Kindle firmware version 5.7.2

[Rains]

I see you all mentioned no dots under books in the list view, but is that also true for cover view (even without the new home screen)? I agree that's very useful also to quickly see hoy long/short a book is. If they did remove it, that's very sad. :/

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Axanar

Hi! Thanks for the reply. Man I am a bit frustrated by this update. I do like the overall changes. But some stuff they better not have touched.



Well I have the Kindle Paperwhite 2 (6th Gen). On the older Updates and on rare occasions the Beta-Browser crashed when dealing with bigger webpages. And sometimes the Kindle Store crashed on exactly that one menu entry.

The menu issue (the above screenshot) might not affect you because you seem to be getting US content. If you look inside the Kindle folder under the .active_somewhat_blah folder, you see as store folder and if you go inside RemoteContent, then you see some *.html files with plenty of javascript (?) magic inside. This stuff is being downloaded from the Kindle Store.

Even if you delete the entire store folder and restart your Kindle, the content is being pulled down once again. I am quite sure, that the javascript code inside might be causing this issue. You might have noticed that the Kindle Store often shows different content, different clickable content and menu entries. From time to time they even re-structure the Store.

I bet during translation of the pages that someone has blown up some metadata inside there. It could also be that the javascript engine triggers some functionality (like umlauts) that it can't deal with and thus cause the entire thing to reboot. Though I believe the underlaying Kernel is Linux and thus under no circumstances should cause a reboot. It only affects that one menu entry.

Another theory could be that the compiler used (or compile options) might render wrong CPU mnemonic (machine code) that may (in this particular situation) trigger some crappy code segments and causes the crash. I would be able to debug it (I am programmer and Linux Kernel Driver developer). But I don't intend to waste my time with a reading device.

With the 5.7.2 update things got horrible here. I was laying in the bed a few moments ago and read that particular book ...

• Geldanlage fundiert

... sadly I gave up after a while, after realizing that they also changed the appearance of the fonts (somehow they look thinner now - which causes a lot of pain for me to read the words (I am short sighted)).

After closing the book the entire Kindle rebooted again.

This is now the 5th or 6th reboot because of crashes after I updated to 5.7.2 earlier today (german time). Some crashes happened when swiping through my book library just by changing one page to another (from the 8 pages I have), one crash happened in the Kindle Store and some crashes just by reading books (swiping and closing).

Now from the "major" update perspective. We don't really know what they changed. Maybe a new compiler was used, maybe they switched from using gtk2 to gtk3 (this explains using the new symbolic icons), maybe a new kernel was used. Maybe simply stupid programming issues (like memory leaks and so on). Who knows.

The percentage issue I explain after the following quote:



Please look above. I was referring to the book above. The book showed me 23% inside the book and had 26% outside printed on the cover. That book has about 300 pages all in all. The 1000 pages book that I was mentioning was just a theoretical thing. Let's pretend you may have a 1000 pages book installed. Then 23% of 1000 pages result a different value (page 187) than 25% of 1000 pages (page 200). In theory the values differ by 13 pages.

Now the books that show me 100% when I swipe to the cover (within the opened book) and then close the book:

• Aktienanleihen
• Easy Turkish
• Erstellung eines Kindle-Buchs
• Handbuch der Indizes
• Handbuch der Rohstoffe
• Kompaktratgeber Immobilieninvestment
• Leitfaden Businessplan
• Technische Analyse der Finanzmärkte

Thanks for the help. I will reply tomorrow. Good night!

Agree on the 1000 page book but you were not looking at a 1000 page book.
Ps: have you restarted the Paperwhite?

[Zeebra]

I've seen the bug where you go to the cover of the book and then go to the home screen and it says 100%. Other than that I haven't seen the other bugs mentioned with percentages.

[Pyjam]

Is it now possible to have different settings for each collections? Some sorted by last opened, some sorted by authors, etc.

Thank you.

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by Offie

I strongly dislike what this update did with the list view.

Whats the point of writing "collection" in all caps under collections? As if we didn't know there are collections already from their title and from the number of items that's inside indicated under it. It's just distracting. Before, it was simply in bold and worked very well.

The little dots that indicated the length of a book as well as our progression in it are replaced by a percentage number, so it's more text that's distracting from the book titles, and now there's no way to know how long a book is just by looking at the list.

