Owners of the first-generation Kindle Paperwhite might have felt left out when Amazon last year released an update with a number of new features, but only for newer versions of the device.
Well, fret no more. The Web giant hasn't completely forgotten about you. The company has just released a software update for the first-gen Kindle Paperwhite, finally bringing those features to older devices, including deep integration with the online reading community Goodreads and Kindle FreeTime.
"'We want Goodreads on the original Kindle Paperwhite, too!' was the cri du coeur in November when we first launched Goodreads on the new Kindle Paperwhite," the Amazon-owned online reading community wrote in a blog post Monday. "For all of you who asked, your time is now!" This means you'll now be able to see what your friends are reading, share notes, and rate the books you read right from your Kindle.
The update will automatically download and install on your Kindle Paperwhite when connected wirelessly, or you can manually download the software to your computer and transfer it to your device via a USB cable.
Besides bringing Goodreads integration, the update adds Kindle FreeTime parental controls, letting parents create personalized profiles for their kids, set daily reading goals, and track their progress. Another new feature, Cloud Collections, lets you organize your books, newspapers, magazines, and apps into customized collections for easy reference.
Meanwhile, the update also brings some new page-flip capabilities, letting you skim a book page-by-page, scan by chapter, or skip to the end without losing your place. You can also access and manage all your bookmarks, highlights, and notes more easily as well as read the complete text of each footnote inline without changing the page.
For more, see PCMag's review of the Kindle Paperwhite and the slideshow above.