Hands on Kindle Paperwhite 4

[haertig]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

If Calibre doesn't change the size of the azw3 file, Xray should work fine, but you need to jump through a few hoops to get the Xray file.

Thanks for this info. My normal procedure for a new book: Buy from Amazon, download in AZW3 format into Calibre to be processed with DeDRM so I have my own locally stored backup copy. Sideload from Caliber to PW3. The PW3 is in permanent airplane mode - for three reasons: (1) to save battery, (2) to avoid updating to newer firmware until after I have read reviews from others that the new version doesn't cause problems, and (3) to get rid of the ads (after running in airplane mode for a while, the Kindle apparently runs out of ads to display, so it stops displaying them and falls back to its built-in and ugly screensavers instead, which is one small step better than the ads).

So it sounds like my X-Ray doesn't work because I only sideload, and never connect to the internet. Makes sense. I'll have to decide if I prefer for X-Ray to work, or if I prefer the three benefits I listed above instead. The "save battery" benefit is minimal - I'd only need to leave WiFi on long enough to download the X-Ray file. The "get rid of ads" benefit I don't really care about either. The ads are not really intrusive - this no ads benefit just kind of tagged along as a side effect of permanent airplane mode. But the one benefit I do want to keep is the "no automatic updating". Is there a way to disable that, even when WiFi is turned on?

p.s. - There are also a few other benefits of leaving WiFi off: There is always a possibility, probably extremely small, that Amazon's security protocols could get hacked - thus leaving Kindle owners subject to hacker attacks. While this risk is minimal, there's no reason not to reduce it to absolute zero by turning WiFi off (assuming you don't need the features that WiFi provides - like X-Ray file downloads). Another benefit of leaving WiFi off is that Amazon or their "partners" cannot easily collect data on you. Not that I'm concerned that Amazon knows how many pages per minute I read, what page I'm on in what book, and statistical data collection like that. But just as a general principle I want as little data collected about me as possible. This is just basic security and privacy awareness. Amazon wants data like that to make money off of (via targeted advertisements, etc.) So if they want that kind of data from me, ask me and I'll possibly sell it to them, ... not give it to them for free!

[Sirtel]

All my books are sideloaded too, so no X-Ray. Most of them aren't bought from Amazon (I buy only Amazon exclusives from them, because Amazon prices are generally higher for me than Google or Kobo prices) and even if they were, the file size would be different from the original (I edit the formatting of almost all my books). So I cannot use X-Ray, but tbh I've never felt any urgent need to do so. I can use the global search and look up the more detailed info on my tablet, should the need arise.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

All my books are sideloaded too, so no X-Ray. Most of them aren't bought from Amazon (I buy only Amazon exclusives from them, because Amazon prices are generally higher for me than Google or Kobo prices) and even if they were, the file size would be different from the original (I edit the formatting of almost all my books). So I cannot use X-Ray, but tbh I've never felt any urgent need to do so. I can use the global search and look up the more detailed info on my tablet, should the need arise.

There’s at least one XRay-generator plugin for calibre.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by haertig

That would be a totally useless feature for me. Maybe if someone had a bunch of reference books on their Kindle it might be useful.

Are there many cases of people who read novels searching for a word or phrase across multiple books? I can't come up with any need to do that. Please educate me. A Kindle is a very low horsepower device (computing power). That's got to be a heckuva burden on the poor thing to do all that parsing and processing. Can you turn that feature off?

I use the search feature within a book fairly often, although not across multiple books. I'm guessing it uses the same index although I don't really know that.

Indexing and searching aren't particularly power hungry features if they're coded well, which I suspect the Kindles are. If you put 1000 books on board it'll take a while to index and pull the battery down pretty quickly. But since an average book has about 100,000 words that's 100,000,000 words to index. It is a lot to do.

To avoid the problems associated with indexing don't put a lot of books on board at once. Putting 30 or 40 books on the Kindle won't have much affect as long as it indexes them all okay. I typically keep 20 to 50 books on my Kindles. For those who want more the answer is just add a few each day.

The searching portion probably isn't a strain if the indices are constructed well, which they probably are.

I'm talking about this as a retired programmer. I've written code for both indexing and searching many times. I was a programmer in the days when that had to be coded manually. These days most languages have well tested indexing and searching features, as do most OS's. Kindles use Linux which is among the more sophisticated and efficient of them all. My guess, and it's only that, is that it's done very efficiently.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Am I correct the "disable touchscreen" turns off tapping but not swiping?

