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KoReader!

October 31, 2014, 5:00 am
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KoReader is an alternate open-source reader for the Kindle and it improves the Kindle experience dramatically. I have a Voyage (that I got *after* I discovered KoReader) and a PW1. I now consistently choose the PW1 to read over the Voyage.

First KoReader makes my PW1 much easier to read because it allows font-weights (like the Kobo) to enhance the contrast AND it has a much greater font-size range (like the Kobo) and it allows custom fonts (like the Kobo) without that font-hack that's always given me trouble. It also offers night mode (like the Kobo) AND 2-column landscape mode. Kobo's always had the advantage in software features but this puts Kindle on even-footing.

What I discovered is that for me it wasn't the (somewhat) uneven frontlight of the PW1 OR the dpi that was the real problem, it was the contrast and with all of these features, KoReader makes the PW1 actually a more pleasant environment than the Voyage.

The added benefit of KoReader is that it reads epub (and others like djvu) in addition to mobi & pdf. The *reason* that's so good is because the Kindle can't SO the Kindle doesn't *index* these files. No indexing means that the Kindle doesn't slow down as you fill up the storage AND there is no waiting around for hours (and hours) while the Kindle (finally) indexes every word of every book. It also saves a lot of space (I saved more than 25%) when I switched to epub & djvu because of the lack of indexing. In fact, since everything is in epub & djvu , the ONLY thing I have on my Kindle homescreen is the KoReader launcher Kual. I spend 99% of my time in KoReader and almost never see the Kindle homescreen.

Finally, KoReader understands folders so I can dump Amazon's harebrained collections system and simply drag the books into folders using the PC to organize them in folders AND sub-folders. Calibre can be made to understand epub on the Kindle so it can transfer and find those files to make management even easier.

I'm seriously considering returning my Voyage -- not because it's not *the best* e-reader ever -- but because KoReader on the PW1 does such a darned good job. On a PWII, I expect that it would be slightly better (but probably not a lot because of the contrast enhancements KoReader offers). Were I shopping for an e-reader, my *first* choice would be a gently-used PW1. If I wanted a new device, I'd choose the PW2. Jailbroken, I expect the Voyage would be better with KoReader than the PW's but not THAT much better.

If you try KoReader, I think you'll like it. https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki
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How Far Do You Let Your Battery Go Before You Charge ?

October 31, 2014, 8:25 am
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Title says it all. My H2o seems to go on and on without the necessity of a charge. For whatever reason my Voyage is using more battery. Maybe I have the light on more than on the Kobo. I keep the wireless off unless I need to download from Amazon.

As you know, before the smart phones it was suggested to let batteries run down to 20% or so because they have memory. Referring to laptops .... Smart phones have different batteries, and it doesn't matter at what point you put them on the charger.

So what about ereaders ? If my Voyage is at half mast, should I go ahead and charge it, or wait until it goes to 1/4 ? Or does it not matter at all ? :blink:
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I see my collections, but books are not there

October 31, 2014, 10:30 am
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If I recall well, on my PW2, I select display by collections and those books that I have not downloaded yet are being shown anyway but just their covers. If I already downloaded the book, then there is a check mark on the upper right corner of the cover.

Why I can't see the covers of those book I have in Amazon cloud? Does anybody know how to fix this?
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Got Rid Of The Ads On My Home Screen

October 31, 2014, 1:22 pm
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When I bought my new Voyage at Best Buy last week I only had the option of with ads. I figured it was no big deal but I find it very annoying, even though it is only on the home page. I called amazon and a customer service rep showed me how to go to "manage your devices" and opt out of the ads. Cost me the $20.00 difference that is charged when you opt out buying direct from amazon, but to me it is worth it. :thumbsup:
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Does the Screen Hue Disappear?

November 1, 2014, 12:07 pm
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Well, I wish I had taken pictures of my Voyage. But, when I first got it, the uneven coloring was very noticeable (pinkish to yellowish) at some intermediate lighting setting. If you turned the light all the way up, it was a very even screen.

My initial reaction was to return the device. Then I got lazy. Last night I was reading on it and I realized that the screen looked very good - I played around with the light and saw no lack of uniformity at any setting.

I remember going through something similar with the first paperwhite. The screen was really bad on the first day, but then it seemed to get better over time - although some degree of uneven coloring persisted.

Could it be that some "burn-in" is necessary? Some glue that needs proper drying? Humidity accumulated during the shipping process (my voyage was left on my porch on a rainy day while I was at work...).

Anyone else observe changes over time?
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DX or Voyage?

