Amazon and GoodReads have just announced the release of the Kindle Fire OS 3.1 which brings GoodReads integration, Cloud Collections and other features to the new Kindle Fire HDX and HD second gen. It can be downloaded from the Amazon updates page or you can wait a couple of weeks for it to hit your device automatically. GoodReads also has an article on its blog about the update. Unfortunately I won’t be able to review this for you until next week when my Kindle Fire HDX is due to ship to Canada – I currently have the first gen HD for which the update isn’t yet available. There is no mention yet of the update for the Kindle Paperwhite first or second gen, which is also supposed to get a GoodReads update. I am very excited about this update as I love both Kindle and GoodReads. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they can do together.
So Amazon has finally released the new Kindle Fire HDXs internationally, including Canada. It will ship in late November. While it’s great that we only had to wait a month after our US cousins, I did notice however that one of the major new innovations for the HDX is not available in Canada – there is no mention of the MayDay button… MayDay is available in the UK. Presumably the French language requirement is preventing its being available in Canada. There are still no movies available to Canadians, no Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and no Kindle Freetime, which is now being offered to other international purchasers. Still at least we Canadians now have the opportunity to check out the device. I will, of course, report back on it once I receive it.