Amazon intros $199 movie Kindle Amazon has refreshed its entire range of Kindle tablets, adding a seven inch $199 colour Android model, a keyboard-less 4GB Touch model at $99 and a non-touchscreen 2GB $79 version. It also took an aggressive step into TV and movie delivery, bundling free streaming with the new Kindle Fire and a taster for Amazon’s Prime movie …
I surely can't be the only one to realise that all these "speed improving" web proxies are just corporate investments to "leverage" our browser histories in the future. Let alone the forward-facing cameras on these fondleslabs that you never know when they are switched on ...
There'll come a time of reckoning, I tell ye all! (Credit cards accepted.)
As I suppose was to be expected, it is only available in the US at the moment. I was going to get my brother-on-law to order one for me, but according to the little video, it comes "pre-registered to your Kindle account", so it looks as if that may not work.
Very, very irritating.
While I was in the US I was able to use my UK Amazon account to order purchases to a US address, even while keeping my UK address as the billing address linked to my card. So you should be able to head to amazon.com, order whatever you want and have it delivered to your brother-in-law.
This IS an Amazon tablet, it is all powered by Android so most Android apps will work, however, what isn't clear is if the Google integration is still in place. i.e can it still run Gmail, Docs etc?
Also if you have an Android phone can you transfer apps you bought from the Google Marketplace to this? Or would you need to buy them again on the Amazon market?
It is pretty important really, if they do insist on creating their own walled garden, it is pretty un-android, and a major downside to me.
That said, they do look awsome, and I wants one.
"Too funny."
you have similar phrases with different meanings too. The number of times I heard people in California the last 3 weeks on holiday say "Shut up" was ridiculous, apparently it's the new "no way" and means "I don't believe it", over here it means "stop talking" and is normally taken as very aggressive or rude.
They've missed all the tricks ... except perhaps the price.
We have android tabs ... we have e-readers, but who makes something you can browse the web and run (basic) apps but with an e-reader screen so it can be used anywhere?
Who makes one that's waterproof to answer all the people that say you can't take them in the bath?
Nobody at present can (mass) produce colour e-ink displays with a refresh rate suitable for apps (such as plants vs zombies) or movie playback.
This is (imo) the first really serious challenger to apple in the tablet arena.
As for the bath thing, use a "ziplock" freezer bag :).
Before people complain about the US prices, the quoted cheap prices are all for the ad-supported versions "with special offers" which aren't available in the UK yet. Sooner the better I say, I couldn't care less if the screen savers are adverts if it saves you £30-40 off the price. Anyway, I was just waiting for a touch enabled kindle to justify buying one. I can use it at work honest...
WhisperSync is a synchronization technology, not a delivery technology. It's what makes it possible to turn off your Kindle Touch at page 225 and have page 225 appear when you next open that book the Kindle app on your iPad. Strictly speaking, since WhisperSync only works when you're connected to the internet it won't do the handover if you're using your Kindle Fire or other 3G-less Kindle away from a WiFi connection, but it can be re-synced as soon as you return to any place you're likely to actually need it.
Just checked Amazon UK and US website....
So the new "basic" Wifi only Kindle (so no it's 3G data plan argument) is listed at $79 or £89...
So a 50% "UK Ripoff" surcharge taking $79=£50 at current rate + 20% VAT that's £60...
Sounds like I'll have to review my Amazon buying policy!
I see the "fire" uses crappy old conventional screen technology rather than lovely e-Ink. It's not really a Kindle then. Seems odd that Amazon want to dilute the brand having been so successful in building it up.
I also see that a 9.7" model still isn't available anywhere except the US. A pity, since there's a place for larger paper books so it seems perfectly reasonable that there might be a place for larger readers as well. (You can export the now-rather-old-model DX but you are charged every time you download a book, so I doubt anyone actually does.)
And yes, to the best of my knowledge a US dollar has *never* exchanged for less than a pound sterling, so at no point in the whole history of the world has $79=£89.
e-ink is currently monochrome only technology consumerside. this means it was never an option for the "fire". this means your gripe about the "fire" not being e-inked-up makes no sense. are you a daily mail journalist?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2042790/Kindle-Fire-tablet-Amazons-iPad-rival-just-199--Apples-cheapest-499.html
according to them the "fire" can *store* 17 million songs and 100,000 films.
It makes perfect sense once you realise that the Kindle is (or was) an e-Reader, not a PMP.
It marked itself out as best in class by a considerable margin largely because its screen was far more readable than some backlit LCD crud. This "fire" takes the brand and applies it to exactly what it wasn't.
...where's the new 3G model in the UK?
My biggest gripe with the current model is the keyboard - as in its not required for most readers and it makes holding the device pretty unituitive for the size.
This one looks a bit better but it'd have been better still if it just had the cursor keys at the centre.
However no 3G = no sale. I'm sure Amazon know that too so I suspect this has been rushed to beat the Apple marketing extravaganza about to descend in October.
The current Kindle has problems with wifi that requires a logon (as opposed to a key) and the whole point of the damn thing is that you can easily read books away from home. I'd assume its in Amazon's interests that this includes "new" books?
Hopefully its a temporary thing while they sort out carrier coverage. If it isn't then older Kindles are likely to increase in price by rather a lot......
Keep an eye out for how barnes and noble, sony and other e-reader manufactuerers respond. Might be a chance to pick up their products at a significant discount soon.
BTW was really excited at the though of a £50 or £60 e-reader, was thinking of getting two or three for presents this Christmas. Not anymore.
I suspect the the real point of Silk is to reduce the amount of data that needs to be streamed to the device, thereby making it cheaper for amazon if they were to offer a similar one-time payment world wide 3G plan like they have with the kindle. Very much a plus for network providers as they will have less pressure on their data networks with Silk optimized web access. Lets see if they release a 3G version of Fire. Looking good though :)
The $79 Kindle is ad-supported. That's not the version we're getting over here.
What we're getting is the $109 version without ads. That works out at ~£70 at today's exchange rates. Add 20% VAT and the price rises to £84, so it's only £5 dearer than the US equivalent - and some of that might be swallowed up in import duties etc.
The Fire uses Amazon Cloud, which according to The Guardian is only available in the US for legal reasons. They think the unavailability of the Touch versions in the UK is something to do with Whispersync.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
