NO FOLDERS yet - trying to figure out why

[artsandhistoryfan]

I don't know why there are no folders, but I have some guesses.

1. Amazon offers enabling of backup of our books via our settings. I imagine that each time we connect with the wireless, Amazon does a scan for what is there and checks whether they need to update their servers with each book's auxiliary file (highlights, annotations, bookmarks).
   These are saved so if you re-download later, they'll be with the re-downloaded book from their servers.

2. They would need to look through all the folders and subfolders to do this during that whispernet session.   
    Our periodicals are not backed up (from what I understand) ?

    Right now they can swoop through the root drive because they don't need to back up the newspapers or magazines, etc., most of which are not on the root area.

    It may be easier for Sony to do folders, as they don't do much more than allow you to transfer a book to the unit. Maybe Sony has WiFi that allows direct download to their units if you find a free WiFi spot outside the home?
    I know Sony doesn't offer backups of their customers' books and notes (if they can make notes) though, and this must be taken care of by Amazon during whispernet/wireless sessions.

3. Amazon has some kind of 'archive' folder for K2 ? Does this hold books no longer with you but on Amazon and therefore they control that it doesn't show up on your home list that way? I don't know.
We do delete books and hope they will no longer be with us or on our Amazon library. That may be a factor.

4. We can currently make separate folders OUTSIDE of 'documents' to just hold books or documents or periodicals we'd rather not see on the Home page.

    We can't get to those books via the Kindle itself (just when hooked up with our computers via the usb cable), but it allows us a space to have them on the Kindle with no displaying of titles on the home page.

    So, if we ultimately get folders, I imagine they'd all be under the 'documents' folder and so I don't see a problem with our own folders that just contained 'backups' we don't want to see.

5. We have sorting mechanisms for Home and for Content Manager.
    Maybe having to sort through multi-level subdirectories would pose quite a problem for them, considering they are also set up to do wireless downloads and backups of our material during connections and they need to do a lot in a small amount of time.

6. They'd have to give us even more sorting capabilities and that's probably a back-burner thought for them.

It all seems to be (possibly) a matter of control (and I can't blame them for that).   But I hope someone is working on it for the near future (though someone reported he heard it's not a high priority).

[ScottBooks]

SusanCassidy had this explanation in another thread (I haven't been able to figure out how to quote from one thread to another). It's lucid even to an only slightly techie person like myself.

"It is my understanding that the "folder"-type representation of newspapers is just a user interface, and not physical folders at all.

However, the Kindle runs Linux, and Linux certainly supports directories (folders in Windows-speak).  Due to the narrowness of the screen, representing folders hierarchically might be a problem, if they allowed multiple levels.  What I mean, is that if you have directories 3 or 4 levels deep, the indentation and names would soon run off of the right-hand of the screen.  Showing only the previous level (to keep the indentation to a minimum) might cause confusion.  People would end up calling Kindle Support because they had thought they'd lost some files.   If you showed just the directory name on one line, and tried to compress it that way, it still might be tricky.  I would have to really think about how to present multiple levels through the user interface to make it easy to use and understandable to all users.  Those are the reasons I can think of that they may not have done it yet.

When I first got my Kindle, I wished for folders, but now I don't even think about it.  I have 10 or 11 pages of stuff on the Kindle to be read (Home Page).  When I get through with a book, I just delete it.  It is backed up at Amazon or on my pc, if I downloaded it from some place other than Amazon. I feel no need to keep my entire library on the Kindle at all times.

But, that's me.   Smiley"

[artsandhistoryfan]

If display length were the only problem, they could do what they do with the HomeList book descriptions, which is to wrap the remainder around as the person gets on the line. 

   The problems I brought up are certainly things they have to consider that Sony wouldn't. 
I spent some years programming for large companies on an independent basis.

    What Susan says is definitely one thing they have to think about. 

    The first thing would be to restrict subfolders to one or two.  And to limit titles of subfolders.
        People have mentioned Category or Author most.

    Then there's How to create folders, etc.,

     By the way, while they are not real folders (computer folders are categories programmed in)
       they still have to 'navigate' through what are conceptualized as different levels to peruse
       when they look at our contents.  I think it's no accident that the only thing that's put into
       subfolders or subdirectories are our periodicals, which are not backed up by Amazon.

     Maybe now that the big Kindle 2 push is done, they can think about it, but one person
spoke to an acquaintance at Amazon who told the person it wasn't high on the list of priorities
-- if one can put much stock in forum posts like that, though  :-)

[Chris]

I think the real way to handle this is a concept that GMAIL and Outlook 2007 as well as iTunes use. They organize data in "SmartFolders/Labels".   I think Amazon should add a tagging system for books where you can put in any series of words you want.  Like "Scifi", "Read/UnRead", or Whatever.  Then you can created "stored searches (smartfolders)" that show all books with the "SciFi" tag or with the "UnRead" Tag or both.  Those stored searches would be shown like "Folders".  But... Underneath it all the books are stored at the root in one big directory.

I work for a software company and we use this technology for some things that we do.  The other thing they could do related to WhisperNet and bandwidth for syncing is to keep a log of changes and just retrieve those and then apply them to the Amazon home database.  If you add a tag, bookmark a page, etc. then only the change log is synced and then applied at the server.  We use a technology like this for our Convenience Store product due to the fact that alot of those are in the middle of nowhere with dial-up modems but need to send up huge amounts of information at the end of day.  We just get the changes....

Chris

[standaman]

You forgot "Amazon thinks they know what kindle users need and want more than actual kindle users".

Or they just came up with another way to implement it... heh

[stevene9]

I wish they would just tell us what the prospects are for folders or some indexing system. Are they working on it or is it technically impossible due to some constraint in the Kindle. Just let us know.

Stegve

[Chris]

THE TRUTH.....  Well....  I suspect it is the same reason the iPhone doesn't have "cut & paste".  The target market for the Kindle and for the iPhone includes people of varying comfort levels with technology.  They haven't found an way to implement it that wouldn't be confusing and would seem natural.  Remember that the people on KindleBoards represent a slice of the market that may be skewed towards technically savvy people.  Just by the nature of the fact that you are using a computer and post to a web forum puts you in a relatively elite group of users when you look across everyone who might purchase a Kindle.  This can be seen in Amazon's desire to create a device that NEVER has to be attached to a computer.  In fact they spent/spend a lot of resources to make sure you don't have to even own a computer to use the device.

I see the same kinds of things on the Apple Forum boards and other technology forums I participate in.

Just a thought....

Chris