# Software update for Touch 5.1.0



## mom2karen (Aug 15, 2009)

Has landscape mode, language translation, formatting improvements, and some other stuff. http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_200529680_touchupdate?nodeId=200790650


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Cool!  Thanks for letting us know!

Betsy


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Still no progress bar...

Not keen on this update so far. I only had a minute to check it out but there's less distinction between collections and books (collections type face used to be much more bolded but now books look almost the same boldness) and it's added a new collection for "Dictionaries". I didn't have time to see if I could delete it (looks like it's not actually a collection but similar to "Archive Items") but it will annoy me if I can't. I like to keep my home page as clean as possible - I have only three collections and the only book(s) not in a collection are what I'm currently reading. I sort by collection so there's only 5-6 items on my home page at any time (three collections, one or two books I'm reading, then the Archive). Now I have this extra "Dictionaries" I don't want.

That's all I had time to check out so far but I am looking forward to the built in translator. I have been hoping for something like it because I occasionally come across words or phrases in another language and find myself wishing I could just tap it and find out what it means in English.


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## William G. Jones (Sep 6, 2011)

Landscape mode?

*cue symphony*

HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! Hallelujah, hallelujah, hall-leeeee-lou-yah!


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## KindleGirl (Nov 11, 2008)

I haven't had long to check it out, but the first obvious change is the collections listing. Instead of showing the number of books in the collection in parenthesis behind the collection name it shows underneath and it actually says "5 items", etc. To me it looks a little nicer than the way it was before. Hopefully the rest of the changes will be just as good.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

history_lover said:


> but there's less distinction between collections and books (collections type face used to be much more bolded but now books look almost the same boldness)


Hmmm...my Touch is still at 5.0.4 and I can't really see any difference in the "boldness" between my collections and the books. Different font--Collections, san serif (Helvetica?) ; book serif (Times Roman?)--but no difference in bolding. Goes to show the difference in individual screens...

Betsy


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Hmmm...my Touch is still at 5.0.4 and I can't really see any difference in the "boldness" between my collections and the books. Different font--Collections, san serif (Helvetica?) ; book serif (Times Roman?)--but no difference in bolding. Goes to show the difference in individual screens...
> 
> Betsy


Maybe it was the difference in the font that made one look bolder than the other. All I know is that my first thought when I looked at the screen with the new update was that there was less distinction between collections and books, I didn't really have time to analyze it too much - I'll look again when I get home.


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## William G. Jones (Sep 6, 2011)

I checked the category / book list before I installed the update, there was definitely a different font used for categories (I'm thinking it was a slightly weighted sans-serif). It was hard to tell the difference because the category labels took up about the same space on the screen as book titles. 

I ran the 5.1.0 update on my Kindle and I thought it had bricked itself. It just kept going from the update screen to the reboot screen. But as I type this out, it finally launched, and the new way they have categories listed is REALLY nice. They take up more space, they're in a nice sans-serif font, and all the white space around the category labels really makes them stand out.

And can I just say I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE landscape mode!!!!!? THIS is the Kindle I've always wanted!

Yes, landscape, a touch screen, and e-ink are really all I've ever wanted in a Kindle. If that makes me pathetic, so be it, but this update makes me HAPPY because it finally gives me all 3 things!!!


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## mom2karen (Aug 15, 2009)

I read something on amazon that this update is a double restart so you will see your kindle go to the tree twice.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

I am definitely not finding a way to delete the new "Dictionaries" thing which is REALLY annoying. My dictionaries are already stored away in a collection and now this has just added an extra thing onto my homepage that I'll NEVER use. That in combo with the still missing progress bar and I'm not happy that I did the upgrade.


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## William G. Jones (Sep 6, 2011)

mom2karen said:


> I read something on amazon that this update is a double restart so you will see your kindle go to the tree twice.


Yep, it did. I should have read that more closely!


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## Hoosiermama (Dec 28, 2009)

Itching to go home and update my Touch 

Looking forward to landscape mode and the new home screen layout.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Ok, this update is really peeving me now - in Manage Your Kindle, I now have a bunch of user guides in foreign languages. I'm sure this is connected to the update because it also added the newest user guide in English and a bunch of foreign dictionaries, which makes sense for the new translator feature. But the foreign user guides? Why do I need these? Can I just delete them? I don't want them cluttering my archive if I don't need them.


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

history_lover said:


> Ok, this update is really peeving me now - in Manage Your Kindle, I now have a bunch of user guides in foreign languages. I'm sure this is connected to the update because it also added the newest user guide in English and a bunch of foreign dictionaries, which makes sense for the new translator feature. But the foreign user guides? Why do I need these? Can I just delete them? I don't want them cluttering my archive if I don't need them.


Yes, you can delete them.


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## Lionfury (Jan 1, 2012)

Guys the new update also features caps lock. Just double tap the shift button.


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## Hoosiermama (Dec 28, 2009)

Just updated my Touch. I love the new homescreen!  The font  much easier to read and the layout is so much better!

