Firmware Update Kindle adds Page Numbers (and more)

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by JMikeD

Now if they would just put justification control back.

JMikeD, you may be interested in this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99661.

[whitearrow]

Originally Posted by scotter

Why do they not do page numbers for all books? They would only change when changing the text size, just have some way to make the user aware of that, or have it hidden in some deep dark setting so the users who would complain about it changing never find it.

Because they aren't using "screen numbers" (dividing book into how many screens it is) -- as page numbers, which would be useless for academic citation or book club people. They are actually making them correspond to a specific print edition, which is a lot more work.

[Piper_]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Boy, you read more into my post than I ever intended to imply.

I was just literally tired of the never-ending locations vs pages argument (both sides of it). I thought the addition of page numbers would end it. Yes, I'm a locations supporter, but I'm genuinely glad that those who wished for page numbers, got them.

Oh, noo... I wasn't having to bite my tongue over your post! lol It was others, some in other threads and some on other boards. Some even before today...

Basically, I guess I want credit for all the times I ever stayed shushed on the matter.

Originally Posted by Exer

I don't see what the problem is having to press a single button to read the page number.

I do the same thing to find out what "time" it is. It hasn't been a great hardship. There hasn't been any circumstance I've been in where I needed to learn the time so quickly that I didn't have time to press Menu ... so I can't imagine that there would be a need to find a page number so quickly that someone can't just tap the Menu button -- although I agree with some that you should have an either/or option eventually.

I'm not sure what I think about it, really. I don't care about it personally, but from a UI-developing perspective, I'm surprised they did it without giving users the option.
Not giving the option would predictably rub some users wrong.

But since they must have known that, I assume there was good reason, or they'll add it in the future. Who knows.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I'm happy. I much prefer pages to locations. I agree that it would be nice to have an either/or option. As far as the end-of-book rating and tweeting page, I could care less. Amazon probably added it because B&N has the same feature on their NOOKcolor books.

[JMikeD]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I used the ISBN number shown in the Kindle edition to go to the listing for the pBook. The page numbers are different.

Not to start a long argument, but both the Kindle edition and pBook with the ISBN 0670034711 show 252 pages when I look at them. Unless I'm looking in the wrong place.

[kranu]

Yep, the hacks should be fine. I have:

• Jailbreak
• Custom Screensavers
• Screensaver Timeouts
• Launchpad
• USBNetwork

and all of them are working well after the 3.1 update. I don't have the fonts hack, but I'm betting that it works fine.

I don't feel that anything is snappier, and I'm quite disappointed that they haven't added support for links that open in new windows for the webkit browser. However, I absolutely love the new articles/section list thing. It's so much nicer looking and easier to use. I can't comment on the page numbers because I haven't noticed them on any of my books. (most of mine are mobi)

Anyways, the bottom line is: If you already have all the hacks installed, go ahead and update. There's nothing bad about the update, and it adds a few nice things (though it leaves a lot to be desired).

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by kranu

Anyways, the bottom line is: If you already have all the hacks installed, go ahead and update. There's nothing bad about the update, and it adds a few nice things (though it leaves a lot to be desired).

No. 3.1 fixes the update mechanism and will ignore the signing key used by the hacks. This means you can't install or uninstall any hacks if you're on 3.1. Existing hacks will still be present and may or may not work depending on what they've modified/added to.

If you've got USB networking installed already then you can manually go in and alter files to restore the jailbreak however but this is not something I would recommend for anybody that doesn't know precisely what they're doing.

[FF2]

Tiersten:

I would like to be clear on installed hacks working under 3.1 versus installing new hacks.

I've got the screensaver hack but have been considering the "Launchpad" hack. Since the jailbreak is already installed, can one install Launchpad after upgrading to firmware 3.1 or would installing any new hack be disabled?

[JMikeD]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

JMikeD, you may be interested in this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99661.

Well, I tried it, and it worked for some books but apparently the setting can be overridden by something in the book itself. I found that only about half my books could be adjusted.

[bZkindle]

all my hacks remain working after updating but if one can't uninstall a hack that could perhaps pose a bit of a problem, for example warranty.
there should be a question mark after that because I really don't know and am asking:
would that break warranty? would amazon really care?

I seem to be having some battery issues and am planning on calling CS if the next cycle doesn't seem to fix it.

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by FF2

I've got the screensaver hack but have been considering the "Launchpad" hack. Since the jailbreak is already installed, can one install Launchpad after upgrading to firmware 3.1 or would installing any new hack be disabled?

Installing any new hack is disabled in 3.1 as the update mechanism used to do the install (or uninstall) won't recognise the files as valid. Hacks that are already installed should still be there but depends on the hack.

[kranu]

Originally Posted by Tiersten

No. 3.1 fixes the update mechanism and will ignore the signing key used by the hacks. This means you can't install or uninstall any hacks if you're on 3.1. Existing hacks will still be present and may or may not work depending on what they've modified/added to.

If you've got USB networking installed already then you can manually go in and alter files to restore the jailbreak however but this is not something I would recommend for anybody that doesn't know precisely what they're doing.

Yes so I was saying that if you already have the hacks, you can update, because you won't have to worry about trying to install them later.

I installed USBNetworking and can attest that it is quite a headache :/

[leamsi]

Originally Posted by mailman61953

The new newspaper layout makes this update for me. You can preview all the articles in an issue from the first page. Way better than the old layout. I have tried to read newspapers on my Kindle in the past and did not like it. I started a 2 week preview of The Washington Post after downloading the update. So far I am impressed.

And the only thing keeping me for trying it is... do Calibre-generated newspapers still work and have the new layout too?

[bZkindle]

Originally Posted by leamsi

And the only thing keeping me for trying it is... do Calibre-generated newspapers still work and have the new layout too?

yes!! they look great.

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by kranu

Yes so I was saying that if you already have the hacks, you can update, because you won't have to worry about trying to install them later.

Ah okay. Sorry. Yes.

The issue does remain of how to uninstall any hacks as it won't let you do that either. If you have to send a hacked 3.1 Kindle in for repair and you've got custom screensavers or whatever then I don't know what they'll do.