Firmware Update Kindle adds Page Numbers (and more)

[Kenneth_irl]

Originally Posted by TenaciousBadger

I'm rather psyched about the page numbers since I use academic amazon-bought books on my Kindle. So I have two questions:

1. Will they show the page number of books I've already bought from them?
2. Will this miraculously new implementation work only with the wifi on?

Thanks!

The Kindle should automatically download the new files (page numbers) for the books that are supported at the moment. I haven't tried it myself, though; just what I read.

[ApK]

Were Kindle users really clamoring for advertising ("recommendations") and additional intrusions like more ways to do online socializing from an ereader?
I was hoping for an update that improves performance and enhances the features I bought the Kindle for.

Were there any improvements to performance or existing features, like the browser or collections management in this update?

This is rather disappointing.

ApK

[DMSmillie]

Originally Posted by cicsos2

Today, Feb 2, one of the free books - "Curious Folks Ask 2: Our Fellow Creatures, Our Planet, and Beyond" is enabled with page numbers.

This is an easy way to try this new feature out.

Ummm... yesterday was Feb 7, and that book isn't free - $18.39 on Amazon.com and £11.83 on Amazon.co.uk ... ?

[silasgreenback]

I initially scoffed at the update since pagination applies only to Kindle content.

However, after spending some time away from here and actually reading, I'm glad I did the install because the extra white space adds to the experience.

I had gotten used to locations enough to think of the numbers as a frame of reference and they weren't really getting in the way much at the bottom of the page, but not having them there and being able to call them up with the menu button is pretty sweet after all.

[koland]

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.

The publisher must embed the page numbers into the text of the book, marking where each page changes on the paper edition.

Also, some books have no paper edition (most indie books, for example), so there isn't anything to imitate.

[koland]

Originally Posted by DMSmillie

Ummm... yesterday was Feb 7, and that book isn't free - $18.39 on Amazon.com and £11.83 on Amazon.co.uk ... ?

It was free for a few hours, for US customers.

Many other books do have page numbers (not that I care - I don't belong to a book club and no longer need to do citations; which can be done using Kindle locations, anyway).

Also, not sure why anyone cares about having to hit the menu button to see them, since you have to do that to get the title and author, now. I do wish that Amazon had given us back that extra line of reading space and would turn on the justification menu by default (it was the FIRST thing I corrected on the original Kindle). As for books that don't support it - you can fix those without DRM, by stripping out that info, but it isn't easy, sometimes. If the Kindle had a sophisticated hyphenation algorithm, then fixing justification wouldn't be required, but some books are nearly unreadable at full justification, due to the excessive and oddly placed whitespace.

Also, their rating system only ties into the poor management on the kindle.amazon page, not the Shelfari pages (where you can do at least some limited searches, but which is also not a good place to try to manage a few thousand books). It would be much better if that info were stored in the MBP file, so it could be imported to Calibre (or even librarything), where book management is much more robust.

[Valentino]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So what will your mom be getting instead?

She got a nook for her birthday but didn't like it and is returning it, I already have a kindle3 so was suggesting she get one and let her try mine and she liked it but wouldn't get one because of the locations.

She still can't decide..

[vermontcathy]

Just a tip about the new periodicals layout. When you have the different sections listed in the left column, and you highlight one, and the articles in that section are listed on the right, if there are more articles that can fit, there are "next" and "prev" links at the bottom of the list. But you don't need to move the cursor all the way down there. The next and back page turn buttons do the same thing. I discovered this by accident.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Valentino

She got a nook for her birthday but didn't like it and is returning it, I already have a kindle3 so was suggesting she get one and let her try mine and she liked it but wouldn't get one because of the locations.

She still can't decide..

Just curious, does your mom have an actual need for print page numbers, or is she just a mom like mine and reason is irrelevant?

[mdovell]

Man I hope this comes out on the DX :-(

[tomsem]

Thought some might find this interesting:

Already noted is the presence of an .apnx file, which seems to be the thing that adds page numbers to a given book. In a hex dump, you can see a string table/dictionary at the top (this one is for 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest'):

{"contentGuid" : "78a941d9", "asin" : "B0031YJFCQ", "codeType" : "EBOK", "fileRevisionId" : "1"} - {"pageMap" : "(1, a, 1), "asin" : "030726999X"}

So we see both the Amazon ASIN and print edition ISBN here.