November 1, 2014, 1:00 pm
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Last November I bought a Kindle DX, my first ereader. I like the large screen for its less-frequent page turns and that it will render a pdf in a usable (though not perfect) way. I now want to get a Kindle Voyage but in browsing at Amazon I happened to notice the DX is again up for sale at a reasonable price. I like my DX so much that I'm considering purchasing another while they last.

The Voyage I would get is the 3G with special offers, $269. The DX is the same price as a year ago, $199, as is the excellent Amazon cover for it, $9.99, both with free shipping.

I'm leaning toward the Voyage because of its features but my decision will probably hinge on the nature of the Voyage's 3G. Can anyone tell me exactly what the Voyage's browser will do? Will it freely roam the web like the DX, or is it restricted to Wikipedia and social network sites?
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My Voyage v Kobo H2O experience

November 2, 2014, 9:19 am
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For well over a year I have been interested in the Kobo Aura HD because of its larger storage capacity. However, when I compared it against my pw2 at the store I felt the pw2 was sharper and had better contrast. For me the clarity of the text trumps all other factors. Recently I was not terribly impressed with the specs for the Voyage. When I read the specs for the Kobo h2o I finally decided to give it a try consigned to the risk that I would keep it as a back up reader if I was not pleased. Then, before I knew that the Kobo had shipped, while at a best buy, I saw the voyage and was impressed with the snappy speed and the sharper contrast. So I picked it up. Naturally, without announcement, the h2o came in the next day. I have now been living with both devices for a week, reading the same books and switching between devices. I have therefore reached certain conclusions. I figured that it might help others to learn my experience so here is my review.
Size and build.
The voyage is a beautifully put together device. The Kindle cover fits nicely and has a nice magnetic slap into place. I have big hands and I can hold it in one hand beautifully. The light sensor and my internal light sensor don’t always agree so I end up having to adjust the light. The side pressure buttons are nice but were never that important to me. The fact that the screen is flush is actually a negative for me since I used the edge of the screen to guide finger placement on the screen. The off button on the back is actually better for me since I always hit it on the bottom.
The h2o is larger, this is both good and bad. Good in that the screen allows more space for text and images. Bad in that it is not as compact in the hand. The kobo sleep cover does not sit as nicely as the Voyage sleep cover but works basically the same. Although the kobo does not have a light sensor the software allows you to adjust the light very easily and quickly by sliding your finger up and down on the far left of the screen.
I prefer the Voyage build and size but enjoy the larger h2o reading screen.
Battery life
The Voyage is similar to the PW2. The battery shows drop within a day or two.
The h2o seems to last a lot longer. I don’t seem to see the “indexing” battery hit that I got used to with the PW2. Haven’t tested them both out to confirm duration.
The Screen
So here is the biggie. Compared to the pw2 the Voyage has a beautiful screen with clear lettering and great contrast. These early units (and mine) have shown a slight gradation in brightness or tint towards the top of the screen. The screen is lit with a very cold light that looks more like a screen than a page of paper.
The h2o has a beautiful screen. The light is warm and makes the screen look more like paper than any other reader that I’ve ever seen. Side by side I much prefer it to the cold voyage light. The lighting is even throughout.
I prefer the h2o over the voyage and the voyage over the pw2.
Software-Interface
The Voyage software is snappy and responsive. Screen information can be changed intuitively. Books can be grouped in folders that are synchronized on the cloud. Unfortunately side loaded books do not get synchronized and the reader gives annoying nag message when you add them to a folder. Folders can be shown with books that are not in folders. Unfortunately you can’t limit the reader to only show reader based books.
The h2o software is more flexible in some ways and less in others. As to spacing, fonts, font weight etc… the h2o is far more flexible and versatile. The light adjusting shortcut above is another example. However, shelves for organizing books cannot be mixed with un shelved books. Also, it takes an extra step or two to get to settings. Also, there are repots of bugs none of which I’ve run across yet but I’m sure the voyage software is more solid. Once nice feature is that you can set up Calibre to automatically add books to specific bookshelves easily without need for hacks or third party add ons.
The voyage software is solid and more intuitive than the h2o. The h2o has more options related to fonts and text.
Social Networking and third party apps
Voyage includes integration with goodreads, facebook and twitter. If you want to share your reading life socially this is the device to do it with. For me, I don’t find this useful since I don’t like sharing my reading on social networking sites.
The h2o lacks all of these social networking connections in the reader but adds something that has changed the way I use the e-reader. On the kindles I would subscribe to the New Yorker and regret that the Amazon subscription did not give me access to the website and would not let me see the content that was left out of the kindle edition. Also, if I wanted to read news articles online I would have to add them to Instapaper and, every so many articles send the digest to my kindle. The h2o has Pocket integration built in. Pocket is like instapaper on steroids. I can find an article on a web site, press the pocket button and it gives me a screen asking me to associate tags with the article. Once I do it is saved. I can open my pocket application on a any computer, iphone or pad. On the h2o I select pocket and all of my articles are synchronized, with pictures, each in a separate file that I can archive or delete after reading. The layout is great. I have even sent instapaper articles to pocket so they are instantly available to read on the road on the h2o. As a result of this feature I cancelled my amazon subscription to the New Yorker, got the online all digital subscription (cheaper). I can now read the new Yorker on my computer, ipad and iphone with all the content. When I spy a long article that I want to read I send it to pocket and open up the h2o to enjoy. I hope that amazon adopts this some day for its ereaders.
For me the h2o approach serves my needs far better than the voyage.
Conclusion
So after a week of using the two devices what am I going to do? Well, I’ve decided that the voyage is going back. It is a great reader and easy to use but the h2o fits my needs better. Naturally I am holding on to my beloved pw2 as a backup, for reading now and then and so I can order books from Amazon but the h2o will be my daily reader. Hope this is helpful to others.
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Kindle Voyage/Kindle 6 Jailbreaks?

