Through the magic of pure coincidence (or not), Amazon and Google have spontaneously started offering e-books in the land of Brazil. In addition, Amazon has also introduced its Kindle e-reader to the region (available over “the next few weeks”) for the equivalent of $145. The Next Web notes that Amazon’s move comes after it successfully gained control of the desired domain name from a local company, and also after it poached Apple’s Brazilian director to head its own operations there. Meanwhile, Mountain View’s Brazilian incursion lacks political shenanigans, but adds movie rentals and purchases. If you’re in the area, head to the source links to bookmark something unputdownable.
Amazon has launched Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, the company’s new kid-friendly entertainment service for those times you wish your beloved offspring would just focus on their Kindle Fire tablet and stop bothering you. The subscription-based service pulls in books, games, educational apps, movies, and TV shows that Amazon guarantees are child-appropriate, with characters like Elmo, Dora, and Curious George; all of the apps have the adverts, social media integration, and in-app purchasing disabled.
That means no extortionate bills when you discover your beloved child has been stabbing the “buy extra gold!” button with their chubby, sausage-like fingers for the past hour. The “Unlimited” package also means there’s no restriction on how many times they watch individual episodes or movies.
Amazon has partnered with Common Sense Media for show, book, and app ratings, making sure that not only does no inappropriate content make it through into FreeTime, but that what the child does see is likely to be interesting for their particular age group. Parents can also add their own picks manually for inclusion, and place individual limits on how much video, app, and reading time is allowed, as well as whether browsing is blocked.
FreeTime content is accessed from a separate interface, and the system supports multiple profiles for each child which keeps their own position in books, TV shows, and movies; they’ll need a password to escape the app to the regular interface. There’s also topic-based search.
Amazon FreeTime Unlimited is priced at $4.99 per child or $9.99 per family, per month; Prime subscribers get a discount, taking it down to $2.99 per child or $6.99 per family. It’ll be supported on the Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ with a software update “in the coming weeks” and a month’s free trial to get you started.
We got a peek at Amazon’s Kindle FreeTime during its press conference back in September, but now it’s making the family-friendly feature part of a subscription package available across the family of Kindle Fire devices. More than just a submenu of video like the ones offered by Netflix and Hulu Plus, it resembles the Kid’s Corner launcher in Windows Phone 8 by password locking children out of the rest of the device, but with a preselected package of content to fill it.
Available to Prime subscribers for $2.99 per month, per child or for $6.99 for a family-wide license of up to six kids (don’t have Prime? you can pick it up for $4.99/$9.99 a month), kids can browse through the selection of educational apps, games, books, movies and TV shows. It also throws in other features parents will dig, with a personalized login and bookmarks for the kids, plus the ability to set time limits on use that can be specifically tailored by category.
All of this happens with them seeing any ads or racking up a bill for video on-demand or in-app purchases, since those hooks have been removed, creating an environment endorsed by Common Sense Media. Big names like Disney, Nickelodeon, DC Comics and PBS are all on the list, with the promise of a store of content to keep the little ones distracted/learning as long as necessary. To set it up on your device, you’ll only need to create a FreeTime account if you haven’t already, and hit the free trial button.
Want to see it for yourself? The feature is available in an OTA software update rolling out over “the coming weeks” to the new Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9, with a free month of trial access available to owners. There are more details in the press release after the break, or beyond the source link.
Amazon today launched FreeTime Unlimited, a subscription service that offers movies, games, and books for the kids. The launch follows the recent software update to Kindle Fire, which introduced FreeTime, a profile system designed to restrict access to certain content.
Independent from its existing Amazon Prime subscription, FreeTime Unlimited adds to this safe environment by including an entire library of content from Disney, Nickelodeon, DC Comics, Marvel, HIT Entertainment, and others. And to build out its games collection, Amazon has worked with app developers to institute safety measures. Kids are presented with stripped-down versions of existing apps minus in-app purchase capability, Facebook or Twitter integration, and advertisements.
