Kindle for Android updated. Amazon re Kindle non-lighted cover. Revised

Android Community's Chris Davies reports that there is a large Kindle for Android update today and as a result, it's now called Kindle for Android, v2.0 and is, as usual, a free download.

  The updated version now "includes newspaper and magazine support together with 'Move to SD Card' functionality enabled ... allows access to Amazon’s 100+ periodical titles, and shifts the Amazon store into the app itself rather than kicking you into the web version when you want to buy a new ebook.

Meanwhile there’s also support for sharing your reading progress with social networks. The UI has been tweaked, with the option to use your Android smartphone’s volume keys to control page turns, and the chapter title now included in the reader status bar; there’s also zoom functionality for images and graphics."

SOME AMAZON KINDLE COVERS, NON-LIGHT VERSIONS HAVE CAUSED REBOOTS
There have been various threads at the Amazon Kindle Community forums about what has appeared to be a problem with some batches of the Kindle leather cover without a built-in light but with the hinges that in the Kindle lighted cover make contact with the Kindle to provide power for the built-in light (which goes 'off' when the Kindle is in sleep mode).  In other words, in the lighted-covers, there's no problem but with some of the non-lighted Amazon Kindle ones, the hinges are similar but no electrical contact was intended.

  It's speculated that if the latter's hinges are metal (some seem to be plastic and not causing problems), there is contact made that has caused reboots for some Kindle-3 owners for whom Amazon has replaced Kindles several times to no avail (while other others haven't had any trouble).  And some feel that the problems have shown up more with cold weather.

 In the forums, the customers have been discovering that if they remove the Kindle from their non-lighted Amazon Kindle cover, the reboots stop.

[Edited to clarify this paragraph]
This has been consistent, with what had originally been thought to be problems with certain Kindle-3s but weren't, and the reports about the cover problem for some have been increasing lately.

In a Kindle thread last night, Amazon Kindle Support responded (2nd note from the bottom there) to the increasing frustration due to some inconsistency of response from Customer Support reps at the first-response level:

'                     In reply to an earlier post on Dec. 16, 2010 10:10 PM PST

The Amazon Kindle team says:
(AMAZON OFFICIAL)

There have been some forum discussions regarding the non-lighted Kindle cover, and our engineering team is looking into this.  Regardless, if anyone is having any problem with an Amazon-manufactured Kindle cover, please contact us at kindle-response@amazon.com, and we will be pleased to replace it for free or accept a return for a full refund, no matter when the cover was purchased. '

Side note:  A couple of Kindle owners have solved the problem for themselves by putting electrical tape around the upper hinge's contact point.

  The non-problem lighted-cover costs $25 more, and while many are happy with it, as seen in various forum threads and a good added light will cost an average $15 or so, this will be too much for some even if they have liked the case quite a bit -- and there are less expensive non-lighted cases.  One example is the Acase, a platform type that costs about $11.  While the quality won't be as high (as pointed out in the few customer reviews from confirmed buyers), people still give it 4 stars out of 5 and, at the least, it will keep the Kindle safe while making a decision on a better one.  Others are planning to accept the refund and apply it to the lighted case.
[Edited the link for the Acase cover as I had the general covers link there instead.]

  But there are a plethora of Kindle-3 covers from which to choose.

  I should add that I use a Cole-Haan with hinges but it has caused no reboots and the Kindle is always in the cover; however, it's expensive and I got it when there was a large discount on it briefly.  So any hinge problems would be with certain batches of the official Amazon Kindle non-lighted cover.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

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Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
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