New Kindle Paperwhite update brings Goodreads integration, features for kids

Amazon has announced a software update for the new Kindle Paperwhite, bringing with it some important features like Goodreads integration and Kindle FreeTime. There are also some kid-friendly goal features added to the update as well.

Goodreads was acquired by Amazon earlier this year and the book-based social cataloguing service is now being integrated with the company’s products slowly. This update ensures that you can do a lot more on Goodreads along with your Kindle Paperwhite.

Goodreads integration arrives

You will now be able to share passages from within the book directly to Goodreads. You can also see what your friends are reading and also go through all their reviews. Once you’re done with reading a book you will be able to rate them instantly on Goodreads. You can update your “Currently Reading," “Want to Read,” and “To Read” shelves from the Paperwhite.

Kindle FreeTime, which comes with this update, gives more built-in control to parents. They will be able to set better, kid-friendly goals for their young ones with this update. Parents will also be able to hand-select books for their kids to read and track their daily progress against the set goals. To make it more interesting for children, Kindle FreeTime gives out achievement badges for hitting reading milestones. Say, if the kid has read more than his daily reading goal, he will be entitled to an achievement badge. For going past milestones like 1,000 pages and the like, there are special badges too.

Set kid-friendly reading goals

Lastly, Amazon has ensured that you are able to organise your books, magazines and newspapers in customised collections for easy reference with Cloud Collections. Amazon’s Whispersync technology will sync all your collections across all your Kindle devices and reading apps so you can access them through any device.

This software update for the new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is free and will be delivered OTA automatically in the coming weeks. Alternatively, you can visit Amazon’s Kindle software update page to download the update starting now.