Apr 17
Samsung and Amazon have announced an interesting tie up that has resulted in Kindle for Samsung. Kindle for Samsung is a custom eBook service that will provide Samsung device users … Continue reading
Mar 25
After a long wait, the anticipated Amazon refund for certain Kindle customers is arriving in applicable accounts today in the form of an automatic credit. Not everyone will be seeing … Continue reading
Nov 19
Amazon today is rolling out a free software update to the Kindle Paperwhite e-reader, adding Goodreads and FreeTime integration. The update will appear over the next few weeks for Paperwhite owners. Both integrations are designed to maximize reading time and minimize switching from one device to another while reading. The Goodreads integration will let Paperwhite […]
Nov 18
Someone on the Kindle team was undoubtedly a bit broken-hearted when Goodreads integration failed to roll out in time for both the new Paperwhite and Kindle HDX launches. The acquisition certainly made a good deal of sense when it was announced back in March. After all, the service is well-positioned to bring recommendations and a sense of community currently lacking in the Kindle ecosystem. For users, it means more engagement and better tailored recommendations. For Amazon, it means the potential to sell more content – which, let’s face it, is kind of the whole bottom line for the company here. The feature finally arrived today for HD and HDX users, as part of a larger upgrade to Fire OS, which also brings along the Second Screen video feature and added enterprise support. It’ll be coming over-the-air soon enough, but if you want to jump the line, you can download it from Amazon right now.
To get started (once you’re all finished downloading, dragging and dropping Fire OS 3.1), you’ll need to open up the Goodreads app. We were a bit surprised Amazon didn’t make integration feel more baked into the experience, given the time it took to roll out the product. Instead, the offering feels a bit siloed, not unlike the FreeTime parental monitoring available on the tablet at launch. Once fired up, you’ll be asked to create a Goodreads account or login with a current one, tying it to your Amazon account. I had one already, which has long since been dormant, but the official integration with the Kindle ecosystem seems as good an excuse as any to blow a little bit of dust off the old virtual bookshelves.
Nov 14
This week the teams responsible for pushing as many Kindles as possible this holiday season have hit upon a rather lucrative business: custom-made covers. What Amazon intends on doing here is offering up a service that would normally be done by a variety of 3rd-party accessory makers, doing the work themselves to make the whole […]
Nov 04
Amazon has decidedly announced their full support of the new FAA ruling for in-flight device use with not only a suggestion that they’ve always done so, but that they’re willing to let their device prices prove it. Amazon Kindle prices have been kicked down a notch for a single day by the company suggesting they’re […]
Oct 29
This morning the service known as Amazon Kindle MatchBook launched with a whopping 70,000 books in its employ. This service takes a listing of books you’ve purchased (through Amazon) in physical form and offers them up to you in digital format for relatively low prices. Originally suggested to be hitting the books with 10,000 copies, […]
Oct 01
There was surprisingly little fanfare surrounding the announcement of Amazon’s latest Fire tablets. Where last year’s unveiling involved renting out an airplane hangar at the Santa Monica airport, the new tablet trio was quietly shown off to a small gathering of journalists at the company’s Seattle headquarters. Asked why Amazon opted for something so low-key, a rep answered, that CEO Jeff Bezos “just likes to mix things up.” (Those wacky billionaires.) Indeed, there was little rhyme or reason to the scaling back. After all, the new HDX tablets, available in 7- and 9-inch sizes, bring a number of key upgrades to the Kindle Fire line on both the hardware and software fronts.
And that’s a good thing: between the Nexus 7, iPad mini and a seemingly endless parade of pocket-sized tablets, Amazon has more competition to contend with than ever. But while the company’s acknowledged that its tablets are basically just content delivery vessels, it’s chosen to compete on specs as well, with a 1,920 x 1,200, 323-ppi display, a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and new software features that include baked-in video customer support and a “Second Screen” TV feature. So is that enough to keep the Kindle Fire competitive?%Gallery-slideshow99754%
Filed under: Tablets
Sep 24
New hardware without a software refresh? Don’t make Jeff Bezos laugh. Today’s arrival of three new slates also marks the unveiling of the company’s latest tablet operating system. And this time, it even has a name. See, Amazon’s been using “Fire OS” internally to describe the software powering its tablet line, and now we get to use it as well, with the arrival of version 3.0. As ever, Bezos and Co. have based the OS on Android (Jelly Bean, this time out), with this year’s codename being “Mojito” — a move from candy names to sugary cocktails. The operating system will ship on the new HDX and HD devices. We weren’t able to confirm that it will roll out to older devices, but an Amazon rep we spoke with implied that there’s a good chance of that, given earlier precedents.
First thing’s first: there’s still no Google Play access. No surprise there, of course. After all, the company’s in the habit of subsidizing the cost of its hardware based on future content sales. Still, as ever, the company was quick to point out the speed with which its proprietary app store has grown in recent years. UI-wise, things look familiar. Content is still king, with the home screen built around a river of apps, games, movies, music, et cetera. The company did respond to customer concerns, however, by adding a more familiar grid-style layout that you can access with a swipe up, which should appease all you Android users out there. Swipe from the right, and you’ll see Quick Switch, which lets you switch between different recently used pieces of content.
Sep 05
E Ink Carta display promises highest contrast and whitest display in the industry
Posted in: Today's ChiliE Ink has been making some the most popular digital paper screens on the market for a number of years. Screens from this company have turned up in many of the most popular digital readers around. E Ink has today unveiled its next-generation electronic ink display technology called Carta. The Carta display promises to be […]
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