Kindle 2.3 software update available, generation 1 owners need not apply
By Thomas Ricker 
posted November 25th 2009 6:05AM
posted November 25th 2009 6:05AM
We gadget nerds have to endure unspeakable atrocities in order to slake that early adoption jones: first-run gear shipped DOA, buggy pre-release software, and months of waiting after a product leaks only to be greeted by a jacked-up price premium at launch. So we feel your pain, original Kindle owners, after Amazon announced a major firmware update that brings native PDF support to the 6-inch Kindle 2 and DX readers with the promise of a staggering 85% increase in battery life to all Kindle 2 devices -- if you haven't already received it OTA, the 2.3 software update is now available for download and installation via USB tethering. At least owners of "some earlier versions of Kindle" (quote from the press release) will receive native PDF support whenever the 1st generation firmware update (currently at version 1.2) is released. It's worth noting that Amazon's PDF reader lacks a zoom function which makes many PDFs entirely unreadable on the device. Good thing Amazon's store is chock full of easily zoomable books in a proprietary format then, huh?
I bought a Kindle 2 on the international release day back in October, and had it shipped to the UK. About a week back I got an email saying they were going to give all early international adopters a $20 rebate. Just thought I'd mention it! :)
No zooming, 'nough said
The update also includes a manual "screen rotate" option... which effectively makes the Kindle 2 screen the same width as the DX (for easy PDF reading w/ vertical scrolling).
What a bunch of jerks at Amazon to not put this out for Gen1. I guess I'll take a another look at the Nook.
@Rytr23
Take your time, the nook is sold out for a while as reported earlier.
u have to be a complete moron to buy into amazon crapo deviso in the first place .There is no excuse for stupidity of buying e-books.Quick search and u can downloaded any book in .pdf for FREE and thats not applies only to "classical " fiction crap.u can get yesterdays NyTimes bestsellers for free .
So yeah no commiseration for those suckers who bought a piece of amazon plastic
@ainsi10
Some of us stupid people like to, ya'know, pay for stuff and get it legally :-/
@ainsi10 And what are you going to watch it on? Sure, I could pirate my eBooks, but I prefer reading them on a device with a screen that looks like text on paper, and lasts for a week without requiring a charge, and allows me to get books anywhere.
It's not just the content. The device itself is pretty awesome and makes it way easier to read than whatever you're reading your pirated PDFs on.
@ainsi10 uh, you could do this before on the Kindle. It's a bit more of a hassle, you have to mail it in to Amazon, and the will convert it and either email it back to you for free, or send it to your kindle for a fee (it used to be 10 cents, they changed it to something based on the size of the file). I've done that with plenty of ebooks on my generation 1 kindle.
Does "native PDF support" mean it can open password protected PDFs? I'm guessing not. And until an ebook reader can do this, ebook readers will be virtually useless to businesses who need basic security on the devices.
@billblaney Seriously? That's a BOOK reader. Do you put a lock on your paperbacks?
@billblaney - Passwords on PDFs are easily removable with readily available freeware. Companies who "protect" information by using crappy encryption deserve to have their "secrets" stolen.
@billblaney The new update does not support password protected PDF files...I did try.
Maybe if people put enough pressure on them they'll offer some type of upgrade/trade-in program like Sony did for their PRS-500 e-readers.
It'd be a nice gesture after the whole book deletion fiasco.
@ainsi10 "Im yet to hear any uproar from authors guild about e-book "piracy"."
Then you aren't listening.
@ainsi10
"And if u so dam ethnical"
Ethnical??? hahahaha...*downrank*
@myopiczeal Of course, but basic encryption is enough to keep most people out of a device which is lost, not stolen. An investment analyst who loses a briefcase with printed research reports has a few important documents lost and available to whoever finds it. They get a hot tip on a company perhaps. An analyst who loses an ebook reader loaded up with a couple thousand research reports suddenly has a lot more to lose.
The point is Amazon (and other ebook reader vendors - PlasticLogic for one) are making a big push for enterprise adoption of this technology. However, none of them are implementing any sort of security on the devices, from PDF password protection to device password access to remote wipe capabilities. Until that happens, virtually no enterprise will use these devices b/c the risk of lost data is just ridiculously high.
