Amazon on Monday provided a glimpse at some software updates coming soon to the Kindle and Kindle 3G, including public notes, real page numbers, and new layouts for magazines and newspapers.
With public notes, you can publish notes made on books to the Web. "Any Kindle user – including authors, their fans, book reviewers, professors and passionate readers everywhere – can opt-in to share their thoughts on book passages and ideas with friends, family members, colleagues, and the greater Kindle community of people who love to read," Amazon said in a statement.
The feature can be turned on via the Amazon Web site. You can then view the Public Notes of people you follow, track reading activity, see popular highlights and view your full library.
The real page numbers feature, meanwhile, will list the page number on your Kindle that corresponds with the page number in the printed edition. This has been a much-requested feature so users "can easily reference and cite passages, and read alongside others in a book club or class," Amazon said.
Amazon said it has already added real page numbers to tens of thousands of Kindle books, including the top 100 best-sellers. Page numbers will also be added to Kindle apps in the coming months.
Amazon is also adding a social component that will allow for easy sharing once you've finished a book. With "Before You Go," you can rate a book, share a message about it on a social network, get recommendations for what to read next, and see other books by the same author.
Finally, Amazon promised an updated interface for newspapers and magazines, which provides quick snapshots of the news to help you decide what to read first.
Kindle owners with the latest version of the e-book reader can manually download the software from Amazon's Web site. Otherwise, it will be sent to the devices automatically via Wi-Fi when it's available.