Kindle update to add 'proper' page numbers

Print or e-ink, you'll get identical indices

Amazon has posted a preview release of its next Kindle firmware, and it's bringing real page numbers to the platform.

An obvious feature of an e-book reader, you might think, but no, Kindle uses "Locations" - large numbers that identify how far into a book you've got and which are supposed to be consistent across Kindles and Kindle apps for other gadgets.

But punters want proper page numbers, and Amazon says it has heard their call.

The update will add "real page numbers that correspond directly to a book’s print edition", so if your Kindle has a quote on page 57, anyone else can go to the paper copy and look it up using that page number.

E-books can, of course, be viewed at a selection of type sizes, and most readers and reader apps re-calculate page numbers when you change the typeface and font size. Kindle's new page numbers will presumably be impervious for such textual changes.

Amazon is also chucking in a range of 'rate this book' and other social networking flim-flam for those folk who feel World+Dog gives a fig for what they're reading. Notes you make while reading can be made public.

It is also improving newspaper and magazine layouts, Amazon said.

The preview can be downloaded now, but Amazon didn't say when the final release will be automatically pushed out to devices. ®