Firmware Update New K3 firmware

[BobLenx]

Updated to 3.1 tonight.

First off, while it might simply be an effect of a system restart as part of the upgrade procedure, everything seem faster - EVERYTHING. Searching, moving between collections, moving from one book to another, and most noticeably paging within a book is remarkably faster. Page forward/backward seems to be literally cut in half or better! I'm impressed. Even the browser seems spiffier.

Page numbers work for some Amazon "purchased" ebooks - not all. And the page number only shows if you press MENU - or do a GoTo. Nice I guess, but I was really hoping to see the page number show at the bottom of the screen all the time. But I'm glad to have what they gave us. By the way some of my ebooks are freebies/cheapies from Amazon, but most of them are freebies from other sources - MOBI and PRC. When I looked on my Kindle, 21 of my ebooks had the APNX file.

BUT MY FAVORITE FEATURE - I positively LOVE the new Sections and Articles list in magazines (Time) and newspapers (New York Times and El Tiempo from Bogota). I always hated that I could see and select from a Sections List, but had to step through all the articles in that section in order, and could not view an Articles List within a Section and select the article I wanted to read. And now I can. LOVE IT! Finally magazines and newspapers are a joy to read on my Kindle.

The social networking features don't interest me but certainly might others. The end of a book now gives you some options/choices and shows other similar books you might want to consider reading.

So far I find this firmware upgrade useful/functional. THANKS AMAZON.

Bob

[sirmaru]

Don't forget Kindle for PC also was simultaneously upgraded.

Firmware Update to: 3.1 (558700031)

Kindle for PC to 1.4.1 (31629)

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by BobLenx

Updated to 3.1 tonight.


BUT MY FAVORITE FEATURE - I positively LOVE the new Sections and Articles list in magazines (Time) and newspapers (New York Times and El Tiempo from Bogota). I always hated that I could see and select from a Sections List, but had to step through all the articles in that section in order, and could not view an Articles List within a Section and select the article I wanted to read. And now I can. LOVE IT! Finally magazines and newspapers are a joy to read on my Kindle.


Bob

Ditto on the new subscription layout. I wonder if it would not (now) also be useful for other types of content - manuals, technical references, etc. Of course you'd still have 'subscription' terminology (notably 'articles') but otherwise it is much easier to navigate, as long as you can do without Real Page Numbers or Locations...hmm, and Bookmarks and annotations...but maybe that restriction is malleable for self-generated content...

[Visuddhi]

Originally Posted by BobLenx

Updated to 3.1 tonight.

First off, while it might simply be an effect of a system restart as part of the upgrade procedure, everything seem faster - EVERYTHING. Searching, moving between collections, moving from one book to another, and most noticeably paging within a book is remarkably faster. Page forward/backward seems to be literally cut in half or better! I'm impressed. Even the browser seems spiffier.


Bob

Yeh, the browser seems almost reasonable now, at least just to check email

[Barty]

I think the new news display makes this a worthwhile upgrade. Just install your hacks first!

Real page numbers, I could take or leave it. I would prefer to have screen pages, actually. The social stuff, does ANYONE use that? It seems an invitation for narcissism. Ooh, John and Lisa had a baby, Rob finished his dissertation, I just finished re-reading Twilight for the nth time. Whoopee.

I don't want a way to spam my friends with my awesome literary insights. I want a system to let me discuss the book I'm reading with other people (not review, discuss), including possibly the author. Like a discussion forum formatted in a kindle friendly way. That would be cool; that would be adding value to my reading experience.

[Francesco]

Originally Posted by BobLenx

BUT MY FAVORITE FEATURE - I positively LOVE the new Sections and Articles list in magazines (Time) and newspapers (New York Times and El Tiempo from Bogota). I always hated that I could see and select from a Sections List, but had to step through all the articles in that section in order, and could not view an Articles List within a Section and select the article I wanted to read. And now I can. LOVE IT! Finally magazines and newspapers are a joy to read on my Kindle.

Really? Could you post a screenshot? I can't picture how it could very different compared to what 3.0.2 can do, i.e., if you press "View section list" and then the click under "view articles" you get a nice preview of each article and it's easy enough to navigate.

I'm disappointed that this fw upgrade doesn't include better support for PDF. After seeing what Duokan can do in that department I wish Amazon could learn a thing or two.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by Tiersten

Yes. It will download and install new firmware versions if they're in release status and not early preview.

