back to article 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 …

COMMENTS

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  1. ByeLaw101
    Happy

    lol .. " into a giant fuck-off web proxy"

    Way too technical for me ;)

    1. Ralph B
      Mushroom

      Web Proxies

      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.)

      1. Darren Barratt
        Devil

        Peel some of the tape off your tin foil hat and use it to cover the camera. Problem solved.

      2. gafisher

        No cameras on the Kindle Fire, so no worries.

        Well, OK, none we *know* of ...

  2. Tom 38
    Thumb Up

    Giant fuck off web proxy

    Sounds like one of my design specs - I like it.

  3. Martin Kirk
    Unhappy

    US-only so far. Grrrr.

    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.

    1. ThomH

      That's not a problem

      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.

      1. Richard 116

        My brother in law? Christ. He'd be the last person I'd get stuff delivered to.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If it's the same as the keyboard kindle you can easily de-register from one account and re-register with another.

    3. ZillaOfManilla

      I got mine

      in the US from bestbuy, no pre registration that way.

  4. ratbert
    Coffee/keyboard

    A giant fuck-off web proxy?

    I love the technical terminology...

  5. Thomas 4
    Mushroom

    Never mind the proxy

    Those price points are *really* going to fuck over the Android tablet market.

    1. Lars Petersson

      I can't help but wonder if this is a first tep towards an Amazon tablet...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        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.

  6. ken 12
    Thumb Down

    taking the mic

    looks like the $79 kindle will be £89 in the uk, wtf?

    1. Andy Farley
      Thumb Down

      How fucking irritating. We get ripped off in this country. What will it be to the rest of Europe I wonder?

    2. LPF

      At current exchange rate £79 = £50 + 20% VAT equals £60, so where the extra £20 comes from feck knows! I'm prtetty sure we are closer to chine than the USA and we speak the same lanuage which means no conversion needed!

    3. Dave Bell

      Tax dodging corporates

      In the USA, mail-order has been able to avoid local sales taxes for many decades, and Amazon takes huge advantage of that.

      They don't get away with it here so you need to add 20% VAT to the US price

      I reckon the NHS is worth it.

  7. Jamie Kitson
    Thumb Down

    Weird

    You can pre-order the cheapest one in the UK now, but none of the others.

    1. Reg Varney
      WTF?

      And it ain't cheap! $79 = £89??

      1. Arrrggghh-otron

        A mistake surely? $79 is more like £50 isn't it?

  8. jim 45

    excuse me but...

    What is a "f***-off web proxy"? And why the sophomoric profanity? 2 separate questions, I guess.

    1. I_am_Chris

      With your use of 'profanity' makes me assume you're a left-pondian. Over on this side of the pond 'fuck-off' usually means excessively large, often in a scary sense.

      1. Billl
        Facepalm

        Too funny. I too live across the pond, and over here "fuck-off" means to go away -- by the quickest means possible. fuck-off == big. LOL

        1. PsychicMonkey
          Meh

          well

          it's all about context really. "Fuck Off" does mean go away, but in the right context, say my 5th form biology class, it can mean big. for instance:

          "Name a bird of pray" "A big fuck off owl"

          I guess it comes in the form that if something is big enough, it makes you want to fuck off....

          1. DuncanL
            Coat

            A correction

            "Name a bird of prey" "A big fuck off owl"

            "Name a bird of pray" "A big fuck off nun"...

          2. Ascylto
            Big Brother

            23456

            You missed the English class, then?

            I'll prey for you.

        2. Andrew 25
          Facepalm

          "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.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    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?

    1. lurker

      Not currently feasable

      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 :).

  10. spencer

    Probably a win

    Amazon has the right idea - these pad devices (ipad included) are for content consumption and Amazon is the biggest of the lot.

    The price is right and if the service is up to scratch this will probably be a win.

  11. Stochasticus
    Thumb Up

    Price complaints

    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...

  12. jai

    3G

    But Tony Smith's article (http://www.reghardware.com/2011/09/28/amazon_launches_kindle_fire_ebook_tablet/) says the Fire doesn't have 3G.

    Does that mean it doesn't have WhisperSync and the only way to get that is to use a Kindle Touch?

    1. gafisher
      Boffin

      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.

  13. Peter 48
    Trollface

    Oh No

    But, but, but its a black rectangular display without buttons and a touch display and rounded corners. I though only Apple were allowed to do that. I wonder if the Cupertino Crew will get an injunction for it in Germany?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I thought that was quite funny but I guess you were down voted by a load of apple fan boys.

  14. glenf

    "with special offers"

    that $89 price point becomes $109 if for some reason you choose not to avail of the "Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers display on Kindle when you're not reading" option..

  15. SMabille
    WTF?

    Rip-Off Britain (big time)

    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!