November 2, 2014, 11:14 am
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In September Amazon announced the Kindle Voyage and 'new' Kindle (Wikipedia calls it Kindle 6, Amazon's source code notice calls it the Kindle 7th Generation). Is there any effort being made to jailbreak them? If so, what's its status? Any way I can help or be pointed in the right direction to start a jailbreaking effort? I have a lot of experience with C/Linux and a Jailbroken Kindle 4NT, but I wouldn't know where to start jailbreaking a new device.

Thanks! The stuff everyone here does is amazing and I'm excited to be a part of it!
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Some questions for a possible noob Kindle user

November 2, 2014, 12:22 pm
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Hi, guys.

As you can read in my signature I've been a Sony and Kobo user, but just today my Aura HD has broken without evident cause.

I'm really fed up about Kobo and its "particularities" so, as it is the only current feasible Carta+FrontLight replacement, I'm considering buying a Paperwhite. I'm more or less a power user with Calibre and Apprentice You Know Its Name so I don't mind porting all my existing library from epub to azw3.

But I would like to ask some questions about Kindle devices:
  • Do they support embedded fonts? (In AZW3 I mean).
  • Do widows and orphans work in Kindles?
  • Are there known "oddities" about kindle behaviour I should know before buying?
  • Is pdf rendering and navigation more or less acceptable? (Without text reflow I mean).
  • Do Kindles support CBZ/CBR comics?
  • Could someone test this trick with <span> and white-space: nowrap; and check if it works in Kindles? (It works in my old Sony but it didn't work in the AuraHD epub renderer) You don't need to use it in Spanish books, just wrap some words with it and check if it is broken or not in several lines.
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K3 vs PW2012 vs PW2014 screens

November 2, 2014, 9:26 pm
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Warning, this is not smart-phone friendly. The images are all resized to 800x600.

I took some pics of the 3 Kindles side-by-side under incandescent light and in the dark. Here are the results. The order, left to right is: K3, PW2012, PW2014. I think my PW2014 looks dingy until it gets above light level 8 at which point it seems more white than the PW2012.

These are all hand held and I tried to hold as still as I could... which was not very still. Apologies.

Incandescent light, no backlight:


Incandescent light, backlight at 5:


Incandescent light, BL at 10:


Incandescent light, BL at 15:


Incandescent light, BL at 20:


Dark, BL at 8:


Dark, BL at 12:


Dark, BL at 15:


Dark, BL at 24:


I have some other pics, but didn't think to leave the light level display showing, so other than showing some different lighting, I can't remember the light levels I set the BL.

These are ordered: PW2012, PW2014, K3 and I believe the light levels are:
0, 5, 10, 15, 20, except for the last one that I left the light level display up and shows 10.

Incandescent, BL 0:


Dark, BL 5:


Dark, BL 8 or 10:


Dark, BL 12 or 15:


Dark, BL ?:


Dark, BL 10:
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Go-Fish from bsdgames

November 3, 2014, 12:56 am
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Son wanted it, so here it is! Not fancy but works, OLD school style :)

Needs kterm as it's command line. KUAL extension.

As a side note, I couldn't get more of the bsd games to work as they mostly need ncurses?? and they don't seem to work in kterm that way? Oh well. Any ideas?

Attached Files
File Type: zip go-fish.zip (7.1 KB)
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Getting rid of goodreads icon?

