CC & Fire HD .... ?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

a possible risk factor with option 1 is:
CC opens book at beginning. user curses & backs out. Amazon goes - Aha - a new latest position to sync - and changes the current pages to 1st page for copies on all other devices....

This is what I would expect to happen.

Oddly enough, option 1 is what the current product does for .mobi files, and we haven't had any complaints. Not sure why.

[chaley]

I have decided to go with minimal changes and see what happens. What this means:

On a device manufactured by Amazon:

• The default book folder is "Books"
• Epub is no longer enabled by default, but nothing will change if it is already enabled.
• Launching a book in the native reader will open a dialog asking if it is OK to reset the current position to the beginning. There is a check box not to see the dialog again.

On a device not manufactured by Amazon:

• The default book folder is "Calibre_Companion"
• Epub is by default, and is the top-most choice.
• Launching a book in Kindle for Android acts as today; K4A is opened but no book is opened. There is no dialog and the reading position is not reset.

In either case, if the book will be opened in a non-Amazon app then CC behaves as today.

These changes allow CC to open the native reading app on Amazon devices for all amazon extensions using the same behavior currently used for .mobi files. The dialog box should help avoid surprises. The behavior for other book formats is not changed, so people who are using other reader apps should see no changes.

Given that we haven't had any comment about how .mobi and CC behave on Amazon devices (the position is reset), I don't think that these changes will create controversy. We will see.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

This is what I would expect to happen.

Oddly enough, option 1 is what the current product does for .mobi files, and we haven't had any complaints. Not sure why.

Perhaps no one uses CC to open a book they are already reading.

I know that while I am in the middle of a book, I just go straight to Moon+Reader to continue reading. While I browse my library in CC a fair amount, I only do the CC->Moon thing when starting a new book.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by chaley

On a device manufactured by Amazon:[LIST][*]The default book folder is "Books"

Does this mean the folder used will change on existing devices? All of my books are currently in the Calibre_Companion folder. I use only ePub on my Fire, not AZW/Mobi or KF8/AZW3.

Originally Posted by kaufman

Perhaps no one uses CC to open a book they are already reading.

I know that while I am in the middle of a book, I just go straight to Moon+Reader to continue reading. While I browse my library in CC a fair amount, I only do the CC->Moon thing when starting a new book.

Same here.

[jersysman]

I, too, only use the Fire to read only ePub books. Maybe that's why there hasn't been any complaints. I hope that there won't be any changes between my Fire and CC.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jersysman

I, too, only use the Fire to read only ePub books. Maybe that's why there hasn't been any complaints. I hope that there won't be any changes between my Fire and CC.

The intention is truly minimal change, that nothing will change for non-Amazon file formats, and that almost nothing will change for amazon formats. I have tried to verify this during my testing, now that I have a KF. One change: for Amazon file formats, the native reader app will be proposed where before it was not, but all that might do is pop up a dialog where you select the app you want to use.

If you uninstall then reinstall CC then the default folder will change from Calibre_Companion to Books. In this case you might need to change the default folder back to Calibre_Companion, but even that won't be needed if the re-installation happened because of a system reset and you don't need to have CC scan for missing books.

[RobFreundlich]

So ... I fired up my Fire this morning, and saw that CC was updating. Read the release notes, and saw "Better support for Kindle Fire native reading app". Wow! I go away from this forum for a month or so, and while I'm gone, you implement a feature I've been asking for! Thank you!!!!!!

I've just read through the last couple of pages of this thread to see what's up, and I'm pretty excited to try this out, especially for my morning newspaper downloads.

One question: I've already got MOBI files set to open in Moon+, so I went into CC settings and clicked "clear reader defaults" (or whatever it's called). Then I selected a MOBI and clicked "Read", and it still opened in Moon+, without asking me which app to use (as if it hadn't actually cleared the default). What do I have to do to get it to open MOBIs in the native app?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by RobFreundlich

So ... I fired up my Fire this morning, and saw that CC was updating. Read the release notes, and saw "Better support for Kindle Fire native reading app". Wow! I go away from this forum for a month or so, and while I'm gone, you implement a feature I've been asking for! Thank you!!!!!!

I've just read through the last couple of pages of this thread to see what's up, and I'm pretty excited to try this out, especially for my morning newspaper downloads.

One question: I've already got MOBI files set to open in Moon+, so I went into CC settings and clicked "clear reader defaults" (or whatever it's called). Then I selected a MOBI and clicked "Read", and it still opened in Moon+, without asking me which app to use (as if it hadn't actually cleared the default). What do I have to do to get it to open MOBIs in the native app?

You seem to be the case that I have been worried about, a KF running the google play version of CC. I wasn't sure what would happen.

To answer your question and assuming that there aren't gotchas that I don't know about, to use the native reader app three things must be true:

• The Amazon formats (mobi, azw*, prc) must be in either the /Books folder or in Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files.
• The device must report its manufacturer as "amazon" (ignore case)
• Books must not be put in subfolders.

The second should be true for all amazon devices, unless rooting them changes that somehow. The third is the default, but you could have changed it.

The first is probably what needs to change. If you go to CC's folder settings and move any Amazon format you are using to /Books (or if you want, move the default there, which is what I do), then the native app can open the books and therefore CC will propose it to you.

Let me know what happens if you go to the trouble of moving the books.

[RobFreundlich]

Originally Posted by chaley

You seem to be the case that I have been worried about, a KF running the google play version of CC. I wasn't sure what would happen.

I may be even worse than that - I'm running a KF Original!

