Amazon has gotten its hands full over the week, as it rolls out new updates as well as new eReader and tablet models for the consumers. However, the retail giant and device manufacturer is not only focusing on hardware, but also rolling a software patch for Fire OS, Sangria, which is the fourth release of Amazon’s forked version on Android.
Those purchasing the fourth-gen Fire tablets will already have the OS pre-installed out of the box. However, to those of you who still have the 3rd-generation models, they are also provided the options to update to Sangria via an OTA (over-the-air) update.
Once the operating system gets updated, there’s a noticeable Amazon’s grip over the home screen, setting panel, as well as the app, music, video and book stores, with a few hints of Android here and there.
Another useful feature about Sangria adds support for user’s profile. So, if you are using the tab with members of your family, you can now keep your things separate (apps, games, Twitter, Facebook) without much fuss.
With the new software update, Amazon seems to be borrowing features from all of its products and combining them into a bundle in an attempt to homogenize its product.
Sangria also adds Firefly support for tablets (which we saw arrive with the advent of the Fire Phone) so you can now identify an item using your slate’s camera and then proceed to search for them online.
Furthermore, Fire OS 4 supports printing in the Silk web browser, improved battery life (via Smart Suspend feature), integration with WPS Office for viewing or editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.
Sangria is more than what it seems. For now, the OS will include a private browsing mode for Silk and a Family Library tool that allows sync Amazon account with another under your roof, so you can grab one another’s books, videos, apps and so on.