[tomsem]

The Kindle app on the Fire gets updates ‘out of band’ from System updates, though sometimes System update seems to trigger a bunch of ‘component’ updates (including Kindle).

To determine the version of the Kindle app, go to Settings, Apps & Games, Manage All Applications, and then ALL. Kindle app will be listed there, and if you tap that the current version is 14.39.100 (Kindle for Android latest is 8.49.100). This update adds the new ‘Aa’ settings panels (finally). This actually makes it very similar to Kindle.

You are referring to the ‘reading progress’ indicator. It’s still there, there are 2 ways to restore your preference. The easiest is to tap in lower left corner until the desired indicator shows. For books with page numbers, you’ll see ‘Page x of n’ as one of the options (the other options are Time left in chapter, and Time left in book). For those that don’t have page numbers, Location x of n will be displayed instead of Page x of n’.

You can also choose this in the new Aa/More panel.

Amazon no longer refers to these devices as ‘Kindle Fire’, it is just ‘Fire’.

I also notice that the simplified Home screens have rolled out to 7th generation Fire, which I like!

Previous generation Fires may not get these updates to Home Screen and Kindle app. My 4th generation Fire HD6 has the same version of FireOS as my 7th generation HD8 (5.6.8.0), but does not have simplified Home Screen or the latest Kindle app version (so no Series grouping or updated Aa settings). These changes appear to be related, since Books and Docs used to be on separate Home screens and those are both gone.