How would you change Amazon's Kindle 2?
By Darren Murph 
posted Mar 27th 2009 11:53PM
posted Mar 27th 2009 11:53PM
posted Mar 27th 2009 11:53PM
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put a web browser and a app store
How about drop the price 10 times?
No keyboard, touch screen instead. Color would be nice. But, black and white it's fine. Price is a bit too high for me. Also, allow public domain books from other internet sites to be read on it.
The price is too high but you want them to ADD a touchscreen keyboard?!
2 of 3 in the sony prs-505... cheaper and open.
i have a kindle 1.0. you can, and I do, read public domain books on it; I get mine from the guttenburg project. i also get non-drm books from a sci fi publisher
I wish I would have did some e-reader research before I bought the Kindle 2, just really to save money and get some features, from what everyone says about these Sony readers. Anywho, I do love my Kindle. I would like maybe a little touch area around the bottom or top edges so I could flip pages like a book. And native PDF support would be nice, Stanza really likes to muck up the works with the formatting.
For anyone wondering, the battery life on the Kindle 2 is fucking phenomenal, especially if you keep the wireless off.
Actually you can find a pocket PC in a laptop style with KB and windows mobile for $100, so what stands in the way of creating a $50 e-book reader that doesn't have half of its power and components?
Corporate greed, okay, what else?
and they could release a pink version for the chicks,(my wife told me to write this)
Probably if you look, you'll find a selection of skins available for the Kindle which would include a few shades of pink.
I bought a really cool hot pink leather case from M-edge to go with my pink computer and pink Zune :)
Simple ideas make the most impact. I'm sure color screen and being cheaper is something all ebook makers want. But they can only make it so cheap relative to the technology. While "pink" may sound silly, having different colors may not- seems to work for the iPod.
Other simple changes that are feasible:
-> having a "Previous page" on the right hand side for right-handed people ("Home" button should be kept, but a prev page button should also be there)
-> All magazines/newspaper purchases should be automatically achieved (I don't want to press "keep this issue" every freakin' day)
-> built-in backlight (the Sony eBook has it Kindle should as well)
-> SD slot and PDF support (Sony has it)
-> Nice big-icons like the Sony ebook
color screen option maybe?
Maybe be able to enable and disable it on demand if you want to see a picture or something in color?
how about a bigger screen and more color's and less apple focused....and memory card slot!! add some chrome 2 shine things up!!
2nd memory card slot idea
More frikkin' lasers.
totally
This. I'll also need sirens on mine, please.
I say this, plus a free cup of pudding for anyone who buys one. Really, who wouldn't want pudding?
I'm not sure the level of support it already has, but this would seal the deal for me if I was 1) still in college and 2) was popular enough with the textbooks so I wouldn't have to lug around 100+lbs of text books thereby guaranteeing me future chiropractic appointments in later life.
you'd be amazed the number of textbooks available in PDF format.
and the Sony eReader works with PDF natively.
it will also read the open format ePub books too.
. . . Sony eReader will also do txt, .doc, rtfs, BBeB ebooks, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MP3, AAC. But most importantly it has an SD card slot to transfer them (Amazon requires you send any file to them for conversion, and you have to pay to convert your file).
... and built-in back light, which the Kindle sorely lacks. I like to read in bed, and using a stupid clip-on book light to read the Kindle2 is annoying and a strain on the eyes. Even with the light on in the bedroom I would rather have the page evenly illuminated like the Sony eReader.
I own both. I still use the Sony eReader for PDFs, which I use extensively for work, and the Kindle's PDF handling is non-existent to broken. However, the Kindle's charm in the wireless store that allows me to buy a book, newspaper or magazine anywhere I am. If I'm on waiting for someone at a restaurant I could go buy a the WallStreetJournal anywhere, anytime while I'm waiting. There is a HUGE benefit in that.
