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Comment by dascripter | Hacker News Reader

One thing that I have a problem with is the complaints about the Kindle buttons. As much as I see people try and use the Kindle as a touch screen, I would not want it to be. I like the button press because I don't have to move my hand from holding the device. If I had to physically swipe my finger everytime I wanted to move to the next page I could see that being very annoying.

The two reasons I really love my Kindle are for the digital distribution and the form factor. I can no longer read paperback books. I find holding them to be just unpleasent and not near as enjoyable as the Kindle. And I think a swipe page turning mechanism is a backward step in how I move through my book.

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The Kindle app on Android/iOS already solve this problem, you tap the side of the page and it switches to the next page in the book. I've been reading REAMDE on my Samsung Galaxy S and on my iPhone and it works fantastically. Exactly as you'd hope it would work.

Quick easy to switch from one page to the next, all the whole still holding it in your hand.

I am assuming that the same concept will be brought over to the new touch Kindles.

Funny that you complain about page turning... for hundreds of years, it has required an extended physical movement to turn the page.

Amazing the times we live in, that page turning has become an effort that becomes annoying. Combined with our tendency to be less physical active, we are heading to a (physically) stationary future...

Well, we've removed the 'annoyance' with the original Kindle, why make an effort to put it back in? What does touch add over the use of buttons (other than, "Look! We're using a new technology, therefore it's better and you should buy one!")?

> Amazing the times we live in, that page turning has become an effort that becomes annoying.

Or it always was, and people just didn't have a choice.

Reminds me the overweight people on the WALL-E spaceship

I really like how the Nook Touch handles it: subtle physical buttons (with little risk of accidental presses), or you can swipe, or you can tap on the screen. I use all three methods, depending on how I'm holding it in that moment. I don't even have to think about it, and the immersion of reading is unbroken.

One of the things that I really liked about my first generation Kindle was the big buttons on the edges for page turning.

It meant that on cold nights, I could read holding the Kindle through my blanket in bed, and could turn pages just be bumping the side through the blanket with my other hand.

Not sure how the Kindle Touch or Fire work, but iBooks and the Kindle app on iPad both have tap once to flip to the previous/next page (swiping is not required).

Kindle app on Android phones also uses single tap to page; it's extremely convenient (compared to the old Kindle with physical buttons which I also use). Touch for paging is certainly no worse than the old buttons, and--really--the keyboard and cursor control on the old Kindle are just about useless. ("Up, up, up, left, down, down, up, ..." is hard to take after having a touch device.)

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