Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.
1–10 of 200 posts
Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.
#2In certain ways, this "post-PC" era that Apple's brought us into with the iPad seems like a step backward. We're going back to something more like the broadcast television model, where a more or less centralized authority produces the content for passive users to consume. These tablets just keep getting more and more optimized for that.
I suppose it's somewhat natural, given the way the market works, but it seems our tools for consumption are advancing at a significantly greater rate than our tools for production.
I guess the opposing side is the Web. Amazon seems to be shaping up to be solidly on the side of the centralized authority-type cathedral builders, while the Web and Web technologies are more bazaar-like. It seems more and more like Google is the only powerful singular force whose incentives align with the Web instead of with more centralized production hubs.
Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.
#3If Amazon are going to maintain an Android fork, I wonder how well Android apps will be able to play with it. It would be a huge disappointment if 2.2+ apps were unavailable (or installing Google Market for that matter).
I can see why Amazon has gone down this path, but I do wonder if it's the right thing, rather than doing everyone's favorite/most hated carrier-specific bolt-ons instead. I also hope that Amazon doesn't give up on color e-ink, because reading on a Kindle is so much nicer.
Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.
#4Sounds pretty good to me with the exception of "pre-2.2". No Dalvik JIT? Hopefully that part was a misunderstanding. Having run pre-Froyo and Froyo+ on the same device, the jit engine is a pretty big deal.
Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.
#5Amazon could carve out the "sub-iPad" tablet market if their $250 price point holds and they release a usable tablet. Look at what happened with the HP firesale.
Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.
#6If Amazon are going to maintain an Android fork, I wonder how well Android apps will be able to play with it. It would be a huge disappointment if 2.2+ apps were unavailable (or installing Google Market for that matter). I can see why Amazon has gone down this path, but I do wonder if it's the right thing, rather than doing everyone's favorite/most hated carrier-specific bolt-ons instead. I also hope that Amazon does…
The article says there's no Google Market. Only Amazon's.
As for forking, I'm guessing it's not really a fork. It's just got their own UI on top, but they'll continue to get the rest of the updates from Google.
Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.
#7I think it's interesting that everybody is attempting to differentiate on top of the Android kernel, and are forced to build their own skin to compete.
Free Prime memebership (for life?) is interesting. Amazon has a big content catalog, and it makes a hell of a lot more sense for them to go this alone and not be forced to use Google's shit app store.
Overall, I think they'll have trouble differentiating between them and the iPad and them and the nook Color, and it doesn't seem like they've really brought anything new to the table.
Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.
#8I've been sorely tempted to pick up a Kindle for the last few months, and had thought it'd make a nice Christmas present. I know - I'm so considerate. Given that the present version has been out for a while, I was wondering if an updated version would be released in time for the Christmas rush.
10 hour battery life, not going to fit in at the beach, nor the less safe parts of the city? Nah, I'll go for the current Kindle instead thanks :)
Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.
#9If Amazon are going to maintain an Android fork, I wonder how well Android apps will be able to play with it. It would be a huge disappointment if 2.2+ apps were unavailable (or installing Google Market for that matter). I can see why Amazon has gone down this path, but I do wonder if it's the right thing, rather than doing everyone's favorite/most hated carrier-specific bolt-ons instead. I also hope that Amazon does…
From the sounds of it, it does not "Run Android" much more than the Kindle "Runs Linux". Sure, my Kindle has a Linux