New Kindle Firmware To Increase Battery Life By 85% and Offers Native PDF Reader

Amazon has made a huge announcement today regarding their Kindle devices. They’ve released a new firmware update that claims it’ll provide 85% more battery life for the Kindle devices, along with a few more goodies. Information is from Amazon’s website.

Kindle 2 (Global and US Versions)

- Built-in PDF reader: Your Kindle can now display PDF documents without losing the formatting of the original file. Send PDF documents directly to your Kindle (via your @Kindle address) or drag and drop PDF files from your computer to your Kindle (when connected via USB).

- Longer battery life for Kindle (Global Wireless): You can now read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on. Turn wireless off and read for up to 2 weeks.

- Manual screen rotation: The Kindle screen can now manually rotate between portrait and landscape views so you can see the entire width of a web page or magnify the page of a PDF file. The page-turn buttons work the same in either orientation, and the 5-way controller movements are switched to match the orientation. Learn more.

- Option to convert PDF files to Kindle format. If you prefer to have your personal PDF documents converted to the Kindle format (so that they can reflow), type “Convert” in the subject of the e-mail when you submit your personal document to your @kindle.com address.

Kindle (U.S. Wireless) and Kindle (Global Wireless) users can go to Archived Items on their Kindle and download the Kindle User’s Guide, 4th Ed., which now documents all the features of Kindle Software 2.3.

Kindle DX

- Better cropping of PDF files: In landscape orientation, white margins of PDF documents are automatically cropped to maximize the amount of content shown on the screen.

- Option to convert PDF files to Kindle format. If you prefer to have your personal PDF documents converted to the Kindle format (so that they can reflow), type “Convert” in the subject of the e-mail when you submit your personal document to your @kindle.com address.

- View pages longer: We’ve extended the time before Kindle DX switches into screensaver mode — from 5 minutes to 20 minutes — giving you more time for reviewing your content.

(Via Amazon)