Originally Posted by chaley

To answer your question and assuming that there aren't gotchas that I don't know about, to use the native reader app three things must be true:

• The Amazon formats (mobi, azw*, prc) must be in either the /Books folder or in Android/data/com.amazon.kindle/files.
• The device must report its manufacturer as "amazon" (ignore case)
• Books must not be put in subfolders.

My books are all in /Books (well, /mnt/sdcard/Books, which is, I assume, the same thing), and they aren't in subfolders.

I can't find any manufacturer listed in Device info in Settings, so I can't verify that.

MOBI books are still opening with Moon+Reader, even though I've cleared defaults reader apps in CC.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by RobFreundlich

I may be even worse than that - I'm running a KF Original!

My books are all in /Books (well, /mnt/sdcard/Books, which is, I assume, the same thing), and they aren't in subfolders.

I can't find any manufacturer listed in Device info in Settings, so I can't verify that.

MOBI books are still opening with Moon+Reader, even though I've cleared defaults reader apps in CC.

If you are willing, there is something you can do that will help debug what is going on. There is an app, Android System Info by ElectricSheep, that will tell us a lot of internal information about your KF. The app is free and on the Amazon Market. I was able to install it on my HD.

If you install and run it, then:

• Click on System, then BuildInfos, and check that the Manufacturer is "Amazon".
• Click on "Kindle Apps", then Amazon Kindle, then Android Manifest. A window full of config info will pop up. Long press somewhere to select a word (any word), tap Select All, then Share. You should get the opportunity to send the file as email. Send it to yourself then post it here under a SPOILER tag (the crossed-out eye).

My guess is that the second part will show that your KF has different rules for being opened than my HD. That is OK, as long as it provides some way to get passed a file name. My fear is that it doesn't, just as the Kindle for Android does not.

[RobFreundlich]

Originally Posted by chaley

• Click on System, then BuildInfos, and check that the Manufacturer is "Amazon".
• Click on "Kindle Apps", then Amazon Kindle, then Android Manifest. A window full of config info will pop up. Long press somewhere to select a word (any word), tap Select All, then Share. You should get the opportunity to send the file as email. Send it to yourself then post it here under a SPOILER tag (the crossed-out eye).

My guess is that the second part will show that your KF has different rules for being opened than my HD. That is OK, as long as it provides some way to get passed a file name. My fear is that it doesn't, just as the Kindle for Android does not.

Ah - good old ASI. I'd forgotten about it ...

The Manufacturer is shown as "Amazon".

I've attached the manifest file (extracted from the APK). I took a quick look through it and didn't see anything that looked like a file open or file read intent. Hopefully, you'll catch something I didn't!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by RobFreundlich

Ah - good old ASI. I'd forgotten about it ...

The Manufacturer is shown as "Amazon".

I've attached the manifest file (extracted from the APK). I took a quick look through it and didn't see anything that looked like a file open or file read intent. Hopefully, you'll catch something I didn't!

Unfortunately I found that like with Kindle for Android, Amazon did not include any way to launch the reader with a book. I have no idea when that capability was added.

I think I can do the same thing that we do with K4A, which is to launch the reader app. You would then navigate to your book there. Not much help, but perhaps better than nothing as long as it works, something I cannot guarantee. I will include these changes in the next prerelease cycle, which should start in late June.

Thank you for giving me the manifest!

[RobFreundlich]

Originally Posted by chaley

Unfortunately I found that like with Kindle for Android, Amazon did not include any way to launch the reader with a book. I have no idea when that capability was added.

Humph. I guess that's what I get for being an early adopter of the KF. Well, Father's Day and my birthday aren't that far off ...

Originally Posted by chaley

I think I can do the same thing that we do with K4A, which is to launch the reader app. You would then navigate to your book there. Not much help, but perhaps better than nothing as long as it works, something I cannot guarantee. I will include these changes in the next prerelease cycle, which should start in late June.

Thanks!

While you're in there doing special KF coding, I asked a while back if you could put in an option to do an SD Card dismount/remount after disconnecting from the wireless server. IIRC, your reason for saying no at the time (which made sense) as that you didn't want to do device-specific coding, not that there was no way to do the dismount/remount. If that's true, could you reconsider? (I can rehash the reason I'm looking for it here, or dig up the thread and point to it, if you'd like).

Originally Posted by chaley

Thank you for giving me the manifest!

My pleasure!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by RobFreundlich

While you're in there doing special KF coding, I asked a while back if you could put in an option to do an SD Card dismount/remount after disconnecting from the wireless server. IIRC, your reason for saying no at the time (which made sense) as that you didn't want to do device-specific coding, not that there was no way to do the dismount/remount. If that's true, could you reconsider? (I can rehash the reason I'm looking for it here, or dig up the thread and point to it, if you'd like).

I checked the original thread where we discussed this and it corroborates my memory, that it wasn't "don't want to" but instead was "I have no clue how to".

I just checked again and found the same answer. It isn't possible unless the phone is rooted, and even then it is hard, using unpublished Android interfaces. Sorry.

[RobFreundlich]

Originally Posted by chaley

I checked the original thread where we discussed this and it corroborates my memory, that it wasn't "don't want to" but instead was "I have no clue how to".

I just checked again and found the same answer. It isn't possible unless the phone is rooted, and even then it is hard, using unpublished Android interfaces. Sorry.

Ah, right. Rats. I should have searched for and read that before asking again. Sorry about that!

Oh, well. I've got a system that works for me for my daily news: using GOLauncher to dismount/remount the card and then coming back into the KF newstand. It's not perfect, but it works, so I'll stick with it.

And for everything else, I've realized I don't use the native KF reader - Calibre plus CC plus Moon+Reader is a great combination. So I just want to take this opportunity to once again thank you for an awesome app.