Kindle for Android App Software Update Version 3.40.156 now has real page numbers.
So, can the Android-based Kindle Fire app update to add real page numbers be far behind?
Other benefits of the Kindle for Android app update include greatly reduced size of the app and some bug fixes. The photo comes from the Android Market site. Here's Amazon's own page for the download and for additional information on the update.
Interestingly (sort of), the Android Market customers have a much more favorable view on the app, with 51,733 giving it 5 stars and 14,691 giving it 4 stars. 6,115 aren't keen on it. Amazon customers reviewing this Android app give it 195 5-star ratings, 52 4-star ones, and 102 give it 1 star. That's a huge difference and I'm wondering why. Please chime in if you have any ideas.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 Android phone and a Samsung 10.1 Galaxy Tab, and the update works fine on both. Yet I've seen comments from many at Android-focused websites who of course have very varying Android devices, who've posted that their phones or tablets, including the new Samsung Nexus phones using 'Ice Cream Sandwich" (ICS) operating system, have had some odd results.
Which KINDLE BOOKS have Page numbers rather than just Location numbers?
Real page numbers are included in Kindle books for which the publisher and Amazon have processed page numbers to match those of a given print version (release date, edition, hardcover, or paperback, etc.)
Amazon has been adding these, since February 2011, to "tens of thousands of Kindle books, including the top 100 bestselling books in the Kindle Store that have matching print editions and to thousands more of the most popular books"
So far, Amazon does this only if there are matching print versions so that these can be aligned for classwork (which can be cited) or for bookclubs with mixed types of books and ebooks for easier matching-page access. Other e-reader sometimes include page numbers that are not for the purpose of matching any other books but just to give a "#1 of #123 pages" for an e-book.
How do you find page number information on the various Kindle devices?
1. A light press of the top center edge of the screen for an open book on a Kindle Touch will show, at the bottom of the screen, any included Real Page number and Percentage of the book read, at that point.
2. On Kindle Keyboard models (UK: K3) and Kindle 2 and the $79 Kindle Basic NoTouch/NoKeyboard model, you press Menu button to get Page number information (if the Kindle book includes that) shown at the bottom of the screen as well as a progress bar.
3. On the Kindle Fire, there is no Page Number feature yet.
Little-known chapter-markings feature
1. On Kindle Keyboard models, you will usually also see the Percentage-read progress bar at the bottom of the screen, with the percentage indicated at the left.
If the publisher HAS used the option to add chapter-markers, you'll see vertical markings on the reading-progress bar and a small downward-pointing arrowhead which shows where you were when you started that session and, in addition, the solid line which shows completion so far will show you how much further you need to read, relatively speaking, to get TO the next chapter or to the end of the book.
From the User's Guide for Kindles with Keyboard:
' To go to the next or previous chapter, press the right (>) or left (<) button on the 5-way controller. '
And when you want to retrace your steps (but not go to previous page), the "Back" button is the way to go.
2. On Kindle Touch models, the bottom of the screen of any open book will show the Location number at the left and Percentage-read at the right.
Lightly press the top center at the edge of the screen and you'll get the Menu button as well as several other options shown.
At the very bottom, you'll see "Page [x] of [xxx]" added.
There is no progress bar shown on the bottom row of the Touch models because if there IS direct access to each chapter, you get them by just "swiping" UP to get the next chapter and swiping DOWN to get the previous chapter.
Unfortunately, publishers don't use the Chapter-Access feature as often as they should.
3. On the Kindle Fire, you lightly press the top center at the edge of the screen and the orange Progress bar plus Location numbers and Percentage read will display.
Again, there are NO Page numbers for the Kindle Fire book app yet, and NO way to get directly to the beginning of the next or previous chapters.
Amazon's KFire is getting TWICE the amount* of downloads at USA Today over ALL other Android devices. You'd think Kindle Fire customers would get this feature before the general Android app users. But, juggling software development scheduling for various models and apps is never an easy thing. Still ... hmmm.
* Business Insider's headline: "A Leak From The USA TODAY shows
How The Kindle Fire Is Blowing Away Other Android Tablets"
So Many Vays
Have you noticed that blog entries to explain how a feature or a related feature works on a Kindle is now a quite complicated task when there are so many different models co-existing? Choice is good, but it takes longer to do a blog entry these days when going into detail on how to do things on the various models.
If that sounds as if I'm explaining lag time between entries, that's true :-) because researching news and news-comment areas, user guides, doing tests, and getting other forum-customer experiences in addition to trading info on the forums really does take a lot of time not shown on the blog. Am hoping Kindle-Edition subscribers understand.
Kindle Touch 3G, US-only Kindle Touch WiFi (US) Kindle Touch WiFi-Only, outside US
Kindle Keybd 3G (UK: Kindle Keybd 3G) K3 Special Offers K3-3G Special Offers DX
Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers. Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.
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Thanks for the foot work. There are fewer posts now; but they are useful ones. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteK.Hugh,
Delete:-) Thanks. What I'll do is try to make smaller ones more often instead of lumping things together with too much space between.
PS--I'm okay with Android beta testing improvements to the Fire reading app as long as we do eventually get the good stuff.
ReplyDeleteKH,
ReplyDeleteI like that perspective! Seeing Android version as a beta test for the KFire one :-)
It's so funny that they say the pages correspond to the printed books because I am doing a book study with other women and the pages are NOT corresponding so I called Amazon and they said that the pages are only for finding my place in the book and because of font etc that they don't correspond! I see that it is all over their descriptions that they are supposed to match up. I tried the "look inside" feature of the printed book from their site and looked at the same page on the Android app and they were different by like 10 pages. I hope they can fix it.
ReplyDeleteLibby,
ReplyDeleteAmazon doesn't provide page numbers for most Kindle books because they do it only for ebooks that match specific print books.
The customer rep wwould have been talking about location numbers and why they are made as they give absolute numbers for finding a specific paragraph no matter what font you're using.
When your group compares a Kindle book or Kindle for Android (are you actually using Kindle for Android?) with a print version, it would have to be with a specific print edition, and also taken into account is whether it is a paperback or a hardcover edition.
Other e-readers do provide page numbers that don't correspond to any print book and only for convenience, and these are often confused with real page numbers.
How is your group choosing books to compare Kindle editions with them? There is an indicator on the product page that gives an ASIN number of the print book it would be matching. I'll go back and look at this later.
VERY few of my Kindle books have page numbers at all because they don't put them on unless they match those in a specific print book version that is out there (many print books have several editions).
Let me know a title you have that has them and also what print book(s) you're ocmparing with.
Thanks for the help.
- Andrys
Libby,
ReplyDeleteActually, it's the ISBN number that you would look for on a print version of a book, but Amazon's own identifier (ASIN) uses the ISBN # involved.
It's confusing, since supposedly, a different ISBN # is needed for an e-version of a book in print if an ISBN # is applied for at all. But some say an ISBN # is not required for an Amazon Kindle book, so the ASIN will often be 'A' and the ISBN #.