With the launch, Amazon introduces different ways for kids to browse the library. For example, kids can select a character, such as Elmo, Dora or Buzz Lightyear, then see everything related to each character. For existing Prime members, the service costs $2.99 a month per profile, or $6.99 for a family. Non-Prime subscribers will have to pay $4.99 per month per profile, or $9.99 for the entire family. Of course, you can choose to make all your kids use the same profile. It works on the first-generation Kindle Fire and the two new Kindle Fire HD models.
When asked whether it was hard to negotiate with Disney, Peter Larson, VP of Amazon Kindle, answered “it’s hard to negotiate with us as well.” It remains to be seen whether content partners provide a meaningful collection or just a sample of their productions. The latest Pixar movie won’t be included, for example. International support is another issue, as well.
With the launch of FreeTime Unlimited, Amazon adds another component to its content strategy. The company has said for months that it makes little to no profit with each Kindle sale. Instead, they want people to use their devices and buy content.
As I previously wrote, people buy an Amazon device because it is very easy to watch movies or read books if you are already using Amazon’s content platform. The FreeTime Unlimited subscription creates another use case for the Kindle Fire.
Users of Amazon’s Kindle app for iOS will be pleased to hear that the company has updated the app to include one of the Kindle’s latest new features called X-Ray. The feature enables users to explore the “bones of the book.” Users can view more info about a book, such as ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, and places.
The X-Ray feature is powered by Wikipedia and Shelfari (Amazon’s own community-powered encyclopedia), and it basically allows you to break a book down into different sections like people and terms, and then dig deeper into those individual sections to learn more about them. It’s a really handy for those who are really wanting to fully understand the book they’re reading.
The feature is only compatible with English titles at the moment, and not every single book supports X-Ray — it’s mostly just the popular titles that come with it. However, X-Ray is available for a select number of textbooks, and it gives you “instant access to all the most important terms and concepts, with glossary definitions, links to relevant textbook pages, and related content from Wikipedia and YouTube.”
You’ll need to be running iOS 5 or later in order to update to the newest Kindle app version, but the update is free and it’s available now in the iTunes App Store. We have to give it up for Amazon, though. Their business model is impeccable, and allowing anyone to access and purchase Amazon content, whether they have a Kindle tablet or not, is a good way to get as many customers as possible, no matter the platform.
The holidays are approaching fast, and it’s time to start picking up some gifts: for friends, family, even yourself. But when you’re picking out what to go with, it’s sometimes wise to stay away from the absolute best. Sometimes you just want the best value—something that’s worth every shiny, hard-earned penny. More »
Amazon has announced that its Lovefilm video streaming services now available on a new game console. The console the service is now available on is the Nintendo Wii. Amazon also says that the streaming video service will launch soon on the Nintendo Wii U.
Amazon says that users of the service on the Nintendo game console will be able to stream instant movies and TV shows using the Nintendo Wii Remote. Amazon estimates that the rollout of the service to the Nintendo Wii console will allow 8 million UK fans access to Lovefilm.
The service will cost £4.99 per month. Obviously, the Nintendo Wii console needs to be connected to the Internet to be able to stream content. Movies that are coming to the service this month include Sherlock Holmes, Inception, and Breaking Dawn – Part 1.
The service will also offer European TV favorites including Downton Abbey and Grey’s Anatomy. The Lovefilm app for the Nintendo Wii is available to download today on the Wii Shop Channel. There is no specific date offered for launch on the Nintendo Wii U.
Cloud storage has transformed the way digital music collectors access their media. But with so many competing hosting services, which should you choose? More »
Google has purchased BufferBox, a Canadian startup based in Waterloo that has been in business for about two years. According to sources, Google paid over $17 million for the locker storage provider, although the terms of the deal aren’t available. This could poise the search engine giant as a serious competitor to Amazon Locker, a service that allows buyers to pick up a product at a locker unit rather than receive it at their home or office.
A Google spokesperson told Tech Crunch: “We want to remove as much friction as possible from the shopping experience, while helping consumers save time and money, and we think the BufferBox team has a lot of great ideas around how to do that.” There’s no word on how Google plans to implement the service, with only the acknowledgement that BufferBox will keep its brand.
