Tag Archives: update

Amazon adds Page Flip to devices

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open-book-851401_1280Yesterday, Amazon announced a new navigation feature called Page Flip. It enables readers to do with ebooks something readers have always done with print books: you can flip the pages, referencing different parts of the book, all the while keeping your current place in the book you’re reading.

The Page Flip feature saves the page that you are reading and pins it to the side. One tap will take you back to the pinned page.

There are so many instances where this feature would come in handy: travel books with pictures and maps especially come to mind. It is also one of the areas that would add a some much needed functionality to e-textbooks, dictionaries and other non-fiction texts that are not necessarily read in a linear fashion.

According to the press release,

Zoom out to get a bird’s eye view of the book and quickly find what you’re looking for. At a glance, easily recognize specific pages as you jump around. Pictures, charts, your highlights, and the layout of each page are easy to see with Page Flip’s pixel-accurate thumbnails that automatically adjust as you change your font and margin settings.

Note that Page Flip will not be available on every Kindle book. To find books utilizing the feature, check the Kindle ebook store page for any given book and look for “Page Flip: Enabled” in the features list.

For more into about the new feature, see www.amazon.com/pageflip. Page Flip will be delivered as part of a free, over-the-air update starting today to Kindle E-readers, Fire tablets, and the free Kindle app for iOS and Android. There is no number listed for this update and this seems to be a separate one from the 5.8.1 update that brings back the much requested reading dots feature.

 

Did your Fire Tablet just deregister itself?

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fire HDXI am reading multiple reports on the Amazon forums that some people are having problems with their Fire tablets somehow spontaneously deregistering from their accounts. Members are reporting that all their books, personal photos, documents and emails are being wiped off the devices.

Many of the reports seem to involve the Fire HD 8.9, but I did see one reporting the problem on an Fire HD 8 and another reporting the issue on a Fire HD 6.

It’s not clear if this is an update gone wrong or a bug. It does seem to be specific to the Fire tablets and not the e-ink Kindles. The tablets seem to doing a factory reset while in sleep mode. One forum member said that they called customer service and were told that Amazon is working on the problem.

I don’t keep very many personal items on my Fire tablets, but I do have a couple of apps that I have to install manually as they are not in the app store. I did notice that the Scribd app was missing from my Fire HD 6, as well as a couple of others. So, I will be calling customer service later today to see what’s up.

Have you had a problem with your Fire tablet?

Update: I posted an update to this issue here.

Update 2: Amazon has posted an announcement on the issue. Post here.

Related: Did your Fire tablet just de-register … again? June 17, 2016

 

 

Amazon called to say “update”

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phone_640I’ve been talking a lot here on the blog about the critical update Amazon has been rolling out for the older Kindles. I’ve talked about the e-mails (here), the Web messages (here), the snail mail (here), and even the the fact that Snopes.com addressed the rumors surrounding the update. There’s been no doubt that Amazon wants to make sure its customers install this critical security fix.

Today, however, Amazon took it one step further. We actually got a recorded phone call at the house from Amazon reminding us that we need to update our Kindles in order to keep accessing the Kindle libraries and Amazon’s servers. The recorded message, which was repeated twice, re-iterated the instructions on the Kindle update page and emphasized that Amazon customer service was available any time to offer assistance by calling 1-866-321-8851.

The recording instructed us to please disregard the message if we had already updated within the last few days. (We had done all of ours over the last few days.)

[Please insert Adelle “Hello” joke here.]

Did you get a phone call about your update?

Are you being nagged to update your Kindle?

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A few weeks ago, I posted about a notice I got from Amazon to update my  older e-ink Kindles. Amazon was quite clearthat the update needed to to be done by March 22 in order to continue accessing kindles services.

Given the fact that it’s tax season, I haven’t gotten around to updating mine yet, although it is on the agenda for this week. But Amazon has definitely noticed that fact that I haven’t done it yet. Every time I go to Amazon.com, the site is reminding me that I still need to perform the necessary updates.

When I go to the Kindle page, I saw this banner ad:

kindle-software-update_hqp_355x70._CB294667646_

And if I click on the Amazon home page, this is the message I see:

kindle-update_2

Amazon has emphasized to customers that if this critical update is not done by March 22, we will not be able to download it by Wi-Fi and will have to up date our devices manually. Obviously, Amazon is not shy about nagging to remind us that we need to get this done.

Amazon is also being more specific about what will happen if you do not complete the update in time. Now, when you go to the update page (here), they have added the message that you will see on your Kindle if you don’t complete the update on time.

I suspect that Amazon is really, really trying to make sure customers get this done. I’m sure that they’d also like to avoid the influx of customer service calls from people needing to be talked through a manual update.

Okay, okay, Amazon! I hear you! I’m doing it….

How about you? Have you updated your Kindle yet? Are you being nagged?

 

New software update for Kindle Fire

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Today, Amazon released the latest Kindle Fire update. This is Version 6.2. Amazon also has a notice from customer service about the update.

Users are reporting that the update offers a smoother UI (user interface) and has changed the display of items on the home page carousel to only show the most recent items. The device previously showed all the books you had purchased from Amazon.

Users who have rooted the Kindle Fire are complaining that this update removes the root access, although the device can still be rooted again.