Originally posted to Kindle Nation Daily 6.12.2010.
- With the latest Kindle software update in full roll-out mode now, we’ll focus some posts this weekend on the excellent documentation that the Kindle team is providing for the primary enhancements included in the update. This software update is for the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX only; aside from a hint or two that some enhancements may be coming for the Kindle 1, Amazon hasn’t shared any substantive information on updates for Kindle 1 owners.
- If your Kindle has been updated to the first or second beta of the new software update, you should see “Version: Kindle 2.5” or “Version: Kindle 2.5.2” in the lower right corner of the display when you press “Menu” from the Home screen and select “Settings.” If your Kindle hasn’t been updated yet, check to see that your wireless is turned on, since the roll-out is being done automatically over the Whispernet, and sit tight.
Amazon has added a “popular highlights” enhancement that reveals the passages that have been highlighted most frequently by Kindle readers. Here’s Amazon’s documentation:
Viewing Popular Highlights
Coming Soon – Available with the 2.5 software release.
Amazon displays Popular Highlights by combining the highlights of all Kindle customers and identifying the passages with the most highlights. The resulting Popular Highlights help readers to focus on passages that are meaningful to the greatest number of people. Some books don’t have enough highlighting in them to have Popular Highlights. Popular highlights are marked with a grey dashed underline in your reading. You can see Popular Highlights for all books that have them at kindle.amazon.com.To view Popular Highlights:
- Open a book on your Kindle.
- Press the Menu key and select “View Popular Highlights” from the options.
To turn Popular Highlights on and off:
- Navigate to Kindle’s Home screen and press the Menu button.
- Select “Settings” from the Home screen menu.
- Select the desired option next to “Popular Highlights.”
Managing Popular Highlights
If you have a Kindle device, you can turn off having your highlights in popular highlights by turning off Annotations Backup in Settings on your device. If you have a Kindle App, we will be adding this capability soon. Annotations BackUp backs up your annotations and last page read and syncs them across devices. You can also remove highlights you made previously from Popular Highlights.
To turn off Annotations Backup:
- Navigate to Kindle’s Home screen and press the Menu button.
- Select “Settings” from the Home screen menu.
- Select the desired option next to “Annotations Backup.”
To remove previous highlights from Popular Highlights:
- Visit the AmazonKindle website and login using the e-mail address and password for the Amazon account you used to register your Kindle.
- Select “Your Highlights” from the Browse options at the top of the page.
- Select “Delete this highlight” next to each highlight you wish to remove.
