Kindle Firmware 5.12.5

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by idab

Good thing we have 5.12.4 which runs perfectly without bugs

Well, actually...

My Voyage and Kindle 8th Edition hadn't worked with Send to Kindle books when using custom fonts for several releases. 5.12.5 fixed that. Fortunately my PW3 has been "stuck" (by me) at 5.9.7 – which also works for Send to Kindle books when using custom fonts. And it is a little odd that the Kindle Voyage gets 5.12.5 when the PW3 doesn't (even though it's newer).

That said, my PW3, using 5.9.7, still works "as advertised" for buying and borrowing books through Amazon. So I'm not really missing anything.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by melksnor

I read here that it is indeed a new feature to do a full removal:
https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/20...indle-devices/

might be yet another one of those remotely enabled feature adds.

Yikes, that is scary. I hope that is not the case, as I’m sure to do it by mistake.

[John Hopper]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Yikes, that is scary. I hope that is not the case, as I’m sure to do it by mistake.

The article explains that there is a confirmation step after pressing this option, which should help.😀

This is actually a bigger change than the dark mode toggle so it's surprising it's had much less publicity so far.

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by barryem

The PW4 has more than 3 times as many user reviews as the PW3. That isn't proof of anything but it makes it seem likely.



The PW3 is supported. You can still buy and read Kindle books on it. I have a couple of them that I use to loan to my neighbors and it works as well as it ever did.

I don't really care if it gets updates or not. That's about having the latest features. I'm not really into the cool factor. I just like to read and it does that as well as ever.

Barry

End-of-life does not mean something doesn't work. End-of-life means no more new firmware versions when new firmware is released. It means no more new features. So unless 5.12.5 or a later firmware is released for the PW3, I see no indication that the PW3 is not end-of-lifed.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Beggarmaster

Can I ask what firmware version you are on?

One Voyage is at 5.6.1 because that is the last version that does not support the KFX book format. (See the Kindle Formats forum for information on various kindle book formats.)

My other Voyage is running firmware version 5.8.11 because that is the last version that supports kindlets.

You should also know that if you are interested in jailbreaking your Voyages that all 5.12.x versions are extremely hostile to the jailbreak. (See the Kindle Developer's Corner sub-forum for information on jailbreaking.)

[Beggarmaster]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

One Voyage is at 5.6.1 because that is the last version that does not support the KFX book format. (See the Kindle Formats forum for information on various kindle book formats.)

Interesting. Does the introduction of the KFX format somehow work to the detriment of other formats, such that you'd want to avoid it? I'll take a look at that forum.

My other Voyage is running firmware version 5.8.11 because that is the last version that supports kindlets.

I've never even heard of a kindlet. I'll do some googling.

You should also know that if you are interested in jailbreaking your Voyages that all 5.12.x versions are extremely hostile to the jailbreak. (See the Kindle Developer's Corner sub-forum for information on jailbreaking.)

I'm not sure that I want to jailbreak, only because on first glance, it doesn't seem that it offers all that much. I'm primarily looking for the latest non-horrible firmware. Sounds like something in the 5.11.x may be the sweet spot? I plan to have one of these on Airplane mode forever and sideload absolutely everything, while fart around a bit more with connectivity on the other since I do have some books purchased from Amazon.

Thanks so much for your continued help!

[idab]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

End-of-life does not mean something doesn't work. End-of-life means no more new firmware versions when new firmware is released. It means no more new features. So unless 5.12.5 or a later firmware is released for the PW3, I see no indication that the PW3 is not end-of-lifed.

End of life literally means it can no longer be useful

Read the definition. The pw3 is not EOL.

[marioho]

Originally Posted by idab

End of life literally means it can no longer be useful

Read the definition. The pw3 is not EOL.

Could you elaborate on that? That's a tad too generic to me. Specially since EOL implicates different things according to the product being discussed – hardware (if so, what kind), software, home appliance and so on.

I see no problems with JSWolf definition though, given that in general and a priori an EOL product is still perfectly functional to the consumer standpoint. It is the official support that is ceased, with everything that support entails.

