Hasta La Gadget!

If there’s one disadvantage about shopping online it has to be the fact that you have to wait for what you want. Even though it’s so convenient to just buy what you want from the comfort of your own home, you usually have to spend a day or two (or sometimes even weeks) just waiting for the package to be delivered to your doorstep. And let’s not forget about the shenanigans that couriers pull off from time to time. However, it looks like Amazon might be coming up with a plan to change all that (for itself).
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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Android Jelly Bean ported to Kindle Fire, Amazon GameCircle Gives Developers Access to Amazon Customers and New APIs,

Not everyone has the luxury of going to the spa at least once a week for some much-needed pampering and sweat time at the sauna. If you’re a girl or guy who wishes you could go sweat it out at the sauna more often, then a portable and practical solution (although we give no assurances that it works) is the Sauna Suit.

With this thing, what you see is really what you’ll get. It’s a suit fashioned from heavy-duty PVC material that makes sure that you sweat it out, regardless of what you’re doing.

Mop the floor, dust the windows, bake a cake, make dinner, do all the chores you need to do while losing all that excess water weight in the process. Just make sure you don’t overdo it, for your own health’s sake.

The Sauna Suit is available from Amazon, and costs between $10 and $26(USD) depending on the model.

[via Gadgets Matrix]

Amazon’s next-gen Kindle faces manufacturing delays because of its new e-paper illumination system, insiders in the production process are whispering, potentially pushing availability back into September. At fault is the front light system Amazon is reportedly implementing to improve low-light ebook readability, DigiTimes‘ sources claim, as the company takes on Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight.

Previously, Amazon had been expected to bring the new Kindle to market at the beginning of Q3 2012, pegging retail availability as early as this month. However, supply chain sources say the retailer has frozen shipments of select Kindle components, indicating a shut-down as the fault is worked through, with that process potentially taking July and August to complete.

Ereaders like the Kindle and NOOK using e-paper displays from manufacturers like E Ink differ from traditional LCD screens in that they lack a backlight. Instead, they reflect ambient light back out through the display, meaning they are easier on the eyes and can be use even in direct sunlight – in fact, the screen only gets clearer the stronger the light directed upon it.

However, that also means that in low-light situations, the e-paper displays can be tricky to use, especially given such panels generally have worse contrast levels than LCD or OLED. One solution is front-lighting, where an LED light source on top of the e-paper screen creates artificial ambient lighting.

Amazon is yet to confirm the new Kindle, though the company is also believed to be working on a smartphone and a larger Kindle Fire tablet as it challenges Google’s Nexus 7 among other devices.

Next-gen Kindle suffering screen-light setbacks tip insiders is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’re no CSI, but if we were Amazon, planning to make a phone, we’d definitely want to make sure developers were happy, that we had some weight in the patent world, and had an idea of the end design. With that all sorted, we’d likely hire a senior Director of Business Development from a major competitor — which is exactly what has happened. Robert Williams, formerly of said position at Microsoft Windows Phone is joining his fellow WP alumni, Brandon Watson, over at camp Bezos as Director of the App Store. Of course, this could just be a strategic move on behalf of the company’s Android market, and the Amazon phone is still very much just a rumor, but with more pieces of the puzzle starting to fit, and the book seller’s ability to turn things on their head, we’re far from ruling it out just yet.

Filed under: Cellphones

Former Windows Phone Director Robert Williams joins Amazon, stirs rumor pot originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 04:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jelly Bean(s) for everyone — essentially, that’s just what Google’s done for the tech savvy underground with 4.1.1’s release in AOSP. Not two days after that source code was made available, has a developer by the name of Hashcode worked to get an early build up and running on Amazon’s Kindle Fire. If you’ll remember, that Bezos-backed slate runs a heavily customized UX with Gingerbread buried deep at its core and official plans for a software update beyond its 2.3 underpinnings have not been announced. So, for adventurous owners that are sick of living in the software-past, but aren’t quite ready to part ways with 200 bills for that very now Nexus 7, a beta ROM is at the ready. Naturally, you’ll need to have your device rooted and loaded with a custom recovery to get things going but, take note, this work-in-progress is far from complete: hardware video acceleration isn’t yet supported and WiFi is somewhat unstable. Fixes are assuredly on the way, so the less carefree might want to abstain from flashing at the moment. For everyone else, you can find the necessary downloads at the source below and, while you’re at it, check out the video tour after the break.

Update: Looks like the crew got Google’s apps (Play Store, Gmail, etc.) working as well as WiFi. Check out the updated tour video here.

Continue reading Jelly Bean spreads the butter to Amazon’s Kindle Fire in unofficial beta build (video)

Filed under: Tablet PCs, Software

Jelly Bean spreads the butter to Amazon’s Kindle Fire in unofficial beta build (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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