topic comes up a lot and I don't understand the challenge/problem.

(I, too, would used Calibre if I wanted to add the number of the series to the title for example - quick, easy, no deleting of files, easier to type on a keyboard than the little Kindle keys, etc.)


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## RiddleMeThis (Sep 15, 2009)

Elk said:


> How do you keep track of the order of the series when you have the hardcover or paperback editions? Why can't you do the same thing with your Kindle?
> 
> I ask as the topic comes up a lot and I don't understand the challenge/problem.


The same way I currently do on the Kindle. I store them in order. I can't do that on my Kindle without Calibre because the Kindle does not store them "correctly" for me.


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## KyahCA (Mar 7, 2011)

More international rights! I'm from Canada and a lot of books I really want to get isn't even available for me.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

RiddleMeThis said:


> I store them in order.


Meaning that you put them together on a bookshelf in chronological order I assume. Makes sense.



> I can't do that on my Kindle without Calibre because the Kindle does not store them "correctly" for me.


Hmm . . . I don't think Calibre will store them in order on your Kindle. You will need to edit the metadata and add a number or symbol or something else the Kindle can sort on or that you can use as a visual reference.


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## RiddleMeThis (Sep 15, 2009)

Elk said:


> Meaning that you put them together on a bookshelf in chronological order I assume. Makes sense.


 Yep



> Hmm . . . I don't think Calibre will store them in order on your Kindle. You will need to edit the metadata and add a number or symbol or something else the Kindle can sort on or that you can use as a visual reference.


Its the metadata the I edit in Calibre that causes them to show up in order. They would not show up in that order without it.


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## Susan Umpleby (Dec 20, 2008)

Yes, Calibre is handy that way. I like to put the series name and the order number. For example, _Cassie Palmer 01_ or _Southern Arcana 03_ or _Rabbi Small 04_


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Elk said:


> Meaning that you put them together on a bookshelf in chronological order I assume. Makes sense.


Yep. Plus print books usually have the book # somewhere on the cover as well, where most ebooks don't have it in the title.


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## Labrynth (Dec 31, 2009)

RiddleMeThis said:


> That. I want them listed in the order I want them listed in so that they are just "there" when I look for them. Don't want to have to add extra stuff to my Kindle.


Exactly. And I don't want to have to put 01 or whatever in the title to get it to list properly either. That's not the book title. I also hate it when they put A Novel or WITH BONUS MATERIAL or whatever in the title. That crap doesn't belong there. There just needs to be more sorting options for Kindle.


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## RiddleMeThis (Sep 15, 2009)

Labrynth said:


> Exactly. And I don't want to have to put 01 or whatever in the title to get it to list properly either.


I have nothing in the title of my Kindle other than the title. No 01, no extra letter, nothing.


> I also hate it when they put A Novel or WITH BONUS MATERIAL or whatever in the title. That crap doesn't belong there.


Then take it out.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

I have a brilliant suggestion (if I do say so myself). I wish the Kindle would display the cover of the current book I'm reading (in B&W/gray-scale of course) instead of those silly pictures it now displays.

Yes, I know I can jailbreak it and put my own silly pictures on it, or even book covers, but that's not the same thing.

It should by "dynamic" in the sense that it uses the gray-scale rendition of the book you currently have open. If you have no book open (What? Is that possible?) then it can just use the silly defaults or your own jail-broken ones.

That would just be SO COOL.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

It would be, Amy


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## Tuttle (Jun 10, 2010)

Labrynth said:


> Exactly. And I don't want to have to put 01 or whatever in the title to get it to list properly either. That's not the book title. I also hate it when they put A Novel or WITH BONUS MATERIAL or whatever in the title. That crap doesn't belong there. There just needs to be more sorting options for Kindle.


Those are not at all amazon's fault - those are the publishers uploading books to amazon with that as the title. Amazon can't fix that, they could only pressure the publishers to actually correctly use the title field.

As for another thing that I remembered wanting - people keep making a big deal about wanting folders rather than tags for collections. I'm strongly on the tagging side, and think that a much better improvement would be the ability to do boolean searches in the collections. i.e. I'd be able to look at books in "scifi AND unread NOT free" to find only unread science fiction books which I paid for.

If there were sub-collections, I'd prefer it to be tagging collection A with collections B and C, such that within collection B and collection C, collection A is an option as well as a book is, and then having the sort options of "nested collections" and "all collections" be available.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Some. . . . . .testy?. . . . .posts have been removed. . . . 

While it is true that there are 3rd party or homegrown ways to achieve some of the things being discussed here, please keep in mind that the discussion is about what improvements we might want to the Kindle. . . . . .what features are important to _you_. They may not be features that are important to others and that's o.k. Let's not argue about opinions, shall we?

Incidentally, in the Tips Tricks and Troubleshooting board there are several threads about how to get the most out of Calibre and other 3rd party programs that many find useful.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Fair point, Ann. Thanks.


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## Cindy Borgne (Mar 21, 2011)

I would like to see the speech feature improved, but that would probably be difficult.


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## StephenLivingston (May 10, 2011)

A light for reading in the dark and a solar power celled back casing would be great to have on your Kindle.


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## stampingpaperdoll (Oct 4, 2009)

Since I got my kindle-I never know exactly what I am reading or the author's name.  When you have a book, you always pick it up, see the name of the book and the author every time you handle it.  With the kindle, you don't have that.  It would be nice if instead of having a screensaver, each book came with a screensaver that had the picture of the book on it when you opened it.  I know I am dreaming, but wait, there's more.  When I get all comfy in bed and start reading, it would be nice to have some sort of remote to change the page, instead of having to push the button--I know it sounds lazy, but when you are all comfy with your head on your arm, it's too easy to fall asleep.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

stampingpaperdoll said:


> Since I got my kindle-I never know exactly what I am reading or the author's name. When you have a book, you always pick it up, see the name of the book and the author every time you handle it. With the kindle, you don't have that. It would be nice if instead of having a screensaver, each book came with a screensaver that had the picture of the book on it when you opened it. I know I am dreaming, but wait, there's more. When I get all comfy in bed and start reading, it would be nice to have some sort of remote to change the page, instead of having to push the button--I know it sounds lazy, but when you are all comfy with your head on your arm, it's too easy to fall asleep.


The screensaver thing isn't that much of a dream - I believe that's how the Kobo reader works - the screensaver is the cover of the book you currently have open. So it can be done, and I agree - I'd love to have that feature.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

stampingpaperdoll said:


> Since I got my kindle-I never know exactly what I am reading or the author's name. When you have a book, you always pick it up, see the name of the book and the author every time you handle it. With the kindle, you don't have that.


That was my suggestion, too.
That is, to use the cover of the current book you are reading as the screen saver. I really wish they'd do that.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Agreed .


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## FSkornia (Feb 22, 2009)

The idea I had the other day is to be able to schedule a sync time on my Kindle.  I pretty much always use it with the wireless turned off, and only turn it on when I need to access the store, book info, posting quotes to Facebook, etc. I turn it off almost immediately.  This means, though, that I have to consciously remember to turn on the wireless to sync my current reading progress and notes/highlights if I'm going to using different devices (Kindle for PC makes it really easy to skim through the book, and use notes and highlighting, but isn't as comfortable to read as the Kindle).  So, what would be nice is if I could, in the options, tell the Kindle to turn on the wireless at some designated time (say 3 am), check to see if there is anything to be synced, download new books, updates, and then when it's done turn off the wireless to preserve the battery.

I know I could do this somewhat manually by turning on the wireless before I head to bed, and can even save the battery by plugging it in, but it could very well be automatic.

On another topic, I completely commiserate with those of you that have trouble sorting series on your Kindles. Unfortunately, I don't know how well that will get fixed.  One of my biggest complaints about Amazon as a bookstore is that they are absolutely horrible at indicating whether a book is in a series, what number it is in the series, and what the other books in the series are. If I pull up George RR Martin's A Dance with Dragons, there should be a place where I can see it's the 5th book in the series, and a links to the sites for the other 4 books.  As it is now, I tend to go to Wikipedia when I'm investigating a new series just to find out what the first book is! So until Amazon can handle series on their main site, I don't expect much to happen on the Kindle.


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## kateharp (Feb 12, 2011)

I actually miss the ergonomics of the kindle 2. I could hold it up in bed, read and turn pages on it with one hand. The 3 -- I can't.

_--- edited... no self-promotion outside the Book Bazaar forum. please read our Forum Decorum thread._


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## sagambino (Jun 11, 2011)

I think mine is perfect only thing I really want now is color. I love graphic novels and would love to see them in color on my Kindle.


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## fuschiahedgehog (Feb 23, 2010)

The ability to turn pages remotely.  Bluetooth mouse/pointing device, tethered clicker, I don't much care.  It can be painful to hold even a Kindle for hours, with hands/wrists/arms basically in the same position.  Let me just prop it up somewhere good for my eyes, and put the page-turning function somewhere good for my hand.  That is all.


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## fuschiahedgehog (Feb 23, 2010)

Labrynth said:


> You apparently missed the part where I'm not a big fan of Calibre. Not to mention if I want to start reading something quickly, I can't just dump it onto the Kindle doing it your way.
> 
> The fact that a program like Calibre is needed tells me that Kindle needs to improve some things.


Amen to that!


