PW1 Update! PW2 feature parity!

[shamanNS]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@shamanNS: I wasn't aware of that, thanks .

That said, if the books come from Amazon, then they have a proper ASIN, and calibre won't touch it, so the point still stands .

It seems that Kindle for Android allows "last page read" sync only for book that are associated with your Amazon account ( bought book or archived personal documents).

1) Books with valid ASIN (like deDRM retail book from a friend) that are not on your Amazon account = disabled sync option in Kindle for Android.

2) Converting any book from any format to mobi/azw3 and editing EXTH 113 and EXTH 504 (adding ASIN from one of your Amazon bought books) = sync option is enabled. (and wrong cover art displayed in Kindle app as side effect).

[NiLuJe]

@shamanNS: I have zero experience with the Fire/Kindle 4 PC/MAC/iOS stuff, so I'm pretty much always talking about eInk only stuff. Thanks for the details, though .

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

It seems that Kindle for Android allows "last page read" sync only for book that are associated with your Amazon account ( bought book or archived personal documents).

1) Books with valid ASIN (like deDRM retail book from a friend) that are not on your Amazon account = disabled sync option in Kindle for Android.

2) Converting any book from any format to mobi/azw3 and editing EXTH 113 and EXTH 504 (adding ASIN from one of your Amazon bought books) = sync option is enabled. (and wrong cover art displayed in Kindle app as side effect).

And why would manually adding in the ASIN work when using the official copy doesn't? It's the same ASIN==>same field either way??

Note that if you do a mobi-to-mobi (or azw3) conversion, calibre replaces the ASIN with its own UUID, that may be what's happening for you?

calibre will not change the ASIN if you import it, but conversion creates a whole new book, without the ASIN. Kovid did this deliberately, so the book would still be unique.

[shamanNS]

Swapping ASIN was done as experiment (like is it length of ASIN, is there a difference if it starts with Bxxxx,, does editing some other EXTH values like EBOK/PDOC help) in trying to figure out why books with fake ASIN (aka Calibre UUID) stopped having LPR sync option enabled in Kindle for Android app but the same files still work on Paperwhite. And there is only one possible conclusion in the end: sync is enabled only for books associated with your Amazon account.

As for your first question I didn't add same (non working but "not fake") ASIN to multiple books or the ones made by Calibre conversion. I've added ASIN from a book from my account to random Calibre converted file to confirm the suspicions. Method of elimination...

[twowheels]

Some other differences with this release that I may be imagining since I'm comparing based on my recollection of things I wasn't intentionally looking for:

* I notice that it now turns off the light before changing the text to screensaver. Before, I think that it did it in the other order, so hopefully this is a fix to the occasional dead battery problem. (tested w/ cover open and magnet

* I no longer have problems with it changing a page forward and then immediately back. I used to have this at least once per day, but haven't seen it even once since. Before a mere reboot didn't seem to help, so maybe they actually fixed something related to this.

Anybody else notice these changes? Somebody with two devices with different versions able to verify the light shutoff order?

[wawasteele]

I took the plunge and upgraded. I love it, except for the previously mentioned dictionary regression. I thought I would miss the ease of altfonts, but have just gone back to reading with the supplied ones. I will start adding the font I prefer to the new books I convert with Calibre. For me, the new benefits outway the loss in the way the dictionary operates, although I hope there is an update to restore it to it's previous way of working soon.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by twowheels

* I notice that it now turns off the light

My KPW1 is now brighter. Using 5.4.4, In a pitch black room, I can read at setting 0 with some difficulty, and with ease at setting 1, which was not possible while using 5.3.9. Using the older firmware I would need to set the Kindle to four or five.

I don't know if this is a good or bad thing, as I normally don't read in a pitch black room. I just happened to notice it, flipping open the Kindle (with the light at 0, because of reading during the day) before I actually turned on the bed lamp.

[Gazella]

I just updated my Kindle Paperwhite to 5.4.4. I'm not sure I understand what those stars are for. I read the post here that said that it's part of the new update but what are they for? I tried to figure out by holding on a collection and then I chose the option to 'Show only in collections view' and the collection disappeared. I tried recreating it but the Kindle says that there's already one with the same name. How do I make it show again? Also, there are some books that have a checkmark next to them. What does that mean?

