I mentioned in an earlier post that some students had bought the Kindle version of some of the texts for one of my classes. For this particular class, they are having a great deal of trouble. I have found iBooks to be great for straight text (and the Kindle owners have found the same to be true for Kindle), but the problem arises with figures, especially complex ones. One of my texts has computer screen shots to show the reader what their screen is supposed to look like on the computer if they are following the instructions. This can be difficult, but it is made more difficult by including text that the reader is supposed to type. Normal text can be easily adjusted and resized so just about anyone can read it. It seems that figures cannot be resized on either the iPad or the Kindle. On the iPad the normal pinching action does nothing for the pictures. The Kindles doesn't even have such a feature.
One student was so frustrated by this that she gave up on the Kindle version and went to the paperback version. Fortunately, I was able to loan her a copy of the book so she wouldn't have to buy it again (I wrote that particular book and have a few extra copies lying around). As a reference book, after the class is over, the Kindle version will probably be sufficient, but as the primary book for use during the class, it is not.
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