Amazon disclosed Tuesday that owners of its Kindle e-reader will receive a free firmware update that will increase the battery life by a whopping 85 percent and add PDF capabilities, all for free.
Users won't have to download or manually update the Kindle, Amazon said; instead, it will be delivered via the Amazon WhisperNet service in the background.
While the firmware 2.3 upgrade applies to the Kindle DX as well as the U.S. and global versions of the Kindle, the battery-life upgrade applies just to just the “Global Wireless" version of the Kindle, according to Amazon's firmware page. Both the Global Wireless and U.S. Wireless version of the Kindle received the PDF reader upgrade. The Kindle DX also received some PDF improvements.
The upgrade extends the battery life of up to seven days even with wireless turned on, a significant improvement from its previous four-day lifespan with wireless turned on. Users can also read PDF files either by emailing them to their Kindle address or by loading them via USB. Users can also convert PDFs to the Kindle format by emailing them with 'Convert" in the subject line, Amazon said.
The improvements were the result of a six-month firmware development cycle, Amazon said. “Kindle, already the #1 bestselling, most wished for, and most gifted product on all of Amazon.com, is now even betterwith 85 percent more battery life and a built-in PDF reader," said Ian Freed, vice president of Amazon Kindle, in a statement. “These two significant enhancements are available now."
Users won't have to download or manually update the Kindle, Amazon said; instead, it will be delivered via the Amazon WhisperNet service in the background.
While the firmware 2.3 upgrade applies to the Kindle DX as well as the U.S. and global versions of the Kindle, the battery-life upgrade applies just to just the “Global Wireless" version of the Kindle, according to Amazon's firmware page. Both the Global Wireless and U.S. Wireless version of the Kindle received the PDF reader upgrade. The Kindle DX also received some PDF improvements.
The upgrade extends the battery life of up to seven days even with wireless turned on, a significant improvement from its previous four-day lifespan with wireless turned on. Users can also read PDF files either by emailing them to their Kindle address or by loading them via USB. Users can also convert PDFs to the Kindle format by emailing them with 'Convert" in the subject line, Amazon said.
The improvements were the result of a six-month firmware development cycle, Amazon said. “Kindle, already the #1 bestselling, most wished for, and most gifted product on all of Amazon.com, is now even betterwith 85 percent more battery life and a built-in PDF reader," said Ian Freed, vice president of Amazon Kindle, in a statement. “These two significant enhancements are available now."