Books that are recognized as 'kindle documents', in other words most mobi books sent from calibre, have 'kindle document' in all caps written under their title and author. It's just awful, with all that additional text it's a struggle to focus on the book title and author.

As for the half-transparent lines that have been added to separate books... Same thing, it's distracting to me. Worked just fine without them, but then again now that there's all this new textual info instead of nothing or the little dots, I guess they had to add the lines to separate things.

And did we really need, on the right of each book, an option button? Was it so difficult to just tap and hold to go to book options?

I don't like the cover view and don't like the new home screen either; I was very happy with the list view from before so this update is huge disappointment for me; for the first time ever with Kindles I strongly wish it were possible to downgrade. All in all I feel the screen is suddenly messy and too loaded.

What do you all think of the new list view?

Agree with everything except the options button. Kindle is meant to be a simple to use as possible, even for people who never touch a computer. Adding a visual queu instead of expecting people to know press and hold is a good thing.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Which is proof that you're "damned if you do, and damned if you don't". No matter what change is made, some people will like it, and others dislike it.

I would say, it's proof that forcing updates down people's throats, especially updates that change user interface with no undo option, is boneheaded and meglomaniac, whether people think your benevolent or not.

[Atunah]

Axanar, I think you said you send feedback to amazon about your issues? That is the first thing to do. You obviously have some bugs there. I can't check the same books you did as I don't have access to the german store, even though I could read then as I am german. But I live in the US now.

I also use a Voyage now and I know my paperwhite 1st generation had a lot of issues. I had issues with reboots, lockups and all kinds of things. But I never used a PW2 or PW3 so I don't know if that was just my device or what.

I don't ever look inside my kindle folders, outside the documents folder. I don't really wanna know what is in there.

But I totally get being frustrated when stuff doesn't work. I gave away my PW as I couldn't take it anymore. I just thought I had a lemon or too many collections or too many books. No clue. Never had any of those issues with the Voyage. But I don't think that model is an option for you guys outside of the US.

I hope you can get it it at least to the point you can read on it.

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by LucyOne

I updated my Kindle PW2 and my books (not bought on Amazon) loaded onto it via USB don't show covers anymore.
Has anyone noticed this on their device too?

Edit: Calibre seems to transfer covers, but not USB sideloading.

I have covers on all my books. But I synced them over using Calibre. I don't have any books I dragged and dropped.

[kindleBunny]

I have updated by downloading the appropriate bin file, the jailbreak was kept, screensaver hack restored, but I have run into some sort of bug.

If I enter My library, the folders I have (collections) don't show all the books they contain. For example, A Song of Ice and Fire only shows 3 documents (2 sent-to-kindle and one bought from Amazon), even though if I search for Game of Thrones, I find the book and it is shown as already added to the A Song of Ice and Fire folder that has 13 documents (as shown between brackets next to the name). I restarted the Kindle but nothing changed.

Even for accessing KUAL that was in the folder Utils, I had to search for it when restoring the hacks.

Any ideas are appreciated.

Thanks.


LE Solved, apparently I had to select All, instead of Downloaded, even if the bold fonted setting is actually the not selected one. Silly bunny.

[Offie]

Originally Posted by Solarin

I think the issue that all technology companies face is that everyone wants everything to be an option. We see it with smartphones where 100 different people can have 100 different ideas for what features they want to be opt-in or opt-out.

The difference with kindles though, is that most users spend 99% of their time reading on the kindle. Dots vs. percentages in the list view is something that most users honestly would not care about. Amazon is probably just trying to make it the most user friendly as possible, while also keeping the options menu less complicated as possible.

It is true that I like to customize everything to my liking. I can do it with computers, with phones, with tablets, and with most things in real life; so it's frustrating for me to just have to accept with the Kindle that they changed something that existed and that I really liked to something that just doesn't work as well for me.
As for their option menu - even with the few real options it has, it has been complicated for ever. I'm good with technology but half the time it's a struggle to find the setting I'm looking for in the Kindle. So I'm not sure the number of options is the only problem there. I wouldn't have minded if they had changed that, for example. But maybe it's just me.

