Kindle 2.3 update

[ElaineOK]

One of the first books I read on Kindle was about a member of the Renaissance Medici family.  Obviously, the book came complete with family tree at the front.  It was completely illegible.  Zoom function notwithstanding.  I downloaded the upgrade, restored that book from my archive, flipped to that page, switched to landscape view (really cool, btw) and zoomed the family tree.  It zoomed the illustration, reverted to portrait mode, as illegible as ever.

Sigh.

Elaine
Norman, Oklahoma

[cloudyvisions]

The update sounds really cool. The landscape idea sounds neat, especially since then I could prop my Oberon cover up and read that way. And I have a ton of older PDF books that are just basic e-books, that I would love to have on my Kindle since I haven't converted them. But I love my screensaver and font hack too much to give them up. I don't know if I could go back to reading with the default font since I'm so used to the one I have on my Kindle now. I'm crossing my fingers that the developers of these hacks can work a way around 2.3 soon!

[mlewis78]

The update sounds really cool. The landscape idea sounds neat, especially since then I could prop my Oberon cover up and read that way. And I have a ton of older PDF books that are just basic e-books, that I would love to have on my Kindle since I haven't converted them. But I love my screensaver and font hack too much to give them up. I don't know if I could go back to reading with the default font since I'm so used to the one I have on my Kindle now. I'm crossing my fingers that the developers of these hacks can work a way around 2.3 soon!

See post #121 on this thread.  I haven't done this yet myself and am not going to attempt it tonight.

[diabolikul]

I can't get the update to work.

I had the font hack and screensaver hack installed.  I've downloaded the uninstall files for both hacks and applied them individually.  Then I've downloaded the 2.3 update from Amazon and applied it manually.

Not matter what I do the kindle still shows 2.0.3 + ss 0.4

I don't get a "fail" on any of the uninstalls or in the install on the 2.3 update.  Just doesn't work for some reason.

Any clues?

[pidgeon92]

^^^ Assuming that you have verified that both uninstalls worked, I would suggest simply trying to install the update again....

When I installed the update, my Kindle actually updated twice, and I would say it took about 10 minutes for the install to finish.

[bzImage]

To confirm. I just installed the UFH_Droid_Sans font hack from this link:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=666912&postcount=18

on my 2.3 Kindle 2 Int. (using the -k2i.bin file) and everything works as expected.

(no jailbreak needed)

Here is a screenshot of that font in landscape mode:



BTW The Newest Screen saver hack also works.. !!

[diabolikul]

^^^ Assuming that you have verified that both uninstalls worked, I would suggest simply trying to install the update again....

When I installed the update, my Kindle actually updated twice, and I would say it took about 10 minutes for the install to finish.

I'll try again.  Perhaps I downloaded the 0.3 screensaver hack uninstall file instead.  I'll give it another whirl and see.

And if the font hacks work again, I'm golden with the extended battery life and landscape mode.

THanks for the reply.

Happy Thanksgiving.

[meglet]

Looks like screensavers and fonts have already been fixed. Link to MobileRead: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63225.

I've downloaded the repackaged hacks, but I think I'll wait to update (2.3 and the hacks) until someone else confirms they work properly. Not really feeling in the mood to be the guinea pig tonight.

Well, I never said patience was one of my virtues. I got bored, so I uninstalled my old screensaver hack, downloaded and installed 2.3, and ran the new screensaver hack from the link here, following the "README.txt" instructions included in the download. Everything worked perfectly. My custom screensavers were even still on the Kindle when I put the updated screensaver hack on after installing 2.3.

One note about the hacks at the link I've posted: it contains the updates for the K2, K2 International (K2i) and Kindle DX. Make sure you pick the right one for your Kindle.

[Pushka]

Wow, some of you  are so quick in doing this Hack and update - and how quick were the hacks done.  The guy who did this lives hack in Australia and it is the middle of the day so I guess that makes sense.   Think I might wait a bit and go slow, I am like that.

So, to get this right I have to uninstall both screensaver and font hacks, update the firmware then reinstall.  Along with a multitude of software updates on the kindle  along the way.

