Kindle firmware update promises 85 percent battery boost, native PDF reader
By Donald Melanson 
posted November 24th 2009 2:47PM
posted November 24th 2009 2:47PM
We're not quite sure what sort of black magic it's worked to make it happen, but it looks like Amazon is really taking the art of firmware updates to a new level with the latest upgrade for the Kindle. Not only does it finally add native PDF support (which would have gotten folks rightly excited on its own), but it promises to boost battery life by a full 85 percent. That translates to about seven days of use with the wireless on, and is apparently the result of a six month firmware improvement and testing program -- can we get these folks working on other devices? Naturally, the latest firmware will be shipping on all new Kindles right away (just not the DX, it seems), and it will be pushed as a free update to existing Kindle 2s via Whispernet, although there's no ETA on that just yet.
YEAH!!!! But how the heck is an 85% increase in battery life possible? AND PDF!???!?!???!! I had given up on that dream months ago.
@Mitchell2
I'm guessing it's underclocking.
@Mitchell2
Just a wild guess. But if the Kindle only goes into sleep instead of turning off entirely like other models, then you are likely to get a significant boost by turning it off. Then spin it as increased battery life. Or perhaps make the sleep mode deeper at the possible cost of longer time making page turns.
@Mitchell2 It's also possible that it was entirely capable of such power savings before, but for whatever reason, they never put it in the previous firmware.
This has nothing to do with black magic, it's called competition.
It's hard not to say this means they were idiotic when first developing the device. Somehow, this device must have been horribly inefficient.
I'm reminded of Scotty admitting he always doubled his estimates of Enterprise Repair time, so when he pulled it off in half the time, he looked like a miracle worker.
Yep. To make that kind of increase they must have had some really awful code the first time around.
Especially if you consider this is not the first Kindle, so they must have had all the (likely C) libraries written already and just needed to interface to an updated CPU.
But "horribly inefficient" for the Kindle still meant 2 weeks or more of battery life with Whispernet off, even before this update! After the update, we'll be looking at a month or more of Kindle charge with Whispernet off.
Their "inefficient" is about 90% better than a lot of other companies' "best effort".
The battery life improvements don't affect performance with the radio off. Apparently the efficiencies were entirely aimed at the wireless.
This is fantastic! I was planning on going with the nook or magical apple tablet for e-books and pdfs (I scan my notes from college) but I like the design of the kindle better than the nook and the tablet is looking to be incredibly expensive (curse you, apple!)
So this might be the way to go!
@laxic "...and the tablet is looking to be incredibly expensive (curse you, apple!)" Expensive is relative. The cost of a product that does not exist could be paid for with money that does not exist. So I'd say the tablet is less expensive than anything that exists on the market today.
@laxic The iPad or whatever will be expensive but I hear it will ship with Duke Nukem Forever preinstalled.
@hardcache
dude i totally agree, but if the rumour about it costing $600-$1000 are true..
then i'm out of luck, that's all im saying
Probably too much to hope for to have this for my Kindle 1...
@nerdron I don't see why us Kindle 1 owners shouldn't get the firmware upgrade. The Kindle 1 and 2 share the same screen (minus a few shades of gray).
At least the battery boost would be a nice addition.
kindle 1 owners are out in the cold.
pretty disappointing.
@nerdron i read on other sites that Kindle 1's get the PDF support but NOT the battery boost
@nerdron
My wife forgot it over at her friends house, so I will find out tomorrow.
@nerdron
I'm surely hoping they do more than wave some finger(s) at us. After two years, I really expect the "experimental" services of the Kindle to be more than experimental. I asked on another forum if anyone has seen ANY improvements based on answers to the Kindle makers' entreaties to be sure and tell them how to better design the "experimental" services (one would think for later models, but hope that they meant to upgrade the service we already have). No one has seen fit to answer my query over there. Anyone here have an answer?
I'm an engineer and can think of a bunch of suggestions for improvements and problems I've spotted. But, why should I help a company that doesn't say they will make any improvements in the device I've already invested in? I hope I'm wrong here and that there have been many improvements from answers users have given them. But, if that is true, then the "experimental" service must have been REALLY, REALLY lousy to start with!
Anyone?
Great PDF support finally .....
Wowowow. *runs to his Kindle. Native PDFs... finally. This seems like a great update, but I can't help wondering... what if they had spent all that time and effort developing a new device?
