It has been over six months since Amazon last issued a firmware update for modern Kindle e-readers. The company has yet to publish patch notes on their website, so there is little information on what the update fixes or introduces new features. The only thing we have to go on is when you install the 15.1.1 update, it says, “Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.” This is what Amazon speak for; we issued an update, go and install.
The update applies to the 8th-generation Kindles to the latest 11th-generation devices. It goes as far back as the Kindle Oasis. We don’t know the minutiae of what the update does, but for people who have jailbroken their Kindles, this update messes it up, and the Kindle will no longer work.
The 15.1.1 update is being pushed out to the Kindle while in sleep or standby mode. It will automatically install and prompt the user to reboot the Kindle to finish upgrading. You can also go to the settings menu and see if an update is available too.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
