Amazon has announced small enhancements to certain Kindle models.
(Credit: Amazon)Just in time for the holidays and facing heavy competition from Barnes & Noble's upcoming Nook e-book reader, Amazon has announced that it has improved the Kindle's battery life when the wireless connection is turned on and will now be offering native PDF support for its e-book reader. Both the battery-life boost and native PDF support will be available to owners of new Kindles and some older models via a firmware upgrade.
In a press release, Amazon says the Kindle now has battery life of up to seven days with wireless turned on compared with four days previously. However, battery life with wireless turned off remains the same (around two weeks).
"Battery power management for portable wireless devices is a complex technical area, and the battery life improvement announced today is the result of a six-month firmware improvement and testing program," the release notes.
As for the native PDF support, Amazon says you can now "read professional and personal documents in their original PDF format without conversion." To read PDF files, you either e-mail them to your Kindle e-mail address or move them over using a USB connection. If you prefer to have your PDF documents converted to the Kindle format, you type "Convert" in the subject of the e-mail when sending documents to your "@kindle.com" address.
All new Kindles will ship with the battery-life improvements and native PDF support in place, but if you bought an earlier Kindle you may be eligible for both enhancements via a firmware upgrade that will automatically download to your Kindle when you turn its wireless connection on.
We're still trying to determine which models will get the upgrade (we have an e-mail into Amazon's PR team). In the meantime, if you have an older Kindle 2 or the original Kindle, let us know if you got the upgrade.
Comments?
Update 12:30 p.m. PST: We have confirmed with Amazon that the latest Kindle, released in October, as well as the Kindle with U.S. wireless (released in February) now have native PDF support and the improved battery life. However, as suspected, the original Kindle is not eligible for the upgrade.
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(Credit:
Digeo)
Digeo is adding several networking features to its Moxi DVR via a free firmware upgrade. Available to Moxi owners by the end of the week, the new functions are as follows:
Media Link: Stream digital media (videos, photos, and music) from DLNA-certified devices on your home network.
PlayOn: Watch Internet-based videos from a variety of online providers, including Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, and ESPN. This requires a PC running PlayOn's software. (It's normally $40, but Digeo is offering a free license key to current and new Moxi owners for a limited time.)
Rhapsody: Onscreen access to the Rhapsody subscription music service (requires Rhapsody subscription; free trial available).
eControls: Onscreen access to Z-wave-certified home automation products within your home, including lighting controls and security cameras.
MoxiNet: Bookmark any Web site at Moxi.com, and then access it on your TV via the Moxi.
In addition to those new features, Moxi is also expanding its Flickr photo viewing functionality with "Mosaic," a new viewing mode that offers many more photos on the screen at once.
The upgrades should help Digeo as it competes against TiVo (which also offers network media streaming and Rhapsody, for instance, as well as other premium services such as Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand) and generic "free" DVRs from cable providers. Moxi has a high up-front cost of $800, but--unlike TiVo--it doesn't require any additional fees thereafter (not including cable service fees, of course).
CNET has obtained a Moxi review sample, and--once we get a visit from the CableCard installer next week--we'll be doing a full review of the product. (Note that PlayOn would seem to be a killer app; we've had mixed results when using earlier versions of the service on a PlayStation 3--so we're particularly interested in hands-on testing of that feature in particular.) In the meantime: let us know if you think these upgrades make Moxi any more tempting--or if that high up-front price tag is still a deal killer.
Update, 9:15 a.m. PT: Additional info regarding the free PlayOn offer has been added.
The new update interface of the StorCenter ix2 NAS server.
(Credit: Iomega)I reviewed Iomega's StorCenter ix2 NAS server four months ago and complained that it didn't offer any remote-access solutions. Now that has changed.
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TV episodes are now available in HD on the Apple TV
(Credit: CNET)Apple has added HD television episodes and support for Genius music playlists to the Apple TV.
Firmware 2.2, available now as a free download, adds the ability to purchase TV episodes of select shows in high-def (for $3, versus the $2 price tag for standard-def versions). That makes good on a pledge that Steve Jobs made at the company's September 10 event.
The updated Apple TV now also supports the Genius playlist feature that was introduced on new versions of iTunes and iPods at the same event. Genius is designed to help listeners discover--and buy--new music based on what they're already listening to.
Apple TV remains priced at $230 for the 40GB version and $330 for the 160GB one. The box is competing against a growing number of competitors in the Internet video-on-demand space, including Vudu (which has just added higher resolution movies and a $200 credit), Roku's Netflix Player (which now offers unlimited viewing of Starz/Disney content and current TV shows via a flat subscription), Xbox 360 (which will add the support for the same Netflix services as the Roku box later this fall), and PlayStation 3 (which launched its own online video store earlier this year).
Via Apple Insider
On the way to the victory lap, let's do a firmware fix
(Credit: CNET)Blu-ray may be coasting to a format war victory over archrival HD DVD, but it's still got some mopping up to do in the meantime--namely, improving player compatibility with some of the more popular movies already available. Samsung has begun rolling out firmware upgrades for all of its players to address issues that have plagued some users when watching Blu-ray versions of such favorites as Ratatouille, Spider-Man 3, Live Free or Die Hard, Blade Runner, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. According to Samsung, the updates will be available as follows:
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Sony PlayStation 3
(Credit: CNET Networks)I woke up this morning and clicked on the System Update icon on my PS3 and lo and behold, the rumored 1.5 firmware update was available for download. Unfortunately, Sony doesn't offer a change log saying exactly what the firmware update does, but there are plenty of tidbits out there on blogs from PS3 enthusiasts.
The biggest issue that the update fixes involves backward-compatibility with PSOne and PS2 titles, some of which looked like garbage on HDTVs when played on the PS3. Titles that didn't support 480p output exhibited loads of artifacts and jaggies. Allegedly, all that's cleaned up now.
PS3 Fanboy lists these additional changes:
- You can now set an image/photo for their user ID.
- Edy support added.
- Operation Sound added to sound settings.
- Delete Backup Data added to backup utilities.
- WEP128, WPA-PSK (TKIP), and WPA-PSK(AES) can now utilize AOSS.
- Your login password can be saved without setting the system to log you in automatically.
- Korean keyboard setting available.
We assume the above list is incomplete. Hopefully, Sony will put out an official change log soon, as well as update its System Software page for the PS3.
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