Home Improvement: ereaders

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Further Amazon e-Ink Kindle eReader new software-feature updates, v5.6.5, with Kindle models further identified. Tuesday's Free Android App of the day: PianoMaster, normally $2.99.

Free App of the Day - Piano Master

Free for one day (Tues.), the Full version, normally $2.99

Further Updates on E-Ink Kindles Last week
This software update, v5.6.5 was released the day after I wrote about other software updates and it's being slowly being received over the air, receivable when you're connected to WiFi.

TIP for anyone not seeing enhancements in enabled Kindle books
The new features are available on books prepared to use the enhancements. A couple of people have experienced no changes seen in enabled Kindle books but found that if they deleted the Kindle book from their Kindle devices and re-downloaded it from the 'Cloud' then the enhancements were shown.

The new Bookerly font is very readable, as I've written in a past blog article on the Paperwhite 2 update that got this font earlier. In my case, I still use the Helvetica font because it has the most contrast. The Paperwhite 2 did not receive the new layout features at the time, however, and they're available to the mentioned models now.

This blog article quotes the Amazon announcement made at their forums and highlights a few items in bold face, with added information in brackets to further identify the models affected.

'Software Update for Kindle Voyage, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle

We have a free software update available for Kindle Voyage, Kindle Paperwhite (7th Generation) [ Paperwhite 3 ], the previous generation Kindle Paperwhite [ Paperwhite 2 ], and Kindle (7th Generation) [ current Kindle basic model with Touch screen ].

In addition to performance improvements for your Kindle, new features include:
Smart Cards
A redesigned Smart Lookup makes it easier to get to the actions you want to take while reading - highlight, create a note, share a quote, and more, while keeping your favorite Smart Lookup features like Dictionary, Wikipedia, and X-Ray easily accessible. Just tap and hold on a word, phrase, or sentence to bring up Smart Lookup and swipe right to see the next card.

Reading Improvements
These reading improvements are:
~Bookerly, a new font specifically designed for digital screens and tailored for Kindle books, is now available on Kindle Voyage, the previous generation Kindle Paperwhite [ [Paperwhite 2 ], and Kindle (7th Generation) [ current basic Kindle model ], in addition to Kindle Paperwhite (7th Generation) [ current Paperwhite model ]. It introduces a lighter, more graceful look that's akin to the best traditional fonts found in print books.

~Improved word spacing, which results in faster, easier reading across all fonts. When words are unevenly spaced on a line of text, or the spacing between words varies from line to line, it's harder for the eye to scan a passage of text while reading. So Amazon's new technology uses advanced rules for breaking words across lines with hyphenation while adjusting the space between words, to create paragraphs that are more even and consistent line to line.

~Improved character placement, which increases word-recognition speed. Digital fonts in browsers lack the subtle variable adjustments between characters that make high-quality print materials look great. Amazon's reading technology now applies kerning, which looks at neighboring pairs of letters in context and adjusts the character spacing to suit the word.

~Large font optimizations, which reduce visual distractions when customers choose larger font. The text is automatically left aligned to reduce gaps, and margins, indents, nested lists, borders and drop caps all get special treatment to keep the page easy to read with less effort.

~Enhanced page layout with typographically correct drop caps, and images and graphics that fit the page as the author meant them to be displayed, scaling correctly to reflect the page size and the customer's preferred font size.

~Footnotes, endnotes and chapter notes are displayed in a pop up panel, either at the bottom of the page when the note will fit in the bottom-third of the page, or full screen if the note will not fit in the bottom-third of the page.

Personalized Recommendations on Goodreads on Kindle
Now you can access book recommendations personalized just for you inside the Goodreads app on your Kindle. The Goodreads algorithms analyze more than 20 billion data points and deliver surprising suggestions-all to help you find the book you'll want to read next. If you haven't used recommendations on Goodreads before, simply tell us your favorite genres and rate some books, and we'll provide you with personalized recommendations.
To learn more about a recommended title, just tap on the book cover to see more details. The more books you rate, the better your recommendations will be.

These features will be delivered automatically as part of a free, over-the-air software update in the coming weeks, or you can visit Amazon's software update pages for the U.S. and for the UK to download the software update. '

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

Temporarily-free books - Non-classics
USA: by:
Publication Date
Bestselling High-ratings
UK: PubDate Popular
The Kindle Daily Deal
What is 3G? and "WiFi"? Battery Care
Highly-rated under $1, Newest: $1-$2, $2-$3

Most Popular Free K-Books
U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK):
Top 100 free
UK-Only:
Top 100 free
USEFUL for your Kindle Keyboard(U.S. only, currently):
99c Notepad 1.1, 99c Calculator,
99c Calendar, 99c Converter

*Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE. Or click on the web browser's BACK button

A special Kindle eReader limited time sale. Amazon Software Updates - some alerts and workarounds - tablets and eReaders. Amazon is working on resolving video display problems on some tablet updates. Updated free Kindle book search-links for August.

AMAZON Software Updates

_______________
First -- CURRENT, Limited Time Sale - $20 off the recent-discounted prices on Kindle eReaders
On the basic Kindle eReader (7th Generation), Amazon has been discounting the price from $99 to $79. There's an additional $20 off, for a limited time, bringing the temporary price down to $59. This basic eReader is not front-lighted the way the Paperwhite and Voyage models are, and the special features are fewer, but it's for those who just want an inexpensive, simple eReader.

