I’ve never owned a Kindle hardware device, but I’ve used the Kindle software on my personal computers for years. One of the first apps that I got on my original iPad was the Kindle app. The portability of the iPad along with the Kindle app gave me access to so many of the books and resources that I’ve always craved to have when I’m mobile.

Recently, I upgraded to an iPad Air…and once again one of the first apps that I used was the Kindle app. It’s funny, I was without an iPad from August of last year through January of this year (I handed my original iPad off to one of my college daughters who wanted to try and augment her note taking).

I’ve always read a lot, and it’s a credit to the Kindle app that I haven’t really noticed the interface. The mark of a good interface is that it’s pretty invisible. And the Kindle app definitely achieves that invisibility.

But invisibility sometimes means that you miss things. For whatever reason, I became somewhat introspective about the Kindle app this weekend. I’m really not sure why it happened, but I started to look at the interface, ask questions of “why is this the way it is”, and generally became a lot more aware of the app.

Through the years, one of the biggest issues related to reading e-books, as compared to physical books, is figuring out where you are in the book. That is, how much more do I have to read before I reach the end? One attempt by the Kindle app is to show the percentage of the book you’ve read while another is to show a location (as in Loc 228 of 7548). On various platforms, you sometimes see “Page x of yy”, but that seems to have gone away in favor of the “Loc” methodology. Location is OK, but I really like page numbers. The percentage measure is nice too, but just doesn’t seem to be complete.

Recently though, the Kindle app added a feature that is really, really cool. After you’ve been reading for a few minutes, an estimate appears in the lower-left corner that tells you how much longer you need to read to the end of the next chapter (if the book has chapters) or to the end of the book if it doesn’t. What’s really cool is that this estimate is in minutes. Yup, your reading speed is taken into account, and right there on the page is how much longer you’ll be reading until you finish the part you’re consuming.

Honestly, when I figured that out (which took me about a dozen looks at the notification before I figured out what it was telling me) I got really excited. Sure, I was being a nerd. But seriously, how cool is this? You’re reading away and you’re getting tired/bored/distracted. You look in the lower-left corner and see that you have three minutes until you’re done with the chapter. You’re inner coach kicks and with the “You can do this” speech. And BAM, you’re through the chapter.

I tested this out some by reading faster, and also by reading slower (intentionally setting the book down for a minute or two while still on a page) and the estimates are pretty accurate. Accurate enough that I think I’m going to begin to refer to it on a regular basis.

Of all the apps on my iPad, I have to give the Kindle app one of the highest ratings that I can. And now with the addition of the time estimate feature, I’m even happier with it.