WHY???

[gramps800a]

Why did Amazon screw up my Kindle with their lousy software update that removed my ability to turn off WiFi and my ability to reduce the width of the side margins. They lost my vote when it came to buying myself a tablet; Vizio won out over the more expensive Fire.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by gramps800a

Why did Amazon screw up my Kindle with their lousy software update that removed my ability to turn off WiFi and my ability to reduce the width of the side margins. They lost my vote when it came to buying myself a tablet; Vizio won out over the more expensive Fire.

They did not remove it, the just renamed it to airplane mode, changed the meaning of "on" and "off" (airplane on = wifi off), and buried it inside another menu level (making it difficult to turn it off after syncing your book).

The on/off confusion will annoy grandma, and the buried inside another menu will anger normal readers.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by gramps800a

Why did Amazon screw up my Kindle with their lousy software update that removed my ability to turn off WiFi and my ability to reduce the width of the side margins. They lost my vote when it came to buying myself a tablet; Vizio won out over the more expensive Fire.

I use Calibre's Collections plugin to change margins to where I want them. It still works on the K4.

I agree airplane mode is annoying! Now if I want to share something I have to go out of my book to turn it back on. It just doesn't make any sense!

[HoopyFrood]

They probably realized that people were turning off the WiFi and not turning it back on frequently. Therefore they make it more of a PIA to turn it on and off. I have mine off by default, that way it doesn't matter if I don't get my library books read by the time they expire. And since I return them early even if I haven't finished them it all works great.

I imagine there will come an update when you won't be able to turn the WiFi off. Then I'll simply deny it access to my router when necessary. For everything they do there is an counter action.

Howard

[disharmonicDeity]

Is there any way I can roll my device back to the way it was last week? I really really hate this airplane mode nonsense.

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

I imagine there will come an update when you won't be able to turn the WiFi off. Then I'll simply deny it access to my router when necessary. For everything they do there is an counter action.

Howard

Future update...

If you turn on your Kindle and it cannot access WiFi, Amazon's orbital platform will drop a nuke on your house.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by disharmonicDeity

Is there any way I can roll my device back to the way it was last week? I really really hate this airplane mode nonsense.

Yes, you can roll back to previous firmware. Instructions and tools are provided in the Dev Corner "simple debricking" sticky thread. Be sure to back up your "stuff" first, just in case...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by HoopyFrood

They probably realized that people were turning off the WiFi and not turning it back on frequently.

I very much doubt that was the motivation. It's much more likely, I think, that they felt that "Airplane Mode" is what people are used to seeing on their mobile phones.

[HoopyFrood]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I very much doubt that was the motivation. It's much more likely, I think, that they felt that "Airplane Mode" is what people are used to seeing on their mobile phones.

Not having a phone that is turned on more than once a month I didn't know that. It does make sense.

[HoopyFrood]

Originally Posted by Fluribus

Future update...

If you turn on your Kindle and it cannot access WiFi, Amazon's orbital platform will drop a nuke on your house.

[franklekens]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I very much doubt that was the motivation. It's much more likely, I think, that they felt that "Airplane Mode" is what people are used to seeing on their mobile phones.

That can hardly be the only reason, Harry: even if that was the motivation, that's no reason to tuck the feature away deeper in the menu. On my android smartphone it's easier to turn off the wifi than it currently is on the K4 (non-touch).

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by franklekens

That can hardly be the only reason, Harry: even if that was the motivation, that's no reason to tuck the feature away deeper in the menu. On my android smartphone it's easier to turn off the wifi than it currently is on the K4 (non-touch).

At the end of the day we will never know exactly why. Who knows, the number of support calls to Amazon regarding not being able to download/sync ebooks could have been wifi related, so Amazon's thinking of "if we make it harder to turn on/off people might just leave it on and there will be less support calls from customers whose solution is Turn On Wifi and Sync".

Secondly I can understand "Aeroplane Mode" and show the picture of the aeroplane. Make flying so much easier. A flight attendant wouldn't know about the capabilities of all devices, but should one show the aeroplane icon, then they could safely assume it is ok for the customer to use during flight.

Then again I could be completely wrong and the day the firmware was being released the developer was being made redundant or having a bad day so he thought he'd make life hard for every K4 owner.

[NickyWithNook]

They get a lot of marketing data from people's reading habits. Don't that require wifi? I'd guess that was the reason.

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

At the end of the day we will never know exactly why. Who knows, the number of support calls to Amazon regarding not being able to download/sync ebooks could have been wifi related, so Amazon's thinking of "if we make it harder to turn on/off people might just leave it on and there will be less support calls from customers whose solution is Turn On Wifi and Sync".

Secondly I can understand "Aeroplane Mode" and show the picture of the aeroplane. Make flying so much easier. A flight attendant wouldn't know about the capabilities of all devices, but should one show the aeroplane icon, then they could safely assume it is ok for the customer to use during flight.

Then again I could be completely wrong and the day the firmware was being released the developer was being made redundant or having a bad day so he thought he'd make life hard for every K4 owner.

They stated up-front they did it so the menus would be the same place on all their Kindle models. You know, so you can have menus consistent with other people's e-readers rather than menus that make sense on your device...

[Joykins]

This is what kindle support told me:

I'm sorry for the inconvenience you had regarding the change in access of Wireless settings after the latest software update of 4.1.0 on Kindle .

With the software update, inorder to be consistent with other Kindle products and make menus shorter and easier to navigate, we’ve consolidated wireless settings into one place in Settings on your Kindle.

However, I’ve forwarded your concern to our Kindle development team and we'll consider your feedback as we plan further improvements. We're regularly working on improvements to your Kindle experience. I've let the Kindle team know you're interested in the old feature to access Wireless settings even while reading books.