Update available for the Kindle Paperwhite: 5.3.0
In this
they’ve announced that there is an update available for the Kindle Paperwhite. As always, it will happen automatically (eventually), or you can go to
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesoftwareupdates
and update it manually.
I did the update myself, so I could tell you about it. 🙂
Here are the things they list:
- Improved fonts: interestingly, these fonts also affect the menus, not just the books. There are now six: Baskerville, Caecillia, Caecillia Condensed, Future, Helvetica, and Palatino. You do this by tapping towards the top middle of a “page” when you have a book open and choosing Aa
- Turn off recommended content in Home. This is under Home – Menu – Settings – Device Options – Personalize your Kindle
- Smoother sample to book experience: I think everybody is going to want this one. When you finish a sample and then buy the book, the book will start where you left off the sample, and it will delete the sample. People have wanted this since the Kindle 1 came out in 2007
- Easier access to settings. This now makes it possible to turn Airplane Mode on and off from within a book. It was awkward to have to go to Home just to turn the wireless on and off. While this doesn’t put that option on the front menu, you can at least get to it by tapping Menu in a book and then tapping Settings
- Support for simplified Chinese
- Improved manga formatting: you can choose “fit-to-screen”
- Separate refresh setting for manga and comics from the setting for books
These are largely minor changes for most people, I think, but people are going to like the new sample method.
This did not make the screen evenly lit at the bottom: I think that’s a hardware issue and won’t be fixed with a software update. I don’t find it to be a problem (it doesn’t interfere with reading), but I know some people don’t like it.
If you notice anything interesting using this, or you have questions about how to do (the instructions at the software updates page are pretty good), feel free to comment on this post.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
I Love My Kindle 
November 8, 2012 at 9:29 am |
The Kindle paperwhite update version 5.3.0 is a complete “recovery image”. Meaning a complete replacement for the Linux kernel and the system file image.
None of the previous owner firmware additions (“hacks”) work on this version as-of day 1.
Which might well change on day 1++
November 9, 2012 at 3:08 am |
Thanks for writing, Mikez!
I appreciate that insight. I don’t do the hacks myself, but I know many people do.
November 8, 2012 at 2:03 pm |
It would be nice if Amazon would make one last update to the Kindle Touch to implement the “Cloud/Device” feature that the KPW has. I kind of like that better than the “Archive/Device” method.
November 9, 2012 at 3:09 am |
Thanks for writing, Steven!
Since the Touch isn’t being sold new any more by Amazon, I’m not sure that we’ll see feature adds, unless it is something that affects basically all of the models.
November 8, 2012 at 3:43 pm |
[…] via Bufo Calvin. […]
November 8, 2012 at 9:59 pm |
I manually updated, and my favorite (so far) is turning off recommends content, though I had a hard time finding it. I cannot see where/how the fonts affect the menus-where is that?
November 9, 2012 at 3:26 am |
Thanks for writing, D.!
I thought changing it in a book would change it in the menus, but that’s not clear to me. It says this:
“We have made changes to Palatino, Baskerville, and Futura fonts to make them look even better on Kindle Paperwhite. You will notice this when reading books, as well as in menus.”
Let me dig into this a bit more.
November 9, 2012 at 4:29 am |
Time passes (about 12 hours) and the firmware version 5.3.0 has not (yet) been jailbroken.
So there is (at the moment) no help for those who have already updated to 5.3.0 to keep the ability to make customizations.
For those who have not yet updated from 5.2.0, a work-around is available at:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=196245
The above post contains directions on how to load a version of the 5.3.0 that retains the end-user access that many people do use.