Amazon has announced an update for the Kindle Fire HD and HDX. This update will have those models jumping to Fire OS 3.1, but perhaps more important for the end user, this update means some new features and new support. Specifically, this update is brining Goodreads integration, Second Screen, enterprise and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) support and more.

According to details coming from Amazon, the update is rolling out as of today and will be available for all devices in the coming weeks. Alternatively, those with a new Kindle Fire HD or HDX can also grab the update with a manual download — should they feel they cannot wait for the new features to arrive on their device.

That said, the Goodreads integration means the user will be able to capture and share favorite quotes from inside the book, see what their friends are reading, rate and review books and also import all of the books you’ve previously purchased from Amazon into your Goodreads account. And just to clarify, that includes Kindle books as well as print books.

Second Screen, according to Amazon, means you will be able to turn your TV into primary screen and use your Kindle Fire to provide playback controls, a customized display for X-Ray or to simply browse the web. For now, Second Screen is available for the PlayStation 3 and Samsung TVs. Amazon also said PlayStation 4 support will be coming later this year.

The BYOD support simply means Fire OS 3.1 will allow the user to connect to secure enterprise WiFi networks. This support also includes Kerberos authentication, Kindle-specific device management APIs and more. Lastly, Fire OS 3.1 also touched on Cloud Collections, voice dictation, wireless printing and more. These remaining items are all broken down as follows;

  • Cloud Collections helps you organize your books, newspapers, magazines, and apps in customized collections for easy reference, and Amazon’s Whispersync technology synchronizes the collections across your Kindle devices and reading apps so they’re available on all of your devices.
  • Voice dictation converts your speech to text—available in all languages when online; offline support available in US English.
  • 1-Tap archive which frees up space on your Kindle Fire by identifying items that have not been recently used and provides a 1-tap option to store them in the Cloud for later retrieval.
  • Wireless printing of photos, PDF, e-mails, contacts, calendar and docs.
  • New accessibility enhancements that enable blind and visually impaired customers to save a separate accessibility profile for children in Kindle FreeTime, scroll lists automatically when swipe navigating, hear enhanced sound feedback and screen orientation changes announced, and have more control when editing text and navigating web content.
  • Dozens more new features, performance and battery life improvements, and bug fixes.

With that, our previous Kindle Fire HD and HDX coverage can be found in our Kindle Fire portal.

SOURCE: Amazon

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