In excess of 100 BufferBox lockers will be available in Canadian transit depots and other select locations by the end of 2013. Users will be able to subscribe for single-use deliveries. This is, of course, in the same vein as Amazon’s Locker service, which allows users to pick up an item from a locker using a code that is delivered via email once the parcel has arrived.
We reported on November 6th that Staples is set to place Amazon lockers in its retail stores. This is in addition to their current placement in a variety of locations, including drug stores and convenience stores throughout the US. Buyers have three days to pick up an item once they receive the notification that it is available.
With the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 comes the most well-rounded Amazon content delivery system you’ve ever held in two hands – but that’s all it is. This device is being sold as exactly the device it was meant to be: the Amazon Vending Machine HD 8.9, and it takes its job seriously. If you could never bring yourself to pick up an iPad and the Apple-bound content environment that is iTunes, nor could you purchase a Nexus 7 or 10 as connected to Google Play, Amazon might be the third heat you were looking for.
Content Delivery System
It’s a mistake to compare the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 to any other tablet on the market not inside the Kindle Fire family unless you’re a software developer, a hacker, or you’re just about to jump into the digital content arena and have never before purchased yourself a digital video. With the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, the iPad 4th generation (the one with the Lightning port that’s in the store now), and the Google Nexus 10, you’ve got extremely high definition displays, and it’s there you should start if you’re demanding to see the best hardware package.
But here’s the thing: there’s a massive amount of Android tablets on the market today, each of them able to access the whole of the Google Play store. There’s several iPad models in the line’s history, and a set of rather similar Kindle Fire models tablets out there able to access the Amazon content system – but Amazon’s system doesn’t stop at the Kindle Fire. The only system that stops at the hardware (and vice versa) is the iPad.
What the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 does is place the Amazon content system directly at the center of a machine that’s been checked and approved by Amazon itself. With that, it’s been limited to the Amazon content system so that you can be assured an experience that Amazon approves of – Apple does that same thing with the iPad. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is indeed a fabulous place to access your Amazon content.
The connectivity on this device is wi-fi but a 4G LTE bit of AT&T mobile data is available from Amazon if you pick up the edition with that ability. The offer behind that LTE is interesting at $50 a year, but with a limit of 250MB of data a month – this means you’ll be able to use this device for email using that data, and if you start watching streaming content or downloading media, you’ll go over in no time at all. Watch the overage costs rack up and that smile will turn upside down real quick.
Hardware
The display is extremely nice, bringing on a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels over 8.9 inches, that being 254ppi. That’s less than the iPad 4 and less than the Nexus 10, but up at this resolution we’re not able to tell the difference without getting up real, real close – closer than we’d get on any normal day, that’s for sure.
Colors are reproduced extremely accurately and with the darks on this machine being as deep as they are, we’ve been using this machine as a content machine via the miniHDMI as a top pick. Downloading an HD video from Amazon’s collection and playing it on the device or through the microHDMI port to an HDTV makes for a massively impressive experience – amongst the best on the market if not straight up the best there is with a wire.
The speakers on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 are Dolby powered and stereo – bringing on two channels for real. The speakers on this device are loud enough that you’ll not want to be a room away from a sleeping baby when them turned all the way up – you’ll wake that baby up. It’s unfortunate that they’re facing backwards as most of the tablet universe still has them aiming, but holding the tablet with two hands has the sound bouncing off your palms – that’s good enough for most.
Battery life on this device is rather good, especially since you’re only working with wi-fi connectivity at this time. LTE might make you bust down a bit quicker when it comes around, but for now you’ve got a couple of days at least with daily usage as a game-player and TV show downloader/watcher. Chatting on Skype (which is, mind you, generally OK but certainly not the nicest Skype experience on the market by a long shot due to less-than-perfect video quality) will drain your battery quickest.
There’s also a rather nice case/cover that you’ll probably want to pick up from Amazon if/when you purchase the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. It’s made by Amazon and looks like what you’re seeing above, complete with a magnetic “smart” off/on function (as the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 does indeed have that sensor) and has a rubbery bumper that allows it to stand up like you’re seeing here too.
