I have a Kindle Keyboard and a Nexus 7 with the Kindle app. Lately I've been reading more on the Nexus 7, but when I use the touchscreen to turn pages it has a very high error rate. I usually turn the page by tapping the screen on one side or the other, but as often as not, my tap has a bit of a slide to it, and if that slide goes the wrong way I get the wrong page. It's really very annoying.
(I don't know if the touchscreen Kindles have the same tap/slide interaction; I'm just reporting my experience with the Kindle hardware and software I have.)
It would be much less annoying if I had the option to disable sliding entirely and just respond to taps without regard to any sliding motion. Then I could tap one side of the screen or the other reliably.
But seriously, one side of the screen or the other? Haven't they heard that people hold the Nexus 7 with one hand while reading - and not always the same hand? If I'm holding it with my left hand, it's not easy to get my thumb all the way to the right side to do a tap page flip.
If this worked like the late great FictionWise eReader software, I'd have the option of ignoring all sliding motion and tapping the bottom of the screen for the next page or the top of the screen for the previous page. Then it would work identically with whichever hand I'm holding the device.
Now consider the Kindle Keyboard: Each side has a big next-page and a smaller previous-page button. It's trivial to hold the device with either hand and rest my thumb on the next-page button. I can click that button when I want, without moving my hand at all! No worries about tapping the wrong side of the screen, accidentally sliding the wrong way, or anything. It just works.
I bought a Nexus 7, thinking that it would replace my Kindle (with the benefit of also being a tablet). I found that, even thought the Nexus 7 is higher resolution, it's harder on my eyes for some reason. So I sold the Nexus 7 and went back to the Kindle...
Thanks for the detailed explanation! And also, thanks for the mention of Fictionwise! I was actually the dev manager for Fictionwise's entire eReader apps line (iPhone, Android, Mac, PC, Blackberry). I later moved to the Nook team after the acquisition and I'm currently on the Kindle team at Amazon. Your feedback is really valuable and hasn't fallen on deaf ears.
Whoa - so you worked on eReader? That is too cool. If you're in Cupertino these days let me buy you lunch or a beer. eReader was the killer app for me back in the Windows CE/Windows Mobile days.
While I've got you, then, I'll mention the other two major features I really miss from eReader:
1) The ability to turn off right justification and select ragged right margin instead. This is what made eReader so usable on my tiny old Windows Mobile screens, and it still matters when reading on any phone-sized screen. The extra gaps and rivers of whitespace resulting from flush justification really interfere with readability.
2) The ability to turn off all animation. eReader would just show me the next page without no fuss. Of course the e-ink Kindles work like this, but all the Kindle apps seem to do some kind of animation.
Here's another big wishlist item. I would really like the ability to sync not to the farthest page read, but to the most recent page read. I often jump around in a book, look at footnotes at the end, etc. before starting to read through it from the beginning. This makes the "farthest page read" sync useless in many cases.
OK, this is obviously not the right forum for Kindle suggestions - if you can point me to a better place to send them in I'll be happy to do it. :-) Thanks!
Thanks Stratoscope, for summarizing most of the feedback i would've wanted to give about the hardware buttons, since i use them exactly like you do.
The Kindle App on Android could need more customization features, i find it very important to be able to change the text color to a grey or brown on a black background.
On the Samsungs AMOLED Displays that don't emit any light when the color is black this makes for a great reading experience in the dark since its perfectly readable while dark enough without keeping you artificially long awake.
The only app i found that offers all the features i need is a chinese one, which sometimes shines through...
Ha! You may think your email is in your profile, but that one is hidden. It has to go in the About section for anyone to see it.
Having said that, I'm embarrassed to admit that I also had my email only in the email field in my profile, so if you went to look you wouldn't see it. That's fixed now! So drop me a note, or I'll look for your updated profile later. :-)
"But seriously, one side of the screen or the other? Haven't they heard that people hold the Nexus 7 with one hand while reading - and not always the same hand? If I'm holding it with my left hand, it's not easy to get my thumb all the way to the right side to do a tap page flip."
Yeah, this is one big problem. One-handed reading is key for public transit, where one hand may be occupied keeping yourself upright.
I also find that when I use the Kindle app on the iPad, or iBooks for that matter, I often end up with undesired taps changing the page, or even taking me to a page far from where I want to be. With physical buttons it's easier to avoid this. With touch screens and narrow bezels, it's very easy to encroach upon the screen and unintentionally 'tap', when you're just trying to hold onto the device.
(I don't know if the touchscreen Kindles have the same tap/slide interaction; I'm just reporting my experience with the Kindle hardware and software I have.)
It would be much less annoying if I had the option to disable sliding entirely and just respond to taps without regard to any sliding motion. Then I could tap one side of the screen or the other reliably.
But seriously, one side of the screen or the other? Haven't they heard that people hold the Nexus 7 with one hand while reading - and not always the same hand? If I'm holding it with my left hand, it's not easy to get my thumb all the way to the right side to do a tap page flip.
If this worked like the late great FictionWise eReader software, I'd have the option of ignoring all sliding motion and tapping the bottom of the screen for the next page or the top of the screen for the previous page. Then it would work identically with whichever hand I'm holding the device.
Now consider the Kindle Keyboard: Each side has a big next-page and a smaller previous-page button. It's trivial to hold the device with either hand and rest my thumb on the next-page button. I can click that button when I want, without moving my hand at all! No worries about tapping the wrong side of the screen, accidentally sliding the wrong way, or anything. It just works.