Hasta La Gadget!

Amazon has finally stopped teasing and let the 2.5 Kindle firmware update loose for all and sundry. It had become available as a download for international users a few days ago, and as of today their American counterparts can partake in the same manual update. But only if they wish to be proactive. All Kindles that have their wireless connections turned on will be getting the drop over the next few weeks. So what’s all the fuss about? In version 2.5, you’ll be able to organize books into collections (or folders as most of us call them), share favored passages via Twitter and Facebook, zoom and pan around PDFs, lock down your Kindle with a password, and enjoy the benefits of two added large font sizes and improved sharpness all around. If that sounds too appealing to wait for, hit the source link to find the manual download and install instructions.

[Thanks, Jason]

Kindle 2.5 firmware now available for keepsies originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Target said Wednesday that Amazon’s Kindle will be available at all of its stores starting June 6.

Target started selling the e-reader at its flagship downtown Minneapolis store and in 102 south Florida locations on April 25, and is now expanding nationwide.

“Our guests’ response to Kindle has been overwhelmingly positive,” Mark Schindele, senior vice president at Target, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to bring guests nationwide this incredibly light, portable, easy-to-read product that allows them to get all the news and books they want.”

The Kindle sells for $259. Target is the first brick-and-mortar store to sell the device; it is also available via Amazon.com.

Best Buy started selling the Barnes & Noble Nook on April 18, and is featuring Barnes & Noble’s e-reader software on select laptops and desktops, netbooks, tablets, and smartphones.

According to “two people familiar with its plans”, Amazon will be introducing a thinner Kindle in August. It will have a sharper screen, but will still be grayscale and will not feature touch-control.

If true, it would seem that Amazon is doing the right thing by quietly improving on its simple e-reader with adding price-rising extras. After all, why bother with a color Kindle when you can buy an iPad and read Kindle titles on that? Instead, a slimmer Kindle with sharper text would further differentiate itself from bulkier tablets with shorter battery-life and lower-resolution screens that don’t work well outdoors.

The lack of touch, though, is a shame. When anyone who has used a modern smartphone picks up the Kindle for the first time, they touch the screen. Touch would also let the Kindle lose the ugly keyboard, which would in turn allow for either a bigger screen or a smaller case, either of which would be big improvements.

According to the Bloomberg article, there will be one further improvement. The page “turns” will be a lot quicker. At last.

Amazon.com Said to Introduce Thinner Kindle in August [Bloomberg]

See Also:

• Kindle for PC Ships, Hints at Future Color Kindle
• Amazon Shows Off Kindle for iPad
• New Asus Color E-Reader Folds Like a Book
• Amazon's Kindle 2 Slims Down, Adds Audio

Photo: Charlie Sorrel

You know what Amazon’s Kindle doesn’t have? No, we’re not talking about color, the other thing. Right, WiFi. That looks set to change when the rumored slimster — codenamed “Shasta” — launches in August. The screencap above displaying the results of an internal Amazon device query shows entries for “Shasta” and “Shasta WiFi.” That would seem to indicate that Amazon’s next reader will launch in two flavors: WiFi + 3G and 3G-only (our source isn’t sure). There’s even an outside chance that one could be a WiFi-only device. Another grab after the break.

Oh, and here’s an interesting footnote: the original Kindle was apparently codenamed “Fiona” after Fiona Hackworth in Neal Stephenson’s novel The Diamond Age. Many of the names in the device list above — Nell (the protagonist), Miranda (mother figure to Nell), and Turing (i.e., Turing Machines) — are all related to that very same story. What we can’t figure out is how the word “Shasta” fits into all this so lay it on us Cyberpunks if you know.

Update: Freddo411 seems to have nailed it in the comments: Shasta, Lassen, and Mazama are all volcanoes in the Cascades.

Continue reading Slim Amazon Kindle ‘Shasta’ to be first with WiFi?

Slim Amazon Kindle ‘Shasta’ to be first with WiFi? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 08:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Holding out for a full-color Amazon Kindle? Don’t hold your breath. In spite of competitive pressure from the Apple iPad and Pandigital’s recently announced Novel eReader, Amazon’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos admitted to a meeting of shareholders that color Kindles are “still a long way out.”

According to Bezos, Amazon is indeed looking into a color screen update. The company has prototypes “in the laboratory that are ‘not ready for prime-time production.'” Bezos chalks up the dependence on black and white to the limitations of electronic ink, a technology that Amazon is seemingly not ready to abandon any time soon.

The Apple iPad, of course, relies on an LCD display. While the company has managed to give the iPad an estimated 10 hours of battery life (which, admittedly is nowhere near the several days the Kindle can get on a single charge), the iPad’s display makes for poor reading in natural lighting.