Amazon gives Kindle battery life boost, native PDF support

Amazon is juicing up its Kindle reader for the holidays. The electronic reader now has battery life of up to seven days even with wireless turned on — up from four days previously. And it's getting a native PDF reader so people can read documents their original PDF format without conversion.

Kindle's battery life with the wireless turned off is the same as before: up to 2 weeks.

It looks like the upgrade applies to the current entry-level Kindle (the Kindle 2). Amazon said people who've previously purchased the Kindles can get updates as well:

Amazon also announced today that previous purchasers of the new Kindle will also receive the 85 percent battery life improvements with wireless on, and native PDF support via a firmware update automatically delivered via Whispernet wireless. Native PDF support will also be available for some earlier versions of Kindle via an automatic Whispernet wireless firmware update.

Amazon has been seeking to capitalize on the supply issues of rivals Sony and Barnes & Noble.

After Barnes & Noble revealed that its new Nook reader is already sold out for the holidays, Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener crowed that "Kindle manufacturing is humming" and Kindle "is in stock and available for immediate shipment today."

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About Eric Engleman

ERIC ENGLEMAN is senior technology staff writer for TechFlash and the Puget Sound Business Journal, covering online retail giant Amazon.com. Engleman tracks Amazon's increasingly complex business, spanning ecommerce, Kindle, cloud computing, and more. He's been covering technology and other industries for the Business Journal since 2003.

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