Kindle Paperwhite 2-Voyage Software Update 5.6.5

[zencat]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

In the meantime use the download over usb option and you get the old KF8 file for storage in calibre. Leave the KFX on Voyage unless you want to change metadata for sorting or somesuch.

[ssholloway]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

In the meantime use the download over usb option and you get the old KF8 file for storage in calibre. Leave the KFX on Voyage unless you want to change metadata for sorting or somesuch.

This is odd. Doing the download over usb for one KFX book gives me an azw3 file but for two other KFX books I get text files. The first and second books are purchases, while the third is a KindleUnlimited book. I don't see anything that indicates why one KFX book downloads as azw and others as text.

BTW, the text file for the purchased KFX book is named with the title of the book but the text file for the KU KFX book is named FSDownloadContent. Perhaps this is just a difference between purchased and KU books.

At least Kindle for Mac is still downloading KFX books in azw format so that's the route I'll use to save my purchases until KforM starts supporting KFX. Perhaps by then someone will have figured out the KFX format.

[DuckieTigger]

@ssholloway: that is odd with KU. I usually don't download KU titles other than direct on Voyage. The only reason to do the download would be to strip DRM and store book for me - which I only do for purchases. I like the new typesetting, so I would be shooting myself in the foot to download the KF8, have the hassle of needing to connect Voyage to computer to transfer, and would only get the old version. For purchases it is worth the hassle, but the Voyage would still get KFX if possible.

Edit: it depends on the book which version you get, even for KU titles. Tested with the book I am reading right now, and it downloaded as AZW3 (Timebound by Rysa Walker)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ssholloway

This is odd. Doing the download over usb for one KFX book gives me an azw3 file but for two other KFX books I get text files. The first and second books are purchases, while the third is a KindleUnlimited book. I don't see anything that indicates why one KFX book downloads as azw and others as text.

Why would you need to download a KU book by that method? Would you not want to send such a book directly to your Kindle? People generally only use this method if they want to add a book to Calibre, but that wouldn't seem to apply to a KU book, would it?

[HarryT]

One change I have just noticed in the 5.6.5 firmware that I hadn't noticed before is that footnotes are now genuine footnotes, shown at the bottom of the page, rather than appearing in a pop-up window as they did in the previous firmware version. That's a very nice improvement!

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One change I have just noticed in the 5.6.5 firmware that I hadn't noticed before is that footnotes are now genuine footnotes, shown at the bottom of the page, rather than appearing in a pop-up window as they did in the previous firmware version. That's a very nice improvement!

Nice. Does it handles footnotes longer than one page? Can probably be found in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

Nice. Does it handles footnotes longer than one page? Can probably be found in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

If the footnote is long it has its own separate scrollbar, or there's still a "Jump to footnotes" link to allow you to display it full-screen.

[ssholloway]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

@ssholloway: that is odd with KU. I usually don't download KU titles other than direct on Voyage. The only reason to do the download would be to strip DRM and store book for me - which I only do for purchases.

I downloaded the KU book since it was one of only three KFX books on my PW2 and I wanted to see if I could make any sense of why some KFX books downloaded as azw and others as text. Granted it was a small sample size but unfortunately, the experiment yielded confusing results. I certainly did not mean to imply that I was trying to save the KU book in Calibre.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by ssholloway

This is odd. Doing the download over usb for one KFX book gives me an azw3 file but for two other KFX books I get text files. The first and second books are purchases, [emphasis added] while the third is a KindleUnlimited book. I don't see anything that indicates why one KFX book downloads as azw and others as text.

BTW, the text file for the purchased KFX book is named with the title of the book but the text file for the KU KFX book is named FSDownloadContent. Perhaps this is just a difference between purchased and KU books.

At least Kindle for Mac is still downloading KFX books in azw format so that's the route I'll use to save my purchases until KforM starts supporting KFX. Perhaps by then someone will have figured out the KFX format.

That's disconcerting that a purchased book downloaded as text. Ssholloway, can you elaborate a little on what you received for the purchased book? Was it a plain text (.txt) file, .rtf or something else? Did it contain all the text from the book or was anything lost? How was the formatting? Did you receive any graphics?

I think the important point here isn't that ssholloway downloaded a Kindle Unlimited book but that a purchased book downloaded as text!! Hopefully this was an error of some sort and not a sign of where Amazon is headed.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by odamizu

I think the important point here isn't that ssholloway downloaded a Kindle Unlimited book but that a purchased book downloaded as text!! Hopefully this was an error of some sort and not a sign of where Amazon is headed.

The point was that the KU book was inconclusive whether they ALL download as text or either or like purchased books. It does look though that KU books are exactly the same as purchased books. I think it is way too early to conclude where Amazon is headed. Textfiles would be nice, they can be viewed on almost any device without conversion. The new typesetting is brand new, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt to work all the kinks out. I am hoping part of the typesetting features make it into the KF8 rendering engine and will optionally work with old books / sideloaded books.

[Barty]

^^^ the text file is probably just some kind of glitch, if indeed that is what happened.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

... I think it is way too early to conclude where Amazon is headed.

Agree. I'm leaning toward it being a glitch, as Barty notes above.

Textfiles would be nice, they can be viewed on almost any device without conversion.

True. I'm just concerned about losing formatting. I don't need fancy stuff, like drop caps, but losing italicized text would be bad.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by ssholloway

...BTW, the text file for the purchased KFX book is named with the title of the book but the text file for the KU KFX book is named FSDownloadContent. Perhaps this is just a difference between purchased and KU books. ...

I doubt that this has anything to do with KFX. There have been similar reports from MAC users going back years. For example: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6154180?tstart=0

[krbo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

One change I have just noticed in the 5.6.5 firmware that I hadn't noticed before is that footnotes are now genuine footnotes, shown at the bottom of the page, rather than appearing in a pop-up window as they did in the previous firmware version. That's a very nice improvement!

not quite - window is not expandable, just a few lines of text making reading of longer footnotes painfull. pop-up expanded nicely on loger footnotes

PW2 has a bug of starting footnote twice (something like two lines then again from the start to the end, dependable of font and it's size)

PW3 can't show picture in footnote (I think it stops before picture and you are not aware that something is missing (picture and text after it)

both models shows hypenathed footnotes without a dash (old bug, reported but no one cares @amazon as usual) - quite ugly for reading

[ssholloway]

Originally Posted by odamizu

That's disconcerting that a purchased book downloaded as text. Ssholloway, can you elaborate a little on what you received for the purchased book? Was it a plain text (.txt) file, .rtf or something else? Did it contain all the text from the book or was anything lost? How was the formatting? Did you receive any graphics?

The text was obfuscated so I couldn't tell if the entire book was included. No graphics that I could see. I believe KFX obfuscated text is being discussed in a thread in the Kindle Formats forum.