Kindle for PC, Kindle for Mac updated: version 1.10.1
New versions of the free reader apps for Kindle for PC and Kindle for Mac have been released:
Kindle for PC and Kindle for Mac Version 1.10.1
I’m looking for the big changes (unless these are just bug fixes), but I wanted to let you know right away. 
Update: I’ve heard that this doesn’t really add new features, just performance enhancements.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
New iOS (iPhones, iPod touches, iPad) update (3.1.1) to fix last update
On June 14, Amazon announced a new iOS (iPhones, iPod touches, and iPad) update for the free Kindle reader:
Kindle for iPad and Kindle Cloud Reader Update
Many users reported problems with the update. The biggest problem was not being able to open their e-books. People also didn’t like a change that was made to the margins.
If you look at that announcement thread I referenced above, you’ll see a lot of discomfort with it. There were possibilities, like deregistering and reregistering, but it wasn’t clear that those worked.
Amazon has responded by releasing another update which is supposed to fix these problems:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id302584613
If you have been having these problems, please let me know if this fix resolves the issues for you by commenting this post.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
Cloud Reader, Kindle for iPad and iOS get update
I don’t have time to check it right now (and I’ll only be looking at it in the Cloud Reader), but Amazon announced a new update:
Announcement Kindle for iPad and Kindle Cloud Reader Update
It brings the Panel Viewer (for comics/graphic novels) and improved children’s book display to the iPad, the iPhone, and the iPod touch.
The above post has links.
If you try it out, feel free to let me and my readers know what you think.
Update: I’ve tried out the Panel Viewer in my Cloud Reader on a desktop running Chrome.
I downloaded a sample of
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Honestly, I was a bit disappointed (not with the book, which I really like, but with the Panel View).
This book has some very panel rich pages…there can be many panels.
When I double-clicked one, it did enlarge…but not all that much, in my opinion. I was expecting the panel to fill the reading area of the screen. If I zoomed Chrome up to 200%, it looked nice and large. However, the next page button was then off the screen, so that wasn’t really a good choice.
It might be pinch and spreadable on a touch screen device, but I haven’t tried that yet.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
Should Kindle updates be optional?
There are three long threads right now in the Amazon Kindle community about recent software updates for Kindles:
Announcement Kindle Software Update Version 4.1.0
Announcement New software update for Kindle Touch
Announcement New software update for Kindle Fire
Each one started with an official announcement from Amazon.
They then go on from there with customer posts, and there are some things that you’ll find in all of them:
I don’t intend any of those to be specific quotations from individuals, by the way, but just representative.
It’s that last one that prompted this post.
For me, there’s no question that each update (and I think it’s great that Amazon does this many updates) brings things that people like and things that people don’t like. Many people don’t like how the wireless on and off function has been buried deeper on the Mindle, for instance. Understood…I can find some positive elements to it, but for most people I think that’s a negative. I also think that Amazon will change it back in a future update.
Given that, it’s the concept that Amazon shouldn’t update your Kindle without asking that intrigues me.
I have a couple of comments about that.
You do own the physical Kindle, in a manner similar to owning a copy of a paperbook. If you want to use it to stick under the leg of your coffee table to keep it from wobbling, Amazon can’t stop you from doing that.
Amazon isn’t forcing you to take the software update because you own a Kindle. If you never connect to Amazon’s servers, you won’t get it. You could have a Kindle, and just sideload Project Gutenberg books on to it, with it deregistered from Amazon. You won’t get the update.
They force you to get the update if you are going to use the Kindle service.
There are some justifiable reasons for that:
Amazon might also just want to do something…like providing a link to Twitter or add more language dictionaries.
Yes, those examples largely benefit Amazon, and if a customer wanted to skip them and still use Amazon, why can’t they?
Well, it’s in the Terms of Service to which customers hypothetically agree that Amazon can do it. In the
Amazon.com Kindle License Agreement and Terms of Use
it says:
“Automatic Updates. In order to keep your Software up-to-date, Amazon may automatically provide your Kindle or Other Device with updates/upgrades to the Software.”
So, no question: Amazon has the right to update your Kindle.
Should they do it without asking your permission in each case, though?
Based on the threads, there are clearly people who think they shouldn’t. I wonder…what if Amazon said you don’t need to take the update, but that they won’t continue to service your Kindle if you don’t? You know, sort of like they let us put third-party apps on our Kindle Fires, but warn us that we are then responsible for any damage those apps might do?
