Firmware Update 5.4.2 has arrived with Goodreads integration - Page 3

jswinden · 11-19-2013, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

Woah, they really overdid it with the Software Update screen. The text is HUGE on here compared to my K3.

Excited about the Cloud Collections and Goodreads integration.

I wished the normal reading text was that bold and easy to read, though smaller!

ezzkmo · 11-19-2013, 12:11 PM

It seems like this is a way for them to get rid of the fragmentation of different collections on different devices. They are basically taking all collections ever created and putting them in one place (on your account). That's why I'm seeing every collection I've ever made practically all of a sudden pop up on my PW2 after the update. Annoying at first, but once I've cleaned it up I assume this is my master collection that will sync to all devices now and in the future, which will be nice. Change it in one place, and the rest follow suit.

Although I'm not sure about this, but what if I want to have one kindle with fantasy books and collections on it, and my other one I want history books and collections. I feel like if I make a "Robert Jordan" collection for example on the fantasy kindle, it will then spill over and create that collection on my history kindle, even if I don't have or want any Robert Jordan books on that one. That could be problematic for some people.

jswinden · 11-19-2013, 12:19 PM

If cleaning up the collections on the PW2 (or any device/app) translates into cleaning up the Cloud Collections, then great. But if it means you are only cleaning them up on your PW2 and the Cloud Collections will still be haunted by the Ghosts of Collections Past, then epic fail.

BTW, is it just me are does the text in books now look a little darker and clearer. Perhaps Amazon tweaked the font rendering, or my eyes are just having fun fooling my brain this morning. They do that a lot!

Ralob · 11-19-2013, 12:24 PM

I admit that the GR integration is somewhat of a letdown. I expected better navigation and options (such as seeing an entire series when looking at a book). It is okay, but it is kind of cumbersome. Maybe I'll enjoy it more when I get used to it.

nynaevelan · 11-19-2013, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jswinden

Exactly what I was thinking! The easiest place to create and maintain collections is on a computer (PC or Mac) due to the speed and the physical keyboard, not to mention a nice big monitor.

You are not going to be able to use the computer because the kindle for pc app is not syncing with the cloud collections. But it is syncing the k4pc collections that previously synced to the cloud.

So we are stuck cleaning up our collections on an actual device. While I appreciate Amazon allowing us a little more control, this is going to be a PITA because you will have to maintain all your collections on all your devices. I do not know about you all but I do not keep as many books on my Fire as I do my paperwhite, but I am gonna have to keep my collections there because if I delete any off of the Fire it deletes them from the Cloud which in turn deletes them from my PW. Ugh!!

HarryT · 11-19-2013, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jswinden

Most of my collections stored in the Cloud are from long ago devices I no longer own. We need a better system. We need Amazon programmers who can actually effing read and understand what collections are and how to make them easily manageable!

Forgive the obvious question, Jack, but if these are collections that you no longer use, why not delete them? There's no way that Amazon can know which collections you do or don't use; it seems a little unreasonable to be angry at them.

nynaevelan · 11-19-2013, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jswinden

I just noticed my PW2 never even updated to 5.4.1. It always has WiFi on, so I wonder why it never did that update? I will have to wait to manually install 5.4.2 as my main computer is a Mac and tethering the PW2 to a Mac is a PITA.

It sounds like the Cloud Collections are as effed up as the collections implemented on the Kindle for iOS sometime back. Over the years many of us explored various ways to sort our collections. So now we end up with a large number of duplicates, for example:

.History
-History
1 History
History

Most of my collections stored in the Cloud are from long ago devices I no longer own. We need a better system. We need Amazon programmers who can actually effing read and understand what collections are and how to make them easily manageable!

I've never seen a 5.4.1, and I checked as late as yesterday. I am assuming this was something internal at Amazon and never released to us.

And yes they are just as effed up, but I am not going to complain too much, this is better than what we had with the non-working import collections feature. This cleanup should be a one time fix, but if you keep your wifi off, you are going to have to deal with the ignore/connect option if you make any collections changes on a device.

Jessica Lares · 11-19-2013, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jswinden

I just noticed my PW2 never even updated to 5.4.1. It always has WiFi on, so I wonder why it never did that update? I will have to wait to manually install 5.4.2 as my main computer is a Mac and tethering the PW2 to a Mac is a PITA.

How is it hard? I just hooked mine up to my MacBook Pro and pushed the file over.

nynaevelan · 11-19-2013, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ralob

I admit that the GR integration is somewhat of a letdown. I expected better navigation and options (such as seeing an entire series when looking at a book). It is okay, but it is kind of cumbersome. Maybe I'll enjoy it more when I get used to it.

I am hoping this is just phase 1 and later updates will allow us to integrate with our custom shelves. If not, I will stick with my Calibre/Goodreads integration. Though I do know I will get some usage out of my Want to Read shelf.

jswinden · 11-19-2013, 12:30 PM

Okay I just deleted one of my Ghosts of Collections Past on my PW2. I got a popup window saying this collection would be deleted from all devices via the Cloud. Sure enough after it was deleted on my PW2 I synced my iPad Kindle app and this Ghost of Collections Past was deleted from there as well. So this is good. But, I would have preferred not to have all the Ghosts of Collections Past suddenly appear on my PW2 to haunt it. Perhaps if we could have chosen which would appear, or if we could manage the Cloud better from computer before we import them, then it would have been much better. as it is, this update imported everything whether we wanted them or not. Bad Amazon, bad...rolled up newspaper in hand...

