Hasta La Gadget!

Amazon is boosting its R&D work into digital media, including “interactive digital services” for consoles, smart TV, tablets and other mobile devices, with a new Digital Media Innovation Hub opening in the UK. The new 47,000 sq. ft. center in Central London will pull together software engineers, UI experts and graphic designers, who will likely be responsible for not only bringing Amazon’s site up to date, but for developing the next-gen Kindle Fire tablet interface and software for the much-rumored Kindle smartphone.

Amazon is calling on its staff resources from streaming rental firm LOVFiLM as well as Pushbutton, its 2011 acquisition developing digital media interfaces for new platforms. Pushbutton is already responsible for the LOVEFiLM interfaces on the iPad, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The design and development teams from both companies will be brought together at the new London hub, working on digital media projects for the global market. Amazon says their goals will be “the creation of interactive digital services for TVs, game consoles, smartphones and PCs; the development of the digital media experience on Amazon websites around the world; and the building of services and APIs that power that digital media experience.”

Digital media is the cornerstone of Amazon’s Kindle range, all the devices of which are primarily intended to encourage user to buy or rent more content. The low price of the Kindle Fire, for instance, is a loss-leader of sorts, with Amazon trading the low upfront margin on the hardware itself for the promise of greater media sales along the line.

That same strategy is tipped to be at the heart of Amazon’s upcoming smartphone. The handset would be Android-based but heavily reskinned, ousting Google’s own content stores in favor of Amazon’s own media and app distribution.

Amazon Digital Media Innovation Hub will push next-gen content delivery is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Amazon’s larger Kindle Fire is still in the pipeline, sources insist, scaling up from the existing 7-inch slate as Apple reportedly scales down to tweener tablet levels. A namedrop in the same NYT article that threw further weight against the iPad mini rumors, according to unnamed developers the retailer is pushing ahead with what’s tipped to be a roughly 10-inch variant of the Kindle Fire, bringing the challenge to Apple’s new iPad.

While Amazon spokespeople unsurprisingly declined to comment on the newspaper’s chatter, the idea of a new, larger Kindle Fire isn’t exactly new. Even before the original Kindle Fire was revealed, speculation had it that Amazon was working on not one but two devices: a cheap, small model (which went on to hit virtual shelves at $199) and a larger, more capable version.

That second model never arrived, however, with talk that Amazon encountered issues with components and performance, among other things. However, going by the insider whispers, that work might be culminating again in a larger device due later in 2012.

Exact hardware details are in short supply, but Android is undoubtedly running – albeit heavily reskinned for Amazon’s content-selling purposes – under the hood, and a screen sized more akin to the 9.7-inch current iPad is likely.

Any launch is most likely to take place alongside the second-generation 7-inch Kindle Fire, which as rumor would have it is due in Q3 with a 1280 x 800 display. Amazon is also tipped to be working on a Kindle smartphone.

10-inch Kindle Fire tipped as Amazon new iPad challenge imminent is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A former Microsoft Windows Phone exec has jumped ship to Amazon, where he will head the retailer’s Appstore efforts, lending further weight to rumors that the company plans a smartphone of its own. Robert Williams was, until last month, Microsoft’s senior director of business development in the Windows Phone division, but according to his LinkedIn profile is now working with Amazon to feather the app nest for what’s speculated to be the company’s push into mobile.

Rumors of a Kindle smartphone have persisted for some months now, with Amazon’s Appstore software distribution being seen as a footstep toward a full device under its own brand. That, it’s speculated, would follow a similar near-loss-leader strategy as the Kindle ereaders, with cheap hardware being balanced against the promise of long-term content purchases from Amazon’s ebook, music, movie and other stores.

Williams worked as business development lead for four years with Microsoft, and before that was senior director of the company’s “Premium Mobile Experiences” group. His exact role at Amazon is unclear, though the retailer has been bullish on its intention to push apps as another string to its digital content bow.

That could come into play for an Amazon phone, or indeed new Kindle Fire tablets. As well as a refresh for the current, 7-inch model, there’s also talk of a larger 10-inch Kindle Fire in the pipeline, both running Google’s Android OS albeit with heavy reskinning.

Yesterday, Amazon launched GameCircle, the company’s cross-device synchronization and leaderboard system for mobile gamers. That puts the company head to head with Apple’s Game Center.

[via The Verge]

Amazon grabs ex-Windows Phone app chief amid Kindle phone chatter is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google may have introduced the Nexus 7 at a low $199 price point, but Amazon brought the Kindle Fire to the masses last year at the same price point. Although it was running a forked version of Android, it could be rooted and hacked to run custom ROMs. Now some enterprising hackers on xda-developers have ported the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean, across to Amazon’s cheap tablet.

Not much is known about the ROM right now, although it looks like basic functionality is working. Users will need to root their Kindle Fire first, then flash the provided ROM and Google Apps package. A quick fix is then needed in order to restore WiFi functionality, but after that you should be good to go. The only major feature that’s missing is hardware acceleration for video playback. Texas Instruments hasn’t added in code to support Jelly Bean just yet, so users may be waiting before they can get perfectly smooth playback in apps like YouTube and Netflix.

Other than that, you’re getting the full AOSP experience, with the ROM compiled from the latest source (4.1.1). Google were keen to point out the new features at I/O which included Project Butter, introducing frame buffering and VSync for dramatically improved performance and fluidity throughout Android. Google Now, meanwhile, acts as a personal assistant that will monitor your habits and surroundings while serving up relevant information such as the weather or local transit points. Notifications have also been improved, and some mild UI changes have been made.

Kindle Fire gets AOSP Jelly Bean ROM is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Amazon has launched a synchronized gaming platform for Kindle Fire owners, Amazon GameCircle, challenging Apple’s Game Center in the process. GameCircle pulls together achievements into social leaderboards, as well as offering for games what Amazon WhisperSync already does for ebooks: allowing you to pick up where you left off playing when you switch device.

The new Achievements component will track any trophies, treasures, badges and awards that the player has collected. It will support the ability to pause playback and check the achievements summary, then jump back into gameplay; alternatively, the new Sync system will automatically save the current progress and allow the gamer to pick it back up on another Amazon device.

That’s likely to come into its own if, as the rumors seem to be building toward, Amazon launches a Kindle smartphone of its own. Then, multi-device synchronization will be particularly important as Amazon weighs into the tablet and phone market currently dominated by iOS and Android devices.

Leaderboards, meanwhile, will show score comparison information and percentile rankings, to quickly highlight how gamers compare with each other. Meanwhile, developer APIs will be available to allow hooking into GameCircle more straightforward; you can sign up for early access here.

Temple Run, Triple Town, Doodle Jump and Collapse! are among the first titles to support Amazon GameCircle.

Amazon GameCircle challenges Apple Game Center ahead of Kindle phone is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.