Also, I have yet to read a review of any ebook reader on any blog which even remotely touches on the security capabilities of these devices. An article on PlasticLogic's ebook reader w/o information on its security features is worthless...same for an article on the Kindle DX. Tighten up Engadget.
@billblaney
Enterprise adoption? Really? I have not seen Amazon with a "big" push for enterprise adoption. If enough people demand the ability to open password protected pdfs then I'm sure Amazon will implement it. Obviously, it has not been a huge demand so Amazon has not implemented it.
I'm kinda glad first gen owners arent included. I mean, sure, it sucks for them, but I've been wanting to buy a kindle but the cost is just too high for something that does nothing but display text, so hopefully the lack of firmware upgrades will drive the first gen one's price down lower.
Still wont be able to use the wireless with the first gen one in Canada, but if the price is right...
With all the coverage on the new firmware, one thing seems to be missing: screen rotation. Three things were included in this update: better battery life, PDF support, and screen rotation.
I uploaded a 1000+ page PDF (Python book) on my newly flashed Kindle 2 with no issue. Yes, having no zoom is a real kicker but being able to rotate the PDF horizontal makes the PDF usable and readable.
What exactly does Native PDF support mean? My wife reads a lot of books, so I've been interested in e-readers. I read a lot of technical documents and books for school in PDF format. Are any of the readers available today able to read a password protected PDF OR have PDF support to be able to zoom in/out? I picked up a Sony 505 last year that was promptly broken by accident but since it's PDF support was so lackluster we didn't use it very much.
In addition to PDF and rotation support, it also looks like the selection cursor is moving faster. If it hold down on a menu or on home, the cursor scrolls 2-3 times faster than before. I'm happy to see this also work in books because looking up words now just got faster! Thanks Amazon.
@werk ur german nick and u are racists.Ethnical people can be ethical they just cant afford it for the most of time or they will not survive
I'm confused by the "and DX readers" part of the article. I have a DX and it already has PDF support. Is this update for DX as well? I would think not, but some clarification would be great.
I'm a Kindle 1 owner and what I'm really looking for is an update to library content management. There's gotta be a better way to organize e-books and audiobooks on the Kindle! Plus, I think Amazon missed an opportunity by keeping the older, US-only Kindle 2 without the new features found in the current update and sold it for $199.
Anyone know if this 2.3 update kills the kindlefix.py script?
As a Kindle 1 owner, PDF support would be nice but as long as I have Calibre I could careless about the proprietary format.
@ainsi10
this guy is pure comedy!
While you cannot zoom a PDF, you can use the screen rotation on a PDF. This causes the width of the PDF to fill the screen, effectively increasing the size and making it more readable.
Yeah. Engadget's anti-Kindle reporting always seems to forget little details and facts that might shine a positive light on the Kindle. When the 1984 incident occurred, not one Engadget blogger bothered to mention that every Kindle book you buy can be downloaded and saved directly on your PC, and that no matter what happens to the Amazon archive, the copy you bought is yours to keep (Amazon can't delete it from your PC's hard drive).
...Instead, they reported that it was deleted and made it seem like you CAN'T store backups of books wherever you like.
So here again, they neglect to mention the fact that PDF support comes with a new feature that allowed screen rotation, becausee-book font-size changes on PDFs would destroy their formatting.
It should also be noted that technically, the Kindle doesn't "zoom" ANYTHING, no matter what the format is; It allows you to change the font size in everything that has open formatting. PDFs do not, so changing their font size would make them even less readable if you care about things like paragraphs, page numbers, and page breaks. What's more, Adobe's not known for letting companies do much with PDF documents aside from display them as-is, so blaming Amazon for the lack of font resizing is a bit unfair.
@ZeroCorpse
While Adobe invented the format and it was proprietary for a long time, it has been an open format since 2008.
Per wikipedia: Formerly a proprietary format, PDF was officially released as an open standard on July 1, 2008, and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO/IEC 32000-1:2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format
To clarify the battery life issue...the Amazon website states the improved battery life fix only affects for the Global Wireless K2 (not the older USA only version).
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