Flash! New update for the Kindle Keyboard (AKA Kindle 3)
Well, this may clear up the weird things that have been happening with the personal document service (see this earlier post).
It’s a new software update (3.3) for the Kindle Keyboard (formerly knows as the Kindle 3).
What does it do?
- Lets you download archived personal documents
- Lets you Whispersync personal documents
- Lets you get AmazonLocal if you have a device that already does Special Offers
- Lets you turn on VoiceGuide with Shift+Spacebar
This doesn’t indicate that it is connected to the new “Send All” address option(s). My Mindle (that’s what I call the new $79 Kindle) is here (more on that later), so I still need to test that.
This is going to install automatically when you are connected to wi-fi (and not at all by 3G…all Kindle Keyboards have wi-fi, it’s just that some of them also have 3G…3G costs Amazon money, so I don’t see a problem with this). You can also get more information and get to where you can download it manually here:
If it doesn’t update by itself soon, I’ll manually update it and test it out for you.
By the way, the VoiceGuide thing is a big step forward for the visually impaired. VoiceGuide is the audible menu option. It used to be that you had to go into the menu and turn it on…which was hard without audible menus. 🙂 This makes it simple.
Feel free to let me know what you think about the update…
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
I Love My Kindle 
October 14, 2011 at 1:25 am |
I have the 3.3 installed.
A couple of observations. When they say “Whispersync of last page read, bookmarks, and annotations is available on your archived personal documents that have been converted into Kindle format” they really mean it: it has to go through conversion process. If you attach a .mobi or .azw file, that does not qualify. That’s a little disappointing, as I’d hoped to send Gutenberg, Feedbooks, etc. or my own .mobi formatted books and have them sync. The latter are archived in PD library and can be Sent from MYK, but they can’t be pulled down, and when you want to take them off the device you get ‘delete’ and not ‘remove from device’ as with converted files. That’s reasonable, I suppose: probably not desirable to have Amazon mucking with metadata in your files, but it’s not a limitation I anticipated for this feature.
Perhaps calibre will once again come to the rescue, as it already is able to create mobi files that sync (by embedding a fake ASIN in the metadata). If it can also create the magic bits that make it something Amazon will treat as a first class citizen once it lands on a kindle, that will be good enough for me.
I trust Kindle apps will eventually be updated to support this. Since PDs must be delivered without 3G, that means k1/k2/dx will not become targets of MYK Send to… But I’d like a option to download from the PD library, since by definition I don’t have the original of converted files and may want to put it on a K2/DX/K1. Kind of roundabout to send it to another Kindle and pull it off with USB. (wonder if K2 would sync those? will have to try that…)
October 14, 2011 at 5:52 pm |
Good news! Now that the update is on my Kindle everything I send to it is synch-able, including .azw/.mobi. The only things that aren’t are documents I sent before the update (or perhaps some backend change they have made recently). So it seems to work perfectly at last.
October 14, 2011 at 11:03 pm
Thanks for writing, Tom!
That’s great to hear! Mine hadn’t updated overnight…might do it manually.
October 14, 2011 at 11:52 am |
Will this update work for the DX? (so few updates for the DX.)
October 14, 2011 at 12:45 pm |
Thanks for writing, Rick!
No, it won’t…and it largely wouldn’t impact the KDX anyway. The KDX doesn’t have Special Offers, so that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have VoiceGuide, so that doesn’t matter. I believe the personal document functions that were updated need wi-fi….which the KDX doesn’t have.
That hypothetically doesn’t reduce the chance of an update for the KDX at some point, although it may be the same people who would be working on both.
October 14, 2011 at 4:57 pm |
BTW I love the new keyboard shortcut! Now I can ‘read’ in the dark more easily, though it is not too hard to memorize the sequence of button presses needed previously.
October 14, 2011 at 11:02 pm |
Thanks for writing, Tom!
I agree! I’ve use VoiceGuide in the car, so I don’t have to look at the Kindle to pick a book. I’m not talking about actively driving, but even at a stoplight, I like to keep my eyes on the road.
October 17, 2011 at 4:26 am |
Did yours ever update automatically? Mine is at 3.1, and has not done so. Some comments on the official announcement thread indicate that 3.1 will not update automatically, but that seems to contradict at least parts of the Amazon announcement and hep pages. (And I don’t remember any updates past 3.1 . . . ???)
October 17, 2011 at 12:41 pm |
Thanks for writing, lp!
I didn’t wait long enough for it to happen…I went ahead and did manually. I did try to get it to update for a day or so…left the wireless on, slept it, woke it, synced it, restarted it.
My understanding is that it should update by wi-fi, but not by 3G. They’ve done it that way before. However, they’ve also “rolled out” the updates before, so everybody doesn’t get it at once.
I’d go ahead and do the manual update, if you don’t want to wait.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_rel_topic?ie=UTF8&nodeId=200529700
November 3, 2011 at 6:55 pm |
Amazon Kindle Fire…
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