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2


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## ibrahim (Apr 11, 2012)

The nook has a massive advantage in having a user interface option that is visually based - book covers as opposed to a text list. Is it impossible for Kindle to catch up by adopting a visual layout?


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Luvmy4brats said:


> Yes, you can delete them.


And it won't screw anything up? I can't see how it would but I can't help thinking they were added for a reason.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

ibrahim said:


> The nook has a massive advantage in having a user interface option that is visually based - book covers as opposed to a text list. Is it impossible for Kindle to catch up by adopting a visual layout?


I don't see that as a 'massive advantage'. Maybe a minor plus. But, really, mostly neutral. 

See, the service and selection at Amazon -- and the fact that I'm already heavily invested in books and devices  -- more than offsets it for me.

I wouldn't _object_ if Kindle went to a layout such as you describe, but I think I'd want it to be optional. In B&W some of the cover images are difficult to distinguish one from the other, in my opinion. Works great on the Fire, or other color devices running the Kindle App, but I've played with eInk nooks and it's only so-so there, I think, and really depends on the books being displayed.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

ibrahim said:


> The nook has a massive advantage in having a user interface option that is visually based - book covers as opposed to a text list. Is it impossible for Kindle to catch up by adopting a visual layout?


And see, I prefer the Kindle's text list...but do think an option as they have in their Kindle apps would be nice as a lot of people do like the covers. I use the list in the apps, too....

Note that the Fire has a cover-based interface as well as the list view.

Betsy


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

ibrahim said:


> The nook has a massive advantage in having a user interface option that is visually based - book covers as opposed to a text list. Is it impossible for Kindle to catch up by adopting a visual layout?


I think Ann's right - the covers look fine in the apps where you have colour, but on the b/w e-ink Kindles, I think I'd prefer the text list. I guess I'd have to try it to see. Haven't got my Touch yet (released two weeks today!) but looking at the pics on Amazon, it looks like you can view by cover in the store, but I'm assuming the home page is just text, as with the previous e-ink Kindles?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Linjeakel said:


> I think Ann's right - the covers look fine in the apps where you have colour, but on the b/w e-ink Kindles, I think I'd prefer the text list. I guess I'd have to try it to see. Haven't got my Touch yet (released two weeks today!) but looking at the pics on Amazon, it looks like you can view by cover in the store, but I'm assuming the home page is just text, as with the previous e-ink Kindles?


That's correct, Linda, unless they release something special for the UK customers...


Betsy


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## Hoosiermama (Dec 28, 2009)

I like having just the text for the menu, especially since it saves space. A long press on a title will bring up a menu, which displays the cover. I'd hate the additional scrolling if covers were shown on the page.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Okay, I'm less unhappy about the update because I've just discovered something I've been wanting for a while - anyone else notice this? When you click "Go To" inside a book, instead of having the option for "Table of Contents" which you would then have to tap and it would take you to the beginning of the book where the ToC is, it now lists the ToC right there under "go to"... WITH the page numbers! So each chapter is now in a scrolling list with the corresponding page number and you don't have to jump back and forth within the book! 

I'm not sure how it handles books with no page numbers though - hopefully it will show a percentage or at least locations. 

But I'm pleased because this mostly makes up for not having a progress bar. My main issue with no progress bar was that there was no way to see how long a chapter was or how close you were to the next chapter (books with a clickable ToC would have little marks on the progress bar indicating each chapter). But now I can! Granted, it takes two taps on the screen whereas the progress bar was always displayed but what's even better than the progress bar is the ability to see the title of each chapter and what page it starts at. I remember years ago having a conversation here about wishing there was some way I could see where the end of the actual book was, because some books have sample chapters at the end, or authors notes, index, bibliography, etc and so the actual book could end anywhere from 70-99%, not 100%. I remember talking about how there must be a way to display the percentage of each chapter in the ToC. Well, this doesn't list percentage but page numbers will work just as well.


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## Lionfury (Jan 1, 2012)

history_lover said:


> Okay, I'm less unhappy about the update because I've just discovered something I've been wanting for a while - anyone else notice this? When you click "Go To" inside a book, instead of having the option for "Table of Contents" which you would then have to tap and it would take you to the beginning of the book where the ToC is, it now lists the ToC right there under "go to"... WITH the page numbers! So each chapter is now in a scrolling list with the corresponding page number and you don't have to jump back and forth within the book!
> 
> I'm not sure how it handles books with no page numbers though - hopefully it will show a percentage or at least locations.
> 
> But I'm pleased because this mostly makes up for not having a progress bar. My main issue with no progress bar was that there was no way to see how long a chapter was or how close you were to the next chapter (books with a clickable ToC would have little marks on the progress bar indicating each chapter). But now I can! Granted, it takes two taps on the screen whereas the progress bar was always displayed but what's even better than the progress bar is the ability to see the title of each chapter and what page it starts at. I remember years ago having a conversation here about wishing there was some way I could see where the end of the actual book was, because some books have sample chapters at the end, or authors notes, index, bibliography, etc and so the actual book could end anywhere from 70-99%, not 100%. I remember talking about how there must be a way to display the percentage of each chapter in the ToC. Well, this doesn't list percentage but page numbers will work just as well.


