5 things the Kindle could do better

July 12, 2009
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Full Disclaimer: I love my Kindle.  Got the Kindle 2 when it was announced and there is not a question that it has increased the reading that I do.  I use it probably 40% of the time in 'text-to-speech' mode while driving.  I have purchased about 25 items since getting it and keep it pretty chalked full of samples for future purchases.

Now, with that out of the way, I wanted to talk about how the Kindle could be even better.  Some of the things that they don't allow a reader to do is silly and not very intuitive in places.  This is less about the user experience of the Kindle and more about the system/services around it.
1) My Clippings – I read a fair amount of business & self-help books and so I use the highlight and annotate functions of the Kindle quite a bit.  The downside is when you pull these off of the Kindle they are all merged together and don't have a lot of rhyme or reason to it.  I even struggle figuring out which note was to which book (I tend to read 2 or 3 books at one time).
2) Kindle iPhone app doesn't allow highlight or annotate – I was in church today with my Kindle version of the Bible but reading it on my iPhone and noticed it didn't have a highlight option like the Kindle does.  Come on Amazon, at least allow the copy/paste function that the new iPhone 3.0 software allows!
3) Amazon iPhone app – I've got multiple issues with this app (not to be confused with the Kindle reader iPhone app) but I'll keep it fairly short .  A) No tie-in to Kindle app at all.  B) No filtered version of Kindle only books  C) Can only add things to 'wish list' and not buy Kindle versions or even add samples (duh!).
4) Customer Reviews via Kindle – Although I have purchased 25 items thus far I only keep what I'm reading or about to read on it.  So I remove stuff fairly often.  Amazon is dropping the ball from the community aspect here.  The Kindle has a keyboard so why not on deletion give me the opportunity (like the iPhone does) to quickly rate the book and even put a review if I desired.  I post reviews if I had that feature and it can only help Amazon in the process.
5) Desktop client - This seems like a no brainer for me.  People thought they wouldn't listen to music on their computers (that turned out to be wrong), then they said nobody would watch video (wrong again!), so why not allow a simple desktop client for Kindle versions as well? If not a desktop client, let me at least access it from a browser.
Again, I love my Kindle but my experience could always be better and as they keep pushing towards their goal of every book produced to be available on the Kindle, these things will only help in making a great user experience.  

Posted from brad garland’s stream

Most Commented Posts

  • Nice! I like it. I didn't think to play w/ the bookmarklet options to get this stuff out, but very good idea.
  • Ken,

    Can't share like we want right now via their website but I can hack out something like this: http://bit.ly/3qlSmW

    Just used the Posterous bookmarklet to highlight what I wanted to share and then autoposted it to my blog, Twitter, and Tumblr in one motion.

    Just thought I'd share.
  • Ken, wow man, thanks for the info. That website is greatness...something I will definitely use. As you stated, looks like it could be improved but hey, I'll take it.

    Thanks again!
  • Nice post, Brad. I expect some of those issues (w/ iPhone app, for example) may be improved down the road, but it's good to point them out.

    One note...if you haven't seen the (I think experimental, but still very cool), Kindle Annotations website, you should definitely check it out: http://kindle.amazon.com/ You can login, rate your books, and see your notes and highlights in a much more organized fashion. It's pretty useful for that. I wish they'd give you a way to easily d/l the data, or offer a private RSS feed or something (I've actually already suggested that one through Customer Service), but again, it's experimental. Still worth checking out if you haven't done so, though.

    Don't know why they haven't made more of a big deal out of it; I think it's a great resource.
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