UPDATE OCT 13, 2010 - 3.0.2 OFFICIALLY RELEASEDI'm re-posting this original assessment (Sept. 19) of Kindle 3 software update version 3.0.2 that was first put on the Amazon servers as an early-preview Beta on Sept. 18, as it did resolve early problems that some Kindle 3 owners had. The original title was Kindle 3 software preview release v3.0.2 improves performance. Collections.
To download the official release, if you'd rather not wait for it to come over Whispernet, see the instructions originally pointed to and described at the time of the software update announcement if you have a Kindle 3 and want to install it yourself.
ORIGINAL POSTING OF SEPT. 19 WITH MORE HISTORY AND COLLECTIONS-FEATURE TIP
The early preview release of software update v3.0.2 for Kindle-3 models has worked well for almost everyone reporting in, with regard to page-turn slowdowns outdoors, and there are also reports that the web browser is also faster and quite a bit smoother. Others mention improved battery performance as well. The Kindle software engineers have been very responsive and effective, and definitely the Kindle customer support team too.
See the Amazon Kindle Community message thread for the feedback so far. I noticed one person was still seeing a 1-second page turn, which seems slow to her. I haven't tried it yet since I've been happy with mine, but I imagine this update will be official by Monday or Tuesday (this is just my conjecture). Laura wrote the following to this blog's comment area as well today:
' It appears 3.0.2 fixes issues with slow page turns with kindle's exposed to direct sunlight. I had this issue, the turns were slow enough that you could read the first line of text in negative image before it completed. I had this issue before and after 3.0.1.See Saturday's software update announcement for instructions on how to get software update v3.0.2 if you have a Kindle 3 and want to try it out or take earlier advantage of the improvements.
After the update so far, this appears to be fixed. I never thought this would be fixed with a software update, so I am very happy! '
KINDLE 3, KINDLE DX, AND KINDLE 2 "COLLECTIONS" AND OTHER NEWER FEATURES
While I'm here, with this short post, I'll post a modified version of a Q&A from the Comments area the other day with new Kindle-3 owner gazza who was interested in how to do folder organization by author. Many of the most recent added features were actually introduced with the Kindle 2 and DX in July, and when "Collections" were created, many did not realize that is the equivalent today of what we're used to thinking of as 'folders' except that the organization is done by 'labels' or 'tags' (just as GMail's mail system is).
My reply was:
' With the Kindle, 'folders' are called "Collections" and you can make one for each Author.
Please see the Guide & Intro I did when "Collections" became possible with a software update called, at the time, v2.5.x for the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX's.
That general guide to new features, which your Kindle-3 also has, is at http://bit.ly/kv25xintro#guide.
The specific portion on how to do "Collections" is at http://bit.ly/kv25xintro#docollect.
Give that a look, and if you have any problems with it or more questions, you can add that here or at the blog article that explains Collections.
I'll add here that if anyone wants answers to questions as soon as possible and by an army of experienced Kindle owners now worldwide (covering most hours of the day), be sure to visit http://bit.ly/kindlecommunity.
TIP: "Collections"
This is an option at the top of the Home screen which is hidden until you cursor up to the top, where if you 5-way to the right, you'll then see options for
Most Recent First Title Author and Collections.
The "Most Recent" titles are usually the Default listing so that we can quickly get to what we were reading last even if we forget what that was. That makes sense although I most often like to get mine in Title sorting so that I can press the first letter or alpha character of a book and click the 5-way, and this will get me to that part of the alphabet quickly.
When we choose to sort by "Collections" (by clicking on that word at the top of the Home screen), we see our Collections not in alphabetical order, as most have expected (there were many long forum discussions about this problem), but in Most Recent Order. I don't know about you but but when I open a cabinet drawer to find a folder, I don't expect to see the folders sorted by most-recently accessed!
At any rate, a few figured out that we can force an alphabetical sort by putting a low-alpha-ranking symbol in front of the Collection names and if the symbol is the same (the easiest method), then the 2nd character decides the sorting alphabetically when we choose to sort the Home screen listings by Title. (Amazon shows Collection names in italics to differentiate them from book titles.)
For example, I use the simple opening curly brace or bracket to get a Title-sort that looks like this:
{Art
{Autobio
{Bio
{Business
{Classics
{Essays
{Fiction
and so on. Since we are on the Home screen listing, sorted by Title, the individual books will also be there, as only in the Collections sorting are individual books hidden from view.
Since most symbols come before A-Z, the Collections are shown first. We can ignore the individual book titles that follow. But the FEATURE here is that they're of course in alphabetical order also and, to get right to a book if we don't want to open a Collection to look for a book, we can just (as described above) type the first alpha character of the title and press the 5-way button down, to be brought to that part of the alphabet.
Some mix their symbols to get different ordering by priority + alpha, but Amazon has changed the order of some of the symbols with software update v3.0.x for Kindle 3. Others use methods that mimic the Dewey Decimal System. We can look at those suggestions in a later blog article, as this should be good enough to get newcomers started.
(I've found that many with Kindle 2's have not heard that they probably have an update on their systems that offers this feature as well as panning and zooming of PDFs + several other features (like the social networking ones for favorite highlighted passages that can be sent to friends at Facebook and/or Twitter). Again, that's at the Kindle 2 software update 2.5.x guide.
Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite
Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers.
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.
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