So, you get yourself a Kindle and the first thing to do is usually grab a case for it. That’s just a matter of preserving your investment. You spent this much money and might as well drop a few more dollars to make sure it stays durable. It’s obvious. But beyond that, there are other considerations. Do you get the case with the light in it, or a separate book light? The one in the official Kindle case draws on the battery of the eReader, which can be either good or bad, of course, but it means no extra weight…
Eventually, once the obvious stuff is worked out, you have a Kindle configured and housed as you’d like it and are pretty much likely to leave it at that indefinitely. Myself, I like to tweak things. There are a few uses that the Kindle would be fairly great for, if only we had the ability to make them more accessible. For example:
I’m sitting here writing a blog on an overpowered PC with at least one completely superfluous monitor, if we’re talking about nothing but the demands of the task. I find it convenient at the moment, but what about on vacation or even on a plane? The Kindle would be perfect for that sort of thing in that it’s compact, holds an amazing charge, and can handle the basic demands of the task, but the keyboard is hardly convenient for any form of extensive typing, be it blogging or email or whatever else might seem important at the time. Why not a case with a built-in folding keyboard?
Also, going back to lights for a minute, wouldn’t it be nice to have a LightWedge style book light built into a case for the Kindle 3? I have seen them for the Sony Reader, and I even saw a pre-release announcement of something similar for the Kindle 2, but I haven’t been able to find anything but clip-on lights for the newest Kindle. While I know that reading through a piece of acrylic isn’t exactly an enhancement of the reading experience, I find these lights a bit easier on the eyes than many clips and would like to have the option. So far, I have yet to find anything of the sort besides homemade case modifications.
This is all just a bit random, I’m aware, but I can’t help but feel that at present the potential for the Kindle isn’t being realized as well as it might be. There are a lot of convenient uses that it could handle. While admittedly some of them might be better suited for software updates, apps, or, barring those, user developed hacks, it seems like there should be a wider range of options on the hardware side of things. The sort of things that might expand the niche of the product. Maybe I’m just a bit of a gadget lover, but end-user device customization has always been one of my favorite parts of owning things like the Kindle and so far I haven’t managed much besides the cosmetic. You guys have any thoughts on accessories that have yet to be realized?
My biggest customization peeve is the static screensavers – so much potential wasted there. Yeah, I know it can be hacked, but I’d prefer a ‘supported’ method. It’d be nice if you could have it, say, cycle through displaying cover images of ebooks you own.
Static screensaver? It might be some short agenda from google calendar. Today + a wee ahead. Or sync to the Remember The Milk.
OK. This might seem stupid, but I’d like to see a remote page-turning switch or control. Something that plugs into the USB port that can at least turn pages forward and backward. Why? I put in a lot of my Kindle time on a stationary bike or a treadmill. It would be nice to be able to just hammer away and not have to reach up every page to hit the switch.