Kindle firmware 5.13.1

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I took a look at the new firmware to see if I could find any undocumented features. Here are some possibilities. No guarantees!

• Continuing work on the Kindle Curator, including the book cover as screensaver feature.
• Text-to-Speech reading separate from the VoiceView screen reader.
• Japanese Hiragana keyboard.

Hoping for TTS...especially if it allows downloading of other voices/languages.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Hoping for TTS...especially if it allows downloading of other voices/languages.

I don't know about voices, but the languages appear to be de, en_GB, en_US, es, fr, it, ja, nl, pt, ru, sq, and zh.

Added: I don't know if these are actual reading languages or related to device customization.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I don't know about voices, but the languages appear to be de, en_GB, en_US, es, fr, it, ja, nl, pt, ru, sq, and zh.

Those are all the UI languages of course (I looked up language code for ‘sq’ and it’s Albanian?!).

VoiceView has always only supported English on the Kindle (Fire supports more languages for VoiceView, at least Spanish and French). This always struck me as arbitrary, since they should be able to port the Ivona voices and the VoiceView navigation would be largely the same for any language.

Adding TTS feature and ability to install other languages/voices would revive interest in using my Kindle more than I have been recently.

And now it seems all Kindles have 8GB base storage (even the ‘plain’ Kindle) so space for the voice files is ample.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

I find it amusing that the key feature here is literally stealing from Kobo (the breadcrumbs on the progress bar).

This is actually stealing from the ios/Android/Fire KIndle apps, which have had this feature for some time.

That said, the features seem to all be coming ‘over the next few weeks’. I installed the update and don’t see anything different.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

I find it amusing that the key feature here is literally stealing from Kobo (the breadcrumbs on the progress bar).

It's been a while but didn't the earlier Kindles also have breadcrumbs on progress bars? If anything I suspect this is a feature Kobo borrowed from Kindle.

I just did a bit of googling and the results were mixed but I think the breadcrumbs might have gone away about 2014 or 2015.

Barry

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by barryem

It's been a while but didn't the earlier Kindles also have breadcrumbs on progress bars?

There used to be marks to designate chapters. I don't remember anything about locations previously visited.

[Atunah]

Originally Posted by jhowell

There used to be marks to designate chapters. I don't remember anything about locations previously visited.

It puts a mark (triangle/arrow) where you started reading when you pick up a book. In addition to the dots for chapters. So you kind of see how far you get in a reading session, distance from the arrow to where the progress bar is. So in a way its a previous location. But only the one.

It managed to put everything into one simple design and visible at one glance. No clicking this and that. I miss it dearly and would use it if it was an option on the newer kindles. I still find it more practical and easy than the newer page flip thingy. But I have given up ever getting it back.

[j.p.s]

I always wondered what the triangle was.

I haven't quite given up on progress bar and Voyage follow ons.

[hius07]

Release Notes updated at the download page.
Dark Mode valid for KOA2-3 and PW4 only.

[Braid]

Small change to the dictionary lookup: instead the word being highlighted, it is now underlined, and small bars appear at either side of the line of text.

Not sure what this change was in aid of... maybe to differentiate between dictionary lookup and highlighting.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Braid

Small change to the dictionary lookup: instead the word being highlighted, it is now underlined, and small bars appear at either side of the line of text.

Not sure what this change was in aid of... maybe to differentiate between dictionary lookup and highlighting.

That is not new to 5.13.1. I think that showed up around the time one click highlight was introduced. Maybe 5.12.2 or .3.

[JSWolf]

Why is it that the PW3 is dead yet other 7th gen hardware is not?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why is it that the PW3 is dead yet other 7th gen hardware is not?

Why do you keep repeating a question that you know no one here is able to answer?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why is it that the PW3 is dead yet other 7th gen hardware is not?

The PW3 got replaced with the PW4. The Voyage never got replaced. So the Voyage is the newest in its line. Just like when the PW1 got dropped like a hot potato once the PW2 came out. My PW1 still works just as well as when it received the last update.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

The PW3 got replaced with the PW4. The Voyage never got replaced. So the Voyage is the newest in its line. Just like when the PW1 got dropped like a hot potato once the PW2 came out. My PW1 still works just as well as when it received the last update.

But the PW3 may not work well since a lot of PW3s are now sitting stuck on 5.12.4 (because of an Amazon botch job) which is a heck of a mess and needs to be replaced.