Hasta La Gadget!

Amazon’s just announced that it’s bringing the entire Kindle family to Japan. The basic Paperwhite is now available to pre-order for 8,480 yen (around $106) from the online retailer, with the 3G version arriving at a slightly pricier 12,980 yen (approximately $162) — both will start shipping November 19th. Obviously you’re going to need stuff to read, so the Kindle Store is opening its doors tomorrow and shelves are stocked with over 50,000 Japanese language books (including 10,000 for free) and more than 15,000 manga titles. Amazon’s tablet range is heading to Japan as well, with the Fire costing 12,800 yen (approximately $160) and the 7-inch Fire HD setting wallets back 15,800 yen (almost $200). You’ll have to wait a bit longer for these two, however, as shipping is slated to begin December 19th — hopefully arriving in time to fill those stockings.

Continue reading Kindle Paperwhite and two Fires up for pre-order in Japan, Kindle Store opens there tomorrow

Filed under: Tablets, Amazon

Kindle Paperwhite and two Fires up for pre-order in Japan, Kindle Store opens there tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 02:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Kindle Paperwhite is an amazing ereader. It’s arguably the best on the market. But it’s not flawless. Some users, including several TechCrunch writers, noticed the lighting on their Paperwhite is not evenly spaced, resulting in odd, slightly distracting gaps at the bottom of the screen (see the pic).

Well, in a recent statement, Amazon stepped up to the plate and addressed this lighting issue as well as reaffirming the Paperwhite model has less storage than its predecessor and lacks text-to-speech. Even with these, let’s say design decisions, the Kindle Paperwhite is a fantastic ereader. As John states out in our official review, it’s a reader’s dream.

Full statement,

We want you to know…

Kindle Paperwhite is the best Kindle we’ve ever made by far, but there are certain limitations and changes from prior generations that we want you to know about.

Kindle Paperwhite does not have audio or Text-to-Speech. This makes the device smaller and lighter than it would otherwise be. Audio and an improved Text-to-Speech engine are supported on Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD.

Under certain lighting conditions, the illumination at the bottom of the screen from the built-in light is not perfectly even. See examples of how the screen looks in different lighting conditions. These variations are normal and are located primarily in the margin where text is not present. The illumination is more even than that created by a book light or lighted cover. The contrast, resolution and illumination of the Paperwhite display is a significant step-up from our prior generation.

The Kindle Paperwhite has 2 GB of storage. Some previous Kindle models had 4GB of storage. 2GB allows you to hold up to 1,100 books locally on your device. In addition, your entire Kindle library is stored for free in the Amazon cloud, and you can easily move books from the cloud onto your device.

Thank you, and we hope you enjoy Kindle Paperwhite.
– The Kindle Team

Welcome to Friday, folks. The weekend is here once again, and what better way to kick off the festivities than with a Windows 8 purchase? The new OS went up for pre-order today, while a number of other Windows 8-related stories were popping up all over the place. For instance, we found out that the marketing campaign for Windows 8 cost Microsoft a whopping $1.5 billion, and a collection of HP computers were spotted running Windows 8 on the show floor of one Best Buy store in Minnesota.

Dell is getting in early on the Windows 8 action, opening up pre-orders for a handful of new machines today, and we learned that a staggering 6 billion people around the world are now using a mobile phone of some type. A leaked T-Mobile release roadmap gives us an idea of when the carrier expects to receive a bunch of different devices, including the Windows Phone 8X. We received a rather in-depth look at an LG Nexus prototype today, and LG delivered a brand new Optimus G “product movie” that aims to get us familiar with the new handset’s features. Netflix released a Windows 8-compatible version of its app today, just ahead of the launch of the OS.

Google could be headed for an antitrust case from the FTC, and it seems that the Apple Maps controversy hasn’t done much to damage consumer enthusiasm for the iPhone 5. Speaking of the iPhone 5, Apple’s latest mobile offering has managed to overtake the Samsung Galaxy S III in web traffic despite being available for a much shorter amount of time, and Google is getting the Play Store ready for the holiday rush. SoftBank is looking to secure $23 billion to buy a majority stake in Sprint, and industry insiders are claiming that the long-rumored iPad Mini will be revealed on October 23 – just a couple weeks from now.

Star Citizen has already managed to raise an absurd $500,000 in funding, while Borderlands 2 was seen outshining its predecessor in a pretty significant way. We learned that the games industry is still on the decline, and ASUS unveiled a brand new Windows 8 VivoBook today. Amazon is now posting a disclaimer about the Kindle Paperwhite’s backlighting, YouTube is rethinking the way it ranks videos for search results, and Anonymous has cut ties with Wikileaks after the website started restricting access and asking visitors for donations.

Finally tonight, we have an unboxing and hands-on with the Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD for you to check out, and Chris Burns tells us why every little piece of Apple news seems to matter so much these days. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, here’s hoping that this weekend is a good one!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: October 12, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Amazon makes no profit on its Kindle hardware sales, CEO Jeff Bezos has confirmed, with the ereaders and Kindle Fire tablets sold “at our cost” so as to promote ebook, video, and music downloads. The online retailer has long been tight-lipped on its pricing strategy around Kindle, with ongoing rumors that the hardware was sold with minimum profit in mind or, even, at a loss. That’s not quite the case, Bezos told the BBC.

“We sell the hardware at our cost, so it is break-even on the hardware” the chief executive said. “We want to make money when people use our devices, not when people buy our devices.”

The strategy has allowed Amazon to continue to increase pressure on its ereader rivals, with price cuts by Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and others all usually being parried by trimming of Kindle pricing too. More recently, Amazon has introduced its “Special Offers” system, in which the price of the ereader itself is discounted in return for showing advertising on the lockscreen and homescreen.

According to Bezos, Amazon’s approach has paid off in media sales. “What we find is that when people buy a Kindle they read four times as much as they did before they bought the Kindle” he explained. Nor, perhaps more surprisingly, do they necessarily switch entirely to digital. ”They don’t stop buying paper books” Bezos revealed, “Kindle owners read four times as much, but they continue to buy both types of books.”

Amazon put the new Kindle Paperwhite up for preorder in select European countries today, having seen the illuminated ereader sell out in the US. It will be accompanied by an expansion of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library system, which allows Amazon Prime subscribers to borrow ebooks as part of their subsidized shipping package.

Amazon confirms zero Kindle hardware profit is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite has gone up for preorder in the UK, Germany, and France, with both WiFi-only and 3G versions of the illuminated ereader making their debut outside of the US. Shipping from October 25, the new ereader uses E Ink’s latest e-paper display complete with a front-lighting system which makes the Kindle’s screen visible in low-light conditions without the glare of a traditional LCD or AMOLED tablet.

In the UK, the Kindle Paperwhite is priced at £109 for the WiFi-only model, and £169 for the WiFi+3G version which allows you to download ebooks outside of wireless hotspots. In France and Germany, meanwhile, the two models are priced at €129 and €189 respectively.

Amazon is limiting orders to two per shopper, and demand for the Paperwhite is likely to be strong. Sales in the US quickly saw shipping estimates stretch out to 4-6 weeks, and the addition of Amazon’s Kindle Owners’ Lending Library in the UK, Germany, and France later this month will only increase attention on the new ereader.

We’ve already played with the Kindle Paperwhite, and you can see how the illuminating system works in the video below. If you’re still hungry for details, there’s more on the Kindle Paperwhite in our full review.

Kindle Paperwhite preorders open for October 25 UK, France & Germany release is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.