The "Kindle for Kids Bundle" offers the same basic Kindle model but with "2-Year Accident Protection, Blue Kid-Friendly Cover" added, for the temporary price of $79. The features, bought separately would normally cost $139 or so.

_______________
There have been a number of silent software updates recently, automated and over the air, although the update-files are available for manual installs if they're wanted earlier. However, in the case of the update for Kindle Fire and Fire tablets, OS software version 4.5.5, there have been reports of problems with videos not displaying in Youtube and other websites after the update.

Note that these are considered updates made available for "general improvements and performance enhancements" but they include no new features.

Mine came over the air on August 6, and I haven't experienced the problems with videos that others have, and it could be because I added a Flash file that's used by the alternate Dolphin browser but which may be helping even when using Amazon's default 'Silk' web browser. I also made sure my video settings at Amazon are are for 'flash' (for my tablets) rather than "Silverlight." All this is explained in the blog article on how to get video working on webpages that are, for some reason, balking at delivering video content to the tablet.

Customers at the Kindle Forums have been discussing notes sent to and received from Kindle device support staff. While some have luck with the appropriate software update files, others began experiencing video problems after theirs was installed over the air by Amazon. BUT, Amazon will sometimes place a newer update file on their update pages without changing the update version number. The one I received on my Year-2013 8.9" Kindle Fire HDX at first hesitated to show videos but resolved itself within a few minutes. The "Settings / Device / System updates" area on the tablet shows no newer update since August 6.

The software update files, while helping some with the video-play problem (on webpages and youtube) did not help others, and some even found that after their tablets had gone into sleep mode, something changed, and videos were working again after waking up the tablet So, I'd wait before doing anything.
Amazon support reps tell customers requestiong help that it'll take only a couple of days to fix the problems.

Another tip given by "angry old man" at the forum advised:
"Amazon told me to clear the Appstore data. I did it and my device will stream now.
Just go to the settings at the top of the screen, hit "more" [or "Settings" if a later model] subject "Applications," "installed applications" [or "Appstore" directly if a later model], select Appstore, and hit Clear Data."

[On my somewhat later Yr 2013 HDX model, there is no appstore data to clear, but I do choose the setting of "Off" for "Collect App Usage Data" and maybe that was why I didn't experience the video problems associated with app data that has required 'clearing' in some cases. Amazon would prefer to have the setting enabled to collect data on how apps are used, but I prefer to keep my use simple.]

UPSHOT - I recommend NOT doing anything about the update file(s) until Amazon resolves this, as they are well aware of the problems. It could be that older Kindle Fire models are more affected by it.

Kindle eReader software updates
Softpedia.com reports that there are also updates for

Amazon Kindle 5th Generation -- Firmware 4.1.3
and

the older Amazon Kindle Touch (released after Kindle Keyboard 3) -- Firmware 5.3.7.3

It's difficult to identify the Kindles affected, considering Amazon's odd device-name decisions, and I'm showing the models affected using the software-updates page, but AGAIN, I would do nothing and let Amazon install these automatically, since these are just for general improvements and performance enhancements and I don't think they're worth installing manually. I've not seen forum messages about any problems with these.

You can check your model's device software version against these version numbers. Remember that you can always call Kindle Support at 1-866-321-8851 when you need help on your devices.

ECHO Updates and PRIME household sharing changes (the latter misunderstood by some mainstream tech columnists).
I'm doing separate blog entries for these.

REMINDER
August's free Kindle books (contemporary or non-classics)
July 2015 August 2015.
Also, all currently free non-classics sorted by:
Publication Date Bestselling High ratings

For daily free ebooks, check the following links:

*Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE. Or click on the web browser's BACK button

Kindle Fire tablets and Kindle e-Ink readers available for order internationally when not available in country of residence. Interesting what is and isn't available or may be coming (back) soon.

QUICK NOTE: Revised the List of Current Kindles Globally to include new Amazon pages for new (and old) Kindles available for order from those outside the U.S. who need to order these models from Amazon-US rather than from their countries of residence.

Here's the quick-list of current Kindles, globally. with links.
I added Amazon's links to new product-pages for Kindles available for purchase
from their "International" pages. (The UK section was updated 9/21.)

As of today, for the International-order page, there's no basic Kindle e-Ink Reader, although that can change.

The 'Other Int'l pages' section there starts with the latest Paperwhite 2, which was slightly modified for more storage space and includes the model with '3G' as well.

It also shows the 9.7" Kindle DX Graphite e-Ink eReader Int'l as being available again in "2 to 4 months" for international buyers. Until then, it refers you to the page for the U.S. version of the DX which is available now ONLY in "Used" models for now. They resuscitate this 9.7" eInk reader from time to time though.
Apparently, someone at Amazon intends to bring back the 9.7" DX e-Ink reader again within months.

The new 6-inch and 7-inch low-cost Fire HD tablets announced Sept. 17 ARE available for international orders as is the Yr 2013 HDX 7.
The faster HDX has Mayday help feature but no rear-camera for normal photos. Both have front-ones for Skype-type use.

Oddly enough, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" (Yr 2012) tablet has an active International page but shows none available and no new orders possible, ALTHOUGH Amazon's order-box shows this:
"Want us to email you when this item becomes available?" and asks for your email address.
This model was notable for having a micro-HDMI-port for simple cable-out to any HDTV tv.

Is it just me, or are there a lot of available models to keep straight?