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## jbender (Oct 11, 2010)

I would love to see collections be based on file folders rather then a text file with encrypted file names, it would make it so much easier to manage our collections


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## jbender (Oct 11, 2010)

valleycat1 said:


> I'd like for the default, when opening a book for the first time, to go to the book's cover instead of the beginning of the first chapter. I actually like to read prefaces & TOCs! I know I can use the 'go to' feature.


agreed, the first page should be the cover, the second page the back cover that tells about the book then the TOC


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## jbruner123 (Jan 5, 2011)

I would like:

- Either a backlight so I can read at night or a case with a good light that illuminates the entire screen and not just the upper right corner. I would prefer a nice backlight. I don't care about battery life because I can plug it in each night and I don't care about eye fatigue because I can always turn the light off if I want.

- I would like a remote to turn the pages. Many times in bed I'll have the kindle propped up and my arms are under the covers and it would be nice to flip pages without moving.

- Do away with the keyboard and make the whole thing a screen. I never browse Amazon with the kindle because it takes forever. I always browse and download books on my laptop to my kindle.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

When you look up a word in a book, I would like the definition to be larger, so it's easier to see. I would like to see the time & the battery at the top at the top of the screen while reading a book.


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## FSkornia (Feb 22, 2009)

Toby said:


> When you look up a word in a book, I would like the definition to be larger, so it's easier to see. I would like to see the time & the battery at the top at the top of the screen while reading a book.


Hit the enter key when you have a word's definition. It will load the dictionary page, which has a larger font and a more complete definition.


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## Jesslyn (Oct 29, 2008)

I would like the ability to reset the furthest read page, I frequently re-read my books.  I'd also like better library organization options online. I've been reading on Kindle since '08 and have over 500 books. It's a nightmare when I'm looking for something and don't remember the author or title. I can't imagine what a mess it will be 5 years down the road.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Fair point, Jesslyn


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

+1 for Jesslyn!  This is something Amazon will HAVE to address, eventually.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Agreed


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## valleycat1 (Mar 15, 2011)

violingal13 said:


> Am I the only one who misses being able to read a summary of the book without needing wifi? I download so many promotional freebies that I can't keep track of them; if they look remotely interesting, I grab them, figuring I can always delete them later. I would love to be able to read the equivalent of the back cover of the book without having to go into the kindle store.
> 
> And yes, backup/transfer-ability of collections!


Agree. I'd also like to see the author's bio & all the other summary info that's on the DTB covers (inside cover flaps and back), not just the front cover.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Yeah, that's a good idea.


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## Myrindyl (Jun 19, 2011)

The things I'd like to see improved on Kindle and that would justify an upgrade to me are as follows:


Use the book cover as the screensaver when switched off while in the middle of that book (previously suggested by Lorem Ipsum, Trulte, HappyGuy, Amy Corwin, & Meemo)



A solar powered case (previously suggested by QuantumIguana & Carl Ashmore). I know this wouldn't really be an improvement to the device itself and could even be potentially released for currently available models, but it's something I'd really like to see. I'm referring to an external cover/sleeve with solar capability though - QuantumIguana & Carl Ashmore may have been referring to panels built into the actual Kindle



Being able to lock a collection(s) (previously suggested by Cardinal)



Legally add our own screensavers (previously suggested by Labrynth, HappyGuy, & Meemo)



Color, but only with an eInk or mirasol display (previously suggested by Dara England, balaspa, Stu707 & sagambino), specifically for the reason stated by sagambino "I love graphic novels and would love to see them in color on my Kindle."



The ability to reset the furthest read page (originally suggested by Jesslyn), as I also frequently re-read my books


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Now that sounds like a great ereader


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## girliefries (Jun 27, 2011)

I found this forum while trying to research an issue I have with my kindle. 

I would LOVE to be able to type in a home page to get to a certain author instead of scrolling through 200 pages. My kindle freaks out and shuts down every time I try to 'search' for an author or title. So, after page 187, I can feel the carpal tunnel setting in....



And if anyone has any ideas....would love to hear them.


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## KathyY (Dec 31, 2009)

I would like better organization and a way to organize the books on my computer and have that transfer to the Kindle. It is really slow going to do it on the Kindle. My stuff is all in my account on Amazon and it would be nice to be able to put it in the order I want it on my Kindle to include any collections. I would really like to have a series in order.


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## Virhenley (Apr 9, 2011)

I would like to see colored book covers rather than the boring grey.  I'd also like the page number to appear on the page.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

girliefries said:


> I found this forum while trying to research an issue I have with my kindle.
> 
> I would LOVE to be able to type in a home page to get to a certain author instead of scrolling through 200 pages. My kindle freaks out and shuts down every time I try to 'search' for an author or title. So, after page 187, I can feel the carpal tunnel setting in....
> 
> ...


Unless I'm misunderstanding you, sort by author, type in the first letter of the author's name and hit the "select" button/toggle (depending on which Kindle you have) and it'll take you to all that letter. You might have to try the first name and last name, publishers aren't consistent with how they format the author's name.

If that's what you're doing when your Kindle "freaks out" then you need to call customer service - something's wrong.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Lorem Ipsum said:


> use the book cover as the screensaver when switched off while in the middle of that book.


I like this.

(I'm in the 'keep it a dedicated e-reader' camp)


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

MoonStarRaven said:


> As I have a couple of books I'm currently reading it occurred to me how nice it would be if there was a "Currently Reading" button that would flip through the books you have most recently read. It would be so much easier then going back to the menu and search trough to find the other book(s) you are reading.
> 
> For example I'm currently reading Shelters of Stone, Great Expectations and Dracula. Instead of going to menu, find my Favorites folder and flip through 5 or six pages I could just push the "Currently Reading" button to flip from the last page I was reading of Dracula straight to the last page I was reading of Shelters of Stones and so on. It would be very convenient for those of us who read several books at a time.


I like this too.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

valleycat1 said:


> Question about touchscreens (I don't have any device with one, as yet) - I've noticed that my friends' iphones or whatever, where they use the touchscreen all the time, end up with worn spots on the screen where they're always dragging their fingers. Does that affect the readability of what you're viewing? I read so much that one selling point for the K3 was that the text looks marginally crisper according to one comparative analysis I saw.


I'm pretty sure it's not the device's actual screen, it's probably smudges or wear in the screen protector they're using.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

mooshie78 said:


> Agreed. I like to see the cover etc. as well, and hate having to use the "go to cover" option every time.
> 
> I've even had a couple of books that started on chapter 1 and skipped a short prologue that was story related! Only one or two, as most do start on the prologue.


x3


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

FSkornia said:


> On another topic, I completely commiserate with those of you that have trouble sorting series on your Kindles. Unfortunately, I don't know how well that will get fixed. One of my biggest complaints about *Amazon as a bookstore is that they are absolutely horrible at indicating whether a book is in a series, what number it is in the series, and what the other books in the series are. * If I pull up George RR Martin's A Dance with Dragons, there should be a place where I can see it's the 5th book in the series, and a links to the sites for the other 4 books. As it is now, I tend to go to Wikipedia when I'm investigating a new series just to find out what the first book is! So until Amazon can handle series on their main site, I don't expect much to happen on the Kindle.


Agreed!!


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Jesslyn said:


> I would like the ability to reset the furthest read page, I frequently re-read my books.


Can you not do this now? If I want to re-read a book, or go back to a different chapter while reading....how would I do so? (Am I asking 2 different things?)


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

My list:

--backlighting enabling you to read in the dark
--move the Back and Home buttons. I hit them all the time with my thumb when holding K
--quicker page turning/screen changes
--removable storage/memory card capability
--solar powered battery backup


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

9MMare said:


> Can you not do this now? If I want to re-read a book, or go back to a different chapter while reading....how would I do so? (Am I asking 2 different things?)


You can manually go back to any point in the book of course. But that doesn't reset the "furthest point read" synch point, so you can't synch up the book with apps in other devices (or other kindles on your account etc.) as the "synch to furthest point read) option will go to the end. So it's not really an issue if you're only reading on one device, but is a hassle for those of us with multiple gadgets with Kindle apps.

I think you can call customer service to reset the furthest page read data, but it really should be a simple menu option.


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

There are little things that I think could improve the kindle. Most have already been listed.

There's only one thing that really annoys me about the current kindle design, though. I don't get why the page turn buttons are curved back at the edges. It makes them much harder to press.

I know that the whole face is convex like that. I think it should either be flat or even a bit concave to make it easy to catch the edge with your thumb.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

mooshie78 said:


> You can manually go back to any point in the book of course. But that doesn't reset the "furthest point read" synch point, so you can't synch up the book with apps in other devices (or other kindles on your account etc.) as the "synch to furthest point read) option will go to the end. So it's not really an issue if you're only reading on one device, but is a hassle for those of us with multiple gadgets with Kindle apps.


Ah, thanks!


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## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

Carl Ashmore said:


> I know we all love our Kindles. Infact, it's pretty much my fav gadget in the house. But how do we think they can be improved? If, at all ....


It's too sensitive to the touch. I find myself buying when I really want to sample and one wrong click it's all it takes, then if you don't press "mistake" right away, you have to call them to get a refund.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

That's an interesting one, Beatrice. I never noticed so much.


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## mom2karen (Aug 15, 2009)

Italiahaircolor said:


> I would like a sexier kindle. Right now the Kindle, while tiny and compact and all of that isn't as "pretty" as it could be. I'd love to see Amazon revamp it with a nicer casing and maybe color choices for the device itself outside of white and graphite.


Several places sell design decals to make your kindle look fantastic. I have one from Decalgirl.com and get tons of comments on it.

