Amazon begins rollout of Fire OS 4.5.1
Hot on the heels of the Fire OS 4.1.1 update, Amazon is now pushing a new 4.5.1 update to the Kindle Fire tablet.
While the 4.1.1 update brought some nice features to the table for BYOD users — in particular the WPS Office suite and better VPN support — this latest update seems to be more focused on home users.
This would seem like the final Fire OS push for the holidays, with Amazon delivering new features for both home and work.
Fire OS 4.5.1 introduces these new features:
- Family Library: Family Library lets owners share apps, games, audiobooks and ebooks with another adult in their household, even if they have a different Amazon account.
- Lock screen media controls: The update brings MP3 and Audible playback controls to the locks screen, and for tablets that have a rear-facing camera, this too can now be activated form the lock screen.
- Emoji: The Amazon keyboard now features hundreds of color emojis.
- Camera for Kids: Amazon FreeTime now includes a camera feature designed for kids that allows them to play with the camera but not post photos to social media.
According to Amazon, the new update will be pushed to Kindle Fire tablets "over a series of weeks" so it looks like I was at the front of the queue.
I have noticed a small intermittent bug with the email app under Fire OS 4.5.1, and have reported this to Amazon. It only affects threads of emails and results in new incoming email being displayed in the left-hand pane but not appearing in the right-hand viewing pane until you click off the email thread and click back on it.
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