This feature is HORRENDOUS for trying to navigate a long book like the bible. I now get to scroll through every single chapter on the list to reach a book. Uggghh. They should have kept the TOC button and added the list under it.


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## William G. Jones (Sep 6, 2011)

I also notice they've adopted the Android / Fire word guessing feature (where the words show up above the keyboard) when you're taking notes.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Lionfury said:


> This feature is HORRENDOUS for trying to navigate a long book like the bible. I now get to scroll through every single chapter on the list to reach a book. Uggghh. They should have kept the TOC button and added the list under it.


Well, probably only the Bible has that many chapters. But you can still return to the TOC in the beginning of the book by using the "Beginning" option instead - that will take you to the beginning of the book and then just page back/forward a few times to get to the TOC. I know that involves more navigating but it's perhaps better than trying to scroll through that many chapters. Alternatively, just put a bookmark at the TOC and use "Menu > View Notes and Marks" instead.


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

Here are a couple of things I noticed with the update (which so far I like):

1. On my KT with special offers, the offer doesn't show at the bottom of the screen when I go into a category or the archive (a good thing) so I see 8 things listed instead of 7. That's new, right?

2. I like that there are two lines of text on the home screen for each book - a title line and author/contributor line. The way it used to be on one line, you couldn't see nearly as much of the title and author because they shared a line. On the otherhatand, when sorting by author, the way it used to be was a little easier to scan down the list of authors - with the author's name on the right. Not a biggie, though.

3. Drop down lists at top - you could do this before, for instance tapping on page 3 of 17 to then tell it to jump to a certain page, etc., but it is more obvious now. And I think it's new that you can tap on "My Items" to filter to only periodicals, or only games/active content, etc.

4. Go To: While reading, tapping at top edge to bring up menu, then when you tap Go To, it shows all the chapters there. I do like this, though I wish the menu still had a link to the TOC in the book in case you just want to go there. For books I create, I may put a link to the TOC in the TOC (or maybe not - I'll have to think about that). *BUT*, is it just me, or is it harder to get to notes & bookmarks, or is it the same - tap at the top, then tap Menu, then View Notes & Marks. Is this the same as it used to be? I guess my problem is that I always tap "go to", and then remember that that's not where you go to get to notes & marks.

5. Options are a little different when you highlight text. I can't say what, exactly without a kindle with the previous version in front of me. If you highlight a word, it shows the definition, and 3 buttons - Show full definition, highlight, and more. This means that if you want to add a note to a single word, you've got an extra tap (have to click on "more"). Not a biggie. "More" has links to wikipedia (but I had a long sentence highlighted - would it search wikipedia for that whole thing?), Translation, and Report Content Error. So for better or worse, it's easier for readers to report errors.

6. Translation is awesome! You need a wireless connection, but then you can translate from any language to any other language. When I highlighted a single word in italian, it said no dictionary for this language, and tells me to look in Archived Items, or buy a dictionary from the store. I go to Archived Items, search on "dictionary" and it looks like a category called "Dictionaries" comes up that says "5 items" under it. When I tap this category in the search results, nothing happens, other than up in the dark bar at the top of the screen, it says "connected" for a few seconds (same place where it says "items downloaded"). Odd. Seems like it's got to be a bug. I do see "Dictionaries" on the last page of my home screen, along with "Periodicals: Back issues" and Archived items. But it only has two items there (the new oxford American dictionary, and Oxford dictionary of English). So I wonder what the 5 items listed under "dictionaries" in the search results.


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## pomtroll (Oct 5, 2010)

new that you can tap on "My Items" to filter to only periodicals, or only games/active content, etc.

4. Go To: While reading, tapping at top edge to bring up menu, then when you tap Go To, it shows all the chapters there. I do like this, though I wish the menu still had a link to the TOC in the book in case you just want to go there. For books I create, I may put a link to the TOC in the TOC (or maybe not - I'll have to think about that). *BUT*, is it just me, or is it harder to get to notes & bookmarks, or is it the same - tap at the top, then tap Menu, then View Notes & Marks. Is this the same as it used to be? I guess my problem is that I always tap "go to", and then remember that that's not where you go to get to notes & marks.

