Hasta La Gadget!

Last time on Days of our Rumored Amazon Tablets’ Lives: Bezos teased us with a “stay tuned” cliffhanger, but shook his head at the notion of a color E Ink Kindle this year. While DigiTimes spilled its cup of beans about the devices’ possible use of Fringe Field Switching displays and fabrication by Quanta Computer, the Wall Street Journal threw its two cents in with a report pegging a couple of new Kindles for Q3. Now loose-lipped sources are feeding the DigiTimes hearsay flames with a leaked supplier parts list that has Wintek, J Touch and CPT providing touch panels with NVIDIA processors at the tabs’ cores. The Seattle-based company also purportedly plans to ship four million of these 7- and 10-inch slates by 2011’s end. So, what to believe? We’ll find out in due time, but with all this gossipy buzz you can place your bets on something.

Amazon tablet rumors flare on leaked supplier parts list originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP had us slightly worried at the crude-looking beta release of the Play music platform, but its new Movie Store app for TouchPad owners looks reassuringly polished and gleaming. The Roxio-powered service offers movie purchases from $9.95 and rentals from $2.99, as well as a fair selection of TV shows for $1.99 per episode. Meanwhile, Amazon’s beta Kindle app for the TouchPad also launched earlier this week, so things are certainly ticking along. We just hope HP hasn’t forgotten about that promised document-editing function — some people want to create as well as consume.

HP Movie Store arrives on the TouchPad, cup-holder accessory to follow? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hopefully Amazon’s tablet will lose the stupid little keyboard. Photo illustration Charlie Sorrel

An Amazon tablet is pretty much inevitable but now, according to the Wall Street Journal, we have a launch date. Citing the ever-present “people familiar with the matter,” the WSJ reports that the Amazon tablet will launch by October. It is also planning to introduce a touch-screen Kindle alongside another regular Kindle.

Amazon’s tablet will have a “roughly nine-inch screen” and run Google’s Android OS. This is no surprise, given that Amazon’s App Store already sells Android apps. In fact, Amazon also sells movies, music and Kindle books, all of which put it in a great position to take on iOS and Apple’s App Store Juggernaut.

Interestingly, the first Amazon tablet won’t have a camera. This also makes sense. With the Kindle, Amazon got a basic but good product on the market and then iterated year by year, just like Apple does with the iPod iPhone and iPad. Keeping it simple will also mean that Amazon can keep prices competitive with the iPad.

Apparently, Amazon is still confused about how to market tablet, according to “a person familiar with Amazon’s thinking” (I know, right?). The company wonders if it can seel both a Kindle and a tablet to the same customers. I’d say just take a look at all of the people who already have both an iPad and a Kindle (like me — the iPad is hopeless on the beach) for the answer.

This is great news. Amazon, with its huge content library already hooked up to a single sign-in (and to your credit card details) is in a unique position to put the heat on Apple. And that’s good for everyone.

Amazon to Battle Apple iPad With Tablet [WSJ]

See Also:

• Rumor: Amazon Gunning for a Tablet Release This Fall
• Report: Amazon Readying Dual and Quad-Core Tablets
• Tablet Wars: Amazon Adds Apps to Kindle
• How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com

Good news: now you can pick up an Amazon Kindle 3G for the same price as the Kindle WiFi. Naturally, there’s a catch here: ads, ads, ads — but you’ve gotten pretty good at tuning those things out anyway, right? The online retail giant announced today the availability of the Kindle 3G with Special Offers, priced at $139 (down from $189 for the ad-free version) — best of all, that price includes the 3G subscription, which won’t cost you a thing, if you’re willing to wade through “money saving offers” and some adtastic screensavers. The new option joins the already announced ad-support WiFi model, which will run you $114 and replaces the $164 non-AT&T-sponsored 3G version. Press after the break.

Update: As Ahecht pointed out in comments, this new, cheaper Kindle is actually a replacement for the older ad-supported 3G model.

Continue reading Amazon Kindle 3G gets AT&T-sponsored ad-supported option priced at $139

Amazon Kindle 3G gets AT&T-sponsored ad-supported option priced at $139 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our big, bad digital era’s been caught red-handed overturning media industry business models before, so it comes as no surprise that publishing houses have a new headache on-hand. Straight outta sunny Seattle comes word that Amazon has welcomed its first self-published author to the “Kindle Million Club.” John Locke (so this is where he wound up after going to that quasi-‘heaven’) is the lucky dude who gets to claim the prize, and that’s not all — Mr. independent-author-from-Kentucky now shares bold-face status with the likes of Stieg Larsson and Nora Roberts. By churning out action / adventure novels on the $0.99 cheap and making heavy use of some leggy lady models, Locke easily blew past the one million mark, and even has a book to tell you how he did it. Take that evil publishing overlords. Hit the break for Amazon’s official PR spiel.

Continue reading Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it

Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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