Amazon Reveals Kindle Fire HD, Paperwhite, Tons More
Amazon revealed two Kindle Fire HD tablets, the Kindle Paperwhite e-reader, and various new services including a 4G LTE package. Nope, no Amazon phone today.
As expected, Amazon revealed its new Kindle products and services during a press event in Santa Monica Thursday afternoon. For those looking for hear more about the rumored Amazon smartphone, you'll have to wait for another event, as the company focused on its e-reader and tablet line, and a few new services. If anything, Amazon's new 4G LTE package paves the way for a future Kindle-branded smartphone.
For starters, Amazon's Jeff Bezos introduced the Kindle Paperwhite, a new frontlit Kindle e-reader:
Kindle Paperwhite
Pre-order today – ships October 1st
Wi-Fi Only: $119 USD
Wi-Fi / 3G: $179 USD
- 25-percent more contrast with 212 ppi
- 62-percent more pixels than previous model
- Capacitive, frontlit display – light travels down to the screen like ambient light
- Uses "patented nanoimprinted light guide" and "revolutionary display stack"
- 8 weeks of battery life with light on
- 9.1-mm thin, 7.5 ounces
- Interface similar to Kindle Fire's UI
- Light can be easily adjusted on any page
- "Time to Read" shows how much time is left to read a chapter, a book and more
- 3G service will be provided free
The official announcement can be read here.
He next showed an improved version of the Kindle e-reader, and the [popular 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet:
Revamped Kindle
Pre-order today – ships September 14
$69 USD
- Black casing
- Crisper screen
Revamped 7-inch Kindle Fire
Pre-order today – ships September 14
$159 USD
- Double the RAM
- 40-percent faster
- Longer battery life
Finally he got to the meat of the show: the highly-rumored Kindle Fire HD. There will be three in all: a 7-inch 16 GB model, an 8.9-inch 16 GB model, and an 8.9-inch 32 GB 4G LTE model:
Kindle Fire HD
Pre-order now
7-inch Wi-Fi only version (16 GB): $199 USD – ships September 14
8.9-inch Wi-Fi only version (16 GB): $299 USD – ships November 20
8.9-inch 4G LTE version (32 GB): $499 USD
- 8.8-mm thin, 20 ounces
- IPS display, 254 ppi, 1920 x 1200 resolution (8.9-inch)
- IPS display with 1280 x 800 resolution (7-inch)
- HDMI output
- Bluetooth connectivity
- Touch sensor on top of display is laminated with Advanced True Wide polarizing filter, reducing glare by 25-percent
- TI OMAP4470 SoC, Imagination SGX544 graphics engine
- Two speakers on each end
- The first tablet to feature Dolby Digital Plus
- Dual band Wi-Fi (MIMO) supporting both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands
- Front-facing HD camera supported by Skype
- New email app
** world-class Exchange support
** faster access to new email
** improved synch reliability
** synch contacts & calendars
** supports Gmail, Hotmail & Yahoo
- Custom Facebook app
- Support for multiple profiles
Now here's the supporting wireless service for the 4G LTE model:
Amazon 4G LTE Package
- $49.99 USD per year
- 250 MB per month
- 20 GB of cloud storage
- $10 Appstore credit
In addition to the devices, Amazon also revealed a batch of new services mostly focused on the new Kindle Fire HD tablets:
Whispersync for Voice (press release)
- 100,000 Audiobooks will be added
- Allows customers to synchronize their Kindle books with professionally-narrated audiobooks—customers can start reading a book on Kindle Fire and seamlessly switch to listening to the companion audiobook, picking up exactly where they left off
Immersion Reading (press release)
- Improve understanding with dual-sensory reading
- Listen to professional narration while you read
- Synchronized real-time highlights
Whispersync for Games
- Syncs a customer’s place in the game and saves unlocked levels, so even if they get a new device, the progress is backed up in the cloud.
X-Ray for Books
- With a single tap, readers can see all the passages across a book that mention ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics that interest them, as well as more detailed descriptions from Wikipedia and Shelfari, Amazon’s community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers.
