Amazon’s software updates for Kindle ereaders have been pretty uninspired lately, with few changes being made and long-standing bugs not getting fixed (like sideloaded content getting deleted and custom font settings getting reset), but it looks like they might be making some pretty big changes to annotations soon.
Jhowell over at MobileRead has a history of discovering new Kindle features before they get released by going through the firmware code and finding differences from earlier releases.
After analyzing the most recent Kindle software update, version 5.16.10.0.1, he found the following undocumented changes:
- New annotation types: asterisk, circle, and underline.
- Optional automatic updating of GoodReads (auto-shelving) upon book completion.
- Transition to a new method of handling annotations with them being stored in both the old way and the new way temporarily.
- Internal changes related to inter-process communication.
Finding references to these changes in the code isn’t a guarantee they’ll ever get implemented, but it’s certainly something Amazon’s software developers are working on, and is something that could get enabled with future updates.
After the Kindle Scribe was released, Amazon put up some notes saying what new features they planned to add in future updates, but they stopped doing that after a few updates so now nobody knows what to expect.
It looks like they’re working on a new annotations system, though, and that might include Kindle ereaders and Kindle apps, not just the Kindle Scribe, but most of the new software features have revolved around the Scribe since it was released.
It’s not much to go off of, but it’s more than what Amazon gives us about the direction of future Kindle updates. These changes might coincide with a new Kindle getting released later this year. I still think there’s a good chance for something like a Kindle Scribe Mini getting released with the notetaking features on a smaller screen.
via: MobileRead
I’m not having proper customizable settings like enough font, sizes, margins or line spacing options, the fact that Amazon is now deleting loaded books is beyond crazy. Top that off with the font issue, deleting of book covers. I think this is all intentional, they’re not bugs.