Amazon Extends Battery Life of Newest Kindle by 85 Percent and Adds Native PDF..

james99 · 2009-11-24, 01:34 PM

Press release:

Quote:

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amazon.com, Inc. today announced two new enhancements to the latest generation Kindle—85 percent more battery life and a native PDF reader. Kindle now has battery life of up to seven days even with wireless turned on, a significant improvement from the previous battery life of four days. Battery life with wireless turned off remains at the previous level of up to two weeks. Battery power management for portable wireless devices is a complex technical area, and the battery life improvement announced today is the result of a six month firmware improvement and testing program.

Amazon also announced today that the 6-inch Kindle now has a built-in native PDF reader that enables Kindle customers to read professional and personal documents in their original PDF format without conversion. Kindle is in stock and available for immediate shipment today at www.amazon.com/kindle.

“Kindle, already the #1 bestselling, most wished for, and most gifted product on all of Amazon.com, is now even better—with 85 percent more battery life and a built-in PDF reader,” said Ian Freed, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “These two significant enhancements are available now.”
To read their personal or professional documents, Kindle customers simply email PDFs to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. Customers that prefer to have their PDF documents converted to the Kindle format simply type "Convert" in the subject of the e-mail when sending documents to their “@kindle.com” address.

Amazon also announced today that previous purchasers of the new Kindle will also receive the 85 percent battery life improvements with wireless on, and native PDF support via a firmware update automatically delivered via Whispernet wireless. Native PDF support will also be available for some earlier versions of Kindle via an automatic Whispernet wireless firmware update.

Mole · 2009-11-24, 06:55 PM

Don't they know they had me at " Hello"?

Wayne · 2009-11-24, 07:12 PM

Is this applicable to the International model on sale to Canadians? If so then perhaps I should return the one I bought last week to Amazon and rebuy.

SensualPoet · 2009-11-24, 07:40 PM

Both these tricks could be accomplished by a software update -- mine is at 2.2.2 but it does not recognise a .pdf file on the Kindle drive. In fact, the press release above says exactly that: firmware update coming.

The extended battery life could simply be by polling the wireless network less frequently; keeping the wireless "live" is what runs the battery down.

It would be very nice if the Kindle could sort files in some kind of folder structure ... but I understand that's coming in the new year.

Wayne · 2009-11-24, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

It would be very nice if the Kindle could sort files in some kind of folder structure ... but I understand that's coming in the new year.

I totally agree - it is nice that it can hold 1500 book but how practical is that without some sore of hierarchy. Who wants to scroll through dozens of pages (slowly) to see what you have on your Kindle.

SensualPoet · 2009-11-24, 08:06 PM

Here are instructions to manually update: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=200324680

Doing it now ... will report in a few minutes.

Easy to update. Showing 2.3 version. Can't see pdf files yet. The screen rotation works fine (text key has a new option).

Figured it out. I had the Home setting set to "Books" instead of "All documents" -- so it was filtering out pdfs. The pdf viewer is fine given the nature of the screen. As long as the pdf files are built from text (not images), the search function works well too. You do need to use the horizontal mode unless you have created the pdf yourself to custom specs most suiting the Kindle. But the opens interesting possibilities as well.

In short, bravo! A very nice perk update.

2009-11-24, 06:55 PM	#2
Mole Veteran Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Toronto Posts: 2,166	Don't they know they had me at " Hello"? __________________ One of my legs is shorter than the other and both of my feets too long.

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2009-11-24, 07:12 PM	#3
Wayne Veteran Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Scarboro, Sony KDS60A2020, Toshiba 50h81+42HP86,SA8300HD, 3xSA3250HD, 3xSA3200, HTPC,Sage+4 extender Posts: 3,754	Is this applicable to the International model on sale to Canadians? If so then perhaps I should return the one I bought last week to Amazon and rebuy.

2009-11-24, 07:40 PM	#4
SensualPoet Veteran Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Downtown Toronto • Toshiba 52XL177 (1080p/24fps/120Hz) • HD DVD Toshiba HD-XA2 • Rogers HDPVR SA8300 Posts: 2,826	Both these tricks could be accomplished by a software update -- mine is at 2.2.2 but it does not recognise a .pdf file on the Kindle drive. In fact, the press release above says exactly that: firmware update coming. The extended battery life could simply be by polling the wireless network less frequently; keeping the wireless "live" is what runs the battery down. It would be very nice if the Kindle could sort files in some kind of folder structure ... but I understand that's coming in the new year.

2009-11-24, 08:06 PM	#6
SensualPoet Veteran Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Downtown Toronto • Toshiba 52XL177 (1080p/24fps/120Hz) • HD DVD Toshiba HD-XA2 • Rogers HDPVR SA8300 Posts: 2,826	Here are instructions to manually update: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=200324680 Doing it now ... will report in a few minutes. Easy to update. Showing 2.3 version. Can't see pdf files yet. The screen rotation works fine (text key has a new option). Figured it out. I had the Home setting set to "Books" instead of "All documents" -- so it was filtering out pdfs. The pdf viewer is fine given the nature of the screen. As long as the pdf files are built from text (not images), the search function works well too. You do need to use the horizontal mode unless you have created the pdf yourself to custom specs most suiting the Kindle. But the opens interesting possibilities as well. In short, bravo! A very nice perk update.