HDX Fire OS 5 update coming soon

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Atunah

I am slowly getting used to the different way it does things, but I am still a bit struggling how the home page doesn't have my collections in it anymore. I had mixed collections there, some books, some apps, those kind of things. I think I kept a couple of the app ones, others are gone. None of the book collections show and I can't figure out how to do anything on the home page, other than moving stuff around and deleting.

I guess that is all I can do there now and the other sections are taking care of other stuff. But it was easy to have say a most used recipe book collection on the homepage to quickly find. Now I have to find my way into the book area and then look for the collection and then open it. I have like 40 collections so it can take a while for the page to scroll down.

Is there a way to put collections on the home page from the ebook cloud?

I miss being able to put collections on Home screen as well. You can group apps on the home screen (and give the group a name), at least most of them, but for some reason 'Books' and 'Shop Amazon' won't go into one. The other thing about collections is that I'd like to take New and Recent books and put them into collections, but no, you have to go to the Books screen to do that. And their terminology isn't consistent: on the Recent screen, one of the options is Remove from Home, and that should be Remove from Recents. Collections can now auto-sort, and you can select items and modify their collection membership with one operation, so at least that is better now.

Probably not of concern to many people here, but there is no Full Device Encryption as there was with Fire OS 4, and Screen Reader (VoiceView) has lost a couple of features (but that may turn out to be a good thing: have to play with it more).

[Plumadona]

Have they fixed the Custom sort option in collections, i.e., once you put them into a specfic order, do they stay in that order? And do documents sent to kindle show up in collections even if they're in the cloud but not the fire?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Plumadona

Have they fixed the Custom sort option in collections, i.e., once you put them into a specfic order, do they stay in that order? And do documents sent to kindle show up in collections even if they're in the cloud but not the fire?

I'm having an issue with Collections, in that it seems I have to actually open a collection to remove an item from it, which is kind of a pain, and something I hope they fix. You should be able to check and uncheck collections when the 'Add' list comes up (as is the case with most other Cloud Collection implementations).

I am seeing an issue with Custom, but don't know if it is the same as yours: toggling between sort modes can sometimes (but not always) change the Custom order. Don't see any problems with Custom sort as long as I leave it that way.

It appears that Custom sort order is device specific. So for example, one of my collections on Kindle for iPad (which has no auto-sort options for collections) has a different order than what is shown on my HD6 when that's in Custom order. To me that makes it less useful: one might want to arrange it in order of 'priority' or to keep a book series in order. But the order does not sync to the cloud, so this means you have to do it for each device, and that's a lot of duplication of work, especially in a largish collection.

But Collections are not particularly useful for finding things. I use it to keep track of which books I'm currently reading, and to tag books as 'not yet read' and 'already read'. It works well for that.

[tomsem]

Since nixing Recommendations from the Home panels, and removing Apps from Recents, and replacing the background image, I've largely achieved the minimalist look I prefer.

Some remaining issues with collections, but hopefully those will get fixed. Mostly they are better in terms of how I use them.

Blue Shade, if it is ever to be something I will use, needs some more configuration options. For example, I'd like to see black (or near black) pixels remain black, even if that means a little blue leaks through; otherwise too much contrast gets lost. And an Auto mode would be nice so it will start up according to when the sun actually sets and rises (people on night shift or recovering from jet lag can always set the time zone to compensate, or you could enter your preferred time to start sleeping).

I like the new English TTS options (at least I think they are new), and there are now so many other languages as well that I want to get some ebooks in those languages just to hear what they sound like. And having a little fun trying out Word Runner here and there.

[booklover6]

I side loaded the update to a Fire HD6 and Fire HD7 (same generation) with no errors. I think it freed up some storage space on the HD6 (which belongs to my 10 yo DD and is crammed to the max with apps, yes it's 16GB)

Has anyone found a way to turn off the lock screen altogether on a Fire w/o ads? I got rid of the ads on my 77 yo MIL's Fire, but she'd rather not even have to swipe out of the lock screen.

