Kindle DX - a small step forward
I also own a SONY PRS500. So I am already familiar with eink technology. I think that adjusted my expectations for the Kindle DX. The main reason I bought the Kindle DX is to read PDF files so that I can carry and read a lot of papers and technical documents (some highly confidential). This is my experience so far. Hopefully it will help others.1) Reading PDF
Not all PDF’s are the same. Kindle DX can do a pretty good job cutting the margins so that the PDF is display in good size. But some PDF’s are designed to be printed as hard copies. And they have really fat margins.
So I play around with Adobe Acrobat to make come up with a workable solution. If you have the full Acrobat version there is a feature to crop the margins (Crop Pages). I can trim the margins to a bear minimum and now all my PDF’s are very readable in portrait mode.
Some PDF’s are locked. I have to find some program for Windows that can unlock the pages before I can crop the margins. Just google for unlock PDF.
I also have some PDF’s that are about 1000 pages. Kindle DX choked on those. It just keeps rebooting when I open the files. I have to split those up to two files. It might be a function of the files size and/or number of pages.
2) Organizing books
This is the part that the Kindle software is doing a poor job. There are a few limited options to sort the list of books. Since I am going to have a lot of my own documents it is not going to work well. I think some way to organize books by folders is badly needed.
3) Support
I don’t think the support staff are all well trained. I also have a problem with the web browser. My Kindle DX came pre-registered. I think it is a nice touch by Amazon. But for some reason the setup broke the web browser. I counldn’t connect to the internet and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. It took two calls to support to get it resolved. The trick is to revert to factory default settings. The second support person then have to help me restore all my settings through the wireless connection. It was pretty painless process. But the first support person I contacted didn’t seen to be aware of the process.
There is also no excuse why my Kindle DX is pre-configured incorrectly
4) UI
I am pretty good with gadgets. I own lots of them. I also have years of experiences with GUI design. I found the GUI inconsistent and difficult to use at times. A GUI design always offers way for user to discover he features. This is not always the case with Kindle. Some features have to be turned on with combination of key strokes that are non intuitive. Typing numbers with the ALT key is also awful.
I’ll keep the Kindle DX. It has indeed helped me to solve a problem adequately. But it is an imperfect device that leave me wanting.
| By | Johnny Chan “Johnny” |
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