The last one I've seen in release status was 3.0.1 and every firmware since then i.e. 3.0.2, 3.0.3 and 3.1 have all been early preview status. Early preview firmware isn't automatically downloaded and installed. You have to do it yourself via USB.

This means currently that it won't download and install 3.1 by itself.

Interesting. I wonder why that is? Amazon cutting back on expenditure by not pushing it out over 3g? No major bugs being fixed in the firmware, instead more additional features so no need to push it out (people who want the extra will do it themselves).

I'm still on 3.0.2 and don't feel the need to update just yet. Funny, despite being "early preview" Amazon tend to release IMHO rather stable firmwares. For other companies "early preview" tends to mean something like alpha ie: the new intern compiled and uploaded it this morning.

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

Interesting. I wonder why that is? Amazon cutting back on expenditure by not pushing it out over 3g? No major bugs being fixed in the firmware, instead more additional features so no need to push it out (people who want the extra will do it themselves).

Doubt its for cost reasons and more that its just not being pushed out for technical reasons i.e. bugs. They're just staying in Early Preview because Amazon doesn't want to push it out to all Kindles yet.

The last version which went release status was 3.0.1 which had a fairly big flaw regarding temperature sensitivity of the Kindle which caused display slowdown issues. 3.0.2 is buggy and the most noticeable is that the browser doesn't let you type into certain text fields. 3.0.3 fixed the browser and some crash bugs etc...

[glanyrafon]

Originally Posted by BobLenx

BUT MY FAVORITE FEATURE - I positively LOVE the new Sections and Articles list in magazines (Time) and newspapers (New York Times and El Tiempo from Bogota). I always hated that I could see and select from a Sections List, but had to step through all the articles in that section in order, and could not view an Articles List within a Section and select the article I wanted to read. And now I can. LOVE IT! Finally magazines and newspapers are a joy to read on my Kindle.

What doesnt work for me now (on Calibre generated periodicals anyway) is hitting the Back button and going to the place in the articles list I came from. I always go back to the first section on the first page of articles. Which is annoying to say the least.

Anybody else get this?

[nickredding]

Originally Posted by BobLenx

I always hated that I could see and select from a Sections List, but had to step through all the articles in that section in order, and could not view an Articles List within a Section and select the article I wanted to read.

Yes you could have--by moving the cursor under the number (indicating how many articles were in the section) in the section list and clicking select. This would take you to the article list for that section.

[VacantDoll]

Hey there, I'm one of the stupid few who decided to install the 3.1 update without previously uninstalling my Jailbreak and screen saver hack – is there, or will there be, any way in the future to still remove those hacks to get a "clean" Kindle? Maybe completely resetting the Kindle somehow?

Help would be really appreciated.

[johnd126]

Originally Posted by BobLenx

Updated to 3.1 tonight.

BUT MY FAVORITE FEATURE - I positively LOVE the new Sections and Articles list in magazines (Time) and newspapers (New York Times and El Tiempo from Bogota). I always hated that I could see and select from a Sections List, but had to step through all the articles in that section in order, and could not view an Articles List within a Section and select the article I wanted to read. And now I can. LOVE IT! Finally magazines and newspapers are a joy to read on my Kindle.

I agree, I like this feature a lot. For those who haven't updated yet, the difference is that after the update you can see the newspaper section names and the headlines from each section on the same page (sections list on the left, headlines on the right) and just scroll through them using the page up / page down buttons. A lot nicer than the old way.

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by VacantDoll

is there, or will there be, any way in the future to still remove those hacks to get a "clean" Kindle? Maybe completely resetting the Kindle somehow?

There should be something for it but no estimates on when.

[Sigwolf]

I just received a newly purchased K3. It shipped with 3.02. The Amazon Kindle update page only offers the 3.1 preview, so is there any way for me to update my Kindle to 3.03 or am I out of luck?

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Sigwolf

The Amazon Kindle update page only offers the 3.1 preview, so is there any way for me to update my Kindle to 3.03 or am I out of luck?

The 3.0.3 preview was on the their web site for months without ever going to a full release. This was in contrast to the two earlier upgrades, which were pushed out to most units after only a week or two of preview.

I feel that 3.0.3 did not turn out to be a great release. Most people, including me, had a hard time figuring out if it really was a net plus, which may explain why it never went past preview status.

After 24 hours, I am going to say that, unlike 3.0.3, the new 3.1 release really is worth the download. (However, I do not have any hacks on my machine to worry about.)