    1. HipposRule
      FAIL

      Why don't you read the comments before you comment.

      The non-ad supported version is $109

  16. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    Brand dilution

    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.

    1. emmanuel goldstein
      FAIL

      Capiche?

      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.

      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        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.

    2. PerlyKing
      FAIL

      Re: Brand dilution

      "I see the "fire" uses crappy old conventional screen technology rather than lovely e-Ink."

      Don't think ebooks, think movies. There are new e-ink models as well.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Looks nice but..

    ...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......

    1. jay_bea

      3G

      I tether my Kindle to my phone and use its 3G connection if I am away from home. Works well and means that I can get a cheaper Kindle

  18. ratfox

    Poor Samsung

    The Galaxy Tab looks overpriced in comparison... Ok, so the Fire does not have 3G.

    Still, it must be hard for other android tablets makers when Amazon launches a loss leader.

  19. jay_bea
    WTF?

    How much???

    I see from the Amazon.co.uk website that the cheapest Kindle, the one that goes for $79 in the US, sells for £89 in the UK. I know the exchange rate is not great, but I did not think it was that bad! Will it be £250 for the Fire then? Not so attractive, after all.

  20. James 51
    FAIL

    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.

  21. Peter 48
    Happy

    Silk in preparation for 3G?

    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 :)

  22. mittfh

    Cheap Kindle

    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.

  23. Mike Brown

    $199!! thats really pretty amazing. i know it will be locked down tight to amazon, but for what people use the ipad for, $199 is an amazing price. this looks like it will have legs.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Infra-red touchscreen?

    I have bad memories of those...

    1. ThomH

      Best of a bad set of options

      The touch screens employed by other readers require something to be attached above the display. That reduces clarity a little, which is really important when you're trying to sell to people who value the printed page. I guess they've gone infrared because it looks over the screen from the edges. It also needn't necessarily be one of those cheap trip-the-wire things they had in the 80s, since doing it optically with two or three 1d cameras is now completely viable economically.

    2. gafisher

      "I have bad memories of those..."

      They've improved significantly since then.

  25. Doogie Howser MD
    Thumb Up

    "giant fuck-off web proxy"

    +1

    The joys of the English language!

  26. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    Eddie Izzard now writes for The Reg?

    Cool.

    Welcome aboard Mr. Izzard !!

  27. Fuzz

    When $79=£89

    The $79 Dollar model is Advert supported, I think the £89 UK model will be Ad free so it's equivillant to the $109 Dollar version in the US.

    $109, by my reckoning that works out as £84 when you add in the VAT so £5 extra from somewhere but not as much of a rip off as everyone has been saying.

  28. JeffyPooh
    Joke

    @SMabille

    "...So a 50% "UK Ripoff" surcharge..."

    It's more expensive in the UK because of the higher cost structures of the UK. Almost everything in the UK costs more than it does in the USA.

    Take (for example) the new "basic" Wifi only Kindle. It is £89 in the UK and only $79 in the USA.

    See?

  29. Fuzz

    bending the truth

    "The cheapest Kindle on sale this morning sets you back $139, or $189 for the 3G model. The floor now drops to $79 and $149."

    Is this a quote from Jeff?

    The old 3G model is $189 without ads, that's the same price as the new 3G touch without ads. With ads the old 3G model is $139, $10 cheaper than the new model.

    My guess is they'll kill off the old model in favour of the touch screen model, I guess that's a good idea the keyboard doesn't get much use so it just takes up space.

    Has anyone seen the new basic model in action? How do you find books on the store when there's no keyboard? I guess it's a case of: left, left, left, click (A), right right down down click (space) I'd stop being such a cheapskate and pay the extra $20 to get the touch screen.

    Unsurprisingly there's no 3G on the fire, it's one thing giving away free 3G for an e-ink device but on a colour tablet with a proper web browser you're going to incur some serious charges. It'll be interesting to see how locked down the tablet is. If it's a fully functioning Android tablet with the only condition being you have to get all your apps through Amazon it might be worth it.

    1. Johnr
      Thumb Down

      No 3 g is the deal breaker for me state side as living in the boonies there ain't an abundance of wifi around . Plus no camera WTF ? I have a Galaxy Tab 7" with 3 g . Recon I'll hang on to that thanks very much .

  30. theAltoid

    £89 = $79

    It is because everything, except milk, is more expensive in the UK, because everything is more expensive. For example, petrol in the US = ±64p/l. Sales tax in the US (not added into the price) varies around 6%.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      and bread

      and when I say bread, I mean bread, not sweet tasting cooked dough in the shape of a loaf.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stop saying £89 != $79 and RTFC !

    That's Read The F**cking Comments!

    The price cannot be compared like that as they are different deals (ad-supported vs normal retail).

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      But *why* are they different deals? Haven't Amazon heard of globalisation?

