Firmware Update The 2.5 Update: Love it or leave it?

goblinbox · 05-17-2010, 02:41 PM

I'd like to hear everyone's reviews of the 2.5 update: Good? Bad? Meh? Useful? Moronic? The coolest thing evar?

Sheikspeare · 05-17-2010, 02:57 PM

No great shakes! The key feature (Collections) is one of many features that the now discontinued Sony PRS-505 had on day one of its release. The Kindle is still way way behind. Soon after the Kindle was released, several lists were drawn up in this and other forums of what a Kindle update could/should include. In this latest update, Amazon addressed only a fraction (if that) of the feedback.

goblinbox · 05-17-2010, 03:04 PM

I got the 2.5 update on my K2i on Friday. When I looked at my Kindle and saw that it was updating, I nearly broke my face grinning. Boy, was I ever excited! Collections! Zooming! Social media! zOMG!

By the time I'd finished my tea it had rebooted and I started playing with it... and, um, yeah. Not so awesome.

The Collections feature isn't a feature. It's awkward to add books to a collection and it doesn't accomplish anything when you do. Sure, I now have a folder called "Sci-fi," but it's seven pages deep on the Home page. How is it a feature, clicking seven times to get to a folder I then have to page through to find the book I want?

I'd prefer it if adding an item to a Collection would remove it from the home page, thank you very much. [Update: I stand corrected. This feature does work if you select to sort by Collections.]

Twitter and Facebook. I am a social media junkie. I tweet all the time, and I check FB at least daily. I was excited about the social networking, to say the least.

Sending an item from the Kindle to Twitter results in a tweet that looks like this. Not very awesome. You have to click through to see the quote. I didn't bother trying the FB post.

The website. Okay, I have to admit that http://kindle.amazon.com is kinda cute. But what does it do? I mean, really? I logged in and classified all my books into reading, read, to read, and quit reading. And... now what? I have virtually no reason to ever visit the site again.

Zooming. Handy for viewing images, but if you have a very dense PDF full of text it won't help with that.

Password protection. Love it! I was traveling over the weekend and passworded my Kindle in case it was lost or stolen.

Popular highlights. This feature is activated, but it hasn't done anything yet as far as I can tell.

Font sizes. Are there now more HUGE fonts? Not useful to me, really.

If there are any other features, I haven't noticed them.

Over all, this update has brought the Kindle into 2010, sure, but while I approve of the ideas I feel that the implementation still needs a little tweaking.

ehunyadi · 05-17-2010, 03:14 PM

I'm disappointed to read these reviews of 2.5. I was really excited for the changes, but finding out that the books in the folders still stay in the root is disturbing. I would have hoped for moving the books into the folders instead of just adding folders to an already 10 page long list on my K2.

Also, the Twitter and Facebook features were something I was looking forward to.

Bluesman7 · 05-17-2010, 03:21 PM

I was mainly looking forward to the enhancements to PDF viewing as none of the other features really do anything for me personally.

As mentioned above, the PDF enhancements are somewhat useful but don't achieve the result I was hoping for...(The ability to scale/reflow a page or choose a larger font.)

So for me, the update was much ado about nothing.

Still waiting for the update to be sent to my wife's Kindle (which is on the same account). Not sure how they go about figuring the download order.

AnemicOak · 05-17-2010, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goblinbox

The Collections feature isn't a feature. It's awkward to add books to a collection and it doesn't accomplish anything when you do. Sure, I now have a folder called "Sci-fi," but it's seven pages deep on the Home page. How is it a feature, clicking seven times to get to a folder I then have to page through to find the book I want?

I'd prefer it if adding an item to a Collection would remove it from the home page, thank you very much.

This description makes me a lot less enthusiastic about collections. Is there a way to browse only collections in the sort menu or anything?

elmoglick · 05-17-2010, 03:26 PM

I've put about 300 books of my 700 into about 25 "collections" and now adding or deleting titles from the device takes approximately 2 minutes for each item. Disconnecting from USB now requires a 2-4 minute wheel spin while it evidently verifies the collections with anything that was added or removed while connected.