November 3, 2014, 4:51 am
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Just got my new basic kindle, and it's awesome :)

I don't plan to use goodreads, though, and I'd like to not have the 'g' icon on the toolbar. I thought I saw somewhere that there was a way to get the icon to not show up if you weren't signed in to goodreads, but I can't find it now. The best I've been able to do is grey it out.

Is there any way to remove the 'g'?

(What I'd love, but which I know I won't get, is a customisable toolbar. I don't really need the shopping trolley either, but I would love to have a wifi toggle).
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[Off-topic post in another member's thread]

November 3, 2014, 5:18 am
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A tad off the subject here:

I picked up my new kindle basic about two weeks ago and its a speed deemon compared to my old paper white, which is having some issues. It appears that the basic is faster than the paper white and as a paper white owner I am a bit steemed by this fact.
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Syncing Highlights and Personal Documents

November 3, 2014, 6:11 am
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Hi there,

I have a Kindle Paperwhite and a Kindle app on my iPad. I have several non-amazon books which I put on my kindle with the 'Send to Kindle' app, or by emailing them to my kindle. They now appear as Personal Documents.

If I highlight text on the Paperwhite in one of these, it appears highlighted on the iPad. But not the other way round.

Is that just the way it is, or is there a way to sync both highlights?

I that there didnt used to be syncing of any kind, but now that I see it go in one direction, I wonder does it go in the other?

Thanks

Mark

UPDATE
It only seems to be one book - all other personal docs seem to be ok, and syncingin both directions. So not sure what the problem is.
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If Amazon made an ipod touch sized fire, would you buy it?

November 3, 2014, 6:51 am
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Assuming that it was sized so that all the standard apps would work ok, would you get it?
I would :D
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Kindle for Samsung

November 3, 2014, 11:21 am
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I just purchased the Samsung galaxy tab pro 8.4- it is one awesome tablet compared to the Nexus 7 I was using. I also downloaded the kindle for Samsung app. Anyone know the pros and cons to using this app compared to the Kindle for Android app? I don't really notice anything.
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Hacks Paperwhite colour temperature -> warmer?

November 3, 2014, 12:49 pm
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Has anyone ever tried to change the Paperwhite's colour temperature to a warmer tone, e.g. toward amber/orange?

I'd like to buy one and might try this, because I'm very sensitive to white or blueish light, especially at night. Therefore I always use filter film (scott gold/amber) from the photo studio lights to tone my clip-on reading lights. Would love to have that build in :thumbsup:
So any advice would be highly appreciated.
  • filter film? The one I use needs replacement every 2-3 months (colour fade due to led heat)
  • orange paint, the kind used for colouring bulbs back then?
    - but they are allowed for bulbs up to 25 watts - how hot are the leds in the paperwhite?
    - maybe paint the edge of that light distribution layer, where the light enters the layer?
  • swap the leds for warmer ones?

Thanks for any advice, info or crazy idea!
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An FYI for those going through multiple voyages..

November 3, 2014, 2:18 pm
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Just an FYI - If you're having voyage screen issues and don't want to play the switching game - call and get a note on your account saying it's defective, you've already tried multiple devices, and you request a replacement sent once the issues have been addressed.

I did this with my PW2, and despite being out of warranty, I'm getting a free replacement sent to me.

At first he offered a discount since it was out of warranty, then I mentioned the note, then he said (after searching) that he saw it and a free one would be on the way.
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Welcome to new Voyage owners

November 4, 2014, 3:27 am
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Today the shipping of the Voyage starts in the UK and Germany. Here's to hoping you all get your new Voyage soon, and that you are happy with it !:):):)
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Question about Firmware Updates

November 4, 2014, 6:26 am
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This is a last ditch effort to keep my original Voyage, which has a great screen and I really like a lot. Before I ask my question, let me say that I think the firmware on my Voyage has been corrupted...

Ok, so assuming my firmware has been corrupted, would simply updating the firmware fix the problem? I guess what I'm asking is, does Amazon "patch" the existing firmware on a Kindle when they upgrade it, or do they completely replace it? Obviously, I'd like to entirely replace my firmware because I think that might fix my problem. My thought is to download a Voyage update, and then sideload it onto my eReader.

I just checked, and it doesn't look like Amazon has made any firmware updates available, for the Voyage, yet. But when they do, is it possible that I could fix my own Voyage by sideloading a firmware update?

The reason this has come up, is that Amazon sent me a replacement Voyage but I like the screen on my old Voyage. As a result, I'd like to keep my old Voyage, if it's at all possible. I'm thinking it's not possible, but I'd like to find out from you people, since you're all so smart, before I return my old Voyage to Amazon. :D
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