Kindle News: Kindle Touch update v5.3.2.1 has suddenly appeared. Updated info 3/28 on fix.

Kindle Touch Software Upgrade to v5.3.2.1 - an apparent maintenance update that nevertheless appeared on my Kindle Touch with a very long "letter" from Amazon describing all the changes that actually came not this week but on January 8, 2013.

Originally posted March 27, this March 28 blog-info-update includes, a user report today on a couple of glitches that were fixed, and Tom Semple's report earlier, at the bottom of this article, of another problem that was resolved by the software update.

The bug-fix report today, March 28, from a blog commenter:

' I installed update 5.3.2 several weeks ago manually.  My Kindle Touch was stuck trying to finish indexing, causing battery life to suffer greatly.  In addition several games and apps would not open, giving an error message.  After a week or so trying to figure out this behavior (I figured that it was due to the update), I contacted Amazon about the problems. I was told that update 5.3.2.1 was available and should solve the problems I was having. It did! '

  The changes in the earlier huge update January 8 included user-interface features first seen in the Kindle Paperwhite, and it received a lot of comments on the blog article (worth reading) for that as well as in the Kindle community.

  Am glad to see that a swipe up or down in a book still allows a move to the next or previous chapter, for books that have chapter markings, a feature I wish they'd put on the Paperwhite.

  I've enjoyed those new features but usually use the Paperwhite now because of the built-in light which is as enjoyable in daylight as it is in low light situations, but I keep the Kindle Touch for the text-to-speech feature.  Last night I saw a news article that reported this update as if the new interface features had just arrived with this 4th digit upgrade.  That's understandable since the long Amazon letter came with it, as if the update introduced all the new features described that were received over two months ago.
  That's odd, but maybe that was meant for a few who somehow had never received the original v5.3.2 update.

FOR THOSE RECEIVING v5.3.2 AT ALL FOR THE FIRST TIME, here's a repeat of the features
  From the Amazon US update and Amazon UK update pages -
  (bracketed info is by me.)

"The update will be delivered wirelessly and includes an updated user interface and new features.  This update automatically downloads and installs for Kindle touch customers; however, you can also manually download the software an udpate your device via USB cable."

' This software update includes the following new features:

  . A new user interface
  . Whispersync for Voice   [ US only]
  . Enhanced Parental Controls
  . Book Covers
  . Time-to-Read
  . Recommended Content   [ This can be turned off. ]
  . Enhanced book samples
  . Navigate graphic novels, and comics '

If your Kindle Touch has software version 5.1.0, 5.1.1 or 5.1.2, or 5.3.2 installed, you'll either get this wirelessly or you can download it manually as mentioned.

If you have a version prior to 5.1.0, Amazon links you to the earlier 5.1.0 update that must be downloaded and installed before doing the 5.3.2.1 update.

Determine your software version

 
1. From Home, tap Menu and then tap Settings.
 
2. On the Settings screen, tap Menu (the Amazon update page omits a step here) and THEN select Device Info. Your software version is listed under Firmware Version.

"

The Kindle Touch Software update page ( US,  UK ) leads you through what to do, depending on which Firmware Version is showing for your KTouch.


What Was New Jan 8, 2013 -- and what you need to know
Amazon has a page explaining the new features ( US   UK ), including the fact that "Archived Items" is gone, and "Cloud" replaces it, listing all the items or, in this case, Kindle books or newsstand titles you've purchased (including the $0.00 ones) and which can be (re)downloaded to your Kindle at any time.

  It includes fuller descriptions of the new features and also explains that you can turn off "Recommended Content" if you don't want to see it (which entails going to Settings, Device Options and then Personalize your Kindle).

  Other descriptions detail:
  . how to view your book covers or, instead, just a listing
  . how to track your reading progress with Time to read
  . enhanced sample-to-book feature
  . navigation of graphic novels, comics, and children's books


The Kindle Community forums post listed them at athe time, and I'll include that here for easier access in one place (italics and bold-facing added by me):

' * Updated User Interface: We have an updated and streamlined interface for your Kindle.  Archived Items has been renamed to Cloud and appears in the top left of your screen under the toolbar.  All your archived items can be found there.

* Book Covers on the Home screen: View the covers of your books by selecting Cover View in the menu from the Home screen.

* Time to Read: Kindle Touch calculates your reading speed to let you know when you'll finish your chapter or book.

* Recommended Content: We've made it easy to discover new titles with recommended content.  The Kindle Store uses the same personalized customer experience you're used to across Amazon.com, matching our best recommendations to your personal reading habits.