I suspect this poll will go overwhelmingly one way, but I”m curious to see…I don’t like to assume.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
Update for Mindle adds sharper contrast, parental controls
Big news!
Amazon has updated the basic Kindle (the $79/$109 model in the USA),which I call the Mindle.
You’ll get the update automatically over wi-fi in “the coming weeks”.
You can do the download manually by going here:
I’ll do that myself shortly and update this post with my experience, but I wanted to get this out right away.
This breaks ground in one important way.
It brings parental controls (currently only available on the Kindle Fire) to an RSK (Reflective Screen Kindle).
You’ll be able to restrict access to the browser, your account’s archives, and the Kindle store.
That’s big news!
I would expect other RSKs (the Touch and the Keyboard) to follow.
The other announced changes:
I expect to write more about this tonight, but I didn’t want you to have to wait for me.
Update: I had originally said that I thought the Mindle might have been getting updates first, but one of my readers, Mike, refuted that.
Update: the update is 44.1MB.
It went through two updating cycles, then rebooted…the whole process was about six minutes.
When it first came up, it didn’t show anything on my Homescreen, but quickly refreshed (under twenty seconds, certainly).
The Dictionaries Collection was immediately visible…even sorted by Title. When sorted by Title, the books, did not appear both inside and outside the Collection.
The change in the contrast isn’t obvious to me, but I can’t always tell that sort of thing…it was fine for me before. Actually, now that I’ve seen one of the ads, it does look quite a bit sharper.
When I went to
Home-Menu-Settings
one change was immediately apparent: Airplane Mode. That will enable you to turn off the wireless when on a plane…it’s probably not any different from turning off the wireless ordinarily. That may have been changed just to make it more obvious, and possibly to comply with evolving FAA regulations.
When I went to the next page, that’s where I could see Parental Controls.
Clicking on that, I get a choice to do
There was also this important note:
“When Parental Controls are enabled, Deregistration and Reset to Factory Defaults are disabled.”
That will prevent a child from resetting and getting around the Parental Controls (although that also knocked them off the account).
They note that locking the Kindle Store on the account does not stop you from using your computer to purchase books and send them to the Mindle. That’s nice: that means the guardians can still send books to the Mindle, even though books can’t be purchased directly from it.
When I clicked to turn off access to the Archived Items (I wanted to test that first), I was asked to enter a password, and confirm it. I could also have entered a password hint. I tested not entering one, and that worked.
Nice! With the Archived Items blocked, I can’t even see them (the option is grayed out). Speaking of gray, that means that finally, the “owners” of the account (the parents, the legal guardians…whatever arrangement it might be) can have a book like Fifty Shades of Grey and have kids on the account not know it.
This ends the need for the register/deregister dance* as a means of parental control, at least on this device. It wouldn’t surprise me if this leads to them having RSKs (Reflective Screen Kindles) also remove access to downloaded Kindle books when deregistered, just like the Kindle Fire.
Update: I tested blocking access to the archives and to the web browser, and sending a book from
http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
That worked just fine! That means parents or legal guardians can send both archived and newly purchased books to a Mindle while blocking a child (or other user) from getting anyway…that’s going to make some folks very happy.
Blocking the web browser did not stop downloading from the archives.
When I went to the Archived Items to look at the change in the dictionaries, it wasn’t obvious at first. You couldn’t choose to sort by Collections. However, the Dictionaries Collection did appear there…alphabetically amongst the books under “D”.
Overall, I think this is an important update. It really expands the use cases for the device. If a school has had a “no internet device” policy in the classroom, this can resolve that. That may expand the market.
I think this is just a hint of what we’ll see in the next couple of months…
* The R/DD (Register/Deregister Dance) is what I have called it when someone registers a device to an account, downloads a book or more, then deregisters the device…just to get the books. People do that as a way of sharing: on anything except a Kindle Fire, the downloaded books stayed on the device, meaning they could be read. Parents and other legal guardians used it to put books on a child’s Kindle without giving the child access to the archives. The parent or guardian would put the desired books on the child’s device, then deregister it. The child would read the books, then the parent or guardian would re-register the device and download more, then deregister it again. This makes that whole process much simpler. Hm…I need to test one more thing. I’ll try to send a book from the archives while I have the archives blocked on the device. If that works, we’re cake. Update: yes, that worked! So, you can have the archives blocked, have the web browser blocked, and still send books from the archives…sweet! I’ll update that part of this post as well.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
New update available for the Kindle Fire 6.3.1: some people reporting being locked out of the internet
This was just announced by Amazon, and I’m not in a place I can test it right now. Update: I have tested it…see below.
