I couldn’t help myself to yet another response later that day:
Hi Amazon,
It’s just a friendly bug report. All I’m asking is that you please forward this to the app development team: new content does not show up under the Cloud tab in the new version 3.0. Only uninstalling and reinstalling will do this. That’s the bug.
It’s not me, it’s not my device, and no online chat is going to rectify this. The app asks for feedback, and here it is. Previous versions worked fine, the new version has a bug.
—————–
Ah, looks like the US support team have kicked when they replied for the last time:
Hello Jay,
Thank you for sending us these comments in regard to the Kindle for iPad app.
Customer feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the service and products we provide, and we are glad you took time to write to us. I have sent your comments to the business team.
Please feel free to forward further comments and suggestions about Kindle to kindle-feedback@amazon.co.uk . Each suggestion will be read and taken into consideration.
Thanks for your interest in Amazon Kindle.
—————–
This is an open admission that “any answer is better than no answer”.
But you can’t be seen to say
“Look Jay, I know you’re a friggin nerd, but I have no idea what you’re talking about, not am I in the least bit interested in actually fixing the issue. I’m here to click a button every once in a while, but I’m not actually working FOR Amazon. I’m working for Rajneej Enterprises, and all I’m employed to do is click a button once every so often so it looks like Amazon’s response time and customer record is second to none. Have a superb day, whoeverthehellyouare, and I sincerely hope next time one of my other 4000 colleagues in this open plan office will deal with your query.”
That said, today Amazon have actually released Version 3.0.1 for the Kindle App – which solves my original issue of new content now showing up.
So thanks for fixing this, Amazon – I really appreciate it and I knew it would only be a matter of time.
Maybe next week we’ll sort out the minor customer support issue, or perhaps send “Kindle Feedback” to a different mailbox than just to amazon@rajneej.in
Hey Jay, if your Kindle is giving you fits, try the Amazon Cloud Reader at http://read.amazon.com. I don’t have a Kindle, and I’m working my way through an awesome series on the Cloud reader (“Caged Flower” by Cullman Wallace, YA fiction but so entertaining that the 60+ years old women in my office are hooked on it). The Cloud reader works great, and while I’d still rather hold an actual hardcover book in my lap and read under a single lamp on a cold night, that Cloud reader will satisfy some cravings in a pinch. Be sure to check it out!
Hi Nick,
That’s an awesome tip – thank you very much for bringing this to my attention. I had never heard of the Amazon Cloud Reader before – it’s surprising because Amazon are usually bombarding me with emails about their products from both sides of the Atlantic.
I just tried to sign in with my Amazon UK account, half suspecting it would say that this service won’t work unless I use an Amazon US account – but I was greeted with quite the opposite: all my content was there, just like on my Kindle.
So the Cloud Reader basically eliminates the need for a separate app to read content. No matter what device you have, the Cloud Reader just works – any tablet, any computer, as long as there’s a web browser on it we can read our Kindle purchases.
Thank you so much Nick!
Well, ONE small issue with the Cloud Reader. Like first through third generation Kindles, it uses the old Mobi Pocket format. If you read something created in Kindle 8 format, you may have some issues.
Found this from a post on Cullman Wallace’s Facebook page:
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If you’ve bought Book Three of the “Caged Flower” series, two things. First of all, thank you! Secondly, you may need to delete and download it again.
Turns out first- through third-generation Kindle devices and readers use an old standard for e-books (or so I’m told) and just don’t know what to do with some of the advanced formatting of the Kindle 8 standard. (If the two lines of the dedication in Book Three are not centered against each other, you’ve got one that needs the updated Book Three.)
I’ve implemented some workarounds that should enable you to see the book exactly as it was intended on any Kindle device or reader program. You will need to download the new copy, however, and that means deleting your current copy. (Make sure you’re deleting it from your device or reader program, NOT from your Amazon account!)
Amazon hopefully will provide a device/software update soon that will enable your device to read the new Kindle 8 format, but in the meanwhile, I’ll work to make sure you can enjoy the “Caged Flower” books on ANY device.
=====================================================
I sent him a message about it, and he said that he downloads all his own books to check for errors and formatting issues, and that he had trouble with “reverse italics” (some chapters in the book are flashbacks and completely in italics, and he would switch back to non-italic text for emphasis.) He said plain text inside those italicized chapters remained in italics, and there were several places where it completely ignored indented lines. Kindle devices, the Cloud Reader, and the preview function when publishing a book all had the same issues.
So the Cloud Reader is not perfect. But still a cheap, useful alternative to buying a Kindle, or a handy backup if your Kindle is dead or uncharged. (And BTW: Wallace seems to be a real nice guy, and the books are GREAT.)
Thanks for letting me know. So which devices use Kindle 8 format then? And will Amazon offer two versions of their content, one for older and one for newer devices? That’s a very messy back end I would imagine…
I found another issue with the cloud reader: thinking it would be the perfect workaround to read my Kindle content in the browser of my B&N Nook Tablet, I was met with the message “this browser is not supported”. Shame that! Would have been best of both worlds.
Good question, and I didn’t know. Here’s Amazon’s answer on the subject, from the page at http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000729511:
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Q: Will KF8 capabilities be available on all Kindle devices?
A: Kindle Fire is the first Kindle device to support KF8 – in the coming months we will roll out KF8 to our latest generation Kindle e-ink devices as well as our free Kindle reading apps.
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Their next answer in that FAQ says that Kindle 8 will be backwards-compatible for Mobi format books. The new features in Kindle 8 do look awesome, though. HTML5 and CSS3, embedded fonts, even Adobe’s SVG graphics format. I imagine for most books, you could get pretty much the same results from both Mobi and Kindle 8, but Kindle 8 probably takes a lot of the headache out of it.
I also see where they are releasing a beta Kindle Plugin for Adobe InDesign. The folks who don’t know much about HTML and CSS would probably quite like that, but I’d wager you the end result would be HUGE compared to one created by hand in an HTML editor like Adobe Dreamweaver. And since I’m told larger books cost more in “electronic delivery fees”, the pros would probably want to go lean and mean.
As far as the Nook, did you REALLY think they’d let you get away with that one?
😉