[Plumadona]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I'm having an issue with Collections, in that it seems I have to actually open a collection to remove an item from it, which is kind of a pain, and something I hope they fix. You should be able to check and uncheck collections when the 'Add' list comes up (as is the case with most other Cloud Collection implementations).

I am seeing an issue with Custom, but don't know if it is the same as yours: toggling between sort modes can sometimes (but not always) change the Custom order. Don't see any problems with Custom sort as long as I leave it that way.

It appears that Custom sort order is device specific. So for example, one of my collections on Kindle for iPad (which has no auto-sort options for collections) has a different order than what is shown on my HD6 when that's in Custom order. To me that makes it less useful: one might want to arrange it in order of 'priority' or to keep a book series in order. But the order does not sync to the cloud, so this means you have to do it for each device, and that's a lot of duplication of work, especially in a largish collection.

But Collections are not particularly useful for finding things. I use it to keep track of which books I'm currently reading, and to tag books as 'not yet read' and 'already read'. It works well for that.

Looks as if the issue isn't yet completely resolved. The custom sort in collections should sync and stay the same between the Fire and the Kindle for iPad. I reverted back to the previous Fire OS, and that's what happens now, just as it did in the past. If the custom sort doesn't change on your Fire after you leave the collection or Books, or after the Fire shuts down, then at least they've made the custom sort aspect stable on one device, which is some improvement.

It does sound as if they haven't fixed the issue of syncing custom sorts between the two devices, which I agree is an inconvenience, more for some than others. I use it to keep various series in order within collections as well as order several non-series books by the same author, and found it very helpful since I have a large number of books. Since I already had an iPad, it was great when I first bought the Fire as all I had to do was sign in and several hundred books were automatically in order, which was one of the selling points for me.

One last question: Do you send docs to your Fire through the Send to Kindle feature, and if so, do they show up in your Collections? My docs (MR books, etc.) did not show up in Collections after the latest OS update unless they were downloaded, which was the straw that broke th camel's back for me. Never had a problem with that on any of three devices before (PW, Fire, iPad), and haven't had it since reverting back to the previous OS, so I hope that's just another bug for them to fix and not a new wrinkle.

Thanks for your help with this. After spending hours with the techs with Amazon help, it's nice to know that at least some of the issues have been addressed.

[tomsem]

I would not conclude anything has been fixed about custom sort from my wee report: it's not something I've tested thoroughly. I only have one collection where I've ever bothered to change the default sort, and I do that infrequently, so given that I'm constantly adding and removing, the order is more or less 'default': oldest added to newest added. I would not particularly notice issues with sync.

Yes: Docs don't show up in collections on Fire HD6 (with update) until they are downloaded. If they are then removed, they seem to persist. Again, this is just a quick check and reality could be more complicated.

[Plumadona]

Thanks - time for me to give up on a fix for the forseeable future!

[Josieb1]

Hubby is quite happy with the update on his HD6 but I think it's an almighty mess. Anyway I'm done with Fires now. I listed my HDX 7 on eBay on Friday night and it went within 3 hours. I've bought myself a Samsung tablet now and it's wonderful how much easier a normal tablet is compared to a Fire. I know Fires are cheaper (sometimes) but I don't miss my HDX.

[booklover6]

I had told myself I was done with Kindle devices, but I just bought the 8" Fire when it was on sale yesterday. I've always wanted to try out an 8" tablet, and I do like the update very much. Plus, it's orange. It's likely to be my only device purchase this year. (Unless I get myself a new item for Christmas).

[tomsem]

I checked several times yesterday, but never saw the $80 price. Instead I saw this weird price displayed in the Fire 'banner' next to Fire HD8: $99/$149

Yes, it was marked up to $149! What a deal!

[induna]

Over on XDA-Developers someone has put together a simple script that will root the new 7" fire, install the play store and replace the Fire launcher with the Nova launcher. All of the Amazon apps continue to work, including the app store, books and video, but you have a much more normal, and customizable, android experience. Just FYI.

[battybat]

The 5.1.1 update was on the website to download last night for the HDX 8.9 3rd Gen should have downloaded it.