I’m glad I jumped back into the Kindle market. My wifi-only Kindle is getting almost as much use as my iPad. I recently wrote a post about lessons learned the first year with that device. I figured I ought to do something similar covering lessons learned after a year away from the Kindle:
There’s nothing wrong with doing only one thing exceptionally well — I love my iPad, mostly because it’s a jack of all trades. But there’s definitely something to be said for a device like the Kindle that pretty much just does one thing but does it extremely well. (It’s still hard admitting this since I jumped ship and did all my long-form reading on my iPad for the past 12 months!)
No free memory indicator – I’m sure this device has plenty of storage space but I miss the ability to see just how much memory is free. Unless I’m missing something, there’s no way to tell that on the device itself.
No SD slot — Speaking of memory, would it really have killed anyone to include an SD slot on this model? It feels very Apple-esque without an option to add memory, particularly since the older Kindles used to support this.
Text-to-speech is a terrific feature – I didn’t have this with my first-gen Kindle and I’m already finding it very useful on my new device. I’m still amazed there are publishers (and authors) out there who refuse to enable this in their Kindle editions. Do they really think Kindle edition owners are also running out to buy the audio versions of the same book? Highly unlikely.
Apps still feel awkward — I haven’t come across a single app that seems compelling enough to buy/install. I’ve got dozens on my iPhone and iPad but can’t find any that look appealing for the Kindle. Are there any worth trying out?
The dictionary is even more awkward — Here’s where not having a touch-screen is a huge drawback. The Kindle app for iPad spoiled me by letting me simply touch the word I want to look up. The Kindle device makes it more of a challenge where you have to press the up button for every line, then the right button for every word till you get to the word you’re looking for. Ugh.
Experimental seems to have stalled out – One year and two generations later and yet the “Experimental” screen looks the same as it ever has. I really wish Amazon would use the R&D potential of this area and start adding some cool options.
reposted with permission from Joe Wikert’s Kindleville Blog
image by Witer
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Maybe you ought to try the Kindle app on a 7in tablet. Something like a POCKETBOOK IQ or (better) hacked NookColor.
I know, I know; Jobs the all-knowing, the ever-wise lord of kewl and protector of the universe has proclaimed 7in webpads useless and unworthy. Nonetheless we’re talking reading and reading on a 7in tablet has a lot going for it.
Press menu and you should see in the upper left hand corner the amount of free memory.
I still prefer long term reading on the Kindle but I love the convenience of Android tablets. With the Kindle app it’s a piece of cake to switch between my Kindle and an Android appliance for all my reading.
Free space: On the Kindle DXG you just press the menu button, when you are on the home-screen. The amount of free space will be shown in the upper left corner.
Lack of SD slot: that’s something what is bothering me too, but in conjunction with google docs, dropbox etc. for example, you can easily extend your memory up to terra bytes, due to the capability of free internet access.
Dictionary: with the larger display of the DX this is even worse, but, if the word is in the lower right corner of the display e.g. just press the cursor up key and the cursor left key, so the way you have to move can be shortened a lot since the cursor will jump from top to bottom and so on. Needs some time to get used to it, but after a while you will do this automatically without spending any thoughts about it.
I still prefer the awkwardness over a screen full of finger prints and scratches, even though it’s still not as comfortable as a simple touch.
Apps do in fact suck on Kindle, but you really have to buy one to fully appreciate this. Yet they are consistently some of the best sellers. Go figure. Some people will do anything to avoid reading.
Subscriptions. You can mark any issue as ‘Keep’. These will stick around (only on your Kindle) even if you unsubscribe.
Good apps are Notepad by 7 Dragons for $.99 and a number of the games:
Every Word (free)
Shuffled Row (free)
EA Solitaire ($3.99)
Slingo($3.99)
Panda Poet ($2.99)
others…
All of the games were half-price recently, they may go on sale again.
I’m not a dictionary user so that doesn’t affect me and I prefer to read on my Kindle, I look at an LCD screen all day long and it’s the last thing I want to do in my leisure time.
Just ordered an iPad so looking forward to some ePUB action on it soon. Haven’t got a Kindle, have a Sony Reader due to Amazon sandbox.
Great article, will tweet to our followers.
Best regards
Adam
The Kindle is intended to be used with Amazon supplied content. From this perspective, it has limitless memory because you only need to keep on the device the content you are currently planning to use. That might mean 50 or 100 books; and your current blogs, magazines etc, if any. Everything else sits on the Archive page, ready to be brought back from the cloud if needed. If used this way, it also solves all the tagging issues since there are only a few pages at most of current content to choose from.
A few of the things you mentioned; from “doing one thing exceptionally well”, to memory slot(s), to the touch screen-what-makes-the-dictionary-less-wonky [paraphrasing] are why I went Sony instead of the Kindle. Well, that and so that I could doubledown on being “wrong” by having neither an iPad nor Kindle.