Firmware update 5.12.4

[Localhorst86]

I'm sorta, kinda, excited about this. Having covers on the lock screen is one of the two reasons for me to have a jailbroken kindle.

So, while I won't be updating my PW3 because I want to retain the jailbreak for Calibre Collection Manager, it's nice to see Amazon implementing features long asked for.

I do wonder if they will be limiting the covers to Amazon bought or even select titles or whether it will also work with sideloaded books (I exclusively sideload my reads).

[John Hopper]

I'm rather looking forward to these features, especially the cover on the screensaver. I suspect it will only apply to Amazon bought books. When I used a Kobo briefly a few years ago, it worked only with books bought from them.

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[Quoth]

All my 3 kobo models on all Firmwares the sleep cover mode worked with all books. Perhaps it was do with the book format or how it was copied that it didn't work for you, or it was really old FW I've not seen.

I can't see how it can be Amazon only, unless the FW is looking for clues in the KFX format of Whispernet, rather than Download via PC / USB of Amazon sales of Mobi and AZW3/KF8 depending on how old your Kindle is.

[Braid]

I like the idea of using my own homemade images as the screensaver. About having my 'currently reading' book cover as the screensaver, I am indifferent... actually I'd probably stick with the amazon stock images, in case I am reading something embarrassing.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Oh look. Goodereader has a scoop:

Amazon Kindle to include more options in the font menu

What's it like being Michael Kozlowski?

---------------

So, yeah, I can now use the covers on my ebooks, especially the ones where I've changed the cover.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Quoth

can't see how it can be Amazon only, unless the FW is looking for clues in the KFX format of Whispernet, rather than Download via PC / USB of Amazon sales of Mobi and AZW3/KF8 depending on how old your Kindle is.

All Kindles that are getting the 5.12.4 update support KFX and AZW3/KF8.

The Kindle will only read embedded covers from MOBI PDOC.

The Kindle ignores embedded covers in ebooks with EBOK type and just downloads covers from the Amazon server based on ASIN. Calibre gets around this limitation by manually putting the cover thumbnails in the expected location: [USB]/system/thumbnails/

If cover screensavers are ASIN-based like the thumbnails are, depending on the implementation, it's possible that it would only work for Amazon purchased books or you'd need to embed the correct ASIN into the ebook if it was acquired from another source.

[jhowell]

I looked a bit more at the lock screen book cover feature to see what else I could discover. From what I could tell ads must be disabled and the book cover feature must be enabled remotely for this to work.

It looks for an internal message indicating that a book was opened and stashes a copy of the cover image in a file accessible over USB named:

/system/bookcovers/default/{uuid}_{asin}_{cdetype}.jpg

(The cover thumbnail images downloaded from Amazon and stored in /system/thumbnails for use in library displays do not have high enough resolution to be used for this purpose.)

Since it gets the cover image from the ebook reader component I believe that it will have access to whatever cover image is shown when you select "GOTO Cover" while reading the book.

I did not see any restrictions that would limit it to only work for Amazon-sourced books.

This is preliminary information, subject to change.

[Quoth]

Thanks.

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Calibre gets around this limitation by manually putting the cover thumbnails in the expected location: [USB]/system/thumbnails/

If cover screensavers are ASIN-based like the thumbnails are, depending on the implementation, it's possible that it would only work for Amazon purchased books or you'd need to embed the correct ASIN into the ebook if it was acquired from another source.

And also the eBook might not have an ASIN due to only being sold elsewhere, PD (Gutenberg etc) or not published yet.

[Tomk2]

I always thought that being the only person in the room who knew what I was reading was a big advantage of an e-reader.

Let me put pictures of my kids, pets, jeep, motorcycles, and favorite photos on the lock screen and I would pay to disable ads if necessary.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Quoth]

I've a sleep cover on my PW3 and full covers for the DXG (a 10" generic tablet cover) and Kindle Keyboard.
My Kobo H2O original has a sleep cover, so I have it set to say "Sleeping" or "Powered Off" (or whatever the stock FW does). I put my Libra in a an old zip writing case, so have the read book cover appearing on it.

If I'm reading, there is text. If I'm not reading it's covered or put away, or upside down to protect the screen. So it's not like reading a book on a train.

[John Hopper]

This was nearly 4 years ago, so yes the Kobo firmware may well have been different then.

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[John Hopper]

Originally Posted by Quoth

All my 3 kobo models on all Firmwares the sleep cover mode worked with all books. Perhaps it was do with the book format or how it was copied that it didn't work for you, or it was really old FW I've not seen.

I can't see how it can be Amazon only, unless the FW is looking for clues in the KFX format of Whispernet, rather than Download via PC / USB of Amazon sales of Mobi and AZW3/KF8 depending on how old your Kindle is.

It was 4 years ago, so yes the Kobo firmware may well have changed since then.

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by Pjama

Well, I’m pathetic enough to be very excited about this!

Particularly having the book cover on the lock screen. I changed to a kobo for a while to get this, and also added the hack to older kindles to do this over the years, so it would be great to finally get this as a native feature.

It’s about time they brought the Aa menu back to being one press away instead of hidden a couple of clicks away as currently. I’m always tinkering with my fonts and sizes and orientation, depending on where I’m reading and what time of day it is. So that will make this less frustrating.

I’m pleased to hear they are adding a contrast adjustment, as bolding the font makes it thicker, which displeases me, so hopefully this will mean I can make the text slightly darker and not lose sharpness. Either that, or it is set up ready for new screen tech. It’s exciting, anyway.

You're not the only one, I love updates/changes and keep hoping for new features or options. I wasn't expecting the book cover option ever in native software so I'm hopeful this comes through as we're thinking. I'm curious on the contrast, and I'm all for them working on the Aa menu since I use that surprisingly often, mainly because my saved settings keeps resetting.

[Paperbackstash]

Okay, and what is "PinYin"?

[mergen3107]

It is a phonetical prediction “language” (set of rules, basically) that helps to type/find complex hieroglyphs via combination of latin characters.
For Kindle this option means that hieroglyphs are given their PinYin transcription during reading Chinese books: https://kindlemalaysia.com/kindle-su...in-amazon-tap/