Note: there are quite a few reports of the update locking people out of the internet (and possibly out of other functions on the Kindle Fire). Please see the end of this post. If it’s happened to you, please indicate the factors in the second poll…that may help identify what is causing the problem.
They have a new software update available for the Kindle Fire.
Kindle Fire Software Update 6.3.1
This is just since the last major update on March 29th:
http://ilmk.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/kindle-fire-update-6-3/
Typically, a major update will change the second number, a minor update will tack on to that…so you would think this would be minor.
However, this description on the page intrigues me:
“We have a new, free software update available for Kindle Fire. This update brings additional parental controls to Kindle Fire, including the ability to password-protect purchases, disable access to specific content libraries, and block access to the Silk web browser. As with all software updates, these new features will be delivered automatically to your Kindle Fire.”
I’m champing at the bit to get more information on this! Can you block Silk without blocking downloading from the archives? What does “specific content libraries” mean here?
As soon as I can give you more information, I will, but I thought you’d want to know. If you do the update, I’d appreciate you letting me and my readers know what you see.
Update: Old Rocker in the
Amazon Kindle community announcement thread
has done the update, and nicely checked a couple of things at my request. I will confirm it as soon as I can.
The choices under Parental Controls were reported to be:
I asked if when you clicked on Block and Unblock Content Types if you could block a specific book title, and Old Rocker said no.
If this is accurate, it’s still a big step forward. One issue people have had is young kids watching R-rated free Prime streaming video. This apparently allows you to block video playback, so it would solve that issue.
The Web Browser and Wi-Fi are listed separately…which may mean you can allow download from the archives (the “Cloud”) while blocking going to websites.
Update: okay, I got over to public wi-fi and did the update…it was raining, and I went uphill…both ways. Just kidding, but it was raining on the way over. 
I used just my Fire. The trick to that for me has been to use the free ES File Explorer app to put it in my kindleupdates folder on my Fire.
Once done, and the update was complete…I think this is a great enhancement!
First, let me say…I had parental controls on my wi-fi before the update…I wanted to see if the update accidentally wiped that out, and it didn’t. It was still in place when I was updated.
What I’ve seen so far is the changes in the parental controls:
Settings Gear – More – Parental Controls
You now have:
There’s no timer, although that might be a nice touch for the future. Update: regular reader, commenter, and Kindle Forum pro tuxgirl posted this
Amazon Kindle community thread
It suggests that some people have been able to reset the parental control password without resetting to factory defaults. That would be by going to
Settings Gear – More – Parental Controls
I don’t have that confirmed as working yet, though.
Perhaps more importantly, tuxgirl also posted this
Amazon Kindle community thread
about what to do before resetting to factory defaults.
Julie Mattson in the Amazon Kindle community made a good point.
If you are locked out of the Silk browser, but not out of the web (it’s unclear as to who is being locked out of what at this point), you could use a different browser.
There is this one in the Amazon Appstore:
I had downloaded it previously, but I haven’t tried it…I’ve heard good things about it.
Update: here’s a possibility. So far, the poll overwhelmingly indicates that the problem is with people whose Kindle automatically updated, not with people who did manual updates.
If you are having the password prompt problem, you could try going to
Kindle Fire Software Update 6.3.1
and doing the manual update…even if you already updated automatically. I don’t know if that would work, but the update package does appear to disappear after the update has been completed, so it might.
If that works for you (removes the password prompt after the update), please let me know…thanks!
Update: I just let my Significant Other’s update automatically. No problem…and there wasn’t a parental control password on it before.
Update: In this
Amazon Kindle Help forum thread
*~*Pineapple*~* reports that Will K., the forum moderator has a possible fix for the “unknown password lockout” problem. They are recommending deregistering the Kindle Fire and then registering it from
http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
That supposedly removes the password requirement.
It’s unclear if it would work if you did deregister/register from the device. If you have to do it from MYK, you’ll need the serial number, which you can get from
Settings Gear – More – Device
This would be a better solution than resetting to factory defaults (also done in the same place as the serial number), but it still means you’d have to re-do some things. This is what I had happen when I deregistered a Fire before:
* The Kindle store books were gone, but could be redownloaded
* My reading preferences (text size, color mode) were gone
* My music stayed on the device…even if I had purchased it from Amazon
* Videos that I had downloaded from Amazon were gone
* My personal documents were still there (that can be a really significant difference with resetting)
* My apps were still there (and presumably, my game progress and such, but I didn’t check that)
* My web bookmarks were wiped out
Update:
Okay, let me clarify my comment a bit, because I see they are doing a particular sequence.