I need the ability to search on Manage Your Kindle page by genres, and the ability to sort by % read on my Kindle. I'd also LOVE a timer I could set so I don't lose track of time while reading.


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## valleycat1 (Mar 15, 2011)

I'd like to have the 'new' tag on downloads stay there until I do something with the book - open it to read, move it to a collection.  Right now, when I download new books, the 'new' tag disappears on the others I had most recently downloaded.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

valleycat1 said:


> I'd like to have the 'new' tag on downloads stay there until I do something with the book - open it to read, move it to a collection. Right now, when I download new books, the 'new' tag disappears on the others I had most recently downloaded.


The new tag stays for 24 hours or until you do something with the book. . . . I agree that it would be good if that was a little longer. . . .or if you could set it yourself, because some people might not care for it to be there for any time at all.


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

EPUB support!

Also, EPUB support.


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## ColinJ (Jun 13, 2011)

I'm sure it's been mentioned but I think the ability to create and manage collections from your PC is necessary for eithe thte next device ot firmware upgrade.

If you've put 20-25 files on your Kindle and you want to move them around between collections then it will be infinitely easier to cut and paste within the system folders.


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## WaltC (Dec 4, 2008)

Cardinal said:


> 7) Being able to lock a collection(s). And to have the option to have the Kindle only receive downloads, but not make purchases from it.


Yes, that would be great. I'd like being able to show my Kindle to friends, co-workers, etc. without having to worry about them stumbling into book titles or book contents that I'd simply rather keep private.


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## amacd (Nov 27, 2008)

My biggest wish is to be able to select the timeout amount.  How about selecting amongst 10 min, 30 min, 300 min and never go to sleep unless I use the button?  I don't understand the reasoning behind an automatic timeout in the first place.  Make it an option!!!


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

WaltC said:


> Yes, that would be great. I'd like being able to show my Kindle to friends, co-workers, etc. without having to worry about them stumbling into book titles or book contents that I'd simply rather keep private.


Agreed. A Kindle should emulate a book case. With paper books, if I have books that I would rather not display to people, I can stash them where ever I want. I'd rather not have all of my books available to anyone who picks up my Kindle. Just add a folder called "Private" with password protection. People wouldn't know it if was full or empty.


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## SandyLu562 (May 8, 2010)

Wow so many great ideas! I'm not sure any of mine are unique, but here goes 

1. Sleep screen displays my choice of my pictures EASILY without jailbreaking and un-jailbreaking for any updates.
2. Sleep screen while in a book displays front and back cover, not some generic ugly thing like lots of out of copyright freebies have.
3. Front and back cover (or a short synopsis) arranged as page 1 and 2 of e-book.
4. A better, faster, easier way to organize books and series and authors <pleading eyes>
or just add Collections to the Amazon Kindle account so they transfer to my Kindle already organized!
5. Better performance when Kindle is full of books i.e. searches that complete within 1 minute, faster page turns and faster paging through book title pages.
6. Move the page turn buttons up toward the top of the Kindle 2-1/2 or 3 inches so I can brace the heel of my hand on the side of the Kindle rather than the bottom corner which tweaks my wrist.
7. A better 5-way navigation button or an IR touch screen!
8. Library website pre-loaded in the browser.
9. Keep the pretty Pearl e-Ink screen, love love love it!
10. Keep 3G capability, LOVE being able to d/l from different sites; add ability to d/l directly from library Overdrive sites.
11. Keep improving web navigation.
12. The charcoal grey is wonderfully neutral and doesn't distract my eyes like the bright white.
13. Lightweight and protective cover with FULL PAGE illumination and solar recharging (LOVE that idea!) with a reliable and secure hinge system.
14. Keep improving the read out loud feature.
15. Keep the MP3 feature (useful for music and audio books)
16. Mobipocket is old and klunky and it sux, make Kindle e-pub compatible!
17. Add more dictionaries and be able to change the default, i.e. Gaelic to English, British English to American English, French to English etc.
18. Use the font of the published book instead of some generically ugly font. Add in some fonts to choose for a change of pace.
19. Add the ability to pick a specific size for fonts as in word processing programs. Some of the current jumps between font sizes are just too much.

Other issues need to be addressed too; A) most notably the issue of paying full price for a book that has no back cover, has formatting errors and is not mine to resell or pass along AS MANY TIMES as I want. B) More e-books available through libraries.

In the meantime, my Sony PRS650 is my favorite reader with it's IR touch screen and e-pub compatibility; page turns are painless while holding the reader in one hand and flipping the page. Lots of library books available.


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## mom2karen (Aug 15, 2009)

Unlike many, I do NOT want my book cover to show as the screen saver.  That's one of the best parts of reading on a kindle, no one knows if I'm reading trash.    However, I'd love to be able to put on other screen savers.


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## valleycat1 (Mar 15, 2011)

Include a spindle or self-winding reel with the usb/recharger cord. 

I finally bought a small zipper bag to keep mine in (I don't want to carry it around all the time in a pocket on my kindle cover), and usually only need at most 1 foot of the cord when I recharge, so I can just pull out how much of each end I need to connect & leave the rest in the bag.


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## Son of Aslan (Jan 24, 2011)

I love my Kindle. It is great the way it is.

That being said, here's my ideas.

First and foremost, bring back customizable screen savers without jailbreaking.

Second, I think an app (like the Kindle app for PC, Android, etc) where one can configure their Kindle, create groups, segregate books into groups, and then sync this up with the actual device.

Third, add more formats (like E-Pub).

Fourth, more fonts.

Fifth, RESIST the temptation to create a TOUCH version to compete with the new Nook. That is a completely unnecessary complication to what should be a simple device, and should be avoided as it will just generate complaints when some people consider the touch screen too sensitive, while others do not consider it sensitive enough. It is, in my opinion, a pointless perk.

Sixth, create a web app that can be run from Amazon.com, so we can read our books in places where we do not have our Kindle, but have a computer with internet access.

Seventh, integration with a social reading website, like Shelfari or LibraryThing.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Son of Aslan said:


> Fifth, RESIST the temptation to create a TOUCH version to compete with the new Nook. That is a completely unnecessary complication to what should be a simple device, and should be avoided as it will just generate complaints when some people consider the touch screen too sensitive, while others do not consider it sensitive enough. It is, in my opinion, a pointless perk.


Well, if it goes that way I'm sure it would be like the new Nook and have page turn buttons so you don't really have to use the touch screen a lot if you don't like them.

I'm a big fan of touch screens personally. It's the only way to get web browsers to work well without a mouse, good for dictionary look ups and highlight things when reading etc.

But that's just me, I'm more of tablet guy than dedicated reader guy anyway and won't own Kindle type device once we get tablets with Mirasol (or similar) screens.


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## fuschiahedgehog (Feb 23, 2010)

MoonStarRaven said:


> As I have a couple of books I'm currently reading it occurred to me how nice it would be if there was a "Currently Reading" button that would flip through the books you have most recently read. It would be so much easier then going back to the menu and search trough to find the other book(s) you are reading.
> 
> For example I'm currently reading Shelters of Stone, Great Expectations and Dracula. Instead of going to menu, find my Favorites folder and flip through 5 or six pages I could just push the "Currently Reading" button to flip from the last page I was reading of Dracula straight to the last page I was reading of Shelters of Stones and so on. It would be very convenient for those of us who read several books at a time.


I keep a collection called "++Current List" (the ++ just keeps the collection at the top of the list) and keep my current books in there. Not the perfect solution, but it works well enough for now. If I open up a book from within the Current List collection, all I have to do is hit the 'Back' button to go back to my Current List. As an added bonus, books that I recently opened but am not currently reading (reference books, etc) do not appear in my Current List, unless I want them there.


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## Tuttle (Jun 10, 2010)

For the touchscreen/not touchscreen version. I just hope that if they do the touchscreen, then they don't just throw buttons on as an option, but make sure its well designed for varying size hands. The new Nook looks entirely reasonable as an ereader, especially for someone with normal sized hands, but it wouldn't work nearly as well as the kindle 2 for me simply because of hand size. When I tried to hold it, it wasn't comfortable with either one or two hands with any easy way to turn the pages, just because my hands didn't fit what it was expecting. The buttons felt almost like an afterthought. 

What I'd actually expect to and want to see is a touchscreen and non-touchscreen version. Both have the buttons, one just has a touchscreen added. It'd mean people who want a touchscreen can have one, people who don't want a touchscreen, can avoid one, and people who don't care can minimize costs. 

I'd need to check out what type of touchscreen it'd use personally. I dislike capacitive (though most people tend to prefer it, you don't get any feedback from it and it is finicky), like resisitve (but those tend to be far less common and its harder to work the multitouch that people want with it), and haven't tried the other technologies.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Tuttle said:


> What I'd actually expect to and want to see is a touchscreen and non-touchscreen version. Both have the buttons, one just has a touchscreen added. It'd mean people who want a touchscreen can have one, people who don't want a touchscreen, can avoid one, and people who don't care can minimize costs.


I agree with that 100%. Though one area I may differ is I want the keyboard to go away. I hardly ever use it and would prefer it to go away so I can have an even smaller and more portable device. But I agree the page turn buttons need to be well thought out from an egonomics standpoint as I'd probably use them more for page turns and use the touch screen only for navigating menus and looking up words and using the web browser etc.



> I'd need to check out what type of touchscreen it'd use personally. I dislike capacitive (though most people tend to prefer it, you don't get any feedback from it and it is finicky), like resisitve (but those tend to be far less common and its harder to work the multitouch that people want with it), and haven't tried the other technologies.


