Amazon pushes update to Kindle Paperwhite ebook reader
In the midst of all the hullabaloo over new Kindle Fire HD and HDX tablets, Amazon hasn't forgotten the humble Kindle Paperwhite, and has plans to push an update to the hardware to add new features.
Top of the list of improvements for the holiday season is integration with the social site Goodreads, allowing users to share passages, see what others are reading, keep track of their books and rate titles once finished.
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Another new feature is Kindle FreeTime, which is an extension of the built-in parental controls which give parents a quick and easy way to encourage kids to spend more time reading by selecting daily goals, picking books to read, and tracking the children's progress through the books.
Finally there's Cloud Collections, which allow Kindle Paperwhite owners to organize books, newspapers, and magazines in custom collections and use Amazon’s Whispersync technology to synchronizes the collections across Kindle device.
"The new Kindle Paperwhite is already the best e-reader in the world, and we're excited to make it even better with new features we think readers will love," said Peter Larsen, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "First, we're combining the world’s largest e-reading community and the world's largest community of book lovers with new Goodreads integration. Second, given the great customer response to our tablet version of Kindle FreeTime, we're excited to extend this feature to Kindle Paperwhite, helping parents encourage their kids to read more."
This free, other-the-air update will be delivered automatically to Kindle Paperwhite devices over the coming weeks. Alternatively users can visit www.amazon.com/kindlesoftwareupdates to download the software update starting today.