Amazon today announced two new enhancements to the latest generation Kindle—85 percent more battery life and a native PDF reader.

The 6-inch Kindle now has a built-in native PDF reader. This will let users read documents in  PDF format without conversion.

To read PDFs, users can email PDFs to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. Users that prefer to have their PDF documents converted to the Kindle format can type “Convert” in the subject of the e-mail when sending documents to their “@kindle.com” address.

Amazon Finally Opening Kindle’s Closed Gate

The Kindle has failed to become the iPod of e-readers that it was hyped to be. This is something we predicted when it was introduced:

In order to be anything more than a speedbump on the road to the future of written media, the Amazon Kindle needs to be open to the rapidly expanding world of user-generated content. With 88,000 ebook titles, the Kindle is a expensive, boring gadget. With open support for Internet content, it could be a contender for the next new thing.

Opening up to PDFs, though, could make the Kindle a much more interesting device. Getting content on the device is still a bit of a kludge, but the Kindle’s closed world is opening up to user generated content, at last.

Battery Life Improvements

Kindle now has battery life of up to seven days even with wireless turned on, a significant improvement from the previous battery life of four days. Battery life with wireless turned off remains at the previous level of up to two weeks. The battery life improvement announced today is the result of a six month firmware improvement and testing program.

Amazon also announced today that previous purchasers of the new Kindle will also receive the 85 percent battery life improvements with wireless on, and native PDF support via a firmware update automatically delivered via Whispernet wireless. Native PDF support will also be available for some earlier versions of Kindle via an automatic Whispernet wireless firmware update.