Kindle Firmware 5.12.5

[jhowell]

Since a small set of people have been given advance access to the Dark Mode button in the quick icon toolbar, I have been wondering whether the upcoming feature to show the current book cover on the lock screen might also have been made available to a select few.

As far as I can tell the option to activate this feature will not appear on a device that has ads enabled. If the feature becomes available it will appear as a new choice under Settings, Device Options:

Show Current Title on Lock Screen
Set the cover of the title you are reading to appear on your lock screen

If anyone sees this choice on their Kindle please let the rest of us know.

[melksnor]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Since a small set of people have been given advance access to the Dark Mode button in the quick icon toolbar, I have been wondering whether the upcoming feature to show the current book cover on the lock screen might also have been made available to a select few.

As far as I can tell the option to activate this feature will not appear on a device that has ads enabled. If the feature becomes available it will appear as a new choice under Settings, Device Options:



If anyone sees this choice on their Kindle please let the rest of us know.

Maybe a stupid question, but has anyone seen the communication between Amazon's servers and a kindle that toggles features? Is that something that's observable with a tool like wireshark?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by melksnor

Maybe a stupid question, but has anyone seen the communication between Amazon's servers and a kindle that toggles features? Is that something that's observable with a tool like wireshark?

The Experimentation & Optimization group at Amazon runs WebLab to perform A/B testing on Amazon products and services. The interface to this for Kindle devices is called KWIS. (I don't know what that acronym stands for.)

The tests performed by WebLab are called "experiments" and the new features being tested are called "treatments". (Some of the terminology is reminiscent of pharmaceutical trials.) Interaction with WebLab servers appears to be over HTTP, delivering XML files such as this:

  <weblabExperimentToTreatmentMap>
    <entry>
      <key>AUTOSHELF_WEBLAB_KFA_78048</key>
      <value>T2</value>
    </entry>
  </weblabExperimentToTreatmentMap>
  <pollInterval>21600</pollInterval>

This enables treatment #2 for experiment AUTOSHELF_WEBLAB_KFA_78048.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Options that used to be in Settings and use the Internet:
Aa -> More
Book Mentions
Popular Highlights
(About this Book) Don't know were that was before?

What do any of these have to do with sharing or privacy?
"Book Mentions" just means that if a different book is mentioned in the book that you are reading, it will be underlined and (I think) there will be a link to buy/find out more info about that book.
"Popular Highlights" means that the passages that many people have highlighted will be highlighted in your book automatically.
(I turn both of these off, because I have no interest in either)
"About this book" I'm pretty sure this means that when you open a book, you'll get a pop-up giving you the book blurb from Amazon, typical time to read, and sharing options, if you have that set up on your Kindle. This is the only one that could possibly have anything to do with sharing or privacy, but you have to explicitly put in your account info for whatever social network you would be sharing to, and it doesn't happen automatically - you have to initiate it. (with the possible exception of Goodreads...you can set it to automatically mark the book as "currently reading" if you so choose, but again, you have to explicitly enter your credentials in order to have the option, and it's very easy to turn it off, even if you have turned it off in the past)

Shari

PS--I still don't know what "SM" stands for in this case

[John F]

Originally Posted by shalym

What do any of these have to do with sharing or privacy?
"Book Mentions" just means that if a different book is mentioned in the book that you are reading, it will be underlined and (I think) there will be a link to buy/find out more info about that book.
"Popular Highlights" means that the passages that many people have highlighted will be highlighted in your book automatically.
(I turn both of these off, because I have no interest in either)
"About this book" I'm pretty sure this means that when you open a book, you'll get a pop-up giving you the book blurb from Amazon, typical time to read, and sharing options, if you have that set up on your Kindle. This is the only one that could possibly have anything to do with sharing or privacy, but you have to explicitly put in your account info for whatever social network you would be sharing to, and it doesn't happen automatically - you have to initiate it. (with the possible exception of Goodreads...you can set it to automatically mark the book as "currently reading" if you so choose, but again, you have to explicitly enter your credentials in order to have the option, and it's very easy to turn it off, even if you have turned it off in the past)

Shari

PS--I still don't know what "SM" stands for in this case

Doesn't popular highlights send your highlights to be shared with others?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by John F

Doesn't popular highlights send your highlights to be shared with others?