[/quote]

*I haven't figured out what you mean by the statement I underlined in the quote. It doesn't show chapters unless I go to the beginning & click back to TOC. I would prefer to have the old TOC link. I prefer this for when reading nonfiction. Could you explain more?*


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

pomtroll said:


> 4. Go To: While reading, tapping at top edge to bring up menu, then when you tap Go To, it shows all the chapters there. I do like this, though I wish the menu still had a link to the TOC in the book in case you just want to go there. For books I create, I may put a link to the TOC in the TOC (or maybe not - I'll have to think about that). *BUT*, is it just me, or is it harder to get to notes & bookmarks, or is it the same - tap at the top, then tap Menu, then View Notes & Marks. Is this the same as it used to be? I guess my problem is that I always tap "go to", and then remember that that's not where you go to get to notes & marks.
> 
> *I haven't figured out what you mean by the statement I underlined in the quote. It doesn't show chapters unless I go to the beginning & click back to TOC. I would prefer to have the old TOC link. I prefer this for when reading nonfiction. Could you explain more?*


If someone reminds me of how to take a screenshot on a KT, I will. I've seen two different things happen. When I tap at the top, and then tap "go to", I see "Beginning", "Page or Location..." with an arrow, indicating you get more options when you tap it, and then below those two options I see a table of contents - the chapter names - that I can tap to go there. This TOC includes "cover" and "end". If the full list of TOC items doesn't fit, the list is scrollable with an up or down swipe. However, on another book, I simply see "Beginning", "Page or Location...", "Cover", "Table of Contents", and "End". So somehow the way that the publisher set the book up affects whether or not the TOC items are listed in the "go to" menu or not. The books I've created do have the TOC items in the "go to" menu. My guess is that books that have "jump points" - where you can use the 5-way or swipe up/down to jump chapters has those chapters in the "go to" menu. Just a guess, though.

Have people tried the Wikipedia feature? It's great - if you highlight a word or phrase, then the definition (if there is one) pops up and that window has a "more" button. Tap that, and in the additional choices, there is "wikipedia". But what's great is that (assuming you have wireless on), it puts a brief wikipedia entry right into that window - it doesn't take you out to the web browser. You CAN go to the full entry in wikipedia (in the web browser) by tapping the "Launch Wikipedia" button. Very cool. My KT is just wi-fi, but I'm wondering if this and the translation feature work over 3G.


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## pomtroll (Oct 5, 2010)

Eltanin Publishing said:


> If someone reminds me of how to take a screenshot on a KT, I will. I've seen two different things happen. When I tap at the top, and then tap "go to", I see "Beginning", "Page or Location..." with an arrow, indicating you get more options when you tap it, and then below those two options I see a table of contents - the chapter names - that I can tap to go there. This TOC includes "cover" and "end". If the full list of TOC items doesn't fit, the list is scrollable with an up or down swipe. However, on another book, I simply see "Beginning", "Page or Location...", "Cover", "Table of Contents", and "End". So somehow the way that the publisher set the book up affects whether or not the TOC items are listed in the "go to" menu or not. The books I've created do have the TOC items in the "go to" menu. My guess is that books that have "jump points" - where you can use the 5-way or swipe up/down to jump chapters has those chapters in the "go to" menu. Just a guess, though.
> 
> Have people tried the Wikipedia feature? It's great - if you highlight a word or phrase, then the definition (if there is one) pops up and that window has a "more" button. Tap that, and in the additional choices, there is "wikipedia". But what's great is that (assuming you have wireless on), it puts a brief wikipedia entry right into that window - it doesn't take you out to the web browser. You CAN go to the full entry in wikipedia (in the web browser) by tapping the "Launch Wikipedia" button. Very cool. My KT is just wi-fi, but I'm wondering if this and the translation feature work over 3G.


*I think you're right. I've tried 4 different books & have had 3 different options pop up after tapping "go to" I tried 2 nonfiction & 2 fiction books. And yes I tried the Wikepdia. My Sony T1 has that too & I like it.*


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

Bump


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Toby,

did you have a question about the update?

Betsy


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## tsemple (Apr 27, 2009)

Lionfury said:


> This feature is HORRENDOUS for trying to navigate a long book like the bible. I now get to scroll through every single chapter on the list to reach a book. Uggghh. They should have kept the TOC button and added the list under it.


If the linked TOC is at the beginning of the book (which it usually is) set a bookmark (or a note or highlight) there and use Menu/View Notes and Marks instead of Go To. It will be the first item in the Notes and Marks list, just tap and you'll be at the start of the TOC. Only one more tap than before.

For hierarchical section/chapter lists I wish there were a way to 'collapse all' and 'expand all'. Then you could more efficiently navigate the outline structure. By default, the list comes up fully expanded, which is to say, virutally as inefficient to navigate as possible. A better default might be to collapse everything except the branch with the current position. Then the initial list would be more concise and you could 'drill down' to find the thing you want.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

Hi Betsy. No. While I am waiting for the update, I just wanted to keep this topic near the top. Thinking about it now, it wasn't the best idea since I had nothing to add. Thanks for asking.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Toby,

You can click 'notify' over there to the right at the bottom and you'll get an email when someone posts. Or bookmark it in your browser to be able to find it anytime.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

Thanks! That's 2 great ideas, Ann.


