but I want a new version, with:
- Higher-resolution screen (200 DPI or more?) with greater contrast
- Full Unicode fonts (or at least handle the Euro symbol, Cyrillic and the Greek alphabet)
- Bigger, more responsive screen
- Better fonts and typography (proper small-caps, LaTeX-style justification and hyphenation algorithm, etc.)
- More attention paid to formatting in books and newspapers (The Times has articles with half the words run together sometimes, and some books are poorly formatted)
- Better font and formatting selection (several books I have embed their own fonts, but they look terrible compared to the default, which isn’t very exciting anyway. Also, things like drop-caps and first-line effects would be nice)
- More pictures in newspapers
That is all.
What version Kindle do you have? My Kindle 3 has full unicode support, I can read in English and Japanese on it, and all symbols display correctly. The resolution hasn’t changed to my knowledge, still ~167 ppi density. It’s always been good enough to my eyes though, at least for text.
I completely agree about the terrible editing and formatting issues – typos and unspaced sentences abound. If editors were that sloppy in print they’d get fired.
I often buy PDF ebooks and then convert them, tidying them up in the process. PDF versions are much better formatted, and many scientific books aren’t available yet from the Kindle store, so PDF conversion gives you access to more content.
The page turning is a bit slow, but it’s faster if you use the sans-serif typeface. You can also add more fonts yourself if you don’t like the existing ones. A friend of mine has blogged a tutorial: http://www.binarysludge.com/2011/01/24/changing-kindle-fonts-disfluency-and-memory-retention/
It’s a Kindle 2, so I’m a generation behind. The Kindle 2 hasn’t gotten some of the nicer software updates, and it has a lower-contrast screen than the Kindle 3.
If a Kindle 4 comes out with some more improvements, I’ll definitely consider upgrading. I read basically all the time.