Firmware Update Announced : Kindle Software Update Version 2.5

[questionfear]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

The one raspberry I would give Amazon on the Kindle is that K1 owners, the early adopters.. the people that paid for a lot of the R&D... some of us Paid $400 for our units... did not get the features of the previous update nor does it look like we will be getting this one.

Compare this to Sony that for free upgraded PRS-500 owners in order to support ePub and Adobe DRM. They didn't have to do that and most would probably have understood seeing how old the 500 is.

BOb

Agreed. I have thought about replacing my K1, and been tempted several times...but the truth is, it works great. Battery life is still excellent. And I'd rather wait for a Kindle 3 at this point.

But it's sad when we don't get the shiny new updates.

[lilman]

Nice update features. Looking forward to pdf zoom since I usually keep the auto-rotate locked but occasionally have to turn it back on so that I can use the zoomed-in landscape mode.

[dubmehard]

Can anyone with code skills who recived the update OTA strip it down and put on rapid$share?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Collections, at least as implemented on the Sony devices, are tags. They are "pseudo folders" in which books which have been given a certain tag, appear.

Well, yes and no.

While you can put a book in more than one collection you can't navigate the collections other than a flat list.

For example, if I have the following collections:

SF
Fantasy
History
Read
Unread

I have no way to list ebooks that were Unread and SF.

Reading the Kindle docs on collections someone linked to above it looks like it is the same as the Sony... a single layer of collections is listed.

So, you can call them "tags" but the navigation through the "tags" is limited to a flat list.

Also, I see nothing in the Collections doc about how to sort stuff within a collection... or how it sorts the collection list.

When you display collections does it list ebooks that aren't in a collection also or does it create a psuedo collection called "no collection" or do you just not have access to non-tagged ebooks when viewing collections?

Will collections work with ebooks you didn't buy from Amazon? If so, I assume it won't sync those.

BOb

[AnemicOak]

Screenshots have been posted at Kindle Boards...
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.ph...c,23791.0.html

[alxwang]

Where is EPUB support? Or when?

[dmaul111478]

I assume this is for the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX with no update for the Kindle 1?

[inovaovao]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

When you display collections does it list ebooks that aren't in a collection also or does it create a psuedo collection called "no collection" or do you just not have access to non-tagged ebooks when viewing collections?

Will collections work with ebooks you didn't buy from Amazon? If so, I assume it won't sync those.

BOb

When listing collections you see the names of the collections with the number of items in them, along with all the items which aren't in any collection. When listing by title or most recent instead, you see the collections (always with the number of items), the items not in collections and those in the collections as well.

Collections work with any kind of items, even with my folder of pictures. I have't tried the syncing so I don't know how that works yet, but un Kindle support I have seen something about that.

[johndoesecond]

I'VE GOT IT ... so I'll try to satisfy some of your curiosity.

1. Conceptually, collections are more similar to tags than to (traditional) folders, even if they look more like folders. You can create a collection, then you select the books/documents you want to “associate” (add) to that collection. But differently from the old-time folders, each book/document may be associated to more than one collection. (So, if you were ER-relationally fluent, you’d know enough just by hearing that basically you can have many-to-many relation among books and collections).

2. The PDF zoom-and-pan support is neat. By pressing “Aa” button, you can pick the zoom size (among the options: “fit-to-screen” (which is default), “150%”, 200%”, “300%”, “actual size”); then a zoom box appears which you have decide where to put on the page and then click to zoom. After that, the scrollbars appear (horizontal and vertical, depending on the level of zoom and on the content to pan) and you can pan with the joystick. With some limited testing, to my knowledge the pan & page refresh is ... as fast as it can get under the circumstance (viz. eInk refresh rate).

3. I might be hallucinating, but the new standard font really seems clearer, neater and creates the feeling of a greater contrast, maybe it's even "bolder". Probably they’ve addressed and tweaked some of the antialiasing & C. issues someone has talked about in the past. It’s a great improvement for the overall readability!

4. I have a DXi and I'm living in Europe, so my Kindle's browsing was limited only to Wikipedia. But now, I can browse, well, just everywhere. (I hope this one isn’t a “bug” that inadvertently slipped into this update, … so, please, Europeans and non-US Kindle owners out there: psst! … don’t mention it to Amazon!)

5. Features like “social networking” and “popular highlights” may be cool to someone, but I’m just not that kind of guy, so don’t expect me to be too enthusiast about that, though I see some possibly interesting things there.

There seem to be some other minor changes and tweaks as well, but some may well just be mirages I'm seeing, as this things happen when you’re sort of a wonkishly satisfied with a device, as I am.

My final verdict?:
I might have not sounded too enthusiastic while trying to be technically accurate above, so ... wow!, … just wow!

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by inovaovao

Collections work with any kind of items, even with my folder of pictures. I have't tried the syncing so I don't know how that works yet, but un Kindle support I have seen something about that.

Yes, it's great that collections sync, and that collection membership persists for books purchased from Amazon (according to the information on Amazon). I'm impressed with the design they've worked out - I had concerns that it would get in the way or that you'd need to spend all your time organizing and reorganizing things instead of reading.

[Over]

One note: any document/ebook/pic can be added to a collection. It's not only for amazon ebooks. I had some PDFs, custom made comics and mobi files bought elsewhere and they are all organized in collections now.

Now, I would just like to find a way to organize those collections!

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by Over

One note: any document/ebook/pic can be added to a collection. It's not only for amazon ebooks. I had some PDFs, custom made comics and mobi files bought elsewhere and they are all organized in collections now.

Now, I would just like to find a way to organize those collections!

Can you group multiple collections into 1 collection?

[VanillaEps]

How many of you have received the update?

[Over]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Can you group multiple collections into 1 collection?

No, you can't. You can rename, delete collections and add/remove items.

[Xanthe]

Just waiting for the first Kindle virus using Twitter/Facebook as the vector-lol.