You are correct.

Barry

[abdirahim]

Is the screen lighting of the Paperwhite 4 much improved?

The previous one I have, you can see the light cones or shadows at the bottom. It's not too bad, but the Paperwhite 4 is supposed to be different, instead of 3 lights at the bottom it now has 4. Is anyone familiar with this and can comment on the new Paperwhite 4 lighting?

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by haertig

But the one benefit I do want to keep is the "no automatic updating". Is there a way to disable that, even when WiFi is turned on?

p.s. - There are also a few other benefits of leaving WiFi off: ...

Read the sections of https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/5_x_Jailbreak that refer to
update.bin.tmp.partial (the first part of preparing to jailbreak is preventing automatic updates).

I see all your reasons to keep WiFi off and raise you avoiding downloading thumbnail cover images for every book you've ever bought from amazon.

I have a sacrificial kindle that I only use to fetch xray files and never read on. It's not a solution for everyone, but it works for me. Xray capable used kindles are probably pretty cheap and plentiful.

[Josieb1]

I’m a bit confused. I bought a Paperwhite 4 today and I love it. Only thing is the lights are along her bottom. I thought I read somewhere they were supposed to be along the top?

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I’m a bit confused. I bought a Paperwhite 4 today and I love it. Only thing is the lights are along her bottom. I thought I read somewhere they were supposed to be along the top?

That's what a lot of sources were reporting, but the lights are still on the bottom so not sure how that rumor started.

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by abdirahim

Is the screen lighting of the Paperwhite 4 much improved?

The previous one I have, you can see the light cones or shadows at the bottom. It's not too bad, but the Paperwhite 4 is supposed to be different, instead of 3 lights at the bottom it now has 4. Is anyone familiar with this and can comment on the new Paperwhite 4 lighting?

I don't have cones but think it's a little dimmer than the PW3. I prefer the PW3 screen for various reasons, but the lighting isn't a big issue, and I haven't experienced cones or shadows.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by haertig

That would be a totally useless feature for me. Maybe if someone had a bunch of reference books on their Kindle it might be useful.

Are there many cases of people who read novels searching for a word or phrase across multiple books? I can't come up with any need to do that. Please educate me. A Kindle is a very low horsepower device (computing power). That's got to be a heckuva burden on the poor thing to do all that parsing and processing. Can you turn that feature off?

I use search frequently in novels. Sometimes I forget who a character is and can search that character to look back. "Oh yeah, I remember her" and then go back to my reading. Just had that happened with "We are Legion: We are Bob" by Dennis Taylor. It suddenly occurred to me that I couldn't remember how Homer came about. A quick search and "oh yeah, now I remember". No, I don't think you can turn it off as it's a major feature. Harry found that his kindle indexes about 100 books an hour. Add some books before you go to bed and plug in your unit and they should be indexed by morning. Theoretically.

[joblack]

Can you test if the front light can be disabled completely?

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Read the sections of https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/5_x_Jailbreak that refer to
update.bin.tmp.partial (the first part of preparing to jailbreak is preventing automatic updates) ...

Sadly, update.bin.tmp.partial no longer works to block OTA updates:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=293982

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Sadly, update.bin.tmp.partial no longer works to block OTA updates:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=293982

I've got a kindle running 5.9.6.1 where it seems to be working.

The two I actually read on are below 5.9.2 and never gt wifi turned on since a few months post JB. Just too many problems with wifi turned on.

I'll try to remember to keep an eye on the version on the one with 5.9.6.1, the time stamp for the blocker file is 2018-08-03

It is sad if the blocker doesn't work any more, but I think maybe it does.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I've got a kindle running 5.9.6.1 where it seems to be working.

The two I actually read on are below 5.9.2 and never gt wifi turned on since a few months post JB. Just too many problems with wifi turned on.

I'll try to remember to keep an eye on the version on the one with 5.9.6.1, the time stamp for the blocker file is 2018-08-03

It is sad if the blocker doesn't work any more, but I think maybe it does.

I'm just reporting what knc1 posted. If the blocker folder really is working on 5.9.6.1, it would be helpful if you would report that on the OTA Blocking thread. Thanks