Well how finicky one is is more a software/programming thing than due to the specific technology. I don't find the iPhones or iPads finnicky at all as they're super smooth and accurate. But some android phones and tablets I've played with are a bit more finicky and have some lag issues etc.

Resistive touch screens don't make a lot of sense on an e-reader IMO. They're great for using a stylus as they're much more accurate for writing. But they're not very good for pure finger touch use as they don't work well with swiping to scroll, pinch zooming etc.


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## PMartelly (May 1, 2011)

violingal13 said:


> Am I the only one who misses being able to read a summary of the book without needing wifi? I download so many promotional freebies that I can't keep track of them; if they look remotely interesting, I grab them, figuring I can always delete them later. I would love to be able to read the equivalent of the back cover of the book without having to go into the kindle store.


Agreed!
I didn't read the entire thread, and idk if this has been mentioned, but I'd love to be able to rate books I've already read. I have a K2. If this function is available and I don't know, then I will be highly upset with myself. haha :]


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## Tuttle (Jun 10, 2010)

mooshie78 said:


> Well how finicky one is is more a software/programming thing than due to the specific technology. I don't find the iPhones or iPads finnicky at all as they're super smooth and accurate. But some android phones and tablets I've played with are a bit more finicky and have some lag issues etc.


I have major issues using an iPod touch. To me, even the iStuff is majorly finicky. What is easily usable by one person won't necessarily be by another, because not everyone has the same fingers. On top of this, many people who've used resistive touchscreen have learned to use fingernails which doesn't work on capacitive screens.



> Resistive touch screens don't make a lot of sense on an e-reader IMO. They're great for using a stylus as they're much more accurate for writing. But they're not very good for pure finger touch use as they don't work well with swiping to scroll, pinch zooming etc.


See, in my opinion, resisitive touchscreens make drastically more sense on an ereader than capacitive ones. An ereader would not be an appropriate place to pinch to zoom, unlike a tablet, because of the slow refresh rate of eink. Scrolling is actually incredibly easy on a resistive touchscreen, you just rotate your finger to be using your thumbnail for the pressure, its a built in stylus on your thumb, and in my experience you actually get more accurate scrolling with that than a swipe to scroll on an iThing. With resistive you get some, though small amounts, of tactile feedback, which would make a huge difference in navigating menus. And if we're going to a touchscreen, I'd want to be able to actually use it for note taking. That's one thing that I've liked about the Sony readers for a while, even if I prefer the kindle's device as well as the store drastically.

Pure finger touch is actually /not/ poor on a resistive touchscreen unless you are assuming it acts like a capactive one (my laptop has a resistive touchscreen, as does my boyfriend's laptop and his smartphone)

There are a few problems with resistive touchscreens, but i think specifically for an ereader the biggest problem is that people are used to capacitive screens because they're what's popular. Resistive has more versatility (like being able to use gloves with it) but has different default actions and isn't something that the average person even in the western world has interacted with, while capacitive touchscreens are reaching that point.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Tuttle said:


> See, in my opinion, resisitive touchscreens make drastically more sense on an ereader than capacitive ones. An ereader would not be an appropriate place to pinch to zoom, unlike a tablet, because of the slow refresh rate of eink.


Oh, that makes perfect sense, so I understand that totally. I really don't have a ton of interest in a touch screen e-ink device.

E-ink is pretty crummy tech beyond not being back lit and the great battery life!  It's just too slow to do much of anything but read forward one page at a time in books of nothing but text.

I'm really waiting for Mirasol or some other company finally getting their dual mode screens right so I can get a tablet with an LCD mode on par with the iPad and have a non-back lit reflective mode for reading that still has the instant page turns and fast refresh for pinch zooming etc.  Then I can read my PDF documents with no backlight and still zoom in and out and pan around with no lag like I can on my iPad. Best of both worlds for my needs! 



> Pure finger touch is actually /not/ poor on a resistive touchscreen unless you are assuming it acts like a capactive one (my laptop has a resistive touchscreen, as does my boyfriend's laptop and his smartphone)


Well, you nailed it earlier, as it's just personal preference. I've had an LG Voyager cellphone that has a resistive touch screen for a couple of years and I loathe that thing.  So I just much more prefer capacitive touch screens for finger touch myself as I find them way more responsive. But understand that others are different and prefer resistive. Everyone has their own needs and preferences.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

FWIW, the nook simple touch has infrared touch technology.  I had the opportunity to play with it and it's quite responsive.


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## Tuttle (Jun 10, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> FWIW, the nook simple touch has infrared touch technology. I had the opportunity to play with it and it's quite responsive.


Yeah, the IR based touchscreens are interesting sounding to me but I've not played with them yet. The only place I've seen a nook touch was at a staples, where it wasn't actually testable other than physically. They sound like they have most of the advantages of the resistive touchscreens without the major disadvantage of it bothering people to have to put pressure on the screen.

Anyways, to go back on topic, the main thing I actually want to see is an increase in durability. I've had no issues with my kindle, and don't actually find there to be a problem. But I value over-durable electronics highly.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Just want to reiterate my desire for a simpler way to establish & manage collections, especially when you have a lot of books. I finally got a K3 - my K2 is working fine but I saw a deal on craigslist I couldn't refuse. Love the K3 but man, I've spent a lot of time the last 24 hours on getting my collections back together. It was great that my existing collections could be imported, but I had some Amazon books that hadn't yet been associated with collections, and I have some non-Amazon books that had to get back in to their respective collections. It's enough of a chore that I was starting to wish I'd just waited for the K4. Sure would be easier to be able to move things around using the computer instead of the Kindle itself. It's one of the things Sony got right with their readers & software.

Starting up with a new Kindle reminded me of another thing that would be nice. It would be lovely for those of us who have multiple folks on our account to have a way to categorize/tag the books our archives by the reader - my daughter reads a lot of books that the rest of us aren't interested in. It'd be great to be able to tag those types of books as hers (or whoever's) so that we could go through the archives without having to wade through everything in archives.


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## Ann Chambers (Apr 24, 2011)

Subfolders in collections would be such a great help in organizing! I've only had my Kindle for a few months and already some collections are becoming unweildy. I don't want to add more collections because I like having them fit into 2 screens for easy access. It's frustrating that we can't add sub-collections. (I'm sure other people have posted this wish item but I thought I'd chime in, in case Amazon is listening.  )


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Son of Aslan said:


> Fifth, RESIST the temptation to create a TOUCH version to compete with the new Nook. That is a completely unnecessary complication to what should be a simple device, and should be avoided as it will just generate complaints when some people consider the touch screen too sensitive, while others do not consider it sensitive enough. It is, in my opinion, a pointless perk.


LOL

I'm perfectly happy with my K not having a touch screen, but....because I have other touch screen devices, I keep trying to do the same to my K!


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## Tara Maya (Nov 4, 2010)

beckyj20 said:


> The only thing I really want is to be able to put the books in the order you want. I read a lot of series and I would like to be able to order them. It could probably be faster, but that really doesnt bother me to much.


This would be great. Better bookshelving all around.


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## Tori Scott (Jul 7, 2011)

9MMare said:


> LOL
> 
> I'm perfectly happy with my K not having a touch screen, but....because I have other touch screen devices, I keep trying to do the same to my K!


It took me about a week to stop trying to use mine as a touch screen. Now if I could just stop closing the back cover to try and turn the page. LOL.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Me 2, Tori


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## cnckmk (Jul 9, 2011)

1. Better browser support
2. Faster page changing speed
3. Should have higher contrast rate and font resolution
4. More fonts should be available 
5. They should develop an online protocol where book readers and see others online chat about the book they are reading currently.
6. IMAP or Pop3 Email software could be good


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

um... #5? you can already send highlights of the book you are reading to your twitter & Facebook accounts.

Browser is still experimental..


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## cnckmk (Jul 9, 2011)

BTackitt said:


> um... #5? you can already send highlights of the book you are reading to your twitter & Facebook accounts.
> 
> Browser is still experimental..


yes but thats not a messenger type protocol


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I'd like to see improvements to the actual reading experience. Such as control over hyphenation, margins, paragraph indent and spacing, etc. And bring back the number keys.

All the social networking, email, and browser functions can go away.  

Mike


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

Centrally located page-turn button like the new google reader for easier one-handed reading. Fo sho.

But the side buttons should remain.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

There's already a long thread on this that's still on the first page here.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,66137.0.html


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

cnckmk said:


> 1. Better browser support
> 2. Faster page changing speed
> 3. Should have higher contrast rate and font resolution
> 4. More fonts should be available
> ...


It sounds like you'd be better off with a tablet. Kindle is an ereader - you can't expect everything from it that you'd find on a tablet.


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## Me and My Kindle (Oct 20, 2010)

I was wondering if Amazon should give the Kindle the ability to send e-mails. (Wouldn't it be nice to e-mail something that you've just highlighted to one of your friends?)

But I understand why Amazon doesn't want to do that. It's the same argument I made (in the other thread) about why Amazon doesn't want to improve the web browser. If the web browser too attractive, then everybody will want to _use_ it. And then Amazon will have to pay a lot more money for the cost of all the bandwidth they're using!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Merged with the existing thread referenced above. . . .so if you clicked that link it brought you here.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

jmiked said:


> I'd like to see improvements to the actual reading experience. Such as control over hyphenation, margins, paragraph indent and spacing, etc. And bring back the number keys.
> 
> All the social networking, email, and browser functions can go away.
> 
> Mike


And justification - let me choose whether I want it justified or not. I prefer raggedy edges to crazy spacing between words.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Alan Ryker said:


> Centrally located page-turn button like the new google reader for easier one-handed reading. Fo sho.
> 
> But the side buttons should remain.