* Enhanced Sample-to-Book Experience: When you buy a book after reading a sample, we will now automatically start the book at your last reading location in the sample and remove the sample from your Kindle.

* Parental Controls: With the latest software update, parents can restrict access to the Experimental Web Browser, Kindle Store, and Cloud.  While the Kindle Store and Cloud are locked with Parental Controls, you can continue to buy books from a computer and send them to your Kindle wirelessly.

* Whispersync for Voice: Now you can switch back and forth between reading and listening without losing your place.  Whispersync for Voice will synchronize what you read on any Kindle platform device with Audible playback on Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle Fire, or on Audible apps for iPhone and Android.

* Author Profiles: We've added biographical information and the ability to browse other books by the same author from within your book.  When reading, tap the Menu button and select About the Author.

* Children's Books and Comics: Children's books come to life with Kindle Text Pop-Up, enabling you to easily read text over images.  Comic books can now be read with Kindle Panel View, which allows you to read a comic book panel by panel.

We will be delivering this update over Wi-Fi in the coming weeks.  Customers who prefer to receive the update immediately can manually download and install the software update from [the] kindlesoftwareupdates/touch page ( US   UK )

If you have questions or need help with this update, please head over to the Kindle Help Forum [no announcement in UK forum at the moment]. '

What users discovered about the upgrade in January
1. Kindle books can't be searched before a re-indexing of keywords is done.  This re-indexing will happen automatically and will take quite a bit of time in the background (you can read a Kindle book in the meantime) and will use the battery pretty heavily before it's done.

  *~*Pineapple*~*, a Kindle Forum Pro, writes

' To check for indexing, search on the Home page (Device) for an uncommon or nonsense word like zxcvb and at the bottom of the list will be the number of unindexed books.

To start them indexing:

1. Turn on wireless
2. Restart (Home > Menu > Settings > Menu > Restart)
3. Wait '

Depending on how many books are on your Kindle, it could take hours or a day, but you can use the Kindle while it's slowly re-indexing the books in the background.

Note that the software update file is a big one and it takes longer than usual.  Leave it alone when you see it happening and let it complete.  It may take up to 15 minutes.  I like to plug in my Kindle when manually doing an update, but it's not necessary.  However, it's a good idea to plug it in for the re-indexing that will have to be done and can be quite a battery drainer.

At any rate, the original extensive v5.3.2 update was quite a boon for Kindle Touch owners, and they've apparently added maintenance fixes in this v5.3.2.1 update.

Updated info mentioned on 1/11/12
Users have reported problems with font face selections, and Amazon customer reps have told them they are working on a further update that will fix that.

Added March 27, 2013
My guess is that this update may include fixes for those font face selection problems.  And maybe Tom Semple will find that the problems with downloading of graphic novels have been solved.

Added March 28, 2013
It turns out that Tom Semple's problems with downloading of graphic novels were solved with this.

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Check often: Temporarily-free recently published Kindle books
  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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NYT-David Pogue home recommendations. Tip on initial battery fast-drain

David Pogue's Home for the Holidays

This is his Holidays 2010 listing of recommended tech-related gifts "perfect" for each room in the house.

Heading the list is ye olde Kindle 3  (UK: K3).

For each item recommended, Pogue has the usual whimsical VIDEO :-)

The simple description for the 'living room' Kindle is merely
"There are many e-book readers on the market, but Amazon's Kindle ($139 and up) is far superior to its competitors."


While at this page, I was struck that it included two of my recent buys, both unusual.  Since I have recent positive experience with these, I'll include these in case some readers are interested.

The one that's now always with me is the The pocketable Canon S95 which is fully automatic if you want and yet gives full manual control and is just terrific in low-light situations.  It's my favorite camera, ever (including my Digital Rebel), but it has only the screen-image (high resolution and contrast) and no viewfinder.

  For anyone else seriously looking into a really excellent low-light pocketable camera (no flash needed, my preference) with amazing image stabilization, here are reviews to browse:  Trusted Reviews (thorough), Burrard-Lucas blog (fun read), and Pogues' own florid piece


Also, the LG BD590 WiFi Blu-Ray player with a 250G hard disk. It allows you to play youtube, netflix, etc on it.


TIP:  UNUSUAL BATTERY DRAIN WHEN THE KINDLE IS NEW
I replied to a public question on Facebook recently, and the suggestions in my post did help the person who had been having fast draining of her battery despite the Kindle being new and not doing that much reading on it.  Here, in case it might help others (as this problem does come up on the forums) is the conversation in the Kindle forum there:

' Q:  I have been reading everywhere about people getting up to a month out of a single battery charge on their K3.  I have my Wi-Fi off & use my Kindle solely for reading for about an hour a day & have had to charge it once a week since I got it in. Sept.  Is there any reason why this could be happening? When not in use, I keep my Kindle in a leather case inside my purse, along with my other devices (Cellphone, iTouch, etc.).  Can batteries drain off each other when stored together like that? May seem like a stupid question & rather unlikely but I'm really reaching for answers here.  Under similar conditions I only had to charge my Sony once every 3 weeks or so.  Any help would be just peachy - thanks!

