Amazon updates Kindle Fire operating system

Just in time for the holidays, Amazon has released an update to the operating system that runs its new tablet, the Kindle Fire. It also updated the Kindle Fire apps for iPhone and iPad. The San Jose Mercury-News writes: "Some consumers and reviewers have complained about the Kindle Fire's performance, with slow Web loading, sluggish touch-screen performance and lack of customization options among the most frequent complaints."

Our Technology blog reports on the update:

[T]he update promises to improve the responsiveness of touch navigation and the speed of actions on the device, such as loading webpages in the Fire's Web browser.

However, the biggest new feature might be the ability for users to edit what shows up in their "carousel" of recent apps and content displayed on the Fire's home screen.

Before the update, a Fire user couldn't remove any items -- books they've read, games and music played, movies watched or websites visited -- in their carousel.

Other user complaints, such as having no buttons to control sound volume, lack of customization, privacy concerns, no camera and lack of 3G connectivity, were not addressed by this week's update.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. Credit: Armand Emamdjomeh / Los Angeles Times