Hmm, I just got a K3 and noticed today how often I'm reading it one-handed because it's so easy compared to my K2. Another YMMV thing.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

I wish they'd get the editing done correctly!!!!


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

HappyGuy said:


> I wish they'd get the editing done correctly!!!!


Me too - but that's a publisher thing, not an Amazon thing.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Tori Scott said:


> It took me about a week to stop trying to use mine as a touch screen. Now if I could just stop closing the back cover to try and turn the page. LOL.


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## TimHodkinson (Jun 3, 2011)

Since I was bought one for my birthday about a month ago, from being a complete skeptic I've become a real fan of the kindle. I'm amazed at how good a device it is. Some of the things I think could be improved are more nit-picking but here goes:
As someone has already said, number keys would be good, or maybe a "num lock" key. I guess its only a pain when I was entering the long key for my home wireless network though so its not a deal breaker. 
A touch sensitive pad to emulate a mouse would make the web browser easier to use.
Some way to stop me accidentally clicking the "next page" button would be good. Again a "Page lock" button or something.
A built in, pop-up light for reading in the dark, as standard, (or maybe an alternate "backlit" option) would be great. 
A way to someone tell others a book is great (like a built in facebook "like" widget) while you are reading it.
Apart from that its pretty great.


Lions of the Grail: An ex-Templar knight plunges into violent intrigue in medieval Ireland as three nations go to war against each other.


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## tinytoy (Jun 15, 2011)

A way to sort/display books where lending is enabled.  This wouldn't even have to be on the device itself; I'd be happy having this option on Amazon alone. 

Re the web; I've never used it and have no desire to so wouldn't care if it went away.  I already have 8 million devices that access the web.  I just want the Kindle for reading.


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## LunaraSeries (Jun 19, 2011)

There should be a full color kindle version.  iPad level graphics.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

The takeaway I see from this thread is that everyone has their own wants and desires for the type of gadget they want to do their e-reading on.

So Amazon is making a very smart move if the rumors are true and they're coming out with another model that's just an update of the existing Kindle line, a  new touch screen Kindle and an LCD Tablet!  Those 3 devices together should hit most of the things people in this thread have wanted and let people get something that fits their needs.

Hopefully they also update the Kindle software and allow some of the things many here want like better collections (sub-folders etc.) and ability to order collections manually to put series in order (without having to use another program like Calibre to edit metadata) and so on.


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## SoCal (Feb 7, 2011)

I know this is on other threads and I know it is not exactly improving the Kindle.

My only problem with the Kindle is the price of books.
Kindle prices should not be more than hard or soft cover unless its a close out.

And Amazon should require it.

Thanks


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

SoCal said:


> I know this is on other threads and I know it is not exactly improving the Kindle.
> 
> My only problem with the Kindle is the price of books.
> Kindle prices should not be more than hard or soft cover unless its a close out.
> ...


Amazon can't require it. The agreements that allow them to sell paper books are different than those that allow them to distribute e-books. When the 'agency model' did take effect, they briefly played hardball with one publisher who removed ALL their books from Amazon's site. If Amazon had stuck to their guns, and done it with all the big six publishers, they may as well just have locked the doors and gone home.

Because, like it or not, those _are_ the books that _ most_ people want to buy -- the generally interest in indies displayed here notwithstanding. If they want to have ebooks available, they have no choice but to sell them at the price the publisher sets.

But for paper books they can discount them as much as they want.

At some point, I expect this will change. . .but that's the way it is for now.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

And no one can argue with Ann


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

Amazon could require publishers to let Amazon set the price - and then the publishers would simply not sell through Amazon. Amazon simply isn't powerful enough to do that. And I don't think I want Amazon to be powerful enough. If Amazon became powerful enough to dictate to the publishers, we would simply substitute one problem for another.

The real power is with us. We can boycott books that cost more than the paper books. Buy indie books or public domain books. That's real power that the publishers will understand.

One improvement I think would be good would be to improve the menu. You can make the font larger when reading books, but it is the same size as ever on the menu. Allowing people to choose the font size on the menu would help people with poor vision find their books. Granted, you would have less titles appear per page. But my parents are in their late 70's, and I would like to get a Kindle for them, but that main menu might be too hard for them.


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## Jdswifey (Dec 22, 2010)

Trulte said:


> I would like that whenever I added a new book I was asked if I wanted the book cover added as a screen saver! That way every Kindle owner get their own, "tailormade" screen savers - kind of neat, I think! AND, - when (not "if") Amazon fixes this you just get the sw update next time you turn on your wi-fi
> 
> @loremipsum
> Just now saw that you had kind of the same idea! Great minds think alike


This would be awesome I get tired of people asking me when I'm eating my
Lunch and it goes to sleep oh are you reading a Agatha Christie?


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## Jdswifey (Dec 22, 2010)

Tuttle said:


> What I'd actually expect to and want to see is a touchscreen and non-touchscreen version. Both have the buttons, one just has a touchscreen added. It'd mean people who want a touchscreen can have one, people who don't want a touchscreen, can avoid one, and people who don't care can minimize costs.


I have the kindle app my IPhone and read itnon RARE occocasions when I leave my kindle at home. I'd much rather read on my kindle because the iPhone hurts my eyes it I look at it for too long.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

_Quote from: Tuttle on July 09, 2011, 04:37:37 PM

What I'd actually expect to and want to see is a touchscreen and non-touchscreen version. Both have the buttons, one just has a touchscreen added. It'd mean people who want a touchscreen can have one, people who don't want a touchscreen, can avoid one, and people who don't care can minimize costs._


Jdswifey said:


> I have the kindle app my IPhone and read itnon RARE occocasions when I leave my kindle at home. I'd much rather read on my kindle because the iPhone hurts my eyes it I look at it for too long.


That's because the iPhone screen is a backlit LCD screen, not because it's a touch screen. The touchscreen on an eInk Kindle would be the same screen as a current Kindle, just with the added touch capability - quite possibly the same infrared touch screen as the eInk Sony, Kobo and Nook readers.


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## Jdswifey (Dec 22, 2010)

Ahh thanks meemo, IMO no touch screen I think it with the keyboard


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

I'm all for a touchscreen with a narrow pulldown menu or options at the top...a narrow strip similar to the search bar that appears on the bottom. That's what my Android phone has and I really like it...notifications, options, etc...tiny, but touch them and pull them down and just go from there.

Altho I tried the HTC Flyer tablet (Android) yesterday with the e-Reader app..._COOOOOLLLL!_ you just touch & sweep the page and it wraps and turns just like a real page.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Anyone curious about the eInk touchscreens should check out the current generation Sony or Kobo or Nook readers at your local store.  The Nook appears to be in demo mode everywhere but B&N stores, so I suggest checking them out at B&N.  If you saw the last generation Sony touch reader, this new technology is much better - the previous one required more of a "push" than a touch - this new infrared touch system is much better.  I played with a Sony 950 recently in the Sony outlet store - it was untethered so you could really judge the weight, which was really light considering it's a 7" screen (but about the same size as a K2 - in fact it would fit in my K2 Oberon cover).  I loved it - but it's pricey.  Hoping I can find a deal on one somewhere.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Meemo said:


> which was really light considering it's a 7" screen (but about the same size as a K2 - in fact it would fit in my K2 Oberon cover).


Yeah, that's one thing I'd like about a touch screen Kindle. I don't use the keyboard much at all, so getting rid of it would let them either make a 7" device about the same size as the K2 or just make the Kindle even smaller and more portable if they keep the 6" screen.


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## Neil Clarke (Mar 14, 2011)

I'd like to see Amazon add EPUB support to the Kindle and allow Kindle magazine subscriptions to work on the iPad and PC apps. A Mirasol display might be nice, but it seems like that isn't quite ready yet.


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## Neekeebee (Jan 10, 2009)

I, too, would love to add selected book covers to a collection of screensavers and to move that page turn button up a little, more like the right one on the K1.  It was much easier to hold/turn pages with one hand.

Also, the K1 had a nice feature where alt + page forward would allow you to skip forward 5 or 10% in the book.  I really miss that feature.  And you could un-justify in the K1.

My other suggestions are with the Kindle Store.  I hate that the menu option from the sample defaults to "buy the book", when I'm trying to look at the cover or TOC.  And I'd like to see prices on the list of books when I do a search in the Kindle Store from my Kindle.  

N


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## Guest (Jul 22, 2011)

There was a e-book "game" for the Nintendo DS a few years back called "100 Classic Books." It had a really cool interface that I think the Kindle could adopt. It was a scrolling bookshelf, where you saw the spines of the books in the library and "pulled" it off the shelf with a click.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Z.D. Robinson said:


> There was a e-book "game" for the Nintendo DS a few years back called "100 Classic Books." It had a really cool interface that I think the Kindle could adopt. It was a scrolling bookshelf, where you saw the spines of the books in the library and "pulled" it off the shelf with a click.


Nice!