A:  J, if you don't expect subscriptions and have wireless on at times, it should last longer if you're reading only an hour a day.

D had a good point re it not holding a fuller charge when it's new but also it's not the kind of battery that you have to discharge, as it has no memory problems, though sometimes at first maybe a few batteries might be confused for all I know.

I collected a group of official Kindle Team or Customer Service advisories put out on the Amazon Kindle forums in announcements -- about best battery maintenance practices, which is at http://bit.ly/kbattery.

There are also a couple of other factors (and one important one is not to leave even your bag with Kindle in a hot closed car for awhile but especially not to leave one in a hot car with windows closed).

When a Kindle is new you tend to download more books to it than at other times.  Each book must be 'indexed' to make a list of key words for Search routines of the entire Kindle to find a word or phrase in a book, on the device and also for searches within the book you are reading.

That takes a lot of battery life initially. If you suddenly download a lot of books at anytime, it'll cause a lot of battery activity to do the indexing of each one.

Then there is occasionally a book that for some reason never finishes indexing (maybe something happened during the download).  You can find that type [of problem] by doing a kindle search for a [nonsense] word at the home screen.

At the Home screen, type any nonsense word such as 'xyyx' which will not be found in your everyday book, and press the Enter key or the 5-way button (to click it, as it will search your items on the device that way).

While the Kindle is searching every book, it will also tell you if a book (or periodical) has not been 'indexed' yet.

If one book never indexes completely, delete it. If you can't delete it using the Kindle (unlikely), delete it via your computer when you can connect the USB cable to the computer's USB port and see the Kindle files under the "documents" folder of the Kindle drive.

It's not easy to know which book is which, due to the odd titles that Amazon uses, but you can open the book, make a bookmark or a little highlight and then close it.
  That will become the "most recent" book accessed and will show at the top when you sort files by latest date.  (You can also use the free Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac apps to check that the most 'recent' book is the one that's not fully indexing.)

But it should be easy to delete anyway from the Kindle.  If it's an Amazon book, you can just re-download it.  If it's not an Amazon book, you should have it backed up.  Maybe re-downloading another copy of it will fix it.

When you DO have wireless On, to download books maybe, a bad connection or reception where you are will cause larger battery use when trying to get a file.

But you've given it a month and it should hold longer.  If it continues not to hold more useful charge than that, call Kindle Support [866-321-8851] who will do a log or record keeping with your help and if it doesn't hold a charge long enough, they will likely send a replacement while you keep the old one until you know for sure the 2nd one is okay.

4 days for an hour a day of reading is not how it should be, at any rate. (Also make sure the battery isn't left on accidentally as I tend to do with mine.)

- Andrys

Q: (and issue may be resolved)
I discovered that mine was indeed still indexing books.  I did as you said, Andrys, with the search & found it was still indexing & had 200 books to go  (BTW, I loaded it with almost 3,000 books I had converted from my Sony prior to this).
  So, yeah, it makes sense that it has simply taken it this long to index all those books.  I left it plugged in & checked it the next morning & it was down to 5 books to index.  When it was finished I unplugged it & have left it alone all day.  I'm checking the battery now...& the level is at almost full, just missing the tiny lower right corner on the battery pic.  So, we'll see over the next few days if it holds.  I mean, it seems logical that that was the problem, so hopefully it's all sorted out now.  Thanks SOOOO much 4 your help & I'll post an update later in the week. :)

Q: (Actually, a brief follow-up report)
OK, so, it's been about a week since my last charge & the battery is at just below half full. That's definitely better than before!

Q: final follow-up report seen
T - read Andrys' big post towards the top of this thread.  She gives a lot of great & very helpful information that ultimately got my Kindle's battery sorted out.  A week and a half on one charge thus far.  Try her suggestions & let us know. '

WELL, I left in the nice feedback, mainly to show all that wordiness contained something that did work for her.  But the battery drain from initial indexing is not very well known.

Also, many are not aware of the Kindle customer service battery-maintenance advisories.

 When the Kindle is new, many download as much as possible, usually from the free areas, or from a collection they already had on another Kindle or from their Calibre Kindle file-management program..

  Hope this will help people who find it :-)


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
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. 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!