Kindle Screen Specifics. The screen is absolutely wonderful but, “please sir, may I have some more.” I would like a larger screen, one that is almost twice as large so that it could display close to a full page of text from a standard 6x9 hard cover book in a comparably sized font. I'd like to see two editions of the Kindle; small and large screen, we can call them the paperback and hard cover Kindle editions for reasons of nostalgia.

The Kindle's screen is 600x800 pixels and measures 3.5 x 4.75 inches. With the default font size of 3, the screen will hold approximately a 2” column of text from a standard 6x9 hard cover book; or approximately 26% of a full hard cover page. With font size 2, the screen will hold approximately a 3” column of text from a standard 6x9 hard cover book; or approximately 40% of a full hard cover page.

After reading a few novels, I have decided that font size two is too small and that font size three is right for me.

The screen is called Liquid Paper; no, not that whiteout stuff used for typewriters. The interesting thing about Liquid Paper Technology is that according to Amazon, it does not require power to display a page once it is rendered. It's kind of like an etcher-sketch. Once the page is drawn, no more power is required. This type of technology is ideal for a portable device that need long battery life.

Pros (in order of importance)

1. Excellent book reading experience
2. Wonderful screen; just like a piece of crisp clean paper (exactly as advertised)
3. Excellent physical ergonomics, a lot thought went into the physical package. There's room for improvement, but not worry about the negative stuff you may have read.
4. Easy to use in terms of figuring out what to do (but a little quirky, just like an iPod)
5. Very long battery life (just as advertised, it will run for days between charges)
6. EDVO Wireless is kickass, books download in about a minute.
7. Small size
8. Light weight
9. Nice folding book cover which helps to keep your fingers from accidently pressing buttons and makes a great place to hook on an itty-bitty book light.
10. E-Mailing documents or even books to your Kindle's secret email address for display on your Kindle is a smart idea but more thought needs to go into it. They need to support more formats like Word 2007 and they need to process the content of an email, not just attachments.

Cons (in order of importance)

1. Drilldown category browsing in the built-in Amazon store is frustrating. You are better off using the Amazon website to buy Kindle books. This is a surprise given Amazon's mission to make the Kindle an extension of their e-store. On the Kindle built-in store, you might be forced to wade one page at a time through a category with 5,000 books in it; and with no way to bookmark. The next time you come back to the category you have to start all over at page 1, page 2, etc. to get back to where you left off. It is an awful design.
   • Drilldown category browser very badly needs filters and sort options.
   • The browsing function desperately needs the basic navigation found on every website but is mysteriously missing from the Kindle. There is no goto page #, no go to end, no go to beginning.
   • Without options a & b, book browsing is slow, cumbersome, and as a result almost useless.
2. "Try a sample chapter" is missing on many books. Amazon says you can try any book before you buy it, not true. If the book was released by a publisher using Amazon's DTP service, there will be no "free sample." Amazon really needs to fix this omission.
3. Very limited management of your book collection; it's almost as if the Amazon development team never tried the kindle with more than a few books in memory.
4. You cannot easily manage bookmarks. There is no function to delete bookmarks from a list. You must go to each bookmark in the ebook then hit delete. This is a very slow process.
5. There is no global list of bookmarks. You must open each book to see a list of the bookmarks for that book.
6. You cannot manage MyClippings. You cannot delete entries or edit entries. It's more like a "landfill" than a collection.
7. Slow processing speed causes keyboard typing to lag; could use a bit more CPU power but a slower CPU is part of what gets you days between battery recharges and that's a reasonable tradeoff in my book.
8. Build quality is about the same as a middle tier noteBook, that is to say, made in China and not as good as I like to see it, but comparable to the competition.
9. Can't read PDF or HTML files; even my Palm Treo can do this! The Kindle can only ready Amazon and MobiPocket book file formats.

My wish list

1. Ability to e-mail links to blogs and newspaper articles to friends.
2. Automatic deletion of old newspapers and magazines.
3. Shrink the keyboard and enlarge the screen.
4. Create your own book categories and move books into your categories
5. Switch to a touch screen keyboard; I know, I higher screen refresh rate is required.
6. Make the next page button on the right and the previous button on the left shorter then add a nonslip area to grip the Kindle without also accidentally pushing those buttons.
7. A luxury model with an aluminum case and integral screen cover. You need to make it as cool as an iPod to become the iPod of eBooks.
8. A real web browser and x/y pointing device; I know, I higher screen refresh rate is required.
9. More sort and filter options on the books & periodicals list; ditto for the content management list.
10. Add a menu option for every book (sample or full) to go to the book's product page in the built-in store. This seems like a no brainer. It will sell more books.
11. Ability to mark books as read and then have a filter option so read books do not show up in the list.
12. A bright white screen instead of the gray screen. Don't get me wrong. The gray is great, but the added contrast ratio from a white background would be even better; especially for older eyes.
13. A limited "MyFriends" list with whom you can share ebooks but only one person can read the same book at the same time. Maybe three or four people max. Add a small fee for each sharing; maybe a $1, so the authors and publisher do not get ripped off because of the very low per unit profit margin.
14. "Try it Free" samples available for all books. Need I say more...
15. More blogs… we need a lot more blogs. Sign them all up!
16. More out of print books... I never seem to be able to find Kindle editions of the out of print books that are available in used bookstores.
17. Built-in solar battery charger... may as well go as green as you can!
18. A good hard-case for travel; preferably a thin shell made of aluminum.

Epilog.... At the end of many months of use, all I can say is everyone should buy a Kindle and let the future of reading enjoyment begin... and Oh yeah, one more thing, save a tree!

Kevin Bohacz

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