I’ve noticed a bunch of new posts on reddit lately with people complaining about changes to the reading progress indicator that’s at the bottom of the page while reading on Kindles.
Apparently the latest software update, version 5.16.10.0.1, changed the look of the reading progress indicator, which shows the percentage read and gives estimated reading times, and some people are saying it’s much slower to respond now when cycling through the different views.
It doesn’t seem to be any slower to change to me, but it’s always been a bit finicky—you have to tap in just the right spot for it to change.
It does look like they made the size of the reading progress indicator smaller, though. Some people are saying it’s too small now and it’s hard to read. That seems to be a trend with Kindle updates lately; a while back they changed the settings menu and the font is way smaller than it used to be, and there’s no way to change it back.
Amazon also changed the placement of the reading progress indicator with the last update. It now follows the margins of the ebook instead of always being in the lower corner, so now when you change the margin size the indicator moves to stay in line with the margins.
However, I noticed that it does not follow the margins on the Kindle Scribe; it just stays in the same place like before, and it’s placed outside the margin instead of being in line with it.
I like checking the reading progress once in awhile to see where I’m at in a book, or to see how much longer it will take to finish a chapter or a book, but I find the indicator is distracting to my eye, so I always keep it off and cycle it on just to check from time to time. Maybe they figure making it smaller and keeping it in line with the margins will be less visually distracting.
What do you think of the change? Is it annoying or is it better? I don’t know why Amazon’s software developers continue to mess with small details like this that have been the same for many years. It just seems to needlessly annoy people who get used to things being a certain way.
I wish the Kindle developers used an Ideas portal where general users could vote on potential ideas. We do this for the software company I work for and it has helped us to determine which suggestions or new features our users would like. We used to have a list of potential new features that users could vote on, but it was a curated list that “we” determined might be useful. Our users appreciate the ideas portal because they can contribute in addition to our support team’s ability to contribute. (No anonymous posts allowed to keep things civil.)
I didn’t notice the changes with the update until I just looked now. I was surprised that my Oasis got this latest update. I guess I have the margins set to the widest, so nothing really changed. I like the smaller font. It looks easy to read with my bifocals. I also didn’t notice with the Signature PW that I read in horizontal mode in the bedroom. I guess it wasn’t enough of a change to make a difference to me. As long as I can see the clock, I’m good. (I need to see that because sometimes I can read for far too long either at night or during my lunch break.) It doesn’t distract me, so that’s good.
The font size is definitely too small for me now after the patch. While not a deal breaker, the change definitely creates a little more eye strain for me as someone who keeps the progress indicator on all the time. At this point, I am just resigned to Amazon making random changes without giving users more customizable options.
I actually hated it. They should give a proper way to set this according to the reader taste.
I don’t use progress indicators or time or anything like that on any of my devices, so this wouldn’t affect me, even IF Amazon provided firmware upgrades to a 7 year old device, which they don’t,
But I don’t think it’s great that they make stuff smaller and harder to read. Not eye friendly!
I actually didn’t like it (not using the H word). They should give a proper way to set this according to the reader taste.
Fortunately, these odd little unannounced changes work in your favor sometimes. I always shrink the margins of my ebooks so the text almost reaches the edge of the Kindle’s screen. This always made the page flip previews cut off parts of the “extra” text, which I accepted as a consequence of these modified books. Now, for whatever reason, they’ve fixed it and I can enjoy extra small margins and fully legible page flip previews. Can’t complain!
Is the Voyage still supported? I only use the page number function as I like that over all the others. The others I feel make my reading feel too digital if that makes sense.
The Voyage has not been updated for quite some time, so, sadly it is no longer supported. As long as yours is working, I would stick to it.
Glad I don’t have to deal with changes then as I’ve grown accustomed to my current reading experience. My Voyage was bought used a few months ago but it was well taken care of then and doubly now. All I worry about is when I have to change the battery.
Yes I hate the update. Smaller and I believe the location now has commas now. I find it not as clean looking and there is definitely a delay in the cycling through the time left options. I find myself clicking multiple times because of the delay.
If anything, as someone who almost never uses these progress indicators, I wish there was a way to disable them completely, as I occasionally fat finger them on. Not knowing how much of a book is remaining is one of the (many) advantages of ebooks for me.
If Amazon really cared about user experience they wouldn’t force users to use FONT_RAMP to change font sizes in a rational manner. To use Calibre to make adjustments to margins and line-height users prefer. Anybody waiting for such changes has been waiting for years. Be prepared for many more. They don’t care.
Personally, I don’t mind. I like status bars to be as unobtrusive as possible, and I prefer that they don’t go beyond the margins of the text so that symmetry is maintained. Anyway, it applies to the KFX. The KF8 (AZW3), which are the ones I still mostly use, keep the old format.