Tuesday, August 18, 2015

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



Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle


(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!

4 comments:

  1. Quote: "~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."

    Anyone know if epubs done with this 'pop-up' feature and converted by Amazon to its format will display this feature?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (I kind of doubt it, since its coding processes for doing these things would be different but you never know.)

      You can just email one of these epubs to your xxxx@kindle.com device-address (see http://amzn.to/manage-your-kindle and click on Devices near the top to see your @Kindle device-address), and Amazon will convert it to the Kindle format and you can see what results. I'm curious what you find.

      Delete
    2. (I kind of doubt it, since its coding processes for doing these things would be different but you never know.)

      You can just email one of these epubs to your xxxx@kindle.com device-address (see http://amzn.to/manage-your-kindle and click on Devices near the top to see your @Kindle device-address), and Amazon will convert it to the Kindle format and you can see what results. I'm curious what you find.

      Delete

NOTE: TO AVOID SPAM being posted instantly, this blog uses the blogger.com "DELAY" feature.

Am often away much of the day, and postings won't show up right away. Posts done to use referrer-links may never show up.

Usually, am online enough to release comments within a day though, so the hard-to-read match-text tests for commenting won't be needed this way.

Feedback and questions are welcome. Thanks for participating.

Technical Problems?
If you're having problems leaving a Comment, Google's blogger-help asks that you clear the 'blogger.com' cookies on your browser's Tools or Options menu bar and that will fix the Comment-box problems (until they have a permanent fix).

IF that doesn't work either, then UNcheck the "keep me signed in" box -- Google-help says that should allow your comment to post (it's a workaround to a current bug).
Apologies for the problems.

TIP: There's a size limit. If longer than 3500 characters or so, in a text editor, make two posts out of it.

[Valid RSS]