Firmware Update Kindle NT firmware 4.1 impressions?

[Zeebra]

Seems to me by my quick testing that the partial refresh is even cleaner looking now with the 4.1 firmware. Not that I was complaining before, I wasn't a stickler for some faint ghosting using the partial refresh setting, but now the ghosting is hardly visible at all when I refresh the page.

[dukesilver]

So does the new font make it look better than the KT now? I wonder if the Touch will be receiving a similar font update soon.

[rueben_]

is there any way to update my kindle if I had the Jailbreak hack i keep getting unsuccessful

Originally Posted by dukesilver

So does the new font make it look better than the KT now? I wonder if the Touch will be receiving a similar font update soon.

From what I've read there is NO NEW font. It still has the same three font choices, but supposedly they have improved the rendering of these. I wouldn't look for new fonts on the current Kindle eInks. Amazon has stuck with these three lame fonts for ever now and they don't seem to be interested in EVER giving us more choices. At least on the K4 you can substitute your own fonts without jailbreaking. On the K5 no such luck.

[dukesilver]

Originally Posted by jswinden

From what I've read there is NO NEW font. It still has the same three font choices, but supposedly they have improved the rendering of these. I wouldn't look for new fonts on the current Kindle eInks. Amazon has stuck with these three lame fonts for ever now and they don't seem to be interested in EVER giving us more choices. At least on the K4 you can substitute your own fonts without jailbreaking. On the K5 no such luck.

Yeah, I read that too. I should have actually asked if the font rendering is any sharper than the KTs. I'm just curious how the two compare now.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Zeebra

I dunno, the on/off WiFi thing seems to be more in line with how people are used to setting cell phones in "Airplane mode" so I think we'd be used to it. I sort of like seeing a little airplane in the top now when the wifi is off.

It isn't terminology that annoys me, what they did was take the menu option away from us instead of simply change the wording on the menu. You now have to jump out of book and go to settings to turn WiFi off once you sync to the furthest page read.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by jswinden

From what I've read there is NO NEW font. It still has the same three font choices, but supposedly they have improved the rendering of these. I wouldn't look for new fonts on the current Kindle eInks. Amazon has stuck with these three lame fonts for ever now and they don't seem to be interested in EVER giving us more choices. At least on the K4 you can substitute your own fonts without jailbreaking. On the K5 no such luck.

I notice no different in font contrast before or after update on my K4. They seems to have the same contrast. I went back to my custom font after they got my hopes up.

[ThomasC]

I noticed a slight improvement in all my K4NT stock fonts. All of them (regular, condensed, sans serif) are slightly bolder. This makes the contrast seem a bit better. However, the background screen really has not changed/lightened and is still a lot greyer than my older K3 KB and DXG imho.

I'm finding that the new sans serif is now almost as good as the custom one I was using and even the regular font is more readable. So, an overall improvement imho. Thanks Amazon.


Not crazy about the 'plane mode' not being able to be turned on/off on standard menus either. Maybe someone will find a 'hot key' combination to do this?

As an aside, I found that if you are using the non-hacking Caliber plug-in 'Kindle Collection' to modify your fonts and then want to go back to the newer 4.1 fonts you need to first select diff fonts (via your menu) until you are back to stock fonts, then restart your K4. If you don't do this you seem to get stuck with the older K4 fonts.

[NiLuJe]

They did update the fonts, and they're indeed a tiiiiiiiny bit darker, and possibly sharper (better hinting bytecode).

There's a link to some real kindle screenshots comparing the two versions somewhere, but I can't get my hands on it right now.

The KT (5.1.0) is using the same version of Caecilia as the K4 4.0, NOT this updated version.

Here's a crappy screenshot of the two versions rendered by a somewhat similar font rendering engine than on the Kindle:

(4.0/5.x on the left, 4.1.0 on the right) [The commas are prettier, for example ]

[Zeebra]

I don't have another K4NT to compare to so I'm only going off memory but the screen looks very clean to me now. Like I said the partial refresh doesn't leave any noticeable ghosting now, whether that's due to the new firmware or because I've used the K4 so much it just redraws better over time I really can't say.

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

They did update the fonts, and they're indeed a tiiiiiiiny bit darker, and possibly sharper (better hinting bytecode).

There's a link to some real kindle screenshots comparing the two versions somewhere, but I can't get my hands on it right now.

The KT (5.1.0) is using the same version of Caecilia as the K4 4.0, NOT this updated version.

Here's a crappy screenshot of the two versions rendered by a somewhat similar font rendering engine than on the Kindle:

(4.0/5.x on the left, 4.1.0 on the right) [The commas are prettier, for example ]

I haven't got the 5.1.1 update, but I'm hoping they made the same font improvements since the Kindle Touch won't allow the font substitution. I just sold my K4NT so I cannot test the 4.1.

[akleiw]

Amazon decided for some reason to change the letter K to I in one of the screen savers.

Edit: Only use the solution below if for some reason you are unable to uninstall the screensaver hack. There's now an uninstaller for one of the hacks, although I haven't tried it myself.

If you've got some screen saver hack installed, you should uninstall it before updating, or you could download this file 01N.png (don't rename it!), copy it to the directory where you keep your custom screensavers and retry the update. The screen saver hack will continue to work.

[m2tts]

Originally Posted by akleiw

If you've got some screen saver hack installed, you should uninstall it before updating, or you could download this file 01N.png (don't rename it!), copy it to the directory where you keep your custom screensavers and retry the update. The screen saver hack will continue to work.

I can't believe it was just a matter of tricking the update into thinking the same screensavers were loaded! Thank you for the suggestion. It worked.

Why Amazon refuses to just let you use your own screensavers has baffled me from the first Kindle. The Nook has always let you do that. I guess they just think the average user is not going to know enough about digital images to get them in the right format. They could have an online widget where you could upload the images you wanted to apply as screensavers that would convert them and charge you for the effort (not that I would use that route).

[elbioleg]

It also worked for me. Thank you very much.

[tvjohn]

Originally Posted by akleiw

...... or you could download this file 01N.png (don't rename it!), copy it to the directory where you keep your custom screensavers and retry the update. The screen saver hack will continue to work.

Thank you kindly for posting this

Out of curiosity, how did you get to the solution, since presumably you had the hack installed yourself?