Finally! Kindle touch update 5.1.0 is here!!!!!

[WilliamG]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Really can't agree with your criticisms of the Touch I'm afraid, William. But of course everyone perceives these things differently.

I'm curious as to what you disagree with. As you say, we definitely perceive these things differently, but I'd love to hear specifics. Not to get into an argument, but to hear a different point of view.

[mewmartigan]

Originally Posted by WilliamG

Still so many features not here yet, which makes the Touch a less-than satisfying experience. Can't wait for the next version. Bring back the buttons!

I'm so irritated with the Touch interface I even blogged on it. Hopefully Amazon is reading...

http://www.bighugenerd.com/1/post/20...ce-review.html

I read your review but some of the issues don't seem like issue to me. Yes, the touch screen is IR based but then it shouldn't be called a touch screen? The Kobo/Sony/B&N touchscreens all work the same way. And it seems to be the best implementation to avoid putting a second surface over the e-ink.

Also, you seemed to imply that you only get smudges on the touchscreen if you moisturize your hands right before reading?

I think you need a shiny new non-touch version

EDIT: D'oh, the previous 2 posts appear while I was typing mine. you guys are quick!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by WilliamG

I'm curious as to what you disagree with. As you say, we definitely perceive these things differently, but I'd love to hear specifics. Not to get into an argument, but to hear a different point of view.

A number of things. I find that the IR touch screen works extremely well, and I like the fact that you don't actually need to touch the screen; the merest brush of the side of a finger suffices to turn the page. As the previous poster noted, exactly the same IR touch screen is used on all the main brands of reading device.

The touch interface for the dictionary works brilliantly, to my mind. Far easier to use than it was on the K3.

I also doubt that anyone uses the "Back" button frequently enough to be concerned by the fact that it takes two screen taps rather than one to get at it.

It's all a matter of personal perception; I'm disagreeing with you, not saying that you're wrong.

[WilliamG]

Originally Posted by mewmartigan

I read your review but some of the issues don't seem like issue to me. Yes, the touch screen is IR based but then it shouldn't be called a touch screen? The Kobo/Sony/B&N touchscreens all work the same way. And it seems to be the best implementation to avoid putting a second surface over the e-ink.

Also, you seemed to imply that you only get smudges on the touchscreen if you moisturize your hands right before reading?

I think you need a shiny new non-touch version

EDIT: D'oh, the previous 2 posts appear while I was typing mine. you guys are quick!

Haha no worries. No, I agree with you that the IR-based scheme does work the best with e-ink vs a touch layer, but it doesn't work flawlessly. That's all I was saying.

Reminds me of what Churchill said, way back when... : "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

[WilliamG]

Originally Posted by HarryT

A number of things. I find that the IR touch screen works extremely well, and I like the fact that you don't actually need to touch the screen; the merest brush of the side of a finger suffices to turn the page. As the previous poster noted, exactly the same IR touch screen is used on all the main brands of reading device.

The touch interface for the dictionary works brilliantly, to my mind. Far easier to use than it was on the K3.

I also doubt that anyone uses the "Back" button frequently enough to be concerned by the fact that it takes two screen taps rather than one to get at it.

It's all a matter of personal perception; I'm disagreeing with you, not saying that you're wrong.

Stop editing your posts while I'm writing, darnit!

And actually, I know many, many people who use their Kindle Touch as their Bible and aren't completely thrilled in the move from the K3 -> Touch. When you get older it's so much more convenient to bring a Kindle to church/study group than have a heavy bible with you. And since the Bible is arguably the most important book on the planet, it's very frustrating to use the Kindle Touch with it when there are footnotes galore.

I'm disagreeing with you, and... probably saying that you're wrong.

I kid, I kid. I do, however, think Amazon didn't do the interface justice.

[Stingo]

I hadn't realized that people were taking their kindles to church to use as ebibles. What a great use. I'm not sure that the Bible is the most important book in the world but it is certainly one of the most read and treasured by a very large readership.

I agree with Harry that interface issues tend to be very subjective. I generally like the KT interface. I am more concerned with other problems with the device. For example, I am not happy that they did not fix the dictionary problem (Dictionary is pegged to book language flag. There is no simple way to change language flags. If a french word in an English flagged book won't translate unless you flag the French dictionary as English). The new translate feature goes part of the way to help by translating the word but it is nested two button pushes down and it does not give you the definition.

