[tomsem]

Kindle app is not part of the system firmware: most bug updates for Kindle app come as silent ‘component’ updates (there are many dozens of components, most of which are services that users do not interact with directly). There will typically be several Kindle app updates between firmware updates, but as there is no notification associated with component updates, it is difficult to keep track of them, and even if you do, there is nothing to tell you what changed. (You have to go to All Apps panel in Settings, scroll through and select each one to see what the component version is).

Based on what I’ve observed, I think it is probably true that for major (x.y as opposed to x.y.z) updates, system (firmware) and component updates are bundled in the .bin file that you can download. But minor system update .bin downloads probabably do not have any component updates bundled, else they’d have to keep incrementing the version every time they wanted to update any of the dozens of components. Fire needs to be connected to internet occasionally to keep up with component updates following any system update, major or minor.

Anyway the point is that you cannot assume that if something still seems broken after a system update that it will remain broken until the next one (as with Kindles). Many fixes and even some minor features will just show up (again, as long as you aren’t offline all the time), and don’t require restarting the device. If something is not working correctly, you can always go to Settings and Check For Updates (when device is online of course) to see if everything is up to date, and see if it says if any component updates are ready.