This really renders the collections "feature" pretty useless. I think I'm going to delete them in favor of a peppy device.

cheerio6414 · 05-17-2010, 03:45 PM

still waiting

chilady1 · 05-17-2010, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerio6414

still waiting

Me too

RamTheHammer · 05-17-2010, 03:56 PM

From the sound of it Collections is a bit of a bust!

synlor · 05-17-2010, 04:06 PM

You can make it so you only see the collections and the books that aren't in a collection only. These directions are for the DX, but I would guess it would be similar on a kindle 2. When on the home screen, press up until the line that says "Show all * Items" on the left and "By title", "By author", or "By most recent first" is highlighted. Press right on the joystick, and you'll see several options, go over and select "Collections" and then press the joystick down. Now you should see all your collections on the top of the home screen, and any books/magazines that aren't categorized underneath them. The books that are in a collection don't show up anymore.

One note is that the order the collections show up in this mode is by most recent first. That is the last collection you went into will be at the top, the second last collection will be the second from the top and so on.

Hope this helps!

goblinbox · 05-17-2010, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by synlor

You can make it so you only see the collections and the books that aren't in a collection only.

It did help! You're a lovely, lovely genius.

goblinbox · 05-17-2010, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

This description makes me a lot less enthusiastic about collections. Is there a way to browse only collections in the sort menu or anything?

Please chalk my Collections review up to embarrassing operator error. Thanks to @synlor's directions, the Collections feature works the way one would expect it to.

Sydney's Mom · 05-17-2010, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by synlor

You can make it so you only see the collections and the books that aren't in a collection only. These directions are for the DX, but I would guess it would be similar on a kindle 2. When on the home screen, press up until the line that says "Show all * Items" on the left and "By title", "By author", or "By most recent first" is highlighted. Press right on the joystick, and you'll see several options, go over and select "Collections" and then press the joystick down. Now you should see all your collections on the top of the home screen, and any books/magazines that aren't categorized underneath them. The books that are in a collection don't show up anymore.

One note is that the order the collections show up in this mode is by most recent first. That is the last collection you went into will be at the top, the second last collection will be the second from the top and so on.

Hope this helps!

That is great, but now I am back to checking my settings every 10 minutes!!!

Bluesman7 · 05-17-2010, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elmoglick

I've put about 300 books of my 700 into about 25 "collections" and now adding or deleting titles from the device takes approximately 2 minutes for each item. Disconnecting from USB now requires a 2-4 minute wheel spin while it evidently verifies the collections with anything that was added or removed while connected.

This really renders the collections "feature" pretty useless. I think I'm going to delete them in favor of a peppy device.

I think I'll continue to pick my books out with Calibre and then look up my books on the Kindle the old fashioned way...That's just way too much hassle for a feature with dubious utility on a regular basis.

05-17-2010, 02:41 PM	#1
goblinbox *****istratrix Posts: 27 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Walla Walla, WA Device: K2, iThing	The 2.5 Update: Love it or leave it? I'd like to hear everyone's reviews of the 2.5 update: Good? Bad? Meh? Useful? Moronic? The coolest thing evar?