Temple: you do not have to pay Amazon for conversion. You only have to pay if you want them to send the converted document directly to your Kindle. You can just have them email it back to you for free. You can also use third party conversion software for free, if you prefer.
D.
@drzeller
Simple fact of the matter is the you have to pay for it, I can load up hundreds of PDFs on my SD card an load it on my Sony eBook reader, and I can't do that with my Kindle. I love my Kindle2, but I have to admit that Sony builds the better hardware. If Sony had an wireless eBook store like Amazon's I don't see why I would use the Kindle.
no one said cheaper yet?
cheaper.
ditto
Yes, lower the price.
Cheaper.
Hotkey combination to flip forward and backward chapter by chapter.
When you are reading a book, just click to 5-way thing right or left to move backward or forward one chapter.
My biggest problem with the kindle 2 is that it is not sturdy and it breaks when being used for what it is meant to be used for. If it breaks while in your backpack and was not knocked at all Amazon will not replace it and tell you to give them 200 more dollars to get another one. They have drop tests on their website with no support for physical damage. Amazon needs to work on their customer service skills in regard to the Kindle
sounds like a bitter customer who doesn't want to admit it may be his fault it broke.
I've had a kindle 1.0 for 8months. i've taken it to brazil for a 10 day vacation, took it hiking in Utah for another 10 days, and haven't broken it yet. i think it's the way you handle it. admittely, you can't treat it like a book. you have to be more careful wiht it; more like a netbook pc
Seriously, how many buttons does a reader really need?
Get rid of all that.
What you're referring to is actually called a Sony PRS-505.
Native PDF support and a touch screen. 16 shades of grey is good enough... I'm not asking for much (ok, maybe the touch screen is a tad much...) just give me real PDF support and I'll be happy (throw a bigger screen and my back will thank you forever)
Um... my last reply was supposed to be at jimmywash and said even said so. The internet has karma'd my snarkiness.
Good luck connecting wirelessly with your sony to amazon and downloading bought books to it, while on the go too.
Why not just a version with Wireless LAN rather than EVDO...then it could be sold worldwide...how about Amazon think about the 90% of us that live outside the US....
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/24/kindle-2-dissected-found-to-contain-space-for-a-sim-card/
they are thinking about the 90%
take off the Apple like restrictions;
add removable battery
add interchangeable flash memory
add more file support
so other than the removable battery (uhhh they last for literally a week you know, right?) you've just described the Sony eReaders.....
Display is good enough, add native PDF display and open it to public domain books found on the internet would be nice. Widespread support by textbook makers would make it an automatic by for me, replacing 117 pounds of textbooks (backpack placed on scale with all textbooks for semester in it) with a kindle is definitely worth the expense.
You already can put the free public domain books on your kindle--I have about 400 of them on mine right now. Amazon has quite a few on their store, there are a couple of sites that have nicely formatted versions of public domain books in various reader formats (I like manybooks.net and feedbooks.net), and it's really not that hard to take books directly off of gutenberg and convert them.
I'd get rid of that hardware keyboard and all that wasted space at the bottom and give it a touchscreen.
Most touch screen technologies reduce the effective contrast of the display. Plus there is the issue of finger prints.
Put short stories and novellas on the marketplace.
They could come out with a Kindle Elite version or something:
- Bigger screen, perhaps 32-bit color
- Touchscreen
- Removable battery
- Interchangeable memory
- Available in more colors and also other designs like the Dell Studio laptops
- Wireless LAN
- Built-in MP3 player so you can listen to music if you want to while taking a break from reading
- Reduce the cost (I would still go to Goodwill or some place to buy a good-as-new hardcover book for $2.95). How many books can you read on a 2 to 18 hour trip?
otherwise known as a tablet PC....
Give me the ability to read it in bed, in the dark, without some goofy clip on book light. I hate them for books and I wouldn't ever use a Kindle with one either.
Eye strain? Don't use it if it gives YOU eye strain. I've been reading backlit devices for years and I'm only a -1 on my script. I'm not worried.