It’s two years since the first Kindle Fire tablets, and Amazon hasn’t been sitting still: the new Kindle Fire HDX line-up is evidence of that. Still aggressively targeting cost-conscious users with a near-cost sticker price Jeff Bezos & Co. hope to offset with music, ebook, movie, and other purchases, the Kindle Fire HDX take on […]
So, imagine you just shelled out $200 or $300 for one of those new Kindle Fire HDXs, only to have it scratch in your backpack as you pull it out to gloat to one of your friends. Oh, you poor, poor soul. If only you’d had the foresight to pick up an Origami cover. Like the new tablets, the case goes up for pre-order today — and will start shipping at the same time as their respective devices. Jeff Bezos was pretty keen to show the accessories off today, demonstrating how built-in magnets allow them to fold together in such a way that the tablets can be positioned in either landscape or portrait modes.
Neater still for the 8.9-inch version (the one with the rear-facing camera, mind), is a feature that triggers the photo app when the cover is slid down on the slate. Behold, magnetic magic that would leave the Insane Clown Posse pondering scientific inquiry for months to come. Amazon’s made cases for both HDX models and the new HD. The polyurethane versions of the 7- and 8.9-inch HDX cases run $50 and $55, respectively, with the leather versions coming in at $65 and $70. The covers for the HD run $45 and $60.
Philip Palermo contributed to this report.%Gallery-slideshow90902%
Okay, okay, one more bit of info to share from Amazon tonight. Those snazzy new Fire HDX tablets are, as expected, getting cellular options. This time out, however, the company is adding an additional carrier. In addition to AT&T, Fire buyers will be able to go with a Verizon version. That upgrade will cost you an extra $100 on top of the base price, bringing the 7-inch version to $329 and the 8.9-inch one to $479. According to Amazon, “standard plans” will be supported for the two carriers. A breakdown of that pricing can be found after the break.
It’s no surprise, of course, that the Kindle Fire HDX was the thing Amazon wanted to shout about from the Seattle mountaintops today. But Jeff Bezos had another little surprise up his impeccably tailored sleeves — a surprise that makes the $229 HDX look downright extravagant. A warm (if decidedly overcast) Pacific Northwest welcome to the new Fire HD. Well, “new” is perhaps not entirely accurate. This Kindle shares a lot with its predecessor, though there are some notable changes. Namely, the body. See, if we’re strictly talking form factor here, this guy is a dead ringer for the 7-inch HDX. Inside, however, you’ll find last-gen processing power: a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and on the front, the same old 1,280 x 800 display. Still, not too shabby for $139 — that’s $60 less than the last version cost moments before this post went up.
That price also gets you access to Fire OS 3.0, aka “Mojito,” Amazon’s latest sugary rum of an operating system. Naturally, some of the new features just won’t work on this hardware — things like Mayday, which requires a microphone for use. Like the HDX, this slate plays nicely with those neat new Origami covers. You can pre-order one right this second, but you’ll have to hang on until October 2nd before it actually starts shipping.
Philip Palermo contributed to this report.%Gallery-slideshow90901%
Source: Amazon
“Today, we’re going to show you the third leg of our device business strategy,” Jeff Bezos begins. His audience is modest: four people sitting around a table in an Amazon conference room. It’s a far cry from the Santa Monica airplane hangar his company rented out for last year’s event. Bezos picks up a dry erase marker and begins breaking down the first two parts, elements the company has focused on since it first began building Kindles. “One,” he says, narrating the words as he goes along, like an enthusiastic high school teacher, “premium products at non-premium prices. Two: make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices.”
“We sell our hardware and roughly break even and then when they use the devices and buy content,” he adds. “Our point of view is that this is more aligned with the customer. We don’t have to get discouraged when we see people using fourth-generation Kindles. Bezos draws a Venn diagram to illustrate the third part of the puzzle. He writes “customer delight” on one side and “deep integration throughout the entire stack” on the other. The intersection houses the “hardest” and “coolest things,” which utilize OS, key apps, the hardware stack and the cloud. “It’s a little abstract,” he adds, “but I think it will be extremely clear when I show it to you.” The template for the third piece of the puzzle is the new Kindle Fire HDX series — the company’s latest premium tablets.%Gallery-slideshow90904% %Gallery-slideshow90903%
Source: Amazon (1), (2)
Last week some details surfaced of new Kindle Fire tablets that are in the works, but haven’t yet been announced. That link brought with it some hardware details. This week another image of the tablet has been leaked, and this time it’s the front, not the back that we saw last week. The photo appears […]
The case for an incoming Kindle Fire update seems to be getting stronger every day — not only have we seen benchmarks and alleged photos of the device, but now @evleaks seems to have come across an official render. The purported press image matches previous leaks in bezel size and design, but lacks the front-facing camera Amazon introduced with the Kindle Fire HD. This leads us to suspect that the render is of a non-HD model of Bezos’ latest tablet. The flagship model is rumored to have a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, the aforementioned camera upfront and an OS based on Android 4.2.2. We’re still waiting for Amazon to give the official word of course, but for Kindle users waiting for an upgrade, it’s something to salivate over.
Source: @evleaks (Twitter)
Just a few months ago, we heard Amazon was in the process of updating its Kindle Fire tablets to receive improved displays and a slightly tweaked design. Shortly after the report was published, Amazon cut the price of its Kindle Fire HD by $40, which lead many to believe a new version was going to be announced sooner than later. It looks like we might finally be hearing about the next Kindle Fire HD as BGR is claiming it has secured images of what it believes to be Amazon’s next tablet. (more…)
Next-Gen Amazon Kindle Fire HD Leaked Photos Hit The Internet original content from Ubergizmo. 
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If you’re in the market for a Kindle Fire tablet, today might be the day to pick one up, as Amazon is having an all-day Gold Box Deals sale on a variety of Kindle Fire models. At various times throughout the day, Amazon will be putting a specific Kindle Fire model on sale, with a […]
If you’ve been thinking about picking up a Kindle Fire HD
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