Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ announcement

Posted on September 7, 2012 by tarzanphan60

I was stalking the Amazon press conference yesterday afternoon in a “closed door meeting” (so our oooh’s and aaaah’s weren’t heard by everyone). You could almost hear a cyberworld oooh and aaah go out when the Kindle Fire HD was announced. And then…..

Kindle Fire HD 8.9″

Then came the announcement that sent even more oooh’s and aaah’s out and made my covetous little heart and brain go pitty pat.

A Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ tablet would be coming out on November 20th.  Just in time for my birthday! (In case my family and friends are reading this).

Not a 10″ tablet (so they can be differentiated from the iPad) but a 9″ tablet (I am not going to keep calling it an 8.9″ tablet). I’ll work up some direct comparisons between the two devices later, but here are the initial specs for the new kid(s) on the block:

Display: 8.9″ HD LCD Technology

Resolution: 1920×1200

Audio: Dolby Audio dual-driver stereo speakers

Connectivity: Dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi (on base models)

Storage: 16GB or 32GB on device, 32GB or 64GB on 4G device

Dimensions: 9.45″ x 6.5″ x 0.35″

Weight: 20 oz

Processor: Dual-core, 1.5GHz OMAP4470

Battery Life: ??

Interface: 10 point multi-touch (I don’t know what this means – unless I can use all 10 fingers at once).

<—-The Prices—->

Here is where Amazon drew a mental standing ovation.  Their prices are a steal. And they know it – because all they really want is you to use their devices to buy more stuff in their store and it is worth it to them.

Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 16 GB    $199

Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 32 GB    $349

Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE Wireless 32 GB  $499

Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE Wireless 64 GB  $599

I’m sure you are thinking – Wow! That is cheap!  I’m sure they will rip me off for the wireless.  But no – they are offering wireless for 250 MB a month for 12 months with a one-time payment of $49.99 – no monthly payments.

While 4G is not available everywhere, this does appear to be a decent wireless plan and will allow us all to connect with the Amazon store and order even more items. 

I hope you are all excited to see what reviews are like on these new devices.  I know I am. 

Keep checking back and I’ll provide more details as I find them.

Filed under: Amazon Store, Kindle Fire | Leave a Comment »

Kindle Fire Family Additions – 7″ Versions

Posted on September 6, 2012 by tarzanphan60

One of the most expected and most talked about changes that actually got announced at the Amazon press conference on September 6, 2012 was to the Kindle Fire family. Here are some of the initial details:

Kindle Fire (?2?)

First we hear that the original Kindle Fire will be no more. Yay!  Take away the clunky look and that stupid power button on the bottom that is such a pain.  But wait!  That is wrong.  The Kindle Fire will be coming back.  Only it is not the same Kindle Fire.  Hmmmm.  On September 14 a new basic Kindle Fire will be released.  It will be available for $159 and offer many of the feature that the previous Kindle Fire offered. 

No word on the button.  If they keep the button – I’ll probably write them out of my will.

As advertised by Amazon, this new Kindle Fire is “All new – 40% faster performance, twice the memory, longer battery life”.  All new – I doubt it.  It doesn’t look that different.  40% faster performance will be great.  Twice the memory – I think this is deceptive advertising because my current Kindle Fire shows 5.37 GB of Internal Storage available and the new Kindle Fire advertises 8 GB of memory, with about 5.5 GB available for user content.  Since the memory didn’t suddenly go from 4 GB to 8 GB – either my math is faulty or Amazon’s is (my guess is it is not me). Longer battery life – this can be advertised if it is even one second longer. 

Still – $159 for the Kindle Fire is a good price, especially if they made improvements (unfortunately – it doesn’t appear the carousel went away either).

What is new and interesting? Kindle Free Time parental controls (more on this in another post), Whispersync for voice/movies/books/games (this got my attention and will be mentioned more in another post too), Immersion Reading (just assume all of these wil have another post), Xray for books/movies, new email app, better Facebook integration.