05-17-2010, 03:04 PM	#3
goblinbox *****istratrix Posts: 27 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Walla Walla, WA Device: K2, iThing	I got the 2.5 update on my K2i on Friday. When I looked at my Kindle and saw that it was updating, I nearly broke my face grinning. Boy, was I ever excited! Collections! Zooming! Social media! zOMG! By the time I'd finished my tea it had rebooted and I started playing with it... and, um, yeah. Not so awesome. The Collections feature isn't a feature. It's awkward to add books to a collection and it doesn't accomplish anything when you do. Sure, I now have a folder called "Sci-fi," but it's seven pages deep on the Home page. How is it a feature, clicking seven times to get to a folder I then have to page through to find the book I want? I'd prefer it if adding an item to a Collection would remove it from the home page, thank you very much. [Update: I stand corrected. This feature does work if you select to sort by Collections.] Twitter and Facebook. I am a social media junkie. I tweet all the time, and I check FB at least daily. I was excited about the social networking, to say the least. Sending an item from the Kindle to Twitter results in a tweet that looks like this. Not very awesome. You have to click through to see the quote. I didn't bother trying the FB post. The website. Okay, I have to admit that http://kindle.amazon.com is kinda cute. But what does it do? I mean, really? I logged in and classified all my books into reading, read, to read, and quit reading. And... now what? I have virtually no reason to ever visit the site again. Zooming. Handy for viewing images, but if you have a very dense PDF full of text it won't help with that. Password protection. Love it! I was traveling over the weekend and passworded my Kindle in case it was lost or stolen. Popular highlights. This feature is activated, but it hasn't done anything yet as far as I can tell. Font sizes. Are there now more HUGE fonts? Not useful to me, really. If there are any other features, I haven't noticed them. Over all, this update has brought the Kindle into 2010, sure, but while I approve of the ideas I feel that the implementation still needs a little tweaking. Last edited by goblinbox; 05-17-2010 at 10:36 PM.

05-17-2010, 03:21 PM	#5
Bluesman7 Book 'em Danno Posts: 156 Karma: 180 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Blue Ridge Mtns, NC Device: Kindle 2	I was mainly looking forward to the enhancements to PDF viewing as none of the other features really do anything for me personally. As mentioned above, the PDF enhancements are somewhat useful but don't achieve the result I was hoping for...(The ability to scale/reflow a page or choose a larger font.) So for me, the update was much ado about nothing. Still waiting for the update to be sent to my wife's Kindle (which is on the same account). Not sure how they go about figuring the download order. Last edited by Bluesman7; 05-17-2010 at 03:24 PM.

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05-17-2010, 02:57 PM	#2
Sheikspeare Groupie Posts: 181 Karma: 290 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: PR-505 / Kindle DX	No great shakes! The key feature (Collections) is one of many features that the now discontinued Sony PRS-505 had on day one of its release. The Kindle is still way way behind. Soon after the Kindle was released, several lists were drawn up in this and other forums of what a Kindle update could/should include. In this latest update, Amazon addressed only a fraction (if that) of the feedback.

05-17-2010, 03:14 PM	#4
ehunyadi Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Device: Kindle 2	I'm disappointed to read these reviews of 2.5. I was really excited for the changes, but finding out that the books in the folders still stay in the root is disturbing. I would have hoped for moving the books into the folders instead of just adding folders to an already 10 page long list on my K2. Also, the Twitter and Facebook features were something I was looking forward to.

05-17-2010, 03:26 PM	#7
elmoglick Groupie Posts: 165 Karma: 206 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Kansas City Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX, Kindle DXG	I've put about 300 books of my 700 into about 25 "collections" and now adding or deleting titles from the device takes approximately 2 minutes for each item. Disconnecting from USB now requires a 2-4 minute wheel spin while it evidently verifies the collections with anything that was added or removed while connected. This really renders the collections "feature" pretty useless. I think I'm going to delete them in favor of a peppy device.

05-17-2010, 03:45 PM	#8
cheerio6414 Addict Posts: 210 Karma: 36 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: Kindle 2	still waiting

05-17-2010, 03:56 PM	#10
RamTheHammer Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: Kindle 2	From the sound of it Collections is a bit of a bust!

05-17-2010, 04:06 PM	#11
synlor Member Posts: 17 Karma: 83 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: Kindle DX	You can make it so you only see the collections and the books that aren't in a collection only. These directions are for the DX, but I would guess it would be similar on a kindle 2. When on the home screen, press up until the line that says "Show all * Items" on the left and "By title", "By author", or "By most recent first" is highlighted. Press right on the joystick, and you'll see several options, go over and select "Collections" and then press the joystick down. Now you should see all your collections on the top of the home screen, and any books/magazines that aren't categorized underneath them. The books that are in a collection don't show up anymore. One note is that the order the collections show up in this mode is by most recent first. That is the last collection you went into will be at the top, the second last collection will be the second from the top and so on. Hope this helps!

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