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## Daring to Dream (Jul 11, 2011)

I just bought a kindle a few days ago, but I've already noticed that the options for organizing are a little...intermediate?  I want to be able to put collections inside of collections.  Oh and another thing, I accidentally highlighted a couple words in a book and it added them to "my clippings" so I had to delete the entire file just to get rid of the one thing.  I know I could have connected the kindle to my computer and deleted just the single thing but that's an inconvenience for me.  Nothing about my e-reader should be inconveniencing.

Anyways, i'm hoping that they will add some options for organization in an update.  Seeing as I just bought my kindle, i'll be really upset if they announce the next one soon and advertise it as improved organization options.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Yep... still waiting for ePub support


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## badbit (Jul 22, 2011)

Renaming books from the interface, not needing to access the Kindle from USB to do it.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

Make the toggle pad larger on the kindle with buttons, since I think there will be both touch screen & 1 with buttons for the next generation.


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## Snorkledorf (Oct 18, 2009)

My big list! 


First off, the current size and weight are perfect. Within that case size having smaller borders around a larger screen would of course be fine. 
Touch screen for selection & keyboard (boy that's nice on the display Sonys) but we still need physical buttons for page-turn etc for bulky gloved hands in winter.
Browse by book covers in a shelf view
Better screen contrast/refresh is just a matter of allowing Moore's law to gnaw on the technology for a few years so I don't really need to request that&#8230;
K2-like inward-hinging page buttons. The K3's are nice, just not as good as the K2's.
Allow us to sort out all our collections on the destkop, e.g. inside the Kindle app for Mac or PC. But to be useful it really has to include organizing non-Kindle content too.
Set a password to enable/disable purchasing. I was showing the store to a friend, and without meaning to he immediately purchased some random book that I then had to cancel
A Forward button for when I mistakenly hit the Back button (alt-Back?)
"Set as furthest-read position" menu item
Custom screensavers
More rows on the Home pages (15 would easily fit)
A button to make all Topaz format books burn in hell
Improved PDF display for scanned documents so they're not so blurry. Also allowing you to e.g. crop away the white space around the edges would be amazingly handy
Having footnotes pop up like dictionary definitions do would be cool. Sometimes that'd have to be a big popup though&#8230;
And of course Epub compatibility


Oh, and for free. Tomorrow, please.


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## Cardinal (Feb 24, 2010)

That is a nice list Snorkledorf, but I would like the Kindle 4 to weigh less than the current models.


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2011)

MrPLD said:


> Yep... still waiting for ePub support


I'm sure you've heard of Calibre before, right? Lack of ePub was my one hang-up on getting a Kindle until I learned that a single click convert is all I need to do. Since then, I haven't lost sleep over it.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Z.D. Robinson said:


> I'm sure you've heard of Calibre before, right? Lack of ePub was my one hang-up on getting a Kindle until I learned that a single click convert is all I need to do. Since then, I haven't lost sleep over it.


But Calibre won't work to convert a copy protected ePub file, will it? I admit to a bit of ignorance here as I don't use Calibre. And I also don't care much about ePub support. 

In fact, I don't really understand why so many feel lack of ePub is a real drawback. I haven't found anything I wanted to read that wasn't available in Kindle format, or something compatible, or DRM free and easily converted -- well, except HP but that's not been available legitimately in any format! 

I do get that many like to borrow from libraries and currently the Kindle doesn't support that. But that's because of the DRM, not the format; it's a separate issue. AND Amazon has said they're working with Overdrive to get a system in place, so that's coming.


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## Irving (Jul 25, 2011)

I think that a messaging service from Kindle to Kindle would be cool. Just simple messages back and forth. Cool as well would be if you could import a direct link to a certain item in the Kindle Book Store.


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## Guest (Jul 25, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> But Calibre won't work to convert a copy protected ePub file, will it? I admit to a bit of ignorance here as I don't use Calibre.


It will convert if you strip the DRM. 

Or do what I do: boycott books that use copy protection. I understand the need to protect our work, but DRM hamstrings legitimate buyers in order to prevent piracy.


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## hakimast (Jul 23, 2011)

The casing should be made of higher quality material.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Interesting Hakimast. I've never had a problem with that.


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## Alan Ryker (Feb 18, 2011)

Nobody throw anything at me, but I played with my sisters new Nook last weekend and I really liked the rubberized body.

Does a sleeve give the same feel?


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

hakimast said:


> The casing should be made of higher quality material.


I'd agree based on my Sony - I do like the casing on the Sony better than the Nook or the Kindle, and I like the color options that Sony offers. I also like the hinge system Sony uses for their covers. It's a minor difference for me though between my graphite K3 and the Sony - the graphite kind of disappears for me.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Agreed, I've always liked the Sony readers best design wise.

I'd much prefer a Kindle that had a nice, light metal body instead of the plastic.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

I'm with those of you in the slightly sturdier (even rubberized) body camp.

I've had my K about 6 weeks now and am increasingly considering it fragile....and even tho I consider lightweight to be a top 2 issue...I still think a bit sturdier is better (and will have to be when they go touchscreen).


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Fair point, 9mm


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## J_T (May 16, 2011)

- I want to be able to categorize my books on my computer in usb mode. When you have 200+ books it gets tiresome having to scroll and scroll and add each book into the folders.
- mp3 player needs work. when you listen to the last song in your library it won't skip back to the beginning
- faster
- more memory
- color


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## Jacqueline (Aug 10, 2011)

Maybe some sort of effective ilght built into the bezel or case for night time just to save me finding my eluminator. 

Please don't make it bigger or add more functions and gimmicks that try to turn it into something its never going to be great at. Its an excellent little ereader; I can use my I pad for the rest.


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## Lambert (Nov 12, 2010)

The option to convert a book to a printable format. That's one reason I usually buy "How To" books on Smashwords since they usually offer PDF versions as well.

If it's fiction I usually grab it on Amazon.

Lambert


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## unitbit (Jul 22, 2011)

Some sort of way to disable either the left set or the right set of the page buttons.


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## SamIam (Mar 3, 2011)

I wish it was just a little bit "grippier" feeling


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## unitbit (Jul 22, 2011)

SamIam said:


> I wish it was just a little bit "grippier" feeling


I actually just asked my wife this question and she said the exact same thing.


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## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

Where should I start?
-A back light, PLEASE

-Some variation in the voices that read text to speech

-Improved ability to arrange by categories; such as the most commonly used category appearing first

-Color might be nice, but a Kindle in color would not make me replace my current one. I'd be more inclined to get another for family 

-Optimizations and enhancements on all devices, not just the larger ones


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## Lalilulelo (Aug 5, 2011)

A larger screen like Sony950's 7-inch, at the expense of the physical keyboard;
HD display like that of the iRiver HD Story which is distinctly more crisp than that of the Kindle
Built-in light so as to avoid the bulky and allegedly damaging lighted cover
Android OS - I may want to do some customising or run reader applications like the excellent Aldiko or others, that include lots of neat fonts and features like shelf view, night mode, auto-scrolling...

Priced at no more than $100 of course.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Ah, under a hundred books. Not sure that's going to happen for a while.


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## FSkornia (Feb 22, 2009)

Lambert said:


> The option to convert a book to a printable format. That's one reason I usually buy "How To" books on Smashwords since they usually offer PDF versions as well.
> 
> If it's fiction I usually grab it on Amazon.
> 
> Lambert


This is never going to be allowed by the publishers.


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## I love books (Aug 12, 2011)

Lalilulelo said:


> Priced at no more than $100 of course.


  I totally agree. It would be awesome for it to be priced under $100. I would love to give away Kindles for gifts this Christmas!


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## StephenLivingston (May 10, 2011)

A light and an improved reading voice would be good improvements for the Kindle.


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## Badandy (Dec 4, 2008)

Small clock when you're reading.

NO KEYBOARD.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Badandy said:


> Small clock when you're reading.
> 
> NO KEYBOARD.


There is a clock - press "Menu" and you'll see the time at the top of the page.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

Nested collections, so I can have a science fiction collection, and then collections under that for each author. Private collections - I might want to let someone use my Kindle, but that doesn't mean that I want them to see all the books that I have.


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## mindreader (Oct 8, 2009)

Badandy said:


> Small clock when you're reading.
> 
> NO KEYBOARD.


Interesting. Today, I decided to check out the nook simple touch firsthand (for some reason, I've been tempted to see if it's worth replacing my K3 for). In the end, I thought it was difficult to hold compared to the K3. Though I'm sure I'd get used to the nook - it certainly is a cool little device - I decided to stick with my Kindle, for now anyway, precisely because the keyboard makes it easier to grip. 

Totally agree about the clock, though.


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## mindreader (Oct 8, 2009)

Meemo said:


> There is a clock - press "Menu" and you'll see the time at the top of the page.


True. But having a little clock in the corner of every page in reading mode would be a nice touch. One button isn't a lot, but being able to check without switching modes (mentally, anyway) would be cool.


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## fuschiahedgehog (Feb 23, 2010)

FSkornia said:


> This is never going to be allowed by the publishers.


I buy many tech e-books directly from Oreilly.com. No DRM, and you can download the PDF, Kindle and epub formats (no device limit or anything). Seems to work for them.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

fuschiahedgehog said:


> I buy many tech e-books directly from Oreilly.com. No DRM, and you can download the PDF, Kindle and epub formats (no device limit or anything). Seems to work for them.


Yeah, but they are one publisher of books on more or less specialized topics. The major fiction publishers are not likely to allow ebooks to be printable because they're paranoid about pirating and they'd see that as making it even easier.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

mindreader said:


> True. But having a little clock in the corner of every page in reading mode would be a nice touch. One button isn't a lot, but being able to check without switching modes (mentally, anyway) would be cool.