Kindle Fire HD

Kindle Fire HD really got my attention.  I’m thinking this is the Kindle Fire 2 that we were all anticipating.  A new version of Kindle Fire 7″ tablet with all the beauty of an HD device.  Also available on September 14th (I will be going into hiding that weekend with my new Kindle Fire HD), Kindle Fire HD has a reasonable initial price of $199 for a 16 GB version and 32 GB for a 32 GB version. I think my Google Nexus 7 16GB was $125 – so this is a very good and competitive deal for a  7″ tablet with 16 GB of memory.

I’ll be posting much more information when I have one in my grubby little hands – but here are some of the specs to make your mouth water….

Display: 7″ HD LCD Technology

Resolution: 1280x800p HD

Audio: Dolby Audio dual-driver stereo speakers

Connectivity: Dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi

Storage: 16GB or 32GB on device

Weight: 13.9 oz

Processor: Dual-core, 1.2GHz OMAP4460

Battery Life: 11 hours of continuous use

Interface: 10 point multi-touch (I don’t know what this means – unless I can use all 10 fingers at once).

Lighter than the Kindle Fire, but larger in size – 7.6″ x 5.4″ for Kindle Fire HD vs 7.44″ x 4.72″ for Kindle Fire.

I still have a lot of digging to do – but the screen looked beautiful and responsive.  This is definitely an improvement over the original Kindle Fire and probably more of what Amazon had originally intended the KF to be before they released a beta device.

Even more exciting to me – this new device appears to have actual, well designed buttons on the side and not a big, annoying button on the bottom.

Stay tuned tomorrow for details on the new crown prince of the Kindle Fire family.

Filed under: Amazon Store, Kindle Fire | Leave a Comment »

Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle e-reader Announcements

Posted on September 6, 2012 by tarzanphan60

Exciting day in the Kindle world with the announcements of new e-readers and new Kindle Fire versions.  The next few posts will cover some of the initial information that has been announced.

Kindle Paperwhite

Kindle Paperwhite is the new kid on the block of kindle e-readers.  When Barnes & Noble announced the Nook Simple Touch with Glow Light earlier in 2012, it was only a matter of time before Amazon sat down at the poker game and either raised the bid or folded.  My guess was that they were going to stay competitive and hopefully, for them, the Kindle Paperwhite will be the answer.

The Kindle Paperwhite is replacing the Kindle Touch.  I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  When I got my Kindle Touch last year, I thought it was the worst Kindle ever created and a major step backward (even more than the Kindle that was released right before it).  No buttons, much slower in some aspects, and very few apps being ported over to it. I was hoping they would update the Kindle at least with a backlight, but the gurus at Amazon obviously didn’t want my opinion.

I do admit that I am very interested in a Kindle with a backlight.  I think e-ink is far superior in many circumstances to carrying a heavier tablet around and the ability to read in low or no light has its appeals.  I’ll probably break down and add one to my collection.

What looks interesting about the Kindle Paperwhite?  Here is some basic information:

Price:  $119 for the basic model with special offers, $139 for the basic model without special offers. $179 for the 3G model with special offers, $199 for the 3G model without special offers.

Screen size: 6″ – same as Kindle and Kindle Touch

Display Technology: Paperwhite Built-in light (as opposed to e-ink pearl for Kindle and Kindle Touch)

Resolution: 212 PPI (167 PPI on other Kindles)

Audio: No speakers – so don’t count on Text To Speech either

Storage: 2 GB on the device plus Amazon Cloud storage

Weight: 7.5 oz / 7.8 oz (3G)

Battery Life: up to 8 weeks with WiFi off.  (4 weeks with WiFi off for the Kindle and 8 weeks with Wifi off for the Kindle Touch).  They made this sound like such a big thing – but you can see we already had the 8 weeks on past models.  It is neat that the extra light doesn’t appear to drain the battery more.

<——–Things not mentioned but that should be considered———->

Charging – Amazon likes to announce that you don’t need a computer at all when you have a Kindle.  Everything can be downloaded wirelessly.  They do forget to mention that the newer Kindles actually need to be plugged into a USB port (I guess some people have these in their cars) and most people will need to either buy the additional power adapter or plug it into a computer to charge.

