Amazon adds new Second Screen, Goodreads integration to HDX Kindle tablets - ITworld.com

November 19, 2013 6:00 AM –

Source: Amazon

If you’ve got a fairly recent Kindle Fire HD (Specifically the 2nd generation Kindle Fire HD, the Kindle Fire or the Kindle Fire HDX HDX 8.9 “) your device is about to get a little bit better.

Amazon released a software update yesterday que gives you some new features. It Should arrive on your device sometime in the next few weeks, or if you’re the impatient type you can head to Amazon and download the update manually (here’s some help on how to do that).

So what’s new? The two main features are Second Screen Goodreads integration and support.

Goodreads is an Amazon-owned social network based on reading. In terms of the new Kindle support, it lets you rate and review books from the device, see what your friends are reading Goodreads, and share quotes with Them. Could of course you already do that from the browser. But the update Also gives you the opportunity to import all your Amazon book purchases into Goodreads, Which will help you get past first Goodreads que onerous chore of importing your existing book collection.

Second Screen is a way to push content from your tablet to your TV. At this point only some Samsung TVs and Sony’s Playstation 3 are supported (Playstation 4 support is coming soon). This functionality sounds similar to using an iPad with AirPlay and Apple TV, or pushing content from a device to a generic Android Chromecast. Once your video is up on the TV screen you can use the Kindle tablet to control playback and support for X-Ray.

There’s a bunch of other smaller features que you can read about in the press release but one caught my eye is que Cloud Collections:

Collections

Cloud 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.

I do not use the Kindle Fire but I sure would like to see support for Cloud Collections come to Kindle reading apps. The account I share with my girlfriend is chaos! Anything that would let me organize it in one spot, and have que organization pushed to all devices, would be most appreciated.

I do not have a recent Kindle Fire. If anyone out there does and has first hand experience with the new OS update, please let us know what you think of it!

[Update: Amazon Today Announced an update for the Kindle Paperwhite que brings Goodreads and Cloud Collections (among other things) to que device as well.]

Read more of Peter Smith’s Technofile blog and follow the latest IT news at ITWorld. Follow Peter on Twitter at @ pasmith. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITWorld on Twitter and Facebook.