My Nook has the "constant" clock - I find I prefer not having that constant reminder of the time. One of those "YMMV" things, I reckon. 
(And I mentioned it because a surprising number of folks don't realize they can push "Menu" and see the time.)


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

I would kind of like a constant on clock.  I find myself reading a bit too late in bed and maybe a clock on the Kindle would help.  The only clock in the bed room is the Alarm clock and I keep it across the room on the dresser and can't see it from bed.

Seems like that's one of those things they could put in and allow users to turn it on or off in the options.


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## Lambert (Nov 12, 2010)

The option to use your own images for the screensaver
The ability to print a book if desired


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## hakimast (Jul 23, 2011)

I think it would be cool if you could the plastic on with designs and such. How cool would a Kindle with hot rod flames be?


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

SamIam said:


> I wish it was just a little bit "grippier" feeling


x3


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## JeanneB (Aug 31, 2009)

Mooshie....there is a digital clock on the Kindle....when you click Menu, the time appears at the top of the page of what you are reading.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

Louder volume on the headphone jack. I have my Kindle plugged into my car stereo, and I have to crank the volume all the way up on the Kindle and on the car stereo to make it practical.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

JeanneB said:


> Mooshie....there is a digital clock on the Kindle....when you click Menu, the time appears at the top of the page of what you are reading.


I know.

I meant I'd also kind of like a constant one so I had a constant reminder of how late it was getting! It's easy to just keep reading and never hit menu to check!


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## CKVolnek (Jul 18, 2011)

How do you turn the sound up on a kindle? I agree, I'd like to use the sound feature more often as well.

Also, would be cool if there was a way to download music to listen to in the background.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

There is a volume control on the Kindle, right next to the headphone jack. But it doesn't turn up very loud, much less volume then you normally expect from audio.

I would like to be able to turn off the screensaver. If I'm listening to an audiobook or using text to speech, and want to pause, it is a real bother to have to hit the switch to get past the screen saver just do I can click the space bar to pause it.


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## Lambert (Nov 12, 2010)

FSkornia said:


> This is never going to be allowed by the publishers.


Too bad.

How come they let Smashwords offer a PDF version, because they are a smaller company?

Lambert


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Lambert said:


> Too bad.
> 
> How come they let Smashwords offer a PDF version, because they are a smaller company?
> 
> Lambert


Any given publisher can offer a PDF version, which may be printed and therefor copied freely. But you're not likely to find one of the big traditional publishers offering such a thing.


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## FSkornia (Feb 22, 2009)

Lambert said:


> Too bad.
> 
> How come they let Smashwords offer a PDF version, because they are a smaller company?
> 
> Lambert


Smashwords is generally independent publishers and self-published authors who can make the decision to offer whatever format they may like. As someone mentioned earlier, the 6 big publishers are not going to allow this to happen with fiction publishing (nor will it happen in the multi-billion dollar textbook business), as they're afraid of pirated books.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Is a Kids Kindle viable? Slightly sturdier, colourful casing etc ?


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Thougts anyone on a  Kids Kindle?


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

I don't see much market for that--at least if you're talking the regular e-ink screen in a more rugged/kid friendly case

Young kid's books are full of pictures/illustrations and tend to have pages larger than the 6" screen.  Older kids reading books of just text would be old enough to be fine with a regular Kindle I'd think.

For the younger Kids, a more rugged (and lower cost) Tablet would be ideal IMO.  There are a lot of kids books on the iPad (Dr. Seuss etc.) and they're pretty great with interactive activities, options for them to read themselves or be read to by the app etc.  Problem is an iPad and most other tablets are too expensive and fragile for a kid to use unsupervised.

So maybe Amazon, or a company like Leapfrong, could make a cheap, rugged, Kid friendly tablet for those types of kids e-books as well as the educational games from leapfrog and others etc.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Fair point, Mooshie. I can imagine Leapfrog may go for that.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Carl Ashmore said:


> Fair point, Mooshie. I can imagine Leapfrog may go for that.


They just launched a tablet device the other day actually!

http://www.leapfrog.com/leappad/


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Yeah, I sat that. Has anyone seen it working yet?


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## njoy (Apr 7, 2011)

I'm probably repeating but I haven't got the time to read through every post just now. I find the Kindle incredibly awkward to handle. My hands are too small to page forward and back and hold the reader comfortably. My hands are too big to use the tiny keyboard with ease. Of course, color would be great. Not having color illustrations is a real drag. I have bought several print editions (in addition to the Kindle edition) just because of charts, etc. 

I also find real books a lot easier to page back and forth, making notes and bookmarking. I often feel kind of lost when trying to study a Kindle edition. I love my Kindle but it is dark and dreary and there's more than one in my house so a couple of times I've picked up one that isn't mine and walked away with it! Not good so different case colors would be nice. I have stuck labels on mine but they fell off over time.

I find the controls to do anything slow and annoying, as well. Looking forward to many improvements in the future but  still love my Kindle.

Right now, I'm unable to get my own documents either online (through free.kindle.com) or by usb transfer. No idea why.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

njoy. . . . Kindle books are 'real' books. . . .but it's o.k. if you prefer paper. 

It's easy to tell Kindles apart -- just have them in different covers or have different 'skins' on them. . . . .at least one member here has 5 (or more) Kindles in her household and all are personalized so it's easy to tell which is whose at a glance.

Even though you say you love it, it really sounds like maybe the Kindle isn't right for you. . .that's o.k. . . .everyone is different.  If you're interested in selling, there's a ready market for used Kindles.  Or if it's been less than 30 days that you've had it, Amazon will give you a full refund -- less the return postage costs.


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## Gripweed (Jan 28, 2011)

I haven't read the whole thread here since it is so long but of what I did read Tuttle seems to be the closest to what I long for.



Tuttle said:


> The only thing I can really come up with is improved footnotes. Optimal would be mouse over the footnote number/symbol thing, and the footnote comes up in the bottom in a definition like box.


Ideally I would like to see a button that would automatically take you to the next footnote on the page. And like Tuttle proposed, it would show you the actual footnote like a definition. If there are multiple footnotes on the page then a press of the button would take you to the next one and eventually back to the first. The "mouse over" part is what I'd like to avoid.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

njoy said:


> I'm probably repeating but I haven't got the time to read through every post just now. I find the Kindle incredibly awkward to handle. My hands are too small to page forward and back and hold the reader comfortably. My hands are too big to use the tiny keyboard with ease. Of course, color would be great. Not having color illustrations is a real drag. I have bought several print editions (in addition to the Kindle edition) just because of charts, etc.
> 
> I also find real books a lot easier to page back and forth, making notes and bookmarking. I often feel kind of lost when trying to study a Kindle edition. I love my Kindle but it is dark and dreary and there's more than one in my house so a couple of times I've picked up one that isn't mine and walked away with it! Not good so different case colors would be nice. I have stuck labels on mine but they fell off over time.
> 
> ...


While you may be the first I've read that doesnt find using (holding) the Kindle ergonomically pleasing, I understand about the keyboard. But that doesnt matter much to me since I very rarely use it.

As for dreary, like Ann said..pick a skin! There are so many gorgeous ones. I thought it was kind of a frivolous idea at first, but I love mine and I got a rather subtle one. It actually makes me feel good! (Yet I dont notice it at all while reading).


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## cleee (May 15, 2009)

The only two things I would change are the volume, which is horrible on the K3, much lower than my K2 and there should be a brightness/contrast control somewhere.


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## Guest (Sep 25, 2011)

Put my gift card balance in the upper right hand corner... or somewhere with a single click.


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

Private folders. There are books that I might not want other people to see that I am reading. If they were on paper, I wouldn't put them on my main bookshelf in my living room. On the Kindle, I would like to be able to have them in a private folder so that I could get someone else use my Kindle without giving them access to all the books.

Disabling the ability to purchase books. I want the ability to limit the power to purchase to my own Kindle. I don't want my children's Kindle to have this capacity. I'm not trying to control what they read (except for the above noted books that I want in a private folder), I just don't want to give the power to use my credit card to anyone. It is too easy for kids to purchase books without realizing what they are doing. And I don't want to have to keep sifting through my e-mail for unintended purchases.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Has the touch/fire etc made the argument moot? I wonder.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Carl Ashmore said:


> Has the touch/fire etc made the argument moot? I wonder.


There will always be people who want something different so a new product that has exactly their preferred feature set will be 'improved' in their mind. 

And someone has already started a "what do you want on the K5?" thread.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Carl Ashmore said:


> Has the touch/fire etc made the argument moot? I wonder.


I wonder this as well.

I am not as brave as you to have asked however.


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## Liz1388 (Feb 6, 2011)

I totally agree with QuantumIguana!  I too want Private folders on my Kindle or Amazon account.  

  In fact, I'd like to be able to sort in more ways, plus be able to list and mark or hide from download within my Amazon Kindle account from my computer.  The Kindle browser is just too slow and cludgy to use for that.

This is my first time here on the boards.  I have no doubt that another issue has been addressed many times.  Given the prices of Kindle books now, I do not see why we cannot gift a Kindle with all the titles on it, even if disabled from the original account.  I can gift a box of my books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to anyone I please!  Just because the text is presented in a different format shouldn't take the traditional rights of ownership away.  I'm surprised this hasn't been challenged legally.