X-Ray for Movies (press release)
- Thanks to IMDb, customers can look up any actor in the scene or movie, see what other movies they have been in, and view photos, biographies and more
- Feature pops up when movie is paused
X-Ray for Textbooks
- A smart glossary to help students learn, embedded into each page
- Offers information pulled from YouTube, Wikipedia, etc
Kindle Free Time
- Allows parents to set separate time limits for kids, depending on content
- Parents select all of the content their kids can see and kids can’t exit FreeTime without a password
- Will be available for free on all of the new Kindle Fire devices starting in the coming weeks
Kindle Serials (press release)
- One $1.99 payment for the entire collection
- Can be read in installments
The official, full-blown announcement for the Kindle Fire HD tablets and related services can be accessed here. Also during the press event, Bezos pointed out just how awesome Amazon is with authors:
Kindle Direct Publishing
- Authors can publish in hours
- Authors publish for free
- Authors keep their copyrights
- Authors publish on the schedule
- Authors can distribute globally
- Authors get royalties of 70-percent
Kindle Singles
- 3.5 million sold
- 35 have reached the Kindle Top 50
- Authors have included Stephen King, Lee Child, Karin Slaughter
Except everything your familiar with regarding Android will pretty much be non-existent on this tablet.
HOPEFULLY there will be custom ROM's available for this tablet days or weeks of release.
Either way I'll eventually be getting one because damn.. Thats a mighty nice screen, speaker set, specs and price.
No.. There are ad supported versions, but not all of them are add supported.
I own a non add supported Kindle Keyboard 3G, and it's wonderful.
Better than that Tegra 3 Geforce rubbish that lags in almost all intensive games.
I just don't think 250MB/month will be enough for anybody other than the average person checking email - it limits what you can really do with the tablet. I had the 3GB/mo plan and streamed Pandora at work (9 hrs/day, 5 days/wk) for a whole month and hit about 2.5-2.75GB.
The lady has the original Fire--which was okay for what it was, but nothing impressive IMHO (and its deployment of various things vs. on standard android tablets can be a bit perplexing). But now that Amazon is making real tablets (i.e., essentially everything but a microSD card slot--and I see now also no GPS still), they are looking to be a really good alternative to standard android tablets. Before this announcement, I was pretty much banking on my next tablet being one of the flavors of the Win8 devices, but now seeing this release info, the 8.9" Fire HD might be really appealing, especially since I've noticed that despite delusions of using my android tab for productivity-related stuff, I mainly use it for video-watching and email/web stuff (you know, because productivity sucks on android tablets still).
Just wish they would make a keyboard dock with expanded battery like the TF.
So an ad is going to be shown during the portion of time between when I wake up the device and swipe to unlock it. Meh, big freaking deal, hardly something to worry about. And to be honest, if an ad gets pushed that allowed for a cheaper MSRP for the device, but also caters to my product tastes, all the better--that's what Amazon's whole goal is, and if I'm being offered a discount/coupon on something that I'd normally buy, I'm all for that. If I can get a device with all of these features for $499 and I have to see an ad that I might be interested in, I'll put up with that. And I'm betting tons of other people will too.
Now, 1- you will not taste the feces 2- you will not smell the feces 3- it will not harm you in any way 4- it may actually introduce helpful bacteria into your digestive system that are medically beneficial.
But here's the thing. A lot of people will not want the burger because it has feces. Now, if you want to eat the feces burger, that is 100% your choice and perfectly ok. But don't be upset at people who might not want the burger, even if it is only 50 cents.
F-cking idiots.
In fact, I would pay amazon to put ads in my kindle 3, lol. Instead I got like $40 discount with hit. My friends were so jealous, because my locked screen is always exciting.
Not sure about the kindle tablet with ads though, if it's only appearing on locked screen then I'll be all over it. As long as it doesn't hurt battery. Because it does not hurt battery of kindle 3.
I know you didn't say everyone (and I know I exaggerated the situation). I'd be willing to bet that currently, more than 1% of hamburgers is already poo. Not that it matters since that has nothing to do with this situation. Remember what happened with the ad-sponsored kindle? Despite a vocalized outcry against it in the online world, it went on to become Amazon's best-selling electronics item, better than the non-sponsored kindle, indicating that the consumers are happy to subsidize the purchase price of their items with occasional advertisements.
Yes, but you only see the ad if the device is idled at the home or lock screens. Out of all the times someone is using a tablet, how frequently are they idled at the lock screen or home screen? Hardly ever if they're actually using their tablet, so it has zero impact on the usability of the tablet.
Amazon knows what they're doing here, and they know that people will be happy to pay a reduced price (from otherwise) if it means showing targeted ads. Much like how when you log in to your amazon page it shows almost the same thing--items you "might be interested in." Sure, it's not the same thing as seeing amazon ads the entire time you're using your computer, but then again, Amazon isn't selling you an ad-subsidized computer.
that's the most idiotic analogy i've ever read.
what if you were about to buy a car and they offered you to take $2000 off in exchange for putting a banner on your doors?