Apps – the Kindle store at Amazon does not seem to think much in advance about apps.  They don’t really let developers know if an app will work on a new device until the new device is released (we learned this the hard way).  They are no longer requiring all apps work on all e-readers since late 2011.  Only a small percentage of apps that work on the earlier Kindle e-readers work on the Kindle Touch.  This is a replacement for the Kindle Touch.  However, that doesn’t mean that any Kindle Touch apps will work on the Kindle Paperwhite (which might make it a Kindle Paperweight for app lovers). If apps are important, you might want to hold off making a decision on this device.

Who will the Kindle Paperwhite be great for?  Lovers of Kindle e-readers that read a lot and those who no longer want to hook a portable light on their Kindle e-reader.  This should be a very good addition to the Kindle e-reader fold.

Kindle

To keep competition strong, Amazon has reduced the price of the Kindle (with 5 way controller) from $79 to $69. Already one of the lowest priced e-readers on the market, this makes it even more of a deal.  More affordable for people who want a solid and simple e-reader in their hands.  Great price to risk on a child that loves reading but might be rough on a device.

<—-Summary—->

Well played game on the e-reader front.  I think I’ll award Amazon a 3 point shot for this portion of the press conference.

Filed under: Amazon Store, Kindle Touch | Leave a Comment »

Kindle super deal on Newsweek 6 month subscription

Posted on August 3, 2012 by tarzanphan60

There is a great deal being offered today for a 6 month subscription to Newsweek magazine. $5.00.  Yes – only $5.00.  What a bargain. If you like Newsweek, jump on this and grab it while you can. This is for both Print + Digital editions of the weekly magazine. 

Available for all Kindle devices including the Kindle e-readers, Kindle Fire, and the Kindle reading apps for computers, iPads, iPhones, etc. 

I just subscribed. Shouldn’t you do the same?

Filed under: Amazon Store | Leave a Comment »

Amazon Announces GameCircle for Kindle Fire

Posted on July 13, 2012 by tarzanphan60

Post courtesy of Max:

On July 11, 2012 Amazon announced on their mobile app distribution blog a new gaming environment for Kindle Fire users called Amazon GameCircle.

Quick and Simple APIs for Enhanced Gaming

GameCircle will provide developers with APIs, giving developers an easier way to create more entertaining gaming experiences. These APIs will be simple and quick for developers to integrate while allowing gamers a more enhanced in-game experience.

New Features

Achievements is included as one of the new features. Players will be able to keep track of their achievements without leaving the game. Players will also have the ability to receive in- game messages to track them in real-time or pause them to view a summary of earned items and establish what is still needed before returning to gameplay.

Leaderboards, another new feature, will let players check their standings against top players or competitors without having to leave the game.

Just How Big is This Cloud?

According to Chris Velazco, a contributor at TechCrunch, the most impressive new feature is the addition of syncing. GameCircle will save a player’s progress to the cloud automatically, allowing players to pick up where they left off – even if the game had to be re-installed or if the player switches devices.

Who Benefits? Everybody!

For the sake of gamers, GameCircle has been a smart move on Amazon’s part – even though these features have been aimed at a very particular piece of their technology. GameCircle will also help developers build their business on Kindle Fire. And lastly, this will help Kindle Fire in their head-on competition race with Google’s Nexus 7, another low cost tablet available whenever Google can make up it’s mind to release it.

Maybe, just maybe, GameCircle’s real potential lies within Amazon’s smartphone. The smartphone that Amazon’s spokesperson, Drew Herdener, is not commenting on that might or might not be in development, that may or may not be released this November just in time to flood the holiday sales.

Game developers can sign up here for access to the Amazon GameCircle APIs.

Game players can visit here for Amazon GameCircle Kindle Fire games.

Filed under: Amazon Store, Kindle Fire Games | Leave a Comment »

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