      Market segmentation is one thing, but if you simply can't buy a product then it's like Jeff doesn't want our money. OK, Jeff, I'll take my money elsewhere, to someone who is happy to accept it.

  32. Stephen 10

    It will be hugely successful

    And drive Android into the primary position as a platform for app development on tablets. I suspect it's a game changer in tablets.

    Some analysts are saying it dilutes the platform but I think that's just analysts showing their usual prediction skill deficit.

    Pity it's US only though - I'd snap one up at that price if it worked here in Australia.

  33. DanM
    Flame

    Since everybody else is doing it

    I just thought I'd add my 2c.

    Fuck.

  34. Killraven

    Storage issues

    Only 8GB internal storage and no SD card or standard USB port? That kills the usefulness of the Fire for me. 8GB isn't that much, all things considered, and Cloud storage is useless if you're not around a wireless connection. It looks gorgeous and awesome otherwise.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Giant fuck off web proxy

    the portal is dead, long live the portal

  36. Richard Johnson 1

    But wait for the Fire 2.. that WILL be great and have all the singing dancing features that people want. Standard industry practise now isn't it? I'll be surprised if Apple don't sue for Amazon copying their marketing strategy.. it's like the iPhone drip-feed release all over again.....

  37. john loader

    Don't forget the EU insists on VAT on e-books. Sign the petition for abolition in the UK at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/114

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Vat????

      When did they put VAT on torrents????

  38. Edward Clarke
    IT Angle

    The IT angle is colour

    The best improvement from my point of view is the colour display. When I bought my current Kindle, I had intended to use it to replace my IT bookshelf so that I could carry it around with me. Nobody enjoys carrying around that five centimeter thick MySQL book. This worked well until I got to replacing my Snort manual.

    The e-book was a conversion of their printed manual... with absolutely lovely blue on grey program listings. With suitable adjustment to the black/white Kindle, I could just make out that there was some kind of text on the big grey blob where the listings were supposed to be. Couldn't read it though. It was also unreadable on the PC version of the Kindle. Amazon refunded the price of the book with no questions asked. I also complained to the publisher - who said "sorry, bye.".

    So the colour feature is important for e-reader library support as well as entertainment. The journals and magazines that I get can now be moved over to the new Kindle. This is going to save me a fuck-off (new UK term) amount of shelf space and even more importantly a fuck-off amount of weight.

    As for movies - there's a two meter section of blank wall available in my office for a nice led display of useful size. Connect that to an eight core Xeon server and you have a useful entertainment system. I could claim that it was to replace flip-charts or something. The new Kindle is more on the lines of one of those tiny "keep the kids happy" portable DVD players.

  39. akcsl

    Rip off

    Why is the entry level Kindle $79 in America and £89 here in the UK?

    1. Euchrid
      Facepalm

      re: Rip off

      Because the American one is ad-supported, the UK one isn't.

      The model costing £89, costs $109 (excluding sales tax) in the States.

      This has been pointed out in earlier comments more than once...

  40. Nigel R Silver badge

    if the 'Fire' is as heavy as an IPad 2....

    then forget it!

  41. Dazed and Confused

    @Edward Clarke and the colour V e-Paper

    Given that colour ePaper isn't available yet, I would personally choose a monochrome ePaper book reader over a colour LCD type display every day of the week. As you found out there are limitation on the format, but there are so many cases where the ePaper display is better to live with, for a book reader.

    Publishers need to get used to working with the Kindle format. It isn't always just a case of dumping all the words from the book into the Kindle file. Where fancy formatting is used in the book they need to make sure it comes through OK.

    I'm reading Iain M Banks' The Algebraist at the moment. The story keeps changing track mid chapter. In the printed book there are markings on the page to show these. They are missing from the Kindle version, so you get sudden jumps from one part of the story to another, without any warning.

    It is to be hoped that Kindle publishing gets better at handling these sorts of issues.

    I've been really impressed with my Kindle overall because it seems a really focused product that seems to do the one job it sets out to do really well.

    I hope future versions stick to that ethos.

  42. deshepherd

    Entry level

    Never mind if £89 = $79 or $109, I like the look of the new entry level Kindle as a pure ebook. I've got the current v3 Kindle and the keyboard is just an annoyance ... takes up space that you use perhaps once every week or two ... and even when you do since it has no numbers or symbols you still end up using arrow keys to find the symbol you need on a pop-up menu. That said, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the Fire arrive in the UK, hopefully at a "sensible" price ... given $->£ conversion on the current 3G Kindle then I'd assume something around £150-160 seems to be what to expect.

  43. deshepherd

    Of course, Amazon may be ruling out Oxford students and graduates from their customer base since to get a Bodlean library card we have to swear an oath in which we undertake not "kindle flame or fire"!

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