If you see this message on your device on or after March 22, 2016, you will need to manually install the latest software update for your device in order to resume normal functionality. See below for details. 
 
 If you did not update your device by March 22, 2016, you will receive the following message, or similar, on your device and will be unable to connect wirelessly: Your Kindle is unable to connect at this time. Please make sure you are within wireless range and try again. If the problem persists, please restart your Kindle from the Menu in Settings and try again. 
 
 In order to continue to download Kindle books from the Cloud, access the Kindle Store, and use other Kindle services on select Kindle e-readers, you may need to manually download the latest software version and transfer the update to your device via USB cable. 
 
 Kindle E-Readers that Require Updates 
 
 The following devices require the latest software version, which will need to be transferred via USB. If you are not sure which Kindle e-reader you have, refer to Which Kindle E-reader do I have? 
 
 * For these devices, even if your device is running software version 2.5.8, if you have not connected to wireless (2G/3G) since October 5, 2015, you will need to manually install the latest software file from Amazon. ||||| Amid a storm of tablet-related hype and speculation, Amazon just announced the latest iteration of its "traditional" e-reader: Kindle Paperwhite. The name refers to its expected new screen technology for a sharper (212 ppi) and higher-contrast display, and also features a frontlight that brings parity with Barnes & Noble's Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight. The device is entirely controlled by touch — hardware page-turning switches are out, and so is the home button. 
 
 The interface has taken a page out of the Kindle Fire's book by offering a "cover mode" homescreen that lets you swipe through your library. The device also uses the same X-Ray content analysis feature found on the Kindle Touch, has controls for the light, and lets you change the fonts. 
 
 'Thinner than a magazine, lighter than a paperback' 
 
 Amazon is touting its patented light guide technology which keeps the lighting even across the screen and allows you to leave it on all the time without detriment to battery life — it'll apparently last for eight weeks between charges. The touch technology means it has a thinner bezel, and at 9.1mm thin and 7.5 ounces Jeff Bezos describes the device as "thinner than a magazine, lighter than a paperback." 
 
 The Kindle Paperwhite is available for order today and will start shipping on October 1st, with the Wi-Fi model costing $119 and the 3G-enabled variant going for $179. Those prices apply to ad-supported models with Amazon's Special Offers, mind, and you'll have to pay an extra $20 if you'd rather go without. ||||| Amazon’s U.S. front end web site went down (and is now back up) 
 
 Update: This story was updated through at 12:45 to reflect to new information and culmination of the outage. 
 
 Amazon.com,(s amzn) the front end of the Seattle-based retailing giant, went down on Monday afternoon for about 45 minutes, although the company’s cloud computing services stayed up and running. It’s unclear what was behind the company’s problems, although Google (s goog), another giant internet company has experienced a major, and rare, outage on Friday, just a few days before Amazon’s. 
 
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 During, the outage regional Amazon sites were running, as were sites of Amazon-owned companies including Zappos and Diapers.com. The incomplete nature of the outage and some basic testing led Matthew Prince, the CEO of CloudFlare to note that, “The network routes are up and running for amazon.com. This appears to be a problem somewhere in the application or internal network and just for Amazon.com.” 
 
 The outage did take down the Kindle store, and some people reported trouble accessing and logging into Amazon’s Web Services. 
 
 . @gigastacey @gigaom You cannot sync Kindle Books right now either! — Dave McCrory (@mccrory) August 19, 2013 
 
 The AWS management console experienced some hiccups beginning at 12:14pm PT and customers had some trouble logging until 12:32pm PT, although that may have been partly due to panicked AWS customers trying to ensure their instances and services were still working. 
 
 While Amazon’s web site outage likely resulted in a few lost sales, (and some freaked out resellers) its overall effect shouldn’t be too big. This is a far cry from an AWS outage in 2011 that took down the web sites of dozens of small and large companies for the better part of a day. And it certainly won’t be as large as Google’s outage when it comes to the internet as a whole. Google’s outage diminished global web traffic by roughly 40 percent.
– If you've been ignoring Amazon's prodding to update your Kindle, you may want to start paying attention. As Quartz reports, any Kindle purchased before 2012 must be updated by Tuesday, March 22, in order to continue being able to connect to the Internet. If you miss the deadline, you'll lose access to books you've purchased and stored in Amazon's cloud, the ability to download new books, and more. You can still update after Tuesday, but the process is "more cumbersome," Quartz notes. Complete instructions and a list of impacted devices here. (This guy ordered a Kindle, but received something way more disgusting.)