Amazon Kindle 2.5 Update: New And Improved Features
By Best-eReaders, May 01, 2010
Reports say that the Nook passed Kindle sales in March, with the Nook making up 53% of eReaders sold. Thus, Amazon is upping its own game – partly as a response to the Nook and partly to satisfy its customers – by announcing it is releasing software updates in May.
Kindle 2.5 Updates: A List of New Features
Last month, Barnes & Noble released updates for the Nook, including a basic Web browser that is better than the Kindle’s current one. Now, Amazon is giving its response. A few days ago, Amazon rolled its own set of electronic book reader software updates to a limited group of users. The updates are being released are still in beta phase.
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Here’s a list of the Kindle electronic book reader improvements coming your way:
- Folders: A common complaint against the Kindle 2 electronic book reader was lack of a good way to organize one’s books and documents, making book search in one’s library quite a task. Kindle 2.5 updates will allow you to easily group your ebooks or personal documents into a collection or more.
- Enhanced PDF support: Now you can zoom into PDFs to get a better view of small prints or of detailed tables and illustrations.
- Password protection: This may not prevent other people from stealing your Kindle, but it can prevent them from making unauthorized book purchases.
- Sharper, bigger fonts: Amazon added two more font resizing options to provide you more comfortable reading experience, especially for people with low vision problems.
- Social networking. A move towards a book club-like experience, the Kindle 2.5 update will enable you to share book snippets with your friends on Facebook and Twitter directly from your device. Also, the new Kindle will let you see “popular highlights,” the most highlighted passages in a book.
The Kindle 2.5 updates will be automatically and wirelessly sent to your device. Software update download and installation is completed in less than ten minutes.
The Nook’s new browser is still better than Amazon’s as it lets you access your Yahoo mails and online news. Moreover, the Nook has both 3G and WiFi connection. The Kindle connects only via 3G network. However, the Kindle’s social networking feature is one step up to bridging the gap in browser capability between the Kindle and the Nook.
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Closing thought
As its rival companies are constantly creating ways to match or exceed the Kindle’s capabilities, so should Amazon continue to think of ways to keep its pole position. In fact, Amazon does seem to carry a bagful of tricks all the time, too, that it unleashes when an existing or new rival comes up with a new product. For instance, when Apple released the iPad, Amazon also launched a Kindle App for iPad.
The Nook’s new features dispute the Kindle’s capabilities as the #1 electronic book reader. Can the Kindle 2.5 help vault back the Kindle to its top pole position?
We will see after the Kindle 2.5 is broadly released in May.
Interesting, seeing as how the B&N Nook cannot use it’s new “browser” through the devices 3G-net and only through the existing wifi connection. This makes it pale in comparison to the version supplied with the Kindle.
[...] see the most popular highlights in the book you’re reading. Being more social isn’t the only feature that comes with Kindle 2.5, though—the firmware also comes with password protection, a much-needed way to group your books, [...]
The 2.5 update brings more cool features to the Kindle but still keeps it as a dedicated ereader instead of turning it into just another gadget.