It sounds like they don’t want your Kindle to know it has been deregistered and reregistered, so they have you do that process while the Kindle is turned off. That might mean you don’t have to redownload the things I said in upthread post.
I’m not quite sure how that affects the password, then…I wouldn’t have thought it was stored on the server, or they likely could have reset it.
So, here’s the sequence as I understand it:
Turn your Kindle Fire off (hold the power button in for a few seconds until it asks you if you want to Shut Down the Kindle, and tap that option.
This puts the Kindle out of communication with the Amazon servers. It would seem that turning off the wi-fi would do the same thing, but the restart might have been part of the process.
Go to
http://www.amazon.com/manageyourkindle
and click or tap on
Manage Your Devices
Copy your Kindle Fire’s serial number. You can highlight it, do CTRL+C. If you want it for later as well, you could paste it (CTRL+V) into something like Notepad.
Click or tap on Deregister for your Fire.
Click or tap on Register a Kindle (at the top of the list on your right).
Register your Kindle Fire (you should be able to paste the serial number here).
When that’s complete, start your Kindle Fire again using the power button.
It may take a minute to start up.
From what I’m hearing, you won’t need to register it again. You may need to do
Settings Gear – Sync
Supposedly, that will have removed the parental control password.
It sounds like it will have left all of your content on the device as well.
If this works the way I think it does, following the sequence above would be important. If you turned your Kindle on while the server thought the device was deregistered, that might cause you to have your content removed from the device.
Comment this post if you have tried this and it has or has not worked for you.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
Kindle Touch update 5.1 available…major changes
Thanks to Andrys Basten of the
blog for the heads-up on this!
When I checked my Pulse app on my Kindle Fire this morning, I saw that there was a new 5.1 update available for my Kindle Touch (and yours too, of course).
This brings us some big new abilities. Among them is one that people have wanted since the Touch was released, one that I suggested back at the Kindle 1, and one that the less expensive Mindle (the $79/$109 version) has already had.
Before I get into the specifics of the update (now that I’ve teased it) , here’s how to see if you have it and how to get it if you don’t.
On your Touch:
Home – Menu – Setting – Menu – Device Info
If your Firmware version starts with 5.1, your Touch has already updated itself over wi-fi.
If it hasn’t, you can just leave your wi-fi on and wait for it to happen, or you can update it manually right now (I’ve already done it that way).
As always, you can get any Kindle software update at
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesoftwareupdates
or go straight to the Kindle Touch update at
Kindle Touch Software Update Version 5.1.0
They have good instructions there, but if you need help, let me know.
The update was 38.5MB, and went smoothly for me.
Okay, here are the features:
Multiple language support
The Mindle has had the ability to switch the device menus to different languages, which has no doubt contributed to its international popularity.
You can now go to
Menu – Settings – Device Options – Language and Dictionaries
and under Language, you can choose
I’ll get the special characters in here later.
As with the Mindle, if you make a selection and click OK, the Kindle will have to restart itself to change the menus.
Landscape, ho!
You can now switch your view to landscape! Landscape is wider than it is tall, portrait is taller than it is wide. If you think about pictures in a museum, that’s how they are typically hung…a portrait is “tall”, a landscape is “wide”. Within a book, it’s
Menu – Landscape Mode
Instant translations
I sent an e-mail suggesting this to Amazon when the Kindle 1 was released, although it would undoubtedly have been harder then. Tap a word or highlight a section, then tap More. You’ll get a choice for
Translation
This uses Bing. Interestingly, when I was testing this this morning, it didn’t work. I was connected by wi-fi (which I’m guessing will be necessary), but it repeatedly said, “Unable to contact the server. Please try again later.” There are more language options here than there are for the menus, which makes sense…the latter are onboard, the translation for words is not going to be. You can slide the list to see more. The list includes:
By the way, another choice under More? “Report Content Error”…
Update: the translation worked tonight, and appeared to work well! The Spanish translation of a half a sentence looked pretty good and was fast. The Hindi looked like Hindi…although I can’t judge the quality of the translation on that one. It does require you to be connected via wireless, which isn’t a surprise. If you highlight and tap translation when unconnected, it does give you a chance to “Turn on Wireless”, and then it did complete the translation once it did connect.