[chiffchaff]

I love the font hack but don't like to fall too far behind on updates so I went for it.  Worked like a charm - I really appreciate this Board, since who knows when I would have noticed there was an update otherwise!  Plus I could go back to the font hack thread to refresh my memory on how to uninstall.  Now I'm off to explore the new font hack options meglet posted about.

[cloudyvisions]

See post #121 on this thread.  I haven't done this yet myself and am not going to attempt it tonight.

Oh nice! There were new posts since when I started typing that I guess! Hopefully I can figure it out, it's kinda unclear to me. But I'm going to give it a try then, I guess!

[meglet]

Hah. Apparently I posted about the font hacks, but forgot to post the actual link. Here it is: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=666941&postcount=19

Pushka, that is correct. Uninstall your current hacks (I know the old screensaver hack came with an uninstaller, not sure about the old font hack) install 2.3 (which includes any Kindle updates you might have missed, so you only have to do this once) and then install the updated hacks. Total time it took me was about 15 minutes.

cloudyvisions, there is a link in the Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting forum here for "Kindle Screensaver instructions as easy as I can get them." Those instructions are still valid, you just need to download the screensavers from the link I posted here earlier instead of the link in that thread.

[diabolikul]

I'll try again.  Perhaps I downloaded the 0.3 screensaver hack uninstall file instead.  I'll give it another whirl and see.

And if the font hacks work again, I'm golden with the extended battery life and landscape mode.

THanks for the reply.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Confirmed that I had the SS 0.4 hack installed and errantly downloaded the 0.3 uninstall file.  Major FAIL.

HA!

[cloudyvisions]

Hah. Apparently I posted about the font hacks, but forgot to post the actual link. Here it is: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=666941&postcount=19

Pushka, that is correct. Uninstall your current hacks (I know the old screensaver hack came with an uninstaller, not sure about the old font hack) install 2.3 (which includes any Kindle updates you might have missed, so you only have to do this once) and then install the updated hacks. Total time it took me was about 15 minutes.

cloudyvisions, there is a link in the Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting forum here for "Kindle Screensaver instructions as easy as I can get them." Those instructions are still valid, you just need to download the screensavers from the link I posted here earlier instead of the link in that thread.

OK, so I downloaded the new screensaver hack from the link there. After I uninstall everything, do I just put the packager-0.6 and that's what allows me to use any font hacks, right? I'm pretty clear on how to do the screensavers bit, but it was this first link I didn't get. That's the part I was a bit confused about, here: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63225

Well, I uninstalled the screensaver and the font hacks, and then I installed the packager-0.6 thing and then I tried the 2.3 update. It got to step 2 of 3 and then said it was unsuccessful and restarted without completing the install. Grrrr. Guess I'll try again!

[elmoglick]

Hah. Apparently I posted about the font hacks, but forgot to post the actual link. Here it is: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=666941&postcount=19

Pushka, that is correct. Uninstall your current hacks (I know the old screensaver hack came with an uninstaller, not sure about the old font hack) install 2.3 (which includes any Kindle updates you might have missed, so you only have to do this once) and then install the updated hacks. Total time it took me was about 15 minutes.

cloudyvisions, there is a link in the Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting forum here for "Kindle Screensaver instructions as easy as I can get them." Those instructions are still valid, you just need to download the screensavers from the link I posted here earlier instead of the link in that thread.

It should be noted that the hack referenced above ONLY works with K2i, and not the DX, as it predates the 2.3 firmware update.

El

[Seamonkey]

Well I'll go look but I bet I got it on my DX .. today I kept noticing that it wasn't going to screensaver for a long time.. and that is part of it

Kindle DX
Better cropping of PDF files: In landscape orientation, white margins of PDF documents are automatically cropped to maximize the amount of content shown on the screen.

Option to convert PDF files to Kindle format. If you prefer to have your personal PDF documents converted to the Kindle format (so that they can reflow), type "Convert" in the subject of the e-mail when you submit your personal document to your @kindle.com address.

View pages longer: We've extended the time before Kindle DX switches into screensaver mode — from 5 minutes to 20 minutes — giving you more time for reviewing your content.

