Kindle firmware version 5.10.3

Just got around to installing the 5.10.3 on my PW4, on this device I don't note any improvements in page turn speed or performance generally. Main things I noticed were small but useful enhancements:

* % of remaining battery life is now available.
* The menu with page fonts and style information has been rearranged, it's easier to use and includes a few new extras, like the ability to create named "themes" which are just a collection of styles. That's a handy feature: I created one theme for programming books, another for poetry; will probably use that a lot.

Will be watching to see if it does anything for battery life. But battery life on the PW4 is already not bad, esp in airplane mode.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by maximus83

Just got around to installing the 5.10.3 on my PW4, on this device I don't note any improvements in page turn speed or performance generally. Main things I noticed were small but useful enhancements:

* % of remaining battery life is now available.
* The menu with page fonts and style information has been rearranged, it's easier to use and includes a few new extras, like the ability to create named "themes" which are just a collection of styles. That's a handy feature: I created one theme for programming books, another for poetry; will probably use that a lot.

Did you upgrade from a pre 5.10.x firmware version? None of the features you mention were new in 5.10.3.

[cvkemp]

I didn’t find anything that is new in this update only better page turns.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Did you upgrade from a pre 5.10.x firmware version? None of the features you mention were new in 5.10.3.

I just recently got a 32GB PW4 to complement my Forma, and was running what came on it. I had to manually go install the update. My version started with....5.10.0.???? (That's as much as I remember).

[rosemaryknits]

When I bought my paperwhite, I was getting about 21 hours per charge.

Then somewhere around update 5.7 or maybe 5.9, it dropped dramatically to around 7. I could watch the battery icon level move in one sitting (approx 45 min to 60 min per sitting.)

The newest update 5.10.3 seems to have upped it a little bit to maybe around 10 hours or so. Maybe a little more. I now get about one week per charge of normal reading.

And yes, I am so nerdy that I actually keep track.

Originally Posted by rosemaryknits

The newest update 5.10.3 seems to have upped it a little bit to maybe around 10 hours or so. Maybe a little more. I now get about one week per charge of normal reading.

And yes, I am so nerdy that I actually keep track.

Wow I was only a short-time Oasis user, but based on my sample of 1, that just sounds wrong. You should be getting at least 18-20 hours of use assuming (1) you're in airplane mode, and (2) reading light at "10" or less, and (3) all your books are indexed.

[haertig]

I don't really care where I am in an eBook. Occasionally I'll look at "minutes remaining in chapter" if I'm starting to get sleepy. If that shows 5 minutes or less (even if inaccurate) I generally read to the end of the chapter before calling it a night. If it's greater than 5 minutes, I just set a bookmark where I am and go to bed.

The only time I really care in a paper book is when it's a library loan. I'll check my bookmark and estimate 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 or 3/4 complete. Then I mentally bounce that against how many weeks I have left on the loan (most loans are 3 weeks total) - so I can decide if I need to read faster to finish before the due date. Even though all my libraries have stopped charging fines for overdue books, I am still one of the rare holdouts that will get my loans back on time, or renew them if there's no waiting list. It seems like everybody else just keeps the books as long as they want, way past the due date, since there are no fines. I consider that rude and inconsiderate behavior. But it's typical of the "me first, screw everybody else" people who are unfortunately so common these days.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Did you upgrade from a pre 5.10.x firmware version? None of the features you mention were new in 5.10.3.

Launch 5.10.0.x on the PW4 looks the same as 5.9.x. I don't think those versions were ever released as OTA updates for other devices.

The battery percentage, etc came with 5.10.1.x, iirc.

[Atunah]

So now that I have updated all my newer kindles to this update, I now have 3 that cannot open docs anymore.

Initially I had that issue with the previous, or the one before update on my Oasis2. It would not open them and give me a popup after a long time being stuck trying to open. But my Voyage did still work. Now it too doesn't open then, neither does my Oasis1. Only one still capable is my basic, the latest model.

So I guess I'll access my recipes and such on my basic and phone.

For info, all that stuff I tried to open was send with the send to kindle thingy on my computer. In my browser and the one that appears in the dropdown when I click on a file.