Since the battery increase is only applicable when WhisperNet is on they must be doing something different with whatever chipset they're using for the wireless. They're probably taking advantage of some lower power, idle state in the chipset that they weren't using before.
@(Unverified) Or you basically just tell it to check for new books twice as often or less
Question: What is firmware? Is it just a software update?
@(Unverified)
Yes. It's a software update.
@(Unverified) yes. it's the Kindle OS. Normally the term "operating system" is reserved for the more high end (read complicated) systems like windows or snow lepre (couldn't resist). firmware is used for less complicated things like kindles, psp's, playstations or iphones.
@(Unverified) Firmware is generally the term reserved for devices that load their OS on either Flash or EEPROM.
@(Unverified)
It's software that's slightly aroused and on it's way to becoming hardware.
Hallelujah.
Bear in mind, there is NO difference in battery life with wireless turned OFF. That's from the press release. So for those that don't use Whispernet except when buying books, expect no changes except the ability to read PDFs properly now.
@WilliamG I thoughts it used to be 10 days with wireless off now they are saying:
"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."
HA!
Looks like the increased competition has prompted Amazon improve their product, and to stop the Nickel and Dine attitude toward user content (PDF). Competition benefits all!
@Bassam
I hope you are right. I will find out when I get home from work and have a chance to test. I keep the whispernet switched off.
What about Adobe Digital Editions and .pdf with DRM?
@Sir Jimbob
PDFs with DRM won't work. They don't currently work on the Kindle DX either.
@(Unverified)
I don't know for sure how or if they're improving the sleep, but I do know that their current sleep doesn't actually shut down nearly as far as other readers, so that's likely.
@john_wang
I know that, I want it though.
Does the Kindle still have a hidden download limit on books? That's always been a deal breaker for me.
Where's the love for the Kindle 1 !?!?!?!!?
I got what looked as the firmware update about 4 hours ago..... I was reading a Newspaper article when suddenly the screen went black and the Kindle Logo and Artwork came up with a Progress bar... the whole thing took about 1 minute. I live in Mexico where I guess there aren´t many Kindles yet so that´s probably why I got it so early. I sent a 3Mb PDF file to my Kindle account about half an hour ago, unfortunately the 3G connection is down in Mexico City (Both on the Kindle and on my iPhone) so I can´t check if it arrived. I connected my iPhone to a wifi network and started the Kindle app but no PDF yet. I don´t know if that feature will work on the iPhone app since I don´t get my newspaper subscriptions either. Does anyone know?
With Wireless off I usually get a couple weeks if I'm using the Kindle.
I've gotten over a month's worth of charge when I wasn't using the Kindle at all, and after that month it was still fully charged.
I only turn Wireless on when I want something; Web surfing, checking email, syncing a new book, or making a book purchase. Otherwise, there's no point to leaving it on all the time.
PDF?! Free books!
We've been able to get free books the whole time, both in PDF and Kindle format. It's just now we won't have to convert the PDFs before transferring them to the Kindle.
My kindle has just been updated. I have a Kindle 2 International Edition (UK). The version before was Kindle 2.2.1, now its 2.3. So I guess they've rolled out the new release already!
@alouca I just tried a couple of PDFs on the device. THERE IS NO ZOOM! You can change the screen orientation to improve readability, but still they are barely readable.
WTF amazon?
This just goes to show how damned crappy their initial firmware was. Idiots.
Yes, what about us early adapters? Guess they could care less even though WE were the ones who got them started!
Thanks Amazon!
Why don't they "borrow" the technology from the original Game Boy Color (in at least 24bit color)? This way comic books could officially go digital. I would definitely get back into comic books.
One more time...
It's not an LCD display. It's e-ink. There is no affordable color e-ink right now, and LCD is harsh on the eyes when reading books (the kinds without pictures) for hours.
If you want a comic book reader, get a netbook, or a Zune (motion comics, but still...) or a PSP (same deal; Motion comics).
For novels, nonfiction books, and other text-based works, though, there's nothing better than an e-ink display. The Kindle is not really aimed at comics/manga... Just like it's not aimed at video. It's a specific device for a specific function, and that function is text-based reading.
That's why I don't quite understand the purpose of having a PC/iphone kindle app, I thought the whole point of the Kindle is the e-paper. I can't read something for long on a computer screen without getting a headache, but have no problem reading an entire novel on a Kindle screen.