KF8 support
The Kindle Touch now supports Kindle Format 8, which has a lot more capabilities.
Wi-Fi Enhancements
You can now connect to more types of wi-fi networks! That includes WPS and “select” WPA2 enterprise networks. You may be able to connect at work when you couldn’t before.
Text-to-speech with Read-to-me
The Kindle Touch has had text-to-speech, of course, but there is now a feature for content summaries for magazine and newspaper articles, when available. I haven’t tested this yet.
More sharing options
Well, this disappointed me a bit! I was hoping this was going to bringing tweading and the bookstream to the Touch, but I don’t think it does. It does make it easier to share our highlights and notes. When you highlight something, you can choose Share. It lets you add up to a 100 character note. You can also tap Menu in a book to get to a Share choice.
Onscreen keyboard suggestions
Yay! As you type into, say, the search box, the Touch suggests possible words. You then tap the word to input it. That’s going to real speed up input…which will be good with the sharing noted above. I mean, it’s felt like I was typing on my Blackberry rather than my Android phone. These are suggestions, not just completions. When I tried “cat”, one suggestion was “chat”.
There are probably other changes as well that may be more behind the scenes.
Overall, this a great update! It also demonstrates that Amazon is still supporting RSKs (Reflective Screen Kindles….anything but a Kindle Fire). I never doubted that, personally, but some people worry about it.
The translation, in my opinion, would be great on the Fire and I expect we’ll get it there.
If you’ve tried out the update, let me and my readers know what you think.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
Kindle Fire update 6.3
I reported a Kindle Fire update earlier today, along with some non-Fire news (for those of you keeping score). I said I’d give you a fuller report when I had a chance to work with it, and I’m going to do that now. I’ll also update my book, Love Your Kindle Fire. That may take a few days…I have to do that in a neater fashion, and I also want to add some how-tos. After I update, I’ll ask Amazon to offer the update to previous buyers.
Let me also mention here that I’m doing this with the advantage of being able to compare two Kindle Fires side-by-side, one which has been updated and one which hasn’t. My Significant Other is off at the gym, and a reflective screen Kindle got that assignment.
First, your Kindle Fire should update on its own. You’d have to be connected to wi-fi for it to get the download for the update, and then it would need to install the update. When I’m trying to get a Kindle of mine to do that, I typically sync with Amazon
Settings Gear – Sync
then turn off the Kindle (hold down the power button for a couple of seconds…it will ask you if you want to shut down) and then restart it.
However, I didn’t want to wait in this case, and you might not want to wait, either.
You can go to
http://www.amazon.com/kindlesoftwareupdates
and then pick the Fire, or go directly to
Kindle Fire Software Update Version 6.3
Again, that shouldn’t be necessary…it’s just if you are in a hurry.
They have pretty good instructions there…if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Here are things I’ve noticed about the upgrade:
The Keyboard
This is a picture with the old version on top, the new version on the bottom. The top is “shifted” to capitals, by the way….
It’s different! The “hide button” has moved from your right to your left. If “long press” (hold your finger or stylus on it for about a second) the period, you’ll get a bunch of other punctuation…that’s a nice touch. There is now a “Next button” (I was comparing this in the native e-mail app on the Fire). There was a .com button in this situation, which I really like.
The Settings Menu
This has really changed! It’s the same when you tap the Settings Gear, but when you tap More, they’ve certainly rearranged things
The old version was this:
The new version (I’m comparing each choice, and if they are different, I’ll let you know):
Web
What you may notice right away here is a little “glasses” icon at the bottom of the screen. That puts a web page into “article” mode. I wanted to test it, but interestingly, as I went to many webpages, the icon was gone. It did look nice on one page where I found it to work. You had to click a little x in your top right corner to get out of it…I was afraid that would close the webpage, but it didn’t.
I did check the settings for the Web…no different options.
Next, I went down the features they’d announced.
Sharing
I used The Hunger Games for these tests, figuring that if anything has been annotated and social mediaized, this would be it.
I highlighted a passage, and in addition to Note, Highlight, Share, and Search. On the old version, it’s Note, Highlight, and More…(with More…giving you Search in Book, Search Wikipedia, Search Google).
