Aug 30
The Verge claims it’s got its hands on an image of Amazon’s new Kindle Fire being announced next week. We’re dubious. More »
Aug 30
Amazon’s Kindle Fire has sold out just in time for the company’s next big event
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Amazon has just announced that the Kindle Fire has joined the Kindle Touch on the out-of-stock list, presumably forever, a week before the company’s mysterious product announcement. Jeff Bezos has teased that the company’s got an “exciting roadmap” ahead, which we’d expect to include at least one touchscreen e-reader and a vastly revamped 7-inch tablet, designed to better compete with Google’s similarly sized budget offering.
Continue reading Amazon’s Kindle Fire has sold out just in time for the company’s next big event
Filed under: Tablets
Amazon’s Kindle Fire has sold out just in time for the company’s next big event originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Aug 30
Amazon applies for dual-display device patent, where e-ink and LCD play nice together
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Been holding out on that Kindle Fire purchase because you just can’t wean yourself off the eye-friendly e-ink? Well, this patent application from the folk at Amazon suggests this is something they’re not unaware of. The patent outlines a device incorporating two or more displays, one being static in nature (a-la e-ink) and the other more suitable for video (that’d be LCD or OLED etc). If you’re thinking this sounds like a fast route to flat-battery town, the patent argues to the contrary. The static display would save power by offloading the workload from the LCD, when its slow moving nature was more suitable to the content. Will we see something like this popping up next week? One can but dream.
Amazon applies for dual-display device patent, where e-ink and LCD play nice together originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 06:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Aug 29
We know Jeff Bezos & Co. have some sort of intriguing announcement planned for next week, but while we wait for that to take place, you might want to update your iOS-friendly Kindle application. Amazon just pushed out version 3.2 of the reading app and it’s loaded with a slew of new features, including adjustable margins for your “preferred reading experience,” rapid highlights to let users mark passages within their content, as well as improved brightness controls that, in theory, should make the overall viewing experience a tad bit better. Meanwhile, “Print Replica Textbooks” have been enhanced with fresh highlighting traits and an all-new notebook feature to save bookmarks, notes and images. The Kindle update can be snagged now from the App Store directly from any Cupertino-made slab, or you could always click on the source link below — your choice.
Filed under: Software
Kindle for iOS updated with rapid highlights, adjustable margins and more originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 01:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Aug 27
We hope your heart wasn’t set on snagging a Kindle Touch before heading off to school this fall. Both the WiFi and 3G versions of the reader are no longer available as new devices from Amazon’s US pages — if you want one at all in the country, you’ll have to swing past a retail store or scour the virtual bargain bins for used models. Suffice it to say that the timing of this vanishing act is extremely convenient in light of Amazon’s special event next week, although just what it means is very much an unknown. Is there a light-up sequel on its way? A winnowing of the e-reader line to fewer models? Or just a quick inventory check? We’ll have a better answer on September 6th, but the out-of-stock notice is a not-so-friendly reminder that patience is a virtue.
Amazon Kindle Touch goes out of stock, sparks conspiracy theories originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Aug 27
Amazon says more items are now shipped with Prime than free shipping, dishes a few other stats
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Amazon isn’t one to provide a lot of specific numbers on the products and services it offers, but it has confirmed today that its $79 a year Prime service recently crossed a fairly significant milestone. The company says that more items are now shipped with Prime’s two-day shipping than with its standard Free Super Saver Shipping — which is, presumably, quite a lot. Of course, Prime has grown to become considerably more than just a premium shipping option since it launched in 2005, and Amazon has also taken the opportunity to divulge a few other details on the service. On Prime Instant Video, it says that it now offers 22,000 titles for streaming, a growth of 70 percent this year — it also notes, somewhat interestingly, that 96.4 percent of the Prime video catalog is viewed in any given week. As for the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, it now counts 180,000 titles, the most borrowed of which is The Hunger Games.