You're right that once we're in a book, the menu doesn't matter anymore, and the point of a kindle is reading. So maybe I'm part of a minority of people who take into account a book's length before deciding which book they'll read next, who like a visual indication of progress better than a percentage number.
Especially when I haven't even started a book and the menu shows either "0% READ" or "1 % READ" under it. It's the case for at least half my books. I don't understand how that is any useful, it's more confusing than not.

And I am most certainly in a minority who have honest trouble reading book titles in this new menu system, because there is just too much text too close together and considering my sight problems that's really an annoying change for me.


Bottom line is, I'll get used to it, we'll all get used to it, whether we like it or not, and that's all we can do or say, because choice is nonexistent. I still love the Kindle, it's a great device and all, but I don't love it as much as before.
So, sorry if I complain too much, but I can't help thinking that when you pay for a Kindle Voyage, considering the price it's your right to be choosy and difficult with what it does, is it not?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Offie

So, sorry if I complain too much, but I can't help thinking that when you pay for a Kindle Voyage, considering the price it's your right to be choosy and difficult with what it does, is it not?

Have you sent your feedback to Amazon? They're the only ones who can address your concerns. They do listen to customer feedback.

[Offie]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Have you sent your feedback to Amazon? They're the only ones who can address your concerns. They do listen to customer feedback.

I intend to, I just want to wait a little and make sure I'm reasonable about it.
Anyways, I wouldn't expect much; I'll still buy their devices no matter what since the Kindle voyage is the best ereader in existence if you ask me and I read a lot. And I'm sure they know whatever they do they'll most likely keep their current customers. Plus, as it seems that most people like the new update...
It still won't hurt to tell them nicely that I'm sad the little dots and boldness of characters in collections are gone and replaced by more text, I guess.

[Axanar]

Originally Posted by Offie

I intend to, I just want to wait a little and make sure I'm reasonable about it.

About the Kindle customer service. I reported a few issues yesterday - related to the recent update 5.7.2 and only received pre-formatted text replies. None of the reports I made received an answer, that actually goes into the problem description.

With Amazon you probably deal with a 1st, 2nd, 3rd Level customer support, where you deal with "cheap" call center people rather than the developers behind the Kindle updates.

This is not like in the open source community, where your favority distro offers some bug-trackers like Bugzilla, where you can go and report the issues and have the maintainers or developers directly respond to it.

So most of the reports going to Amazon probably won't ever reach the responsible people.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Axanar

About the Kindle customer service. I reported a few issues yesterday - related to the recent update 5.7.2 and only received pre-formatted text replies. None of the reports I made received an answer, that actually goes into the problem description.

With Amazon you probably deal with a 1st, 2nd, 3rd Level customer support, where you deal with "cheap" call center people rather than the developers behind the Kindle updates.

This is not like in the open source community, where your favority distro offers some bug-trackers like Bugzilla, where you can go and report the issues and have the maintainers or developers directly respond to it.

So most of the reports going to Amazon probably won't ever reach the responsible people.

I find the best way to reach someone who'll give a sensible response is to phone up and ask a specific question, such as "I used to be able to see the size of a book by the length of the row of dots under the name of the book on the library screen. How can I see the length of a book in the new firmware?" That will get you through to someone who will pass your query on to the development team if they're unable to answer it themselves.

[Axanar]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I find the best way to reach someone who'll give a sensible response is to phone up and ask a specific question, such as "..." That will get you through to someone who will pass your query on to the development team if they're unable to answer it themselves.

Of course I share your view here. But please keep in mind that time is an expensive resource. With the 5.7.2 update I reported around 5-6 issues "individually". The same approach we do within the open source community. Each issue receives an individual report so the things won't get mixed and messed up. And if I would end up phoneing with the customer service each time I report something, then I would probably lose 1-2 hours general conversation time. Probably the first 5-10 mins would be wasted by preformatted Q/A stuff in where they tell me unrelated actions that I have to take with the device. At the end I am still no step further. A good bug-tracker would be better so I can report an issue with the kindle, wait for response of the people in charge and then respond on the feedback received. That way the bug number is kept, that way I can time whenever I have time to reply and can even add further things like screenshots, crash logs and so on. Phoning with an underpaid call center guy won't get me anywhere.

[StuBFrost]

Why is it still not possible to display the battery percentage left. Drives me mad trying to guess.