[Aeris]

I wonder if they will ever fix the pdf white-areas bug... And if they will ever add reflow or cut off the borders in pdf view like they did with PW2

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Gazella

I just updated my Kindle Paperwhite to 5.4.4. I'm not sure I understand what those stars are for. I read the post here that said that it's part of the new update but what are they for? I tried to figure out by holding on a collection and then I chose the option to 'Show only in collections view' and the collection disappeared. I tried recreating it but the Kindle says that there's already one with the same name. How do I make it show again? Also, there are some books that have a checkmark next to them. What does that mean?

The stars allow you to only show collections with stars on the home screen if you set the middle criteria to All Items and the far right to Collections. If you want to see all collections on your Kindle select Collections in the middle section. And if you want all collections in the cloud on your device I would suggest you star them all. To avoid missing one.

[HarryT]

It's a solution to the issue introduced in the previous firmware update, where all cloud collections showed up on the PW, even those created on other long-dead Kindles.

[Gazella]

The new update is kind of confusing.

When I choose to see only 'Books', I also get my collections. Why?

When I choose 'Collections', why are the 'Cloud' and 'On Device' options not accessible (grey)?

Why can't I see My Clippings when in 'Collections'? I remember before this update, Clippings was always there.

When bookmarking a page, I tap on the upper right corner of the screen, then tap on the plus sign, bookmark turns black. And when I want to remove the bookmark, I tap on it, then again on the minus sign, bookmark turn white, then I have to tap anywhere on the screen to completely remove the white bookmark. Surely there's a faster way, no?

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Gazella

The new update is kind of confusing.

When I choose to see only 'Books', I also get my collections. Why?

When I choose 'Collections', why are the 'Cloud' and 'On Device' options not accessible (grey)?

Why can't I see My Clippings when in 'Collections'? I remember before this update, Clippings was always there.

When bookmarking a page, I tap on the upper right corner of the screen, then tap on the plus sign, bookmark turns black. And when I want to remove the bookmark, I tap on it, then again on the minus sign, bookmark turn white, then I have to tap anywhere on the screen to completely remove the white bookmark. Surely there's a faster way, no?

I find the whole set up confusing now tbh. Sometimes I think Amazon is deliberately trying to make it difficult for users.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Gazella

The new update is kind of confusing.

When I choose to see only 'Books', I also get my collections. Why?

When I choose 'Collections', why are the 'Cloud' and 'On Device' options not accessible (grey)?

Why can't I see My Clippings when in 'Collections'? I remember before this update, Clippings was always there.

When bookmarking a page, I tap on the upper right corner of the screen, then tap on the plus sign, bookmark turns black. And when I want to remove the bookmark, I tap on it, then again on the minus sign, bookmark turn white, then I have to tap anywhere on the screen to completely remove the white bookmark. Surely there's a faster way, no?

If you 'star' (Show in All Views) a collection, then that is what you get. They appear in all views, which is what Collections did before they were Cloud Collections. If you want to see Collections as well as items that are not in collections, set it to Collection 'sort', not Collections 'view'.

If you don't 'star' then Collections show only in the new Collections view, which does not list anything except collections. Collections view is the same as it is with Kindle for iOS, Kindle for Android, and the 3rd gen Fires. I often set my Home view to Collections as it is cleaner and less distracting than seeing collections and items mixed together.

It does take two taps to create a bookmark and two to remove, whereas before it only took one. But it was very hard to navigate back to bookmarks that you had set before, so much so that I rarely used bookmarks. Now with one tap, you get a list you can use to navigate to any bookmark you've set, and can preview the page before jumping there. IMO bookmarks are much more usable now and I'm using them a lot more.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by tomsem

If you 'star' (Show in All Views) a collection, then that is what you get. They appear in all views, which is what Collections did before they were Cloud Collections. If you want to see Collections as well as items that are not in collections, set it to Collection 'sort', not Collections 'view'.

If you don't 'star' then Collections show only in the new Collections view, which does not list anything except collections. Collections view is the same as it is with Kindle for iOS, Kindle for Android, and the 3rd gen Fires. I often set my Home view to Collections as it is cleaner and less distracting than seeing collections and items mixed together.

It does take two taps to create a bookmark and two to remove, whereas before it only took one. But it was very hard to navigate back to bookmarks that you had set before, so much so that I rarely used bookmarks. Now with one tap, you get a list you can use to navigate to any bookmark you've set, and can preview the page before jumping there. IMO bookmarks are much more usable now and I'm using them a lot more.

Ah ok. Thank you.

Regarding bookmark, where do you access that list?