Under normal circumstances I would be overjoyed that Amazon has rediscovered the appeal of dedicated page-turn buttons on its Kindle e-readers. Neither of my current models — a first-generation Scribe and a revised Colorsoft — have those buttons, and I miss them every time I pick up each device.
“What’s the big deal”, you might ask. “Don’t you use touchscreens every day?” Well, yes, but that’s kind of the point.
A big reason I like e-readers is they help me get into a different headspace. Moving my thumb over to touch a screen every couple of hundred words makes me feel like I’m operating a gadget rather than reading a book; gently pressing my thumb in place is a more natural motion that doesn’t take me out of the content on the page.
Amazon does seem to have some idea that people value the feature: the current splash page for this month’s new Kindle line proclaims “Buttons are back.”
The one catch? They’re only back if you buy an $80 accessory “Page-Turn Cover” for the more expensive “Signature Edition” model of the Colorsoft or Paperwhite.