[Barty]

@Atunah: you're not by any chance using custom font?

[Quoth]

I'm struggling to see what 5.10.3 has changed vs the 5.10.2 on my PW3 / Paperwhite 2015 edition. I can't find any difference and the "What's new" that was on 5.10.2 device info has gone.

So is 5.10.2 -> 5.10.3 update just some subtle bug fix or update for KFX drm? Will transfers from Amazon Shop to PC now be unreadable on my Kobo H2O? I only have the PW3 to check AZW3 format compatibility for my own new books and to buy books from Amazon not on Smashwords. I don't actually read complete books on it ever, so in that respect the too big margin isn't really a problem. I annotate on the Kobo H2O original and use my phone (bluefire or Aldiko) or a Sony PRS350 to read outside the house.

Someone earlier mentioned margins, but still the 3 only, with smallest about twice the width it should be. I did one eBook in AZW3 from Docx with negative margin in the CSS to test on 5.10.2, it's still fine with about the half of whitespace of the standard setting. Why has the minimum margin on ALL kindles I've seen (about 6 models) been so large? On the Kindle DXG and Kindle keyboard I edited the prefs file to "fix it".

[Atunah]

Originally Posted by Barty

@Atunah: you're not by any chance using custom font?

I loaded a couple of fonts into the proper folder once they made that an option without any fiddling on amazon's end. Is that considered a custom font? I have no clue. I got them from here, one is a dejavu and the other one JWolf posted about. Are you saying its adding fonts that causes that? But then why would they add this as an option to the device. When I have some time over the next few days I'll play with it. I read using dejavu mostly, but also the basic bookerly that comes preloaded. But on my Oasis1, pretty sure I always use the bookerly.

eta: Well I'll be darned. If I change the font to bookerly in a book, before I go home and open one of the docs or sideloaded files, I can now open them. I test it and went back to the book, changed it back to dejavu and tried open the same doc and my Oasis2 locked up same as before with that popup after like 2 minutes saying I need to download again if I bought the book from amazon. So the issue is with the sideloaded fonts. At least for me it is. Maybe I just need to get used to bookerly again to not have to deal with all this. I do like dejavu on my Oasis in particular.

Here I thought it was save to do that as they put that in as an option after an update. I never did nor have any interest in hacking or otherwise fiddle with my kindles outside of what Amazon gives me.


Well thanks Barty, at least you found my issue and I guess its "fixed" as long as I stay with factory loaded fonts.

[Quoth]

dejavu sans and serif working as a publisher font on my pw3 with this FW. Not tried it on any Amazon title.

[Atunah]

I also have the optional custom fonts, I wonder if it is that combination. The built in options in the new menu. So I have 4 different ones. 3 for daytime and one for night with more bold. 2 of them use built in fonts like bookerly and the other uses dejavu. If I change either the custom fonts I have set up back to a factory built in font I can open the side loaded stuff. If I change back to the djavu custom font setting it locks up.

I don't have a PW to test, not one of the newer ones that is. But The Oasis1 and 2 and the Voyage act the same.

What is interesting is that I cannot replicate the same thing on my basic. Its the latest basic and had the same software as the other ones. But I can open the side loaded stuff no matter if I set the custom fonts to bookerly or use the dejavu. I have the exact same fonts on all of those kindles loaded.

Also to add that on the Voyage, I had the font loaded on it, but had not set a custom font theme yet. So it must be the extra fonts itself that are causing the issue, not having set them as themes.

As I was quite happy with bookerly before they allowed us to put other fonts on, I'll go back to it on all kindles. I probably just go ahead and delete the other ones for now from the folder. Just glad to be able to open my recipes and such again on my kindles. And the handful of side loaded books I want to read.

[Quoth]

I've just tried DejaVu Serif and Bitstream Vera Serif via custom on an Amazon book and a regular one of my own from Calibre. Also I have one book with negative margins in CSS vie edit in Calibre (to have about 1/2 the margin white space) A PW3 / PW 2015 bought new in November. FW5.10.3
No problems at all. I've a bunch of fonts copied from Linux. You do have Regular, Bold and Italic etc, all the variations, and full character sets? I've 14 installed.