Kindle 2 gets its first firmware update
By Nilay Patel 
posted Mar 19th 2009 6:46PM
posted Mar 19th 2009 6:46PM
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So can you not update it, and then you will always have text to speech?
Page loads are faster and more fluid...they also seem to handle the ghosting differently (of course you can always just Alt+G to do a refresh). One person who called in to customer svc to ask what was new said this: "Ok... No specifics... but when asked the rep did tell me that it has NOTHING to do with the Text-to-Speech feature."
Beside the page loads, I haven't noticed anything different.
its a trap
for which reason I saved the binary file for 2.0.1 :)
How much does the update cost? Apple charges something like $10 for theirs, whereas Sony's are free.
What? Apple doesn't charge anything for hardware and software updates.
The only charges are new .x versions of the software (So 10.5 will cost us), and the $10 charge to put the iPhone updates on the iPod Touch. Also for new versions of software (1.0 = nothing. 2.0 = free for iPhone, $10 for Touch, 3.0=free for iPhone, $10 for Touch).
No charges for ANY of the updates in between major releases.
Nice try but this is the same thing as the latest iphoneipodtouch update. The only difference being that this is free like it is with Sony's wares. If you are curious, updates on the PSP for example have included a mass of things like a web browser with flash, rss, internet radio, software store, music visualizers, so on and so forth. Free.
What?
First off, Apple (unlike Amazon and Sony) does not make a dedicated ebook reader so you shouldn't even compare it.
Second, Apple charges for major updates for the iPod Touch, but it doesn't charge for major updates for the iPhone.
What?
First off, the iphoneipodtouch read ebooks as often as the Kindle plays mp3 files (both do both).
Second, we are all aware that Apple charges for these kinds of updates, whereas Sony and apparently Amazon do not, hence the post.
You're wrong. Apple charges for major updates to the iPod touch (2.0, 3.0), but all minor updates (2.1, 2.1.2) are free. This Kindle firmware is a minor update.
No, you are wrong. Apple charges around $10 whilst others do it for free. Some examples being both Sony's PS3 and PSP.
So, "required" means "required to troll", eh? Others have corrected you, so I'll just laugh at you.
A handful of Apple PR pseudonyms posted spin. Fact remains that Apple charges money for what others do for free.
Facts, you fail them.
lol
It's not the first update... There was 2.0.1 a couple weeks ago. Also nothing new noticed by most users.
looks like it is automatic . . . just checked the version number and it is 2.0.2.
That explains why the other day I saw a "downloading" message up at the top of the screen, but hadn't gotten anything from Amazon that would necessitate downloading. At least that solves that mystery for me.
How do I save the 2.01 binary file?
Actually, this update may have to do with Text to Speech... the difference I noticed is that the Kindle User Guide has been updated:
...to turn on the experimental application, Text-to-Speech, which will read aloud your books (where allowed by the rights holder)...
i cannot get into this thing. it looks ugly as sin
Thanks for sharing !
I thought the same thing at first. If you hold one though, you might change your mind. It's very light and thin, is a huge ergonomic and ui improvement over the first kindle, and looks much better in person. I use mine every day and it causes me to read faster and read more than I would otherwise. It sounds like the sales pitches but it's true.
I don't really use TTS and I haven't attempted to surf with the Kindle web browser recently (not fun), so I haven't noticed any changes. Love the stupid gizmo.
I didn't notice anything in the way that the screen refreshes but it did appear to affect the battery life some (better).
I've had mine for about a week now and I'm lovin' it.
Looks clear to me that page turning/refresh is faster...
The page turning I have noticed to be faster. (Compared against the Cnet Prize-Fight)
I have found an oddity though. If you go the the Kindle daily post in the store and turn the page, there is no black flash. I think they're experimenting with a new page turning method here and it works great. Check it out.
Good call, Tsaot! It looks to me like this is the case, and I gotta say, I love it. It has just enough transition time to be noticeable (this is important, it's really easy to miss that the page has turned even when you've intentionally hit the next page/prev page buttons, if the change is instantaneous), but nearly as distracting as the flash. I hope they roll it out to regular books soon.
cool