ETA: Universal editing of Cloud works with PW2 but not Kindle for iOS. Edits on iOS app are just for that app, at least currently. I haven't checked other apps or devices yet. I also noticed that the sorting schemes used by the PW2 and Kindle for iOS are not the same and collections are thus sorted in different orders when sorting by collection name.

DreamWriter · 11-19-2013, 12:46 PM

Here's a link to Amazon's press release: Goodreads and Kindle FreeTime Now Available on the New Kindle Paperwhite.

nynaevelan · 11-19-2013, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jswinden

ETA: Universal editing of Cloud works with PW2 but not Kindle for iOS. Edits on iOS app are just for that app, at least currently. I haven't checked other apps or devices yet. I also noticed that the sorting schemes used by the PW2 and Kindle for iOS are not the same and collections are thus sorted in different orders when sorting by collection name.

To get around this issue I am changing to a numbering system in front of the name of the collection.

nynaevelan · 11-19-2013, 12:58 PM

I love it that now your Cloud books can be put into collections also.

Now that I have all my collections created, now the tedious job of putting them where they belong.

jswinden · 11-19-2013, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

To get around this issue I am changing to a numbering system in front of the name of the collection.

Me too. Plus I cut way back on the number of ghost collections I had by deleting all duplicates and also deleting some collections I never really used much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

I love it that now your Cloud books can be put into collections also.

Yes, but I would like to turn them off from always being displayed. Seems like it would have made more sense to only display them in collections when viewing Cloud items, and not display them when viewing Device items. Too much clutter.

shanghaichica · 11-19-2013, 01:28 PM

It seems that there is no goodreads integration in the UK?

11-19-2013, 12:11 PM	#32
ezzkmo igloo appraiser Posts: 36 Karma: 933022 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: California, USA Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Kindle Keyboard	It seems like this is a way for them to get rid of the fragmentation of different collections on different devices. They are basically taking all collections ever created and putting them in one place (on your account). That's why I'm seeing every collection I've ever made practically all of a sudden pop up on my PW2 after the update. Annoying at first, but once I've cleaned it up I assume this is my master collection that will sync to all devices now and in the future, which will be nice. Change it in one place, and the rest follow suit. Although I'm not sure about this, but what if I want to have one kindle with fantasy books and collections on it, and my other one I want history books and collections. I feel like if I make a "Robert Jordan" collection for example on the fantasy kindle, it will then spill over and create that collection on my history kindle, even if I don't have or want any Robert Jordan books on that one. That could be problematic for some people. Last edited by ezzkmo; 11-19-2013 at 12:14 PM.

11-19-2013, 12:30 PM	#40
jswinden Nameless Being	Okay I just deleted one of my Ghosts of Collections Past on my PW2. I got a popup window saying this collection would be deleted from all devices via the Cloud. Sure enough after it was deleted on my PW2 I synced my iPad Kindle app and this Ghost of Collections Past was deleted from there as well. So this is good. But, I would have preferred not to have all the Ghosts of Collections Past suddenly appear on my PW2 to haunt it. Perhaps if we could have chosen which would appear, or if we could manage the Cloud better from computer before we import them, then it would have been much better. as it is, this update imported everything whether we wanted them or not. Bad Amazon, bad...rolled up newspaper in hand... ETA: Universal editing of Cloud works with PW2 but not Kindle for iOS. Edits on iOS app are just for that app, at least currently. I haven't checked other apps or devices yet. I also noticed that the sorting schemes used by the PW2 and Kindle for iOS are not the same and collections are thus sorted in different orders when sorting by collection name. Last edited by jswinden; 11-19-2013 at 12:37 PM.

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11-19-2013, 12:19 PM	#33
jswinden Nameless Being	If cleaning up the collections on the PW2 (or any device/app) translates into cleaning up the Cloud Collections, then great. But if it means you are only cleaning them up on your PW2 and the Cloud Collections will still be haunted by the Ghosts of Collections Past, then epic fail. BTW, is it just me are does the text in books now look a little darker and clearer. Perhaps Amazon tweaked the font rendering, or my eyes are just having fun fooling my brain this morning. They do that a lot!

11-19-2013, 12:24 PM	#34
Ralob Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: iPad Pro, Kobo Libra 2, PW4	I admit that the GR integration is somewhat of a letdown. I expected better navigation and options (such as seeing an entire series when looking at a book). It is okay, but it is kind of cumbersome. Maybe I'll enjoy it more when I get used to it.

11-19-2013, 12:46 PM	#41
DreamWriter Books are brain food. Posts: 2,950 Karma: 4836916 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: U.S. Device: Paperwhite · Fire HD6/HD8/HD10 · Galaxy Tab A7	Here's a link to Amazon's press release: Goodreads and Kindle FreeTime Now Available on the New Kindle Paperwhite.

11-19-2013, 12:58 PM	#43
nynaevelan eBook Junkie Posts: 1,526 Karma: 1464018 Join Date: May 2010 Location: USA Device: Kindle Fire 2020, Kindle PW2	I love it that now your Cloud books can be put into collections also. Now that I have all my collections created, now the tedious job of putting them where they belong.

11-19-2013, 01:28 PM	#45
shanghaichica Guru Posts: 991 Karma: 5782970 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Scribe,Kindle Oasis 3, iPad Pro 11,15 Pro Max,iPad mini 7,colorsoft	It seems that there is no goodreads integration in the UK?