Amazon says more items are now shipped with Prime than free shipping, dishes a few other stats originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Aug 26
Switched On: Trading places
Posted in: Today's ChiliEach week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
If widespread rumors hold true, the coming weeks will see two of the most successful tablet vendors invade each other’s screen size turf. Apple, which once rebuked the 7-inch tablet as unfit for normally proportioned human hands, appears ready to try its own hand at an iPad rumored to be on the larger side of the 7- to 8-inch range. Amazon, which lagged its bookselling rival Barnes & Noble in bringing out a color tablet, stands ready to introduce an infernal successor to the Kindle Fire that may include a display that is close to 9-inches or larger.
It’s not quite the first ride along the screen size escalator for either company. For Apple, a smaller iPad would fill in the iOS screen size gap between the iPhone and iPad. For Amazon, also rumored to be working on a phone, a larger color tablet would revisit the ground it explored to lackluster results with the Kindle DX. That product hasn’t kept up with even e-paper-based e-readers with advances such as touchscreens and side-lighting, both of which are found in the latest Nook Simple Nook.
Continue reading Switched On: Trading places
Filed under: Tablets
Switched On: Trading places originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Aug 2012 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Aug 23
We can’t say we didn’t see this coming, but we’re certainly excited at the potential that Amazon’s upcoming press event holds. The online mega-retailer is doing an press conference on Thursday September 6th, and while there’s not a lot in the way of info for the California-based event, we’re guessing the word “Kindle” might come up once or twice… What can we expect? A Fire sequel? Some illuminated e-ink readers? Time will tell — but no matter what it is, you can bet we’ll be there to cover it.
Filed under: Tablet PCs
Amazon throwing press conference September 6th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Aug 2012 14:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Aug 22
Indian consumers haven’t been cut off from Amazon’s world of e-book goodies, but their experience is about to get a lot more native with the launch of a local Kindle Store. The prices of over a million books are now available in rupees, and if you’re in need of hardware, the latest bare-bones Kindle can now be found in-store at Croma for Rs. 6,999. That E Ink Pearl screen comes at a premium, however, as there are more than a few budget-friendly tablets available in the country which support the Kindle app. The best news is probably reserved for fledgling writers, who now have access to Kindle Direct Publishing to showcase their work and hopefully net some purchases.
Continue reading Amazon launches India Kindle Store, swap rupees for good reads
Amazon launches India Kindle Store, swap rupees for good reads originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Aug 21
Welcome to Tuesday evening, everyone. Let’s jump right into the news, shall we? Today Apple delivered its closing arguments in the suit against Samsung, and it didn’t pull any punches. Additionally, we found out that jurors deciding the case have been given various devices to help them decide who’s in the right, but can’t do much of anything with them. Apple’s stock took a bit of a dip after it was crowned the most valuable public company ever, and some good news coming out of Foxconn, as its progress report with Fair Labor Association came back positive.
Apple seems to be preparing its resellers for something, and some are thinking that it’s the rumored iPad Mini. One of Facebook’s earliest investors has sold off 20 million shares of his stock, it appears that a spec list for the next Galaxy Nexus has surfaced, and we think that Samsung might be onto something with it. Google Play gift cards have arrived at a number of retailers across the country, and Canon has announced a pair of new PowerShot cameras.
Nintendo is gearing up to show off the Wii U at a press event on September 13, while Sony says that there won’t be a PS3 price cut anytime soon. Verizon is saying no to late September vacations in anticipation of a new iPhone launch, and Everything Everywhere has been given early 4G access in the UK. Amazon has apparently submitted a new version of the Kindle to the FCC while astronauts aboard the International Space Station performed a spacewalk high above the Earth.
Sadly, the day didn’t only bring exciting news, as we were also told of the shutdown of the classic gaming magazine Nintendo Power. Bejeweled developer PopCap Games announced that it will be letting 50 of its North American employees go, and Dell revealed that profits slipped quite a bit in Q2 of its fiscal year. On a lighter note, Ford has a new vehicle that can reportedly go 570 miles on a single tank of gas, and on a weirder note, eBay has decided to stop allowing the sale of metaphysical items.
That does it for the news, but we’ve also got a couple SlashGear originals for you to check out, like this hands-on with Jawbone JAMBOX The Remix bluetooth speaker, and this review of the HP Z1 Workstation. Enjoy the rest of your evening, folks!
[Illustration via Vicki Ellen Behringer]
SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 21, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
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