You can still have a perfectly usable PC with Windows 98 Standard Edition running on it, but that OS had its EOL by 7/11/2006 and since then you can no longer depend on Microsoft for support of any kind on it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by marioho

Could you elaborate on that? That's a tad too generic to me. Specially since EOL implicates different things according to the product being discussed – hardware (if so, what kind), software, home appliance and so on.

I see no problems with JSWolf definition though, given that in general and a priori an EOL product is still perfectly functional to the consumer standpoint. It is the official support that is ceased, with everything that support entails.

You can still have a perfectly usable PC with Windows 98 Standard Edition running on it, but that OS had its EOL by 7/11/2006 and since then you can no longer depend on Microsoft for support of any kind on it.

Many people still run Windows 7 and Microsoft has EOLed it. Does it no longer work? It still works. It's just that some software no longer runs with Windows 7.

The PW3 might have a problem in that it could be stick with 5.12.4 and that firmware is a mess from what I've read and 5.12.5 is better.

[Alborghetti]

I wonder if it is possible to move all non-kindle-firmware-2.12.5 talk to a more suitably titled topic? I guess the off-topic discussion has grown to a point that it deserves its own topic.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Beggarmaster

Interesting. Does the introduction of the KFX format somehow work to the detriment of other formats, such that you'd want to avoid it? I'll take a look at that forum.

No, the introduction of KFX does not negatively effect the other formats. The one big downside of a KFX capable Kindle is, that books are downloaded to the device as KFX instead of an older format. KFX has a new style DRM applied to it, making removal of DRM more difficult if at all possible. Even DRM free books will have that DRM applied to them if delivered in KFX. Also they are split into multiple files instead of one. For the older formats, the DRM for eink Kindles has not been updated or changed since they have been introduced.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

End-of-life does not mean something doesn't work. End-of-life means no more new firmware versions when new firmware is released. It means no more new features. So unless 5.12.5 or a later firmware is released for the PW3, I see no indication that the PW3 is not end-of-lifed.

Maybe it is but it still does a good job of buying and reading Kindle books.

I have two of them and I really don't care if they get updates or not as long as they still work the way they're supposed to.

Updates fall into two categories in the modern tech world: security updates which aren't an issue here and new features, which we might or might not get. If you buy your ereader to surprise you from time to time then I agree the PW3 isn't a good choice. If you buy it for reading I think it's an excellent choice.

I've always downloaded and installed the updates a day or two after they're available. A few have offered new features that delighted me. Most have added features that I either didn't like or that I didn't care about one way or another. I used to really like X-Ray when we got that in an update. Then a few updates later they made X-Ray overly complex and more trouble to use than it's worth. I stopped using it. Another update took the very simple bookmarks and made them more complicated. Then they added things like Word View and Popular Highlights and (shudder) Special Offers. All in all, even though there have been a few nice updates on balance they've done more harm than good. They made up for some of that with the bolder fonts, but not nearly all.

I wonder what would happen if they offered a Kindle for $20 extra with a guarantee of no future updates?

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by idab

End of life literally means it can no longer be useful

Read the definition. The pw3 is not EOL.

I googled End of Life and Wikipedia says it's when the product is no longer useful from the vendor's point of view. I think that's pretty much what JSWolf was talking about.

Barry

[Beggarmaster]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

No, the introduction of KFX does not negatively effect the other formats. The one big downside of a KFX capable Kindle is, that books are downloaded to the device as KFX instead of an older format. KFX has a new style DRM applied to it, making removal of DRM more difficult if at all possible. Even DRM free books will have that DRM applied to them if delivered in KFX. Also they are split into multiple files instead of one. For the older formats, the DRM for eink Kindles has not been updated or changed since they have been introduced.

Couldn't one get around this by having it "Delivered to computer" for later delivery via USB? I just did that for my Voyage which apparently handles KFX, and the file offered for download was an AZW3.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by barryem

I googled End of Life and Wikipedia says it's when the product is no longer useful from the vendor's point of view. I think that's pretty much what JSWolf was talking about.

Barry

And it's no longer useful to the vendor when they stop updating it with the latest firmware.