Performance
With the processor mentioned above you’ve got a suitable environment in which you can play most if not all of the most high-powered games on the market. What you’ll see in the video below is Asphalt 7, a racing game, opened and tested in a real basic way just so you can see how quick everything renders out and responds – just as nice as the nicest devices on the market today.
We’ve heard of some people having small problems with the user interface and non-immediate opening of apps and switching between screens, but any such problems were negligible from our perspective. This is a high-quality device and Amazon has created a user interface over the top of Android that should do the original creators proud.
You’ve got a processor from Texas Instruments that’s one of the rarest on the market today, the OMAP4470 dual-core used only on the Nook HD family, Samsung Galaxy Premier, the BlackBerry Dev Alpha B, and a variety of oddities. This processor works perfectly well for this device, comparing in performance with the other dual-core processor on them market in a very general sense to the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor we’ve seen on a large number of smartphones this year including the Galaxy S III and HTC One series.
The processing power here does not bring us as ultra-swift a system as we’re seeing on the Nexus 10 or the iPad 4th gen – but the difference is invisible if you’re not using both one next to the other or doing extensive processor tests in a lab. Once you’ve got it in the lab, on the other hand, you’ll find the device ranking up on systems such as AnTuTu benchmark system with a score of 7247 – nowhere near the quad-core competition.
Store Access
If you’re not planning on purchasing videos from Amazon, you don’t want to use Amazon’s system for music, you’ve got no intention of purchasing any ebooks from Amazon, and you don’t want to use Amazon’s App Store, this is not the tablet for you. This unit is first and foremost a window into the Amazon library of digital content, and you’re going to have to pay for it.
The Amazon store exists at all corners in this device, and the different kinds of media you’re consuming here sit right up front and center. The first display you see on this device once you’ve started it up is a giant set of icons in a side-scrolling gallery that says quite clearly “you’re about to start” rather than “welcome to your Amazon tablet.” If there’s a scale from tablet interfaces that goes from standard computer to window, it starts at Android, moves up to the iPad, and ends at the Amazon Kindle Fire – this is not a device you’re going to use like your notebook or your desktop, it’s a consumption window.
X-Ray
There’s a brand overlay that exists between two different bits of in-content excellence that come with this device working with content from Amazon called X-Ray. This system works in videos as a direct connection to IMDB, showing the actors that are working in essentially any given scene and with books showing keywords and connections to them throughout the story you’re reading – find all the Ali Babas in the story and link in to them with ease.
This system works with a lovely collection of ebooks and videos coming from Amazon – not every single piece of content coming from Amazon, but certainly enough to warrant calling it a great selling point for this tablet. We’re always wondering who the heck that guy is getting his face cut off by the monster in the horror film scene we’re watching – now we know!
Kindle FreeTime
The folks at Amazon have come up with an extremely simple home screen replacement app that brings forth an environment for your kids. This environment is created by you, the parent, and is so simple that you can’t mess it up. You open up Kindle FreeTime and select the profile you want, deciding there what settings you want your child to work with and what apps/media they’re going to be able to see, and bang, you’re done.
From there the person in that profile – child or not – needs a password to exit again. That’s so simple that we wish Amazon would release FreeTime for the Google Play app store – please? Pretty please? For now you’ll need a Kindle Fire to use Kindle FreeTime – and for some parents that might be a deal-maker.
Wrap-up
If you’re deeply invested in the Amazon universe for content, this device is the best content delivery system you’re going to be able to buy today. It’s the biggest tablet Amazon makes at the moment and gives you access to all of your Amazon-held content in high definition, top to bottom. It’s not an Android tablet (as far as the Google Play store is concerned), it’s not an iPad, and it’s not a Windows device. It’s a unique tablet that’s deeply engrained in the Android environment.
The price of this device in its wi-fi configuration – that being the one we’re looking at here in this review – is $299 USD, and for that price there’s no competition unless you want a smaller display and a different content environment. For Amazon users, there’s nothing else – unless of course you consider the smaller version: see our Kindle Fire HD 7 full review as well.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
