Photo:Amazon

Many will argue that the iPad and Nook have left the Kindle pretty much obsolete, but that hasn’t stopped a new update being rolled out late this month. Quite a few new features are included in the software update 2.5, with the biggest being Twitter and Facebook integration.

What’s on offer

Photo: Facebook

The Kindle update offers a few new features, some pretty nifty, others not very exciting. Among the better offerings are pan and zoom on PDF, to help you see the small print or tables on PDF docs, Facebook and Twitter integration, and ‘Collections’, which allows you to organise your documents and books into folders so they’re easier to find. A new feature that should have been there all along will allow you to password protect your Kindle, but the other features aren’t that impressive. ‘Popular Highlights’ will let you see what the rest of the Kindle community finds interesting, and bigger fonts might make your Kindle experience a little easier on the eye.

Nothing on the competition

Photo: Apple

The Kindle still won’t have the features that make the iPad more popular than this device. It should have a touchscreen. Then, a colour screen would have been a nice addition. Finally, the Kindle update should allow you to play other media – the ‘experimental’ MP3 support on offer is, at the very least, unimpressive. A more usable browser would have been a good idea. And finally, why aren’t there a whole lot of apps available for download?

Trying to stay relevant

Trying to stay relevant in the face of serious competition from Nook and the iPad is what this Kindle update is all about. None of the new features are mindblowing individually, but together they will address some of the complaints Kindle users have about the device. Still, there’s a whole lot missing, and it’s unlikely that this update is going to attract a new fan base.

The update is available free for second generation Kindle users, but Kindle 1 users will, sadly, be left in the dark on this one.