This is followed by an array of 16 byte values which appear to represent a sequence of numbers arranged in ascending order. I'm guessing that each of these defines an offset to the position that corresponds to the start of a given physical page number. The number of 16 byte values seems to be very close to the number of page numbers in the book (there are a few additional rows of bytes that precede the presumed 'page map' as such, and may have some special significance).

In the book I'm looking at, pages before page "1" do not have page numbers (such as i, ii, iii, iv etc.). (Wonder if that's a limitation of Amazon's page mapping scheme, or just what they did for this particular book?) I'd also note that the last page number (in this case '563') was applied to content that almost certainly spreads over more than one physical page. The ebook edition puts the copyright page at the end, as well as a cover image, these should not be labeled as being page '563'. Okay, so it is not perfect, at least in this case.

Presumably this scheme also works with Topaz format books, a requirement Amazon would need to take on, and it's something they can do after material is submitted to them for publishing.

It's not clear how self-published books can get page numbers, since 'locations' don't exist until you bake the .azw file. Maybe it leverages NCX page list? (the latest version of KindleGen appears to store a copy of the source files..).

There are also two other file extensions that may come with any Kindle Store book now (not just those with page numbers):
.ea - this is an xml file that contains the data for the 'Customers who bought this book also bought' and 'More by this author' lists that now show up after the last page of the book, including ASIN so it can jump to the title's Kindle Store page.
.phl - is an XML file that identifies a position offset of popular highlights in the book. That's probably been there for awhile, since the popular highlights feature was introduced for K2/DX.

I assume the .apnx comes along when you download the book, the other two might be updated with each sync.

[DiapDealer]

I assume the .apnx comes along when you download the book

I rather doubt it, since you can download the ebook (a single file) to your PC and sideload it on your Kindle. There's no mention that you have to be using Whispersync to utilize the Page Numbers feature -- so, it's more likely that this info exists in one of the header records of the ebook, and then the Kindle dumps it to a .apnx file upon first opening the ebook (for more convenient access).

I'm fully aware that I could be full of spit , though.

[Piper_]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Thought some might find this interesting:
[...]\

Very. Thanks!

Originally Posted by tomsem

In the book I'm looking at, pages before page "1" do not have page numbers (such as i, ii, iii, iv etc.). (Wonder if that's a limitation of Amazon's page mapping scheme, or just what they did for this particular book?) I'd also note that the last page number (in this case '563') was applied to content that almost certainly spreads over more than one physical page. The ebook edition puts the copyright page at the end, as well as a cover image, these should not be labeled as being page '563'. Okay, so it is not perfect, at least in this case.

What they do in those i, ii, iii, iv and end sections is just not show any page number. Location numbers still show.

I assume the .apnx comes along when you download the book, the other two might be updated with each sync.

It comes when you connect to whispernet. (3g or wifi)
(I did do a "sync & check" from the menu the first time, but not the second, and they still came.

Note that they only send them for the books that are in your archive - if you used another account to buy a book, you have to re-register into that account to get the page file.

[yifanlu]

Hmm, it seems Amazon may be offering free AT&T wifi with 3.1. I found a file hid.csv in the updates:

attwifi, @kindle.com, us, ATT-main, ATT, wispr-1.0-att, cn=secure.wayport.com, an=secure.att.com
wayport_access, @kindle.com, us, ATT-legacy, ATT, wispr-1.0-att

I don't want to lose my hacks, so can someone with 3.1 test if AT&T wifi (at let's say Starbucks) work?

[Piper_]

Originally Posted by yifanlu

Hmm, it seems Amazon may be offering free AT&T wifi with 3.1. I found a file hid.csv in the updates:

attwifi, @kindle.com, us, ATT-main, ATT, wispr-1.0-att, cn=secure.wayport.com, an=secure.att.com
wayport_access, @kindle.com, us, ATT-legacy, ATT, wispr-1.0-att

I don't want to lose my hacks, so can someone with 3.1 test if AT&T wifi (at let's say Starbucks) work?

Yes, it's part of the package. (eta: not the update package, but it came with the K3 since the beginning.)

Way down on the Kindle sales page, it says:

"Includes free Wi-Fi access at AT&T hotspots across the U.S."