[Seamonkey]

Wrong.. I was on version 2.1.1.. so not sure why it started staying awake so long this morning but it did.

I just started the update after moving the file over to the kindle dx.

[Seamonkey]

Now I have 2.3 and Ralph Ellison.. will check the rest later..

[Pushka]

I am thinking, I have a K2 International which already had the encoded files on it and required different hacks to get it to work.  I wonder if that means I dont have to uninstall them before doing the update.  Megs, is your kindle an International version?

[Luvmy4brats]

I'm really happy to see this new update. I think I'm going to wait a bit before I try doing it myself. The technology gods are not happy with me and with the way things are going, I'd probably wind up with a brick. Both my netbook and iPhone (my lifelines) have failed with the past 2 weeks. If something happens to my Kindle, I'll just go postal!

[cloudyvisions]

Well, I reset my Kindle back to factory settings twice and still no success with the update. So I called Amazon customer support, and then got transferred to someone in the Kindle department. We tried to restart and run the update through again, which no success. And I kept getting this "U006" error on the bottom of my screen. So I turned on the wireless and he accessed the logs to my Kindle, and is going to e-mail me around Friday with what the next step is.

At least Amazon had great help support (and at 1:30 AM EST too!) to get an idea of what to do next.

[DeoreDX]

I tried several of the font hacks on my US K2 and none of them worked for me.  I get the fail on the manual update.

[Keyser Soze]

THis has to be the stupidest response to the Amazon upgrade.  Are they serious?!  http://www.businessinsider.com/kindle-opens-the-door-to-pirated-e-books-2009-11

Wow, that guy's a straight up moron.  If people really wanted to read pirated pdf's, they could of already done that months ago through the email conversion feature. 

[kb7uen Gene]

Did anyone notice that you have three settings for the number of words on a page?  The default setting has the most words, and the lowest setting has the least.  The fewer words you have the more narrow the area of text is from left to right.

Seems kind of odd to me to offer this feature and landscape display orientation at the same time, but there must have been a good reason for it.  I can think of an example where it would be good with people, who have limited fields of view.  With this feature, they wouldn't have to pan their heads as much to read a line.

As another person said earlier, I would like to see the option of different fonts, the ability to bold and unbold, and taking the font sizes up even more, maybe another four steps, for people with more severe vision loss.

I would also like to see a negative image option, so that the background is that the text is gray.  The benefit of this option is reduced glare, and for some people, better contrast. 

Finally, to have the ability to adjust the spacing between letters, words, sentences, lines, and paragraphs.

Oh, almost forgot this one, and it is really important, at least for me, and that is to be able to apply all these options or settings to the home screen, menus, dialog boxes, experimental screen, and especially the Kindle store while shopping and buying books on the Kindle.  Well, that's it for now, I would be curious to hear what the rest of you think of these suggestions.  While they may seem really odd, or would drive some crazy, these features are part and parcel when dealing with low vision.  Any be completely honest in your responses, I am just curious partially because I think most of us are middle aged or older.  And we all know how that changes things.

Gene

[Ann in Arlington]

Didn't I look at your Kindle to see an example of the font hack, just a few months ago?    Or am I losing my mind?

I'd tried alternate fonts. . .but I took them back off. . . .

Reading through all these posts, I think maybe I don't really want this update for myself...  No need for rotation, and no need for pdf files until the day I land a full-time job again and splurge on a DX to celebrate that. 

Unfortunately, even though I've been meaning to do it for months, I have neither hack installed...  even though I already have a file with a huge collection of screensaver images collected from KB, thanks to all of you who make such cool ones.

So I guess what I have to do now is install one or both ASAP, before I turn on WN again...  Somehow I don't think that's what Amazon intended. 

Well, to me, that would be a little silly. . . .  I can see not removing hacks already installed because they really work for you and not needing what the update provides. . . . but to sort of sabotage yourself so you can't get the update seems silly.  The update isn't going to make anything but the hacks stop working.

I know:  you're just gun shy after your recent experience with the Windows auto update!