Amazon refreshes Kindle software, Fire OS 3.1 released

Amazon is refreshing its tablet software, designed for its next-generation Kindle tablets, including the recently announced Kindle Fire HD and Fire HDX.

The Seattle, Wash.-based company touted new enterprise features in its Fire OS 3.1 update that will support bring-your-own-device (BYOD) users with secure Wi-Fi network support and native virtual-private networking (VPN) software.

IT managers haven't been kept out of the loop either: Fire OS 3.1 comes with new Kindle-specific device management hooks (APIs) that will integrate with existing mobile device management (MDM) systems.

Also added:

• Voice dictation available in all languages converts speech-to-text. For enterprise users, offline support is available in U.S. English only.
  
• 1-Tap archive frees up device space by pushing content into the cloud for later downloading, and identifying content that has not been used recently
  
• Fire OS now supports Kerberos authentication, enabling the ability to browse secure Intranet websites from the Silk browser
  
• Wireless printing of photos, PDF documents, emails, contacts, calendar, and documents
  
• A new feature opened up, Second Screen, allows you to turn your television into a primary screen while using your Kindle Fire HD or Fire HDX tablet as a space to check email, browse the Web, or access to other apps.

Fire OS 3.1 also lands with Cloud Collections, which helps to organize books, newspapers, magazines, and apps in customized collections for easy reference. Amazon’s cloud-powered Whispersync synchronizes the collections across Kindle devices so that content is available on all of your devices.

For book lovers, Goodreads is now integrated, allowing users to find the latest books and engage with others on book discussion.

Performance and battery life has also been improved, and the update comes with a round of bug fixes.