You Can Finally Turn the Page on Some Kindles Without Touching the Screen
When I reviewed the Kindle Colorsoft , one of my biggest criticisms was how simple the tablet itself was. There’s no stylus support or page turn buttons, although Amazon previously had buttons on the now-discontinued Kindle Oasis , and competitors like the Kobo Libra Color and Boox Go Color 7 still use them. Until now, this meant that you had to physically touch the screen to turn the page, which could potentially leave a distracting fingerprint.
For me personally, this is not a major problem – I just touch the margins. But this is a huge distraction for my husband, who reads all his books on his Kobo instead. However, with its latest Kindle update, Amazon introduced an alternative way to turn your page, albeit with some limitations.
As part of the Kindle 5.18.1 software update, Kindle Colorsoft and the 12th generation Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition now allow you to double-tap page turns almost anywhere on the device itself, be it on the sides or back. After the update, you’ll see a brief introductory screen, and then you can open the book and try it out. And don’t worry: tapping the screen once still works.
It may be a little difficult to reduce the timing at first, but the short double-tap window also helps prevent accidental forward movements. It only took me a few minutes to achieve a rhythm that works every time, and I wouldn’t say double tapping was too much effort or too awkward. However, I mostly tested this on the novel. If you promote your pages more than once every minute or so, I could see this gesture becoming tiresome.
On the downside, double tapping only moves the page forward. There’s no double-tap to go back, which is a bit of a bummer. My guess is that the Kindle simply doesn’t have the technology to differentiate between taps on the left side of the device and taps on the right side, so Amazon instead decided to map all double taps to moving the page forward. However, you may have to retrain your muscle memory a bit – using your left hand for this won’t cause you to suddenly start rewinding.
If you’re on the Kindle’s home screen, the double-tap gesture will also scroll down slightly, which is a nice touch.
Software update 5.18.1 is available now, and you can theoretically access it from Settings > Device options > Software updates . However, my Kindle didn’t show this as an over-the-air update option, instead telling me I was using the “latest software” even though I was clearly still using version 5.18.0.01. If this happens to you, you can instead manually download the update to your computer through the Amazon website , and then transfer it to your Kindle using the instructions below.
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Download software update 5.18.1 for your device using the link above.
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Turn on your Kindle.
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Connect your Kindle to your computer (Amazon suggests using the included charging cable, but I didn’t need to).
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Using your computer’s file manager app, drag and drop the software update onto your Kindle. Please note: if you are using a Mac, you may need a separate app to see your device .
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Click Unplug on your Kindle (or remove it from your computer) and unplug it from the cable.
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Go to Settings > Device Options and click Software Updates . Your Kindle will restart and apply the update.
You should be all set with this. Your Kindle will display a double-tap guide and automatically enable the feature. However, if you accidentally find yourself double-tapping too much, you can turn off the feature in Settings > Device Options > Double Tap .