Amazon recently added a note to Kindle product pages talking about the new Display Cover feature that shows book covers on the lockscreen, but they did a poor job of explaining what it means.
Under the heading that says, “We want you to know,” they added a note that says, “The Display Cover feature works on the without ads version of this device. Covers of most books, magazines, comics, and Manga are supported.”
Imagine you are a new Kindle buyer new to the Kindle ecosystem and you’re looking to purchase your first Kindle. If you read that note you’d most-likely have no idea what they’re referring to. Even seasoned Kindle buyers probably wouldn’t know what that means it they didn’t have prior knowledge of the book cover feature.
There’s no picture showing book covers on the lockscreen and just saying “Display cover feature” is rather ambiguous, like everyone is supposed to know what that means. Why don’t they just say the versions without ads can show book covers on the screen when the device is asleep? Instead they insist on obscuring everything behind a layer of marketing speak.
Luckily there’s a link to the Kindle Book Cover page that explains things better, but I can’t help but think the note is pretty much worthless.
They didn’t bother to include a description of the new book cover feature in the release notes for recent software updates, and when my Kindles updated they gave no indication whatsoever this new feature was available—it just showed up under Device Settings without a popup explaining anything.
Now Amazon is introducing this feature to new Kindle buyers with a nebulous description that doesn’t even clearly state what it means.
To make things more confusing, there’s a note further up the page explaining the ad-supported option for Kindles, which links to a page describing how Kindles with Special Offers work, and there is no mention of the book cover display option for non-ad Kindles anywhere on that page. Yeah, that makes sense…
Although it is a nice touch, I still don’t think this feature is such a big deal. I do get that one gets happy for anything “innovative” that is added to the Kindles is big news since very little is added to the overall user experience that is noticeable, I would not rate this as such a big deal. Especially when using a protective cover or pouch. I do agree with you all that there are bigger fish to hope for than just a cover in sleep mode, when you aren’t even using the device.
It’s a nice touch and on the surface it doesn’t seem like such a big deal but at the same time why not include it? It seems like a big deal because it has taken an eternity to add it when it should have been a standard feature back in 2012, and especially when other companies are doing it. But yes, Kindle is still lacking in such elementary basic features such as better margin, font size and line spacing control. Also, the font boldness feature is very nice but it needs to be refined to include finer adjustments. However, the biggest atrocity of Kindles is the extremely poor font sizes. How I can go from a tiny font to an extremely huge font in only one increment adjustment is beyond ridiculous and yet Amazon is hell bent on refusing to correct this. They don’t care!
I don’t have a problem jumping around from different font sizes. I can easily go from a 6 to a 13 with one tap. I am not forced to go one size at a time. So, not sure what you mean by being forced to go one increment at a time. Unless you mean it doesn’t allow you to type in an actual number for the font size. This would be more time consuming than just taping on the size you want in the bar. I still also don’t see how the other items you mention are that much of a problem. But each person has their thing. The formatting options have not been an issue for me. I have it set to as wide as it allows and the spacing is single spacing. It does allow for wider spacing. I don’t know. I just don’t get it. Sorry. It would be nice if all the formatting options were available to all books, no matter if they are MOBI or not. That, for me would be nice. Also to be able to use my own font in a MOBI book. But all is good. It does what I need it to do.
What I mean is that for example if you were on increment number 4 the Kindle font is small, The very next increment to the right would be a size 5 and suddenly it’s huge. That’s what I mean is that they jump from very small two very large in only one single increment step. Of course this is all dependent on the fonts as different fonts render different font sizes. But this has been a terrible feature of kindles since day one. They desperately need to fix the front system.
Of course there will always be those that come in and say OMG, that has never been a problem for me I think the Kindle is just perfect the way it is. And that’s good for you, but for the rest of us it’s not. If there is one single most important thing that needs to be perfected it’s the fonts. On any device. Everything else is just icing on the cake.