If you happened to have had a go at Amazon's Kindle portable eBook reader, you might have noticed a few “nagging” aspects about it, including not a particularly huge battery life, and, worst of all, absolutely “no love” for the PDF format (there are other things to be said as well, but we promise to tell you more in the near future, when we'll publish a full hands-on review of Amazon's reader). However, it seems that Amazon's team of engineers was keen on solving these pending issues quite quickly and recently released an update especially for this purpose.

So, by updating to this new firmware version via Whispernet, users will be able to enjoy 85 percent more battery life and a native PDF reader (the last improvement only available in the case of certain, older Kindle models). This translates into a battery life of up to seven days even with wireless turned on, a significant improvement from the previous battery life of four days. Battery life with wireless turned off remains at the previous level of up to two weeks.

Amazon also announced today that the 6-inch Kindle now had a built-in native PDF reader that enabled Kindle customers to read professional and personal documents in their original PDF format without conversion. To read the documents in PDF format, users will have to either email them to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. Customers that prefer having their PDF documents converted to the Kindle format simply type “Convert” in the subject of the e-mail when sending documents to their “@kindle.com” address.

“Kindle, already the #1 bestselling, most wished for, and most gifted product on all of Amazon.com, is now even better—with 85 percent more battery life and a built-in PDF reader,” Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle, said. “These two significant enhancements are available now.”

As mentioned above, users who already own a kindle will be able to download and install the firmware update via Whispernet, while all new Kindle devices sold from now on will automatically provide this enhanced level of functionality.

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