Kindle firmware 2.5 to be released in late May
If you’re a Kindle 2 or a Kindle DX owner, then you can look forward to Amazon pushing out the Kindle firmware 2.5 very soon, and all of its new features. It’s unclear exactly when the update will be available, Amazon is hinting around the end of May. Regardless, the new features coming to a Kindle near you are bound to make you giddy with excitement.
A large chunk of the firmware update appears to revolve around social media. According to this Ars Technica post, Kindle users will be able to share favorite passages with friends on Twitter and Facebook:
This is the “fun” aspect of the update, but we don’t think it’s just Amazon hopping on the social networking bandwagon. Through your Settings (accessible by pressing the Menu button from the home screen), you can link up your Facebook or Twitter accounts to your Kindle so that you can share highlighted passages and notes with your friends.
I’m probably not as excited about this feature as the blogger over at Ars Technica is, as I have never been one to share passages of books I read with friends. I suppose this could come in handy for school reading assignments and book clubs. But beyond that, I see little use for linking my ebook reading to social networking sites.
The next big update for Kindle 2.5 is much more useful in my opinion – the ability to create folders to organize your ebooks.
Finally, Kindle users can create groups or folders (however you want to think of them) for books, giving users a way to organize the chaos that is otherwise a giant list of books on the home screen. Perhaps some of them are samples that you’re making your way through, while others are new books that you haven’t started. Or maybe you like to organize books by fiction and nonfiction, or by topic.
This type of organizing helps avoid the chaos to what Ars says, can be “A giant list of book on the home screen”. You’d think this would be a standard feature from day one, though I guess Amazon thinks differently than I do.
Other Features Kindle 2.5 Offers
The social networking and organization with folders are probably the two biggest features of 2.5. But there are other less surprises with the new firmware update that most users will be pleasantly surprised by.
Password Protection: Now you can protect your Kindle from prying eyes by requiring a password be entered upon starting up the Kindle. This will add a layer of security if, heaven forbid, your Kindle is stolen. Password protection will also prevent the embarrassment and a lifetime of teasing from a family member or a friend discovering your vast collection of erotica ebooks that you call a guilty pleasure.
PDF Zooming: This feature allows users to zoom in and out of PDF documents, rather than the one-size-fits-all approach Amazon currently uses. Zooming will make reading PDFs much easier. As the Ars post points out, this will be a big improvement for viewing graphics and tables.
Larger Font Sizes: I’d consider this a fairly good improvement, as ebooks are becoming more and more popular with people who suffer from vision problems. Ebook fonts can easily be re-sized. This lets those who need larger text to enjoy buying regular ebooks without having to find a large print edition.
Popular highlights: This feature is somewhat controversial, as Amazon is already promoting this on their website. The 2.5 update takes this one step further by allowing you to see these popular highlights as your reading your ebook. Yes, this feature can be turned off. But I really question why Amazon needs to track this sort of thing. I won’t say much more, as I have already written a lengthy post Amazon now tracking highlighted passages from Kindle users.
Overall I think the 2.5 update offers some nice features to a popular device. Of course, not everyone will be happy with every feature, but that comes with the territory.
My hope for the future is that Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony continue to concentrate on the core of what ebook reading devices are all about – reading ebooks. This can be accomplished through better displays with more contrast between the text and background. Also, smoother and faster page turns always seem to come up when talking about ebook readers. Social networking, games, internet browsing seem to just be a distraction.
Please note that the 2.5 update is only for the Kindle 2 and DX, if you own the original Kindle 1, you won’t be getting anything.