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## shalym (Sep 1, 2010)

Liz1388 said:


> This is my first time here on the boards. I have no doubt that another issue has been addressed many times. Given the prices of Kindle books now, I do not see why we cannot gift a Kindle with all the titles on it, even if disabled from the original account. *I can gift a box of my books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to anyone I please! Just because the text is presented in a different format shouldn't take the traditional rights of ownership away. I'm surprised this hasn't been challenged legally.*


I think that if you were gifting an unregistered, loaded kindle to someone and closing your Amazon account so that you no longer had access to the books, it would be similar to the "traditional rights of ownership". You can also give someone a Kindle that is tied to your account and let them share your account, and that doesn't go against the terms of service. The problem comes if you load a kindle with purchased books, un-register it from your account, and then continue to use your Amazon account. This is NOTHING like "traditional rights of ownership".

Shari


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## teralpar (May 18, 2010)

DiscoDan said:


> - mp3 player needs work. when you listen to the last song in your library it won't skip back to the beginning
> - faster
> - more memory
> - color


I think the Kindle Fire takes care of this.


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## Liz1388 (Feb 6, 2011)

Shaylm wrote:


> The problem comes if you load a kindle with purchased books, un-register it from your account, and then continue to use your Amazon account. This is NOTHING like "traditional rights of ownership".


OK, I see your point. The difference is about multiple, simultaneous ownership/use of a single title instead of single, serial ownership/use. Digital format allows for the first, but paper does not, unless one spends money to create illegal photocopies.

So Amazon limits my ability to gift a title I purchased, as is usual with paper format, simply because they haven't come up with a way to let me transfer the purchased book from one account to another? Obviously this is not in their economic interest. But it SEEMS consistent with traditional rights of ownership.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Liz, we have discussed this many times.  Your summary is the best so far.  Nice job.

As I understand it, the number of simultaneous readers, whether a book is lendable, etc. is determined by the publishers.


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## Liz1388 (Feb 6, 2011)

[quoteLiz, we have discussed this many times. Your summary is the best so far. Nice job.[/quote]

Thank you, Elk! I was figuring out the situation as I wrote my posts. Shari did get me thinking. javascript:void(0);

[I know this is off topic. Sorry! If someone can point out the more relevant thread, I will switch my post to that.]

I have come to understand that the publishers are controlling most of these issues so I shouldn't have put Amazon in there as the entity to blame. There seem to be three sides to this consumer issue, Publishers, Amazon and the consumer, with most clout going to the pubs. So far, only the first two have chairs at the table to develop policy. But I guess that's typical in our Capitalist system. The only way the consumer is going to have any clout is by not buying. Which is what I am going to do more of - not buying Kindle books, that is.

The books are costing too much considering the digital copies are too often flawed to the point of hindering enjoyment. They cost too much considering the ownership and resale rights I give up. The fiction costs too much considering how many books turn out to not be worth what they are charging. The lack of sample pages for most books, and reviews skewed too high make it very difficult to find a book I end up considering worth the cost.

So my library card and Amazon marketplace are going to start getting more of a workout. No instant gratification and overflowing bookshelves, but I can deal with that.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Not necessarily moot. My major objection to my K3 is the poor capability for organizing collections and content, very flat, little heirarchy, primitive for an electronic device these days.

People have already said it's no different in the $79 version. I'm waiting to hear about the K Touch.


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## Elk (Oct 4, 2010)

Liz1388 said:


> The books are costing too much considering the digital copies are too often flawed to the point of hindering enjoyment.


This is too often true. I understand it when it is an older book which is physically scanned and converted. However, new e-books that certainly exist in digital form before hard printing often contain errors which the hard copies do not share.



> They cost too much considering the ownership and resale rights I give up.


Others feel this way. Physical books are difficult for a consumer to replicate. However, the ease of digital copying raises obvious issues. There is no easy resolution.

Some side-step the issue by only buying non-copy protected books. This does not work for me as books are not fungible; I want to read _this_ book, not some other book.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

As a contrast to the position that you give up rights with an ebook and therefor it should be cheaper is the concept that your books are much more accessible and the transporting of them is more convenient.  

If I'm visiting my nieces 50 miles away and we're talking about a book I have at home, I can't point them to the passage I'm talking about if it's paper.  'Cause I don't have it with me and it's on a shelf 50 miles away.  But if it's one I have in my Kindle. . . or is Public domain and easily retrieved. . . I CAN point out the passage.

Similarly, if I'm traveling and someone recommends a book, it used to be that I'd have to find a bookstore and hope they stocked it.  Or else order it for delivery sometime a couple of days from now.  With ebooks, if I can find it on line, I can have it NOW.  That's clear value added for me. 

I also remember at least one time moving that we had to pay extra because we were overweight. (DH is Navy, moved a lot.  ) If the books causing the problem were ebooks, that would have saved us a few bucks.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> As a contrast to the position that you give up rights with an ebook and therefor it should be cheaper is the concept that your books are much more accessible and the transporting of them is more convenient.
> 
> If I'm visiting my nieces 50 miles away and we're talking about a book I have at home, I can't point them to the passage I'm talking about if it's paper. 'Cause I don't have it with me and it's on a shelf 50 miles away. But if it's one I have in my Kindle. . . or is Public domain and easily retrieved. . . I CAN point out the passage.
> 
> ...


Exactly. The loss of some advantages of paper books is offset by the new advantages of eBooks. And for me, at least, there's also the aspect of what one's "preferred format" is. For me, that's eBooks. Period. I'm at the age where my eyes ain't gettin' any better, y'know? So my preferred format is absolutely one where I can change my font size, which means there's added value there for me. It isn't true for everyone, and anyone who's just as happy reading paper books should go for that lowest price. But for me, a paper book has almost no value these days, aside from kids' books for reading to my grandkids. So I almost never even compare print prices to paper - life is frustrating enough without imposing it on myself!


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## chocochibi (Jan 2, 2009)

For me, I'm not buying the medium, I'm buying the enjoyment of reading the story, or the information if it's non-fiction. As I have very little room for any more physical books, I prefer them in digital form now, so I too rarely compare prices between print and digital.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Is that right, Ann? Ha. That's funny.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Any other thoughts?


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## Hoosiermama (Dec 28, 2009)

Interesting how many of the "wants" have come to be. I have the Touch and a Fire. The Touch has a more rubberized back, so it's easier to grip (to me anyway!). The Fire incorporated color and backlighting, which others wanted. The mp3 player is fantastic in it. I really haven't come across anything I dislike with the Fire.

Like others, one thing I'd like is the ability to make folders private, but for the most part, if there's something that I don't want someone to see, I just send it back to the cloud and re-download when I want.



> They just launched a tablet device the other day actually!
> 
> http://www.leapfrog.com/leappad/


The leappad is awesome for little ones. My 3 year old grandson LOVES my Kindle Fire. I have an assortment of games on it that he really gets a kick out of. So I got him a leappad for Christmas, and he loves that, too. It doesn't have the same games, but it's got games and stories that he loves. It's a great entry tablet for little ones.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

Liz1388 said:


> Shaylm wrote:
> OK, I see your point. The difference is about multiple, simultaneous ownership/use of a single title instead of single, serial ownership/use. Digital format allows for the first, but paper does not, unless one spends money to create illegal photocopies.
> 
> So Amazon limits my ability to gift a title I purchased, as is usual with paper format, simply because they haven't come up with a way to let me transfer the purchased book from one account to another? Obviously this is not in their economic interest. But it SEEMS consistent with traditional rights of ownership.


We often forget that with electronic media you don't actually purchase the rights to a book, you only purchase a license to use. Technically, Amazon would be well within their rights to limit the availability making it, "one purchase, one device".


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## tj107us (Sep 3, 2011)

I wished to KK had a slot in the side for a removeable Micro SD card for storing books,music, and documents.


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## Sean Patrick Fox (Dec 3, 2011)

Faster. Processor.


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## CoffeeCat (Sep 13, 2010)

The only improvement I would really love to see is sub-folders/categories and the ability to list books in any order you like as others have mentioned.

Of course other things will improve in time, but that's the only thing I'd change about my kindle(s) at the moment.


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## stevene9 (Nov 9, 2008)

Having been with the Kindle since close to the beginning, this thread strikes me as to how far the K has really come. While many, if not most, of the ideas are just fine, they are not earth shattering problems with the reader itself. This shows me just how good the Kindle really is when it comes right down to the basic, most important function of just reading books.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

Very true, Steven.


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## kaljo (Feb 2, 2012)

Indicate on website which books do not provide ready access to footnotes or which Kindle version is unable to do same. Reappraisals: [etc] by British author Tony Judt does not allow the reader to read the footnotes _in situ._ Now I have to go out and buy a hard copy so I can read it the way the author intended. My purchase will not be from Amazon: they have my $10 already.


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## CrystalStarr (Jan 17, 2011)

kaljo said:


> Indicate on website which books do not provide ready access to footnotes or which Kindle version is unable to do same. Reappraisals: [etc] by British author Tony Judt does not allow the reader to read the footnotes _in situ._ Now I have to go out and buy a hard copy so I can read it the way the author intended. My purchase will not be from Amazon: they have my $10 already.


Wouldn't this be an issue with the publisher and how they present the book when they load it up to Amazon?


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## WChief (Jan 26, 2012)

I'm not a fan of the on/off button's position. I easily bump it often since it is on the bottom. Normally I turn the whole darn thing over so it is at the top and that helps.


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## Carl Ashmore (Oct 12, 2010)

True, W. I'm always doing that.


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