Hasta La Gadget!

Interested in what makes your new Kindle Fire HD 7-inch tick? The crew at iFixit certainly is. As is the repair shop’s custom, it just tore down Amazon’s new reader tablet to gauge its repairability as well as look for any surprises. In the case of the revamped Kindle Fire, the fixable design is the main surprise — despite being skinnier than its ancestor, the tablet is easy to open and its components (usually) easy to replace. We’re not as shocked by the choice of hardware makers, which include an LG Display LCD, the expected 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4460 processor and Samsung flash memory. Head on over to the source if you’d like to see the nitty gritty of Amazon’s Android slab and possibly save the trouble of a replacement unit down the road.

Filed under: Tablets

Amazon Kindle Fire HD torn down, proves an easy fix originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were counting on getting all imaginative with the firmware on a new Fire or 7-inch Fire HD, you might want to check out a recent forum post over at XDA. Written by user kinfauns with input from another XDA regular called pokey9000, it concerns evidence that — unlike the original Kindle Fire — both of these devices come with more sophisticated protection, including locked bootloaders and the use of “high security” features offered by Texas Instruments’ OMAP processors. Such discoveries probably won’t inspire the same degree of outrage as certain other locked devices, considering how Amazon is understandably focused on its own ecosystem and advertising, but they might still count as a disadvantage against the pure Android Nexus 7. The XDA thread ends with only the merest hint of hope — the potential for a workaround similar to what’s been used on the Nook Tablet — but it’s hope nonetheless.

Filed under: Tablets

Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablets are likely to be hack-resistant originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, you can certainly snag one of those shiny new Amazon slates straight from the source, but if that famed, speedy shipping isn’t your style, then a trip to the nearest Staples would be recommended. The “That Was Easy” retailer announced earlier it’s now inviting all parties interested in picking up an all-new, 7-inch Kindle Fire HD, a revamped Kindle Fire or that $69 Kindle to visit its brick-and-mortar stores — where, starting today, folks will be able to buy any of the aforementioned devices. While these Kindles can be found listed on the Staples website (see below), the company didn’t mention whether it actually plans to sell them online — perhaps they’re just there in case you’re in need of a little bit of guidance.

Continue reading Staples to offer new Kindle Fire, 7-inch Kindle Fire HD in-store starting today

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Staples to offer new Kindle Fire, 7-inch Kindle Fire HD in-store starting today originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon’s Kindle Fire has declared an all out price war with the iPad. But if you don’t need all those fancy color-screen bells and whistles, you can opt for the even cheaper e-ink Kindle. And if even that’s overkill, Conan O’ Brien has discovered Amazon is selling, or renting, an even cheaper solution. More »

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

For many products — TVs and the iPod, for example — the leap to color displays represented an evolutionary change. But color was just part of the big leap that Amazon made with the Kindle Fire, moving from a reading appliance to a converged device. There was no couching it as “a reader’s tablet”, the positioning Barnes & Noble had sought with the Nook, even though Amazon now claims that it has the “best content ecosystem.” Still, as discussed two weeks ago in Switched On, Amazon still managed to fly well under Apple’s radar with an inexpensive, smaller tablet, one that broke a “magic” price point of $200.

Continue reading Switched On: Low flame

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Switched On: Low flame originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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