Kindle firmware update 5.13.5

[solitarywolf]

It appears the cover feature has not been turned on in the USA. Others from around the world are seeing the new cover option. When I go to the information page on the update features it says only: Version 5.13.5 – March 2021

Here’s what's new:

Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.
...........


No information about a cover update.

[rupan88]

I've seen people with 5.13.4 get this feature so it's not tied to the lastest one as of now.

[SeaBookGuy]

How exactly do you find the cover feature, if available?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

How exactly do you find the cover feature, if available?

When the feature becomes available you should get a pop-up notification and a configuration option for it will appear under Settings, Device Options.

[fogice]

I turned on my Kindle Voyage today and there was a pop-up message about books in series being automatically grouped together. (I should have taken a photo, sorry.) I don't see this, but all of my books are sideloaded from Calibre, so that might affect it. I was autoupdated to 5.13.5, and I am located in the USA. I didn't see anyone else discussing that feature.

[rupan88]

Well, grouped series have been with us for some time now. I have two kindles and used one to get books from Amazon Japan. While manga was grouped into series on the kindle that was linked to the japanese store where I bought the it, when I transferred it to the second one with US account it's not grouped. I wonder what makes them group in a series.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by rupan88

While manga was grouped into series on the kindle that was linked to the japanese store where I bought the it, when I transferred it to the second one with US account it's not grouped. I wonder what makes them group in a series.

It seems that the series grouping feature only works for books from Amazon purchased with the account that the Kindle is registered to.

[binaryhermit]

There are reports on Reddit the book cover feature has reached the US and Germany
https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comm...ed_in_germany/
https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comm...ved_in_the_us/

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

There are reports on Reddit the book cover feature has reached the US and Germany
https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comm...ed_in_germany/
https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comm...ved_in_the_us/

I just synced my kindle and restarted it and I have it. Very mixed feelings as only a week and a half ago I ran out of patience waiting for amazon to do this, and purchased a Kobo Libra, which I love, but I feel so guilty, especially now the Oasis has the feature I want. The Libra text is displayed nicer when reading IMO, but I don’t think I can justify keeping it. ETA: I’m keeping it!

Anyway, pic of my Oasis beside my Kobo, both showing covers!

[Zeebra]

I'm in Canada. Still waiting for the cover feature on my oasis. My sister got the feature on hers and she doesn't even care about getting new features like this. Here I am updating, syncing, restarting and nothing.

[tomsem]

I did a Restart on my 2 Paperwhites (10th gen) and the feature showed up. Neither of mine have Special Offers, so I don’t know what happens with its screen saver (would be curious to learn from others who do).

This was never a feature I was pining for, but it is nice enough and maybe will help me focus more on reading one book at a time.

Now I’m waiting for them to restore the Text-to-Speech feature.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Now I’m waiting for them to restore the Text-to-Speech feature.

I'm afraid that's truly dead. It would go against Amazon's financial interest since they own audible. (The publishers don't like it either.) A shame too considering how TTS quality keeps advancing thanks to the AI assistant market.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Barty

I'm afraid that's truly dead. It would go against Amazon's financial interest since they own audible. (The publishers don't like it either.) A shame too considering how TTS quality keeps advancing thanks to the AI assistant market.

Have no fear. @jhowell looked at the update binary and there are some references to TTS in there. Every Fire tablet ships with this feature (with at least a dozen different languages), so why not Kindles as well (as in olden days)? All current Kindles ship with 8GB storage, which is plenty to accommodate one or several voices.

I cannot imagine very many people bother to listen to Audible on Kindle (I never have: that’s what smartphones are for), and it doesn’t support Immersion Reading, which means I do all of that on non-Amazon devices. Nor have I purchased any Audible content on Kindle. It would not hurt the Audible business at all, but it would sell more Kindles.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Have no fear. @jhowell looked at the update binary and there are some references to TTS in there. Every Fire tablet ships with this feature (with at least a dozen different languages), so why not Kindles as well (as in olden days)? All current Kindles ship with 8GB storage, which is plenty to accommodate one or several voices.



I cannot imagine very many people bother to listen to Audible on Kindle (I never have: that’s what smartphones are for), and it doesn’t support Immersion Reading, which means I do all of that on non-Amazon devices. Nor have I purchased any Audible content on Kindle. It would not hurt the Audible business at all, but it would sell more Kindles.

Verrrryyy interesting. It seems like a very niche feature, but who knows? The firmware division has to keep busy doing something

I'm not into audiobooks (I find it hard to concentrate and I lose the thread), but I like to use TTS sometimes to give my eyes a rest, then resume reading seamlessly. The Kindle keyboard was really good for this, with its built in speakers. No fussing with blue tooth or headphones. Only downside was the robotic voice.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by rupan88

Well, grouped series have been with us for some time now. I have two kindles and used one to get books from Amazon Japan. While manga was grouped into series on the kindle that was linked to the japanese store where I bought the it, when I transferred it to the second one with US account it's not grouped. I wonder what makes them group in a series.

You can cut that feature off in the settings. It took me a while to find it.