Nevertheless, I prefer the KT user experience overall and find it a faster more immersive reading device than its predecessors. Its all good.

[Zeebra]

I would take my Kindle to church if they offered the Living With Christ book that my church uses as an eBook. Would be so handy to have all the readings there for you.

[thatworkshop]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Have they restored the one-of-a-kind highlight-across-pages functionality?
Or will they ever?

Yes!

Updates that I really like:
1. Now you can highlight across pages. In PDFs it's still buggy but works somehow.
2. You can go to next page even if you have zoomed in a PDF (just pan to the right)
3. If you press Shift key on the onscreen keyboard twice, the capital letters are permanent. NICE!

[thomass]

Originally Posted by cscat

Yes!

Updates that I really like:
1. Now you can highlight across pages. In PDFs it's still buggy but works somehow.
2. You can go to next page even if you have zoomed in a PDF (just pan to the right)
3. If you press Shift key on the onscreen keyboard twice, the capital letters are permanent. NICE!

This are really cool.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by cscat

Yes!

Updates that I really like:
1. Now you can highlight across pages. In PDFs it's still buggy but works somehow.
2. You can go to next page even if you have zoomed in a PDF (just pan to the right)
3. If you press Shift key on the onscreen keyboard twice, the capital letters are permanent. NICE!

Yes, nice indeed!

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by WilliamG

Still so many features not here yet, which makes the Touch a less-than satisfying experience. Can't wait for the next version. Bring back the buttons!

I'm so irritated with the Touch interface I even blogged on it. Hopefully Amazon is reading...

http://www.bighugenerd.com/1/post/20...ce-review.html

Have you actually tried KT with the latest update? The tap zones for single-character footnote links seem larger and are very easy to hit, even at the smallest text sizes.

Also an appropriately formatted footnote will have a 'return' link to take you back to the original reference. On KT this is much more convenient than using the 'hidden' Back button, or even the physical back button on previous Kindles. One tap only. The only time Back is needed is when there is no return link (or you move off the page where the return link is and can no longer access it easily). If the book doesn't include such return links for footnotes, that's something to take up with the publisher. It is a standard ebook formatting practice, regardless of format, especially with the advent of touch screens.

That said, Sony PRS-T1 is a little better at this sort of thing, and such navigation includes a visible Forward button (like a browser) so it is easier to go back and forth along a chain of references. Still not perfect, though. I'd like to see someone implement a 'History' navigator (again similar to a browsers) that lets you jump to any place you've visited without visiting everything in between. I saw this feature on a reading app for iOS, which unfortunately is no longer available.

One advantage of IR touch screens is you can use anything to touch. A stylus. A pencil eraser. A feather. You can have gloves on your hands. Anything that will break the IR beam. So no need to smear up your screen with fingertip oil if that bothers you. And this is MUCH less problematic than it is with backlit screens. I have yet to use any type of touch screen that was not at least sometimes balky. Capacitative touch screens don't always work responsively when my hands are cold or dry, for example. My MacBook Pro's touch pad can be very annoying in this respect.

[eureka]

There are traces of possible new underlying hardware in 5.1.0 update bundle. Two new development boards are mentioned: first has Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi + 3G variants, second has just Wi-Fi only variant. Each of them uses cyttsp driver (Cypress TTSP capacitive multi-touch screen support). Also one of software subsystems expects 210 DPI on screens of these boards (instead of 167 DPI on current KT screen).

UPD: ah, cyttsp driver had been mentioned in 5.0.3 KT software or even earlier. But all other traces were introduced with 5.1.0.

[tanteoma]

After a day, I got used to the uglier "collections" fonts and started to really like this version. Love the landscape mode and that I can now jump to different chapters using the simple "go to" function. Nice.

[kindlepolska]

Can someone confirm thath after update to 5.1.0. Text-to-Speech is working? I've updated my Kindle and tts not working for me. Tested on .mobi and .txt files. The option in menu is unhighlighted. But I've tried tts on Kindle's manual and it is working.

[HarryT]

It works absolutely fine for me.