Hmmm...I guess it does. I wonder if there is actually any way to determine who highlighted what, though?
If you're worried about anyone *ever* having access to what you've highlighted/read on any wifi capable reader, though, the only solution is to never turn on wifi.

Shari

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by John F

Doesn't popular highlights send your highlights to be shared with others?

The Description of the feature in the Kindle UI is:

Popular Highlights
Display passages that are most frequently highlighted by other Kindle users.

It says nothing about how those popular highlights are gathered. I assume that this setting has no impact on that.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by shalym

Hmmm...I guess it does. I wonder if there is actually any way to determine who highlighted what, though?
If you're worried about anyone *ever* having access to what you've highlighted/read on any wifi capable reader, though, the only solution is to never turn on wifi.

Shari

There used to be a feature called Shared Highlights, which would show the authorship of the highlights. It required opt-in to allow them to be shared, and then the other person had to Follow you. And it only worked on certain Kindle models. This never really caught on, and now you can go to Goodreads and share and Follow. I wish THOSE highlights and notes came back to Kindle in the manner Shared Highlights used to (i.e. not anonymized). One could imagine authors or literary critics sharing their notes, which would raise their profiles and perhaps spur sales of the books they annotate.

Popular highlights are anonymized, always. If somehow the passages I highlight get counted towards that, it is not of any concern to me. I often share these to Goodreads, where anyone can see them.

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The Description of the feature in the Kindle UI is:



It says nothing about how those popular highlights are gathered. I assume that this setting has no impact on that.

Appologies if this has already been answered but a lot of this is with Goodreads integration. You can share highlights on your account automatically if you have your amazon account connected. THere is a way to turn it off on Goodreads but they don't make it easy IMO. It's a "social" feature both companies (although Amazon technically bought GR years ago) promote to make the kindle feature seem more exciting. That's probably why they play it up as an exciting thing when they improve or add to this existing feature

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by HLS

I dislike 5.21.4. I hate the new options under Aa. I can not get the line spacing right. It looks too wide even onthe minimal spacing option. So annoyed. Glad I moved most of my purchases to KOBO

I just discovered another fun fact --- when I was scrolling down my fonts with this new menu (to check something for another threads question), it keeps selecting a new font if my fingers in the wrong place with the scroll screen. Also very slow and laggy if you want to scroll through all custom fonts.

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Have you tried a restart?

I have a few times since. It is better to where the book is not locked but it's still quirky sometimes and slow. I have no idea why my Amazon devices seem to hate me more and more.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

I have no idea why my Amazon devices seem to hate me more and more.

Personally I've found Kindles work best without using Amazon servers at all. I sideload everything and install only the updates I want, often manually. Wifi is off almost all the time. I get that goes against the whole idea of using a Kindle, but I too had various issues back when I downloaded books and updates directly from Amazon. And still seeing posts about glitchy updates and downloading/syncing woes in 2020 makes me glad I no longer rely on those things.

[melksnor]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Personally I've found Kindles work best without using Amazon servers at all. I sideload everything and install only the updates I want, often manually. Wifi is off almost all the time. I get that goes against the whole idea of using a Kindle, but I too had various issues back when I downloaded books and updates directly from Amazon. And still seeing posts about glitchy updates and downloading/syncing woes in 2020 makes me glad I no longer rely on those things.

I'm like this too, but do kind of miss the wikipedia integration because of that.

Is there a known set of amazon servers to blacklist from dns or router level?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by melksnor

I'm like this too, but do kind of miss the wikipedia integration because of that.

I find it easier and faster to use wiki on my phone or tablet (either of which is usually at hand) than on my Kindles. Not to mention color photographs and stuff like that.

[Atunah]

Huh. I use my kindles often with wifi on. I would like it on all the time, but I read outside at times and wifi is spotty. I use the cloud, goodreads, linked to twitter, ratings, etc. Its all linked up for me and I have had no issues at all. I have a lot of books, lots of collections. I am fully into the amazon ecosystem and I love it. No matter what kindle I grab its all there the same way.

Wikipedia, dictionary, search. I use all of it. I guess its all about what one wants out of it. I just like easy.