Choosing Share was fascinating! I immediately saw a choice to share the highlight with “the Kindle Community”, and also to share to Twitter and Facebook. There was a blue “options” link I didn’t find stood out. Tapping that let me set up my Twitter and/or Facebook accounts, and showed samples.
More interestingly, I saw a series of other comments, when they were uploaded, and by whom (although many said by “Unknown”). Clearly, there were forum like threads. They didn’t seem to be tied to a specific place in the book.
I entered something, and it also included my highlighted section, which is going to be confusing (since I just highlighted something at random).Still, this has real potential.
Oh, got it! There is a little word balloon, like in a comic book, on the menu…you can tap that and share without highlighting.
Yow! Must tear my eyes away! That’s going to be super-addictive. I think it’s generally better than some other technology based additions (this is, after all, literary), but I can also see people meeting up in a book to chat, oddly. Hmm, that’s an idea which I may use. Set up a date and time for people to chat with you…excellent idea for authors and experts!
This is a super winner for Amazon…amazing social. It could blow up like Twitter, but again, based on books. Not as big, of course, but I can absolutely see how people could disappear into it for hours at a time. Book clubs, here you go! The only thing is that you can’t limit the group at this point…but it wouldn’t surprise me if Amazon let people set up groups of friends in the future. I’m also not quite sure what happens to…what to call them? Hm, maybe “tweads” because you are tweeting while you are reading? Okay, I’ll go with that…I’m not sure what happen to tweads over time…can you go back and read a thousand of them? Can you search them? Will they appear online somewhere?
Hmm…my highlight and the note I made with the highlight show up at
but not the twead I made without a highlight.
Book Extras
Bring up the menu in a book, and you’ll see Book Extras. No need for X-Ray for the Fire…well, no, it’s not the same, but very, very valuable. Characters, glossary, organizations…another big winner!
Archives of Personal Documents
I love this! You can go to the Docs tab, and you may need to sync. Then, you’ll see the documents you’ve sent through the personal document service (by e-mailing them to a Kindle). You’ll need to be on the Cloud tab. Tap one and it downloads.
You can also search on this page! I’m liking this.
They’ve said it will sync, meaning you could use books from Gutenberg, for example, or work documents, and start on one device and pick up on another. I tested it by opening Just So Stories on my Fire, going to a spot, syncing, opening it on my Samsung Captivate (after syncing)…perfect! I’m impressed!
Print Replica Textbooks
Untested at this point
Movie Rentals
Not something I need to test, but it changes it so that the rental period (often 48 hours) from Amazon Instant Video doesn’t start as soon as you download to the Fire, but after you start watching it (you probably have to start watching within thirty days).
All in all…wow! These are major advancements.
I am noticing an oddness in response: I seem to end up on the Home page when I don’t mean to do that. It may just be more sensitive and I have to get used to it, but we’ll see. Let me know if you notice that.
Anything else you’ve noticed? Any questions? Feel free to comment on this post.
Update: I’ve written a post on ”tweading” from the independent authors’ point of view in The Writer’s Guide to E-Publishing. I really think this could be a breakout method for connecting authors and readers.
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
Kindle for Android updated
Amazon has released an update for their Kindle for Android.
You may need to go into the store on your phone to be able to get the update.
I do sometimes see people say that the Kindle Fire app is the same as the Kindle for Android app…one thing that says it isn’t is that it doesn’t update at the same time, like this.
This update does three main things (in addition to unspecified bug fixes):
Before the update:
Version 3.4.1.1
Storage
After the update
Overall, I think the update is an improvement, although I’m not sure how valuable the Kindle Format 8 is on my SmartPhone…probably more valuable on an Android tablet.
Feel free to let me know what you think about it…
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
New update 5.04 update available for the Kindle Touch, Kindle for PC updated
Thanks to regular reader and commenter Tom Semple for the heads-up on this.
There is a new update available for the Kindle Touch (5.0.4).
The description isn’t very explicit: “This update features general software improvements for Kindle Touch.”
I won’t get a chance to test it until later, but if you want to get it right away, you can at
Kindle Touch Software Update Page
There are instructions there for using your USB cable to transfer it to your KT.
You can also just wait, and you should get it when connected to wi-fi…that’s easier, but it’s hard to say when it will happen.
Tom also tells me that Kindle for PC has been updated to accommodate KF8 (Kindle Format 8). I’m not where I can test that one, either.
If you get either of these and notice differences, feel free to let me know.
Thanks, Tom!
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
