TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics
November 24th, 2009

Two ‘musts’ for the next Kindle upgrade: ePub and optional boldfacing of all text

By David Rothman

imageAmazon’s most recent Kindle upgrade is working fine now on my Kindle 2—allowing me to read PDF files, even if I can’t  blow up the type.

Amazon has also lengthened the K2’s battery life, which should help when I’m using the Kindle’s much-appreciated text to speech.

What’s next? ePub? Maybe even with DRM capabilities? I’d rather there be social DRM or, better, no DRM. But as long as publishers are so stubborn about “protection,” DRM capabilities would help those of us who want to stay within the law and read books from Random House, S&S and the like.

Bolding also needed

Speaking of changes, how about boldfacing? I’d even like a control within the text-adjustment menu so that people could vary the weight of the font. Current E Ink technology just does not provide enough contrast between the background and the text; adjustable bolding could help tremendously.

Related: Tips from me and others who’ve done the upgrade. Alas, it won’t work for now with a popular font hack. Use the hack’s own uninstall file—don’t rely on the Kindle factory resent.

Correction: You can word-search. I’ve fixed the text above.

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2 Responses to “Two ‘musts’ for the next Kindle upgrade: ePub and optional boldfacing of all text”

  1. David, you CAN word-seearch within PDFs. Give it a try.

  2. The battery life is only enhanced while wireless is on. The Kindle update addresses excessive battery drainage while using the wireless service. It won’t help battery life while reading or using TTS.

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