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## n4uau (Nov 26, 2011)

It says I can do landscape mode and you all have talked about it in the 5.1 thread but I can't figure out how to change to landscape. I turn the Touch and nothing happens.  Perhaps only magazines and other certain items go landscape and books do not?? My Fire will make everything landscape by turning it.  

Can you enlighten me?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Hi, Sam,

I've merged this with the existing thread discussing the Touch update, as it's a good question for everyone following that thread.

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

n4uau said:


> It says I can do landscape mode and you all have talked about it in the 5.1 thread but I can't figure out how to change to landscape. I turn the Touch and nothing happens. Perhaps only magazines and other certain items go landscape and books do not?? My Fire will make everything landscape by turning it.
> 
> Can you enlighten me?


Just because it can do landscape doesn't mean it has an accelerometer to auto-detect the orientation. That would be a hardware issue. 

I'd guess it's a setting in the menu somewhere. . . .with the DX it's in the 'fonts' area, if I'm not mistaken.

edit: yep. . .it's there on the Keyboard and Basic model as well


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## n4uau (Nov 26, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Just because it can do landscape doesn't mean it has an accelerometer to auto-detect the orientation. That would be a hardware issue.
> 
> I'd guess it's a setting in the menu somewhere. . . .with the DX it's in the 'fonts' area, if I'm not mistaken.
> 
> edit: yep. . .it's there on the Keyboard and Basic model as well


I"d agree but have yet to find it.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

The home screen does NOT switch even when the device is set to landscape. . .you've got to be in a book or something.

Are you sure you have the most recent update installed?


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## n4uau (Nov 26, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> The home screen does NOT switch even when the device is set to landscape. . .you've got to be in a book or something.
> 
> Are you sure you have the most recent update installed?


found it, it is in the menu once you are reading a book. I was expecting it to be a general kind of menu option.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Glad you found it, Sam!

I upgraded my KT manually to look for it (I usually just wait for the updates 'cause I'm lazy and there is seldom a feature I can't wait for...)

Yes, you have to have a book open and then tap to bring up the top menu.  Menu > Landscape Mode.  And it only applies to the books, the home page will still be portrait mode.  But, all books will be in landscape mode.  Which makes me kind of dizzy.   Not a feature I was interested in, but I'm happy for you who wanted it!

Betsy


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## pawsplus (Mar 31, 2009)

Do updates happen automatically when we turn on wireless and sync?  Or do I have to DO something to get this?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Historically, Amazon has pushed updates out within a couple of weeks of announcing.  Whether it arrives at your device depends on a bunch of things, only some of which you can control.  One is whether your wireless happens to be on when they do the push.  If it's not, you won't get the update.  I'm not sure how often they try before they stop, but probably not more than a couple of times.

If it's been more than a couple of weeks since the update came available, and you haven't gotten it despite having had wireless on for a goodly amount of time, you might want to go to the page at Amazon for the update and download and install it yourself.  It's not hard to do.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I have to say that my experience has been that it can sometimes be more than a couple of weeks...but certainly within a month.  I think this is the first time I've done it manually.

Betsy


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## sparklemotion (Jan 13, 2011)

I just noticed the update today! I really like it so far. I think the homepage with my collections listed looks much nicer and neater. Yay for landscape mode too. 



history_lover said:


> I am definitely not finding a way to delete the new "Dictionaries" thing which is REALLY annoying. My dictionaries are already stored away in a collection and now this has just added an extra thing onto my homepage that I'll NEVER use. That in combo with the still missing progress bar and I'm not happy that I did the upgrade.


This is the one negative I have found. I dislike having them force a category on me. It's totally unnecessary for me to have an entire category/collection devoted to 1 book and it makes it go over to another page for me as well. Ugh.


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## ninagsmith (Jul 31, 2010)

This is a great update.  What I particularly like is that it is now possible to highlight across pages.  That was the only thing about the Kindle Touch that was missing, in my opinion.  I have a Kindle Keyboard as well but much prefer the ease of navigating on the Touch.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

I did not get my update - around 3 weeks, so I updated myself tonight. I love the look. It looks more sophisticated. I like having landscape mode. I like the Go to. I only saw 2 dictionaries listed at the moment. Someone had mentioned many. I did not concentrate on the SO, so will check that out. I like having the title & authors on separate lines, so I can see the whole title. Anyone else still waiting for their update?


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## William G. Jones (Sep 6, 2011)

ninagsmith said:


> What I particularly like is that it is now possible to highlight across pages.


Say WHAT I didn't even notice that! I've been resizing the font to get more words on the page to complete my highlight.

YES! This now officially makes the KT my perfect ereader!


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

I did not notice anything different about the SO's. I have highlighted before on the touch, but how do you highlight across pages? Like, do l lift off my stylus at the end & then tap the right side of the page. Then, put the stylus down again on the line.


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## Cardinal (Feb 24, 2010)

I finally manually updated my Touch.  I think 5.1.0 is a huge improvement for navigating the home screen, collections and archive.  Previously I had little success bringing up the  GoTo menu when I needed it, it is very easy to do now.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Toby said:


> I did not notice anything different about the SO's. I have highlighted before on the touch, but how do you highlight across pages? Like, do l lift off my stylus at the end & then tap the right side of the page. Then, put the stylus down again on the line.


I don't know what device you have since the KT doesn't have a stylus (unless you're referring to your finger at a stylus which is weird) but on the KT, as you're highlighting, you simply hold your finger on the last word of the screen and after a moment, it will go to the next page.


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## Mips (Nov 13, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> you might want to go to the page at Amazon for the update and download and install it yourself. It's not hard to do.


It isn't hard but it is a pain in the butt. To manually do something like this requires me to do things with the K and go places into my PC which I mostly don't ever visit. I manually updated the Touch once, I really don't want to have to do any of that again.

I just checked, my Touch is still on 5.04. If there were any other updates between these two I missed those pushes as well. I'll take my chances and wait it out. It doesn't sound like an update that I need for the things I read or the way I use my Ks.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

Thanks for the highlighting tip. I use a stylus instead of my finger. I purchased that separately. I use it on the kindle touch, kindle Fire & the iPad. The stylus does not come with the device & you don't have to have one.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Toby said:


> Thanks for the highlighting tip. I use a stylus instead of my finger. I purchased that separately. I use it on the kindle touch, kindle Fire & the iPad. The stylus does not come with the device & you don't have to have one.


Does it have a hard tip? I'd be concerned about it scratching or damaging the screen over time. And losing it.


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

history_lover said:


> Does it have a hard tip? I'd be concerned about it scratching or damaging the screen over time. And losing it.


I'd worry about the same things too - and I would imagine that unless you have super large fingers, you might just as well not bother. Fiddling about with a stylus would seem to take away so much of the convenience of having a touch screen.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I don't have a Touch, but I find the stylus works better than my finger for my Fire  . . . .and I don't have particularly large hands.  It's not a hard tip stylus but a soft rubber-like tip -- it has to be capacitive to work with the type of touch technology on the Fire or other tablet.  

I assume it would work also on the Touch, even though that's different technology and a hard tip would probably work with it. I don't think a plastic tip would cause a problem.  

As always, what works best for one may not work best for another.


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## CAFlanny (Apr 5, 2012)

I use a soft-tipped stylus with my Touch. I like it a lot because it keeps the screen cleaner than using your finger.


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## Tatiana (Aug 20, 2010)

I have a soft-tip stylus that I use with my Touch.  I also use the Pentel Clic Eraser Stick.  I have a couple of them around after DS graduated from school and they work as well or better than my stylus.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

What I did was go to Amazon. Typed in capacitive stylus & looked at many brands. I read about them & the reviews, even though I already knew about them from others in another group a long time ago.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

A capacitive stylus is not needed with the Touch, though, as indicated, it will work.  You can use a hard stylus, but it could potentially harm the screen...  A pencil eraser works very well   as Tatiana noted.  I use those yellow #2 pencils with eraser that I never use for anything else anymore...

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Having lived with the update for a bit, I have to say I also don't care for the "Dictionaries" collection. I had a "Non Book Kindle items" collection I put dictionaries and user guides in... But at least it shows up after the rest of my collections and any un-collected books. I'm guessing that this was done to try to standardize the location of the dictionaries so that the Kindle can find them.  Or something like that.

Since I use the tip on organizing that I learned from Ann in Arlington, it's not dealbreaker for me. On my Touch, I've limited the number of collections to six (that works for me, it may not for you). Then, the seventh line of my first home page is the book I'm currently reading. This forces the Archives and Dictionaries collections to the next home page, so I don't even see them. I realize for others who might have more or fewer collections, this won't work.

Best new feature for me is to be able to highlight across pages. Though I don't use that much; usually when I want to remember something that I think hubby would be interested in. I had no interest in landscape, though I suppose I'll use it every now and then since it's there.

Betsy


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

My KT came with this version of the software on it, so I can only compare it with other Kindle models. The new Dictionaries folder doesn't bother me - at least it's out there at the end and not trying to slot itself into the collections list under 'D'. I also like that all the other dictionaries are grouped together under one item in the archived items list.

I like the fact that the collections when sorted by collections now list in alphabetical order - was it always like that on the Touch? I know it's not on the other Kindles. I still have about three pages of collections though, but I can access my current book by having a 'currently reading' folder at the very top of page 1. The more user adaptable it is, the better, since we all have our different preferences.

I can't imagine needing the landscape feature much, but it's nice to have it there, just in case.

I like the home screen font - on my previous Kindles, collection names always displayed in italics, which I didn't like. Is all this new to this update?

I haven't found the lack of a progress bar at the bottom too bad - I understand people were hoping it would be in this update? It gives location and percentage, which tells me pretty much all I need to know, though I suppose it would be good to see the page number too.

In my experience, every update seems to bring something you want and to take away something you liked! On the whole, I'm happy with the KT as it is. No doubt when the next update comes out, we'll be having this discussion again!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Yes, for some reason the collections on the Touch have always been alphabetical, unlike the other Kindles, which are sorted by "most recent."  I like the alphabetical...

I can't remember whether the collections were in italics previously, LOL!  But looking at the screenshots in Leslie and Harvey's books, I don't think so...

I've never missed the progress bar, but I don't check that much.

Betsy


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

I discovered my update last night when I woke up my KT. I'd forgotten to turn off wireless, so the update had already been done without my knowledge. Usually, I have to watch impatiently as the update progresses, so I was delighted to find that it had already taken place.

So far, I love what I see in the new update. The home page looks so much neater and easier to read, the books look different than the collections, and I like the new menu within a book.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Linjeakel said:


> I like the fact that the collections when sorted by collections now list in alphabetical order - was it always like that on the Touch? I know it's not on the other Kindles. I still have about three pages of collections though, but I can access my current book by having a 'currently reading' folder at the very top of page 1. The more user adaptable it is, the better, since we all have our different preferences.


If you ever have a collection that gets sorted above "currently reading" you can put a underscore before the c to force it to the top.

I agree, the more adaptable the better.


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> If you ever have a collection that gets sorted above "currently reading" you can put a underscore before the c to force it to the top.
> 
> I agree, the more adaptable the better.


Right from the beginning I've had < > around my collection names and < < > > around the ones I want at the very top. Fortunately, when they did that upgrade a while back on the other Kindles, that changed the sort order on symbols (when the K3 came out?) it wasn't affected so I still use it to this day. Putting spaces between the chevrons and between them and the titles also changes the sort order and I found it very effective - and it looks good too, especially now those awful italics are gone.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I can't remember whether the collections were in italics previously, LOL! But looking at the screenshots in Leslie and Harvey's books, I don't think so...
> 
> Betsy


On my DX, the collection names are a sans serif font and slanted -- so, yes to italics. Book titles are a serif font and not italicized. The K3/Keyboard and K4/Basic are the same. All sort by most recent when 'by collections' is chosen.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

I really like reading in landscape mode. It seems like the font is larger. Also, the light from the amazon kindle lighted cover is not so much in my eyes when reading lying down.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> On my DX, the collection names are a sans serif font and slanted -- so, yes to italics. Book titles are a serif font and not italicized. The K3/Keyboard and K4/Basic are the same. All sort by most recent when 'by collections' is chosen.


Yes, Linda said the others were italicized, and I checked mine. I'm not sure about the Touch, though...I don't remember italicized collection names and the one screen shot in Kindle Touch for Dummies that shows the "Archives" doesn't show it in italics. Anyone else?

Edit: Found this one screenshot from http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/kindle-touch.html that seems to show that collections were not italicized on the Touch...anyone have an un-updated Touch?  I don't remember them being italicized but maybe it's just me not noticing.










Betsy


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## William G. Jones (Sep 6, 2011)

I don't remember italicized collections--and I do remember looking at the home screen before updating so I'd notice the changes everyone was talking about. That screen shot looks like what I remember before the last update. I don't think I ever confused collections with books because the number of items was out there in parenthesis, but I do recall thinking that collections looked just like book titles but in a slightly heavier font.

Then again, I'm stupid, so I could be wrong about the whole thing.


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## Cardinal (Feb 24, 2010)

I just checked my K2, K3 and K4 and all their collections are italicized.  Collections are not italicized on my Touch.

I'm not keen on the Dictionary collection.  I always create a "Kindle" collection and put everything that came with the Kindle from Amazon in their.  I wonder if I can move my welcome letter and user guide to the Dictionary collection (and delete the Kindle collection) or if that would mess the Kindle up.  

Another thing, on all the nonTouch models when viewing Notes and Bookmarks there is a way to view all or choose to view only one type (Notes, Highlights or Bookmarks).  On the Touch I seem to have to view them all, there doesn't seem to be an option to view only one type at a time.  

On all Kindle models, within Notes and Bookmarks there is no way to choose to jump to a certain page, you have to scroll threw everything to get to the end.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Cardinal said:


> I just checked my K2, K3 and K4 and all their collections are italicized. Collections are not italicized on my Touch.


Have you already updated? The question is were collections italicized on the Touch before the update? I don't think they were. Pitiful that I can't remember! 

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Yes, Linda said the others were italicized, and I checked mine. I'm not sure about the Touch, though...I don't remember italicized collection names and the one screen shot in Kindle Touch for Dummies that shows the "Archives" doesn't show it in italics. Anyone else?
> 
> Betsy


Yeah, on the K3, K4, and DX, the "Archived items" listing is the same as a book. . . . and at the end of the book list even when sorted by collections.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Yeah, on the K3, K4, and DX, the "Archived items" listing is the same as a book. . . .


Hmmm. On the KTouch, Archives currently is in the same font as the Collections, and per the screen shot in _Kindle Touch for Dummies_, p.39, it was always in a sans serif font with the books in a serif font.

I also found a screen shot (see prior post) that showed "Collections (0)," clearly a collection, not in italics. So I'm thinking collections were never in italics on the Touch.

Not really important, except I tend to geek out on these kinds of things.  I wonder if the font choices are going to be standard for future firmware.



> and at the end of the book list even when sorted by collections.


Yes, this is the same as on the Touch.

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

As you say, not really important. . . .funny that they'd change something so non-critical, though.  Almost feels like it was a different team that just got the design slightly different and they didn't bother to change it.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I'm thinking there must be different teams for all the flavors of Kindles and Kindle apps.    It would explain some of the weird differences between the apps.  

OK, we're boring everyone else in this thread, LOL!

Betsy


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## Mips (Nov 13, 2011)

The upgrade finally pushed its way onto my KT.  I'm not happy with it.

I've had the T since it came out.  The response sensitivity varied and was very slow many times but I never had it lock up on me, freeze, then need a reboot.  Since the push, I have had to go to the tree daily.  I don't care what other features are present in the upgrade if I have to reboot daily.  Since this kind of thing never happened before the upgrade, I'll have to blame it.

It gets unresponsive, doesn't open up what I want to open up, then I push the homepage button hoping to at least get there, nothing happens for awhile then I get a multiple page overlay on the screen with only partial loads of each page.

It's a good thing I don't have that many things loaded on it so the reboots don't take forever but it won't take too many days of this before I bail back onto my older K3K while I sort this through with Kindle Service.  And I'd rather be reading that doing that.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

Mips said:


> The upgrade finally pushed its way onto my KT. I'm not happy with it.
> 
> I've had the T since it came out. The response sensitivity varied and was very slow many times but I never had it lock up on me, freeze, then need a reboot. Since the push, I have had to go to the tree daily. I don't care what other features are present in the upgrade if I have to reboot daily. Since this kind of thing never happened before the upgrade, I'll have to blame it.
> 
> ...


As you're the only one to report this so far, I imagine it's not the norm and you should contact Kindle Customer Support. They may be able to help.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Mips, definitely not the typical update, from the reports I've seen...call Kindle CS.

Inside the United States: 1-866-321-8851, Outside the United States: 1-206-266-0927 

Betsy


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## Mips (Nov 13, 2011)

The lock ups were one after another that morning while I was trying to find something in my collections.  Emailed then called the service number, after the 1st CSRep talked me through yet another 20 sec boot which ended in freezing I directed to another level, this one had me do the longer factory reset boot which seems to have solved the problem...for now...at least.

Though I have more titles on it than I prefer to have, I'm glad I don't store my entire library there.  The reboots would have taken forever.


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## Ephany (Mar 9, 2009)

DD's Touch can not see new purchases since the update. They're not in the archives, they won't appear if I send a book from the Manage my Kindle page or when I purchase a book and select to have it sent directly to her Touch. I can transfer them via USB, but I don't want to have to do that every time. Does anyone know a fix or am I going to have to call Kindle Support? Thanks!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Has she tried de-registering and re-registering?  It sounds like it's not quite recognizing the device as registered.  Granddaughter's Kindle Basic seemed to be working fine but wouldn't let her buy books from the Kindle store until she de-registered and re-registered it.

Betsy


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## Cardinal (Feb 24, 2010)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Have you already updated? The question is were collections italicized on the Touch before the update? I don't think they were. Pitiful that I can't remember!


I'm pretty sure that the Touch collection's were italicized before the 5.1.0 update. When I first got the Touch and set up collections I remember thinking the home page with collections look just like my other Kindles. The first thing I noticed after doing a manual update was the collections had a different font.


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## Ephany (Mar 9, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Has she tried de-registering and re-registering? It sounds like it's not quite recognizing the device as registered. Granddaughter's Kindle Basic seemed to be working fine but wouldn't let her buy books from the Kindle store until she de-registered and re-registered it.
> 
> Betsy


Thanks, it now sees all the books, but now there's missing collections (maybe all the ones I've added since the last update?). At least I don't have to download everything manually for her. What'd be really nice would be an option to make books not visible from the archives for certain kindles. Say a menu for each title that will allow the main user to show only certain titles for certain kindles for those of us who share accounts with our kids (or our mothers LOL).


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## Tim C. Taylor (May 17, 2011)

Well, I'm impressed that several people have mentioned the new Touch scrollable table of contents, but no one has mentioned a problem using it. I had an awful time making the contents scroll and now I'm feeling dumb. Thanks, everyone    I found I need to use an up/down gesture just to the left of the scroll bar, and the gesture needs to be about 3-4 TOC entries long. Too long or too short a gesture and no scrolling. Also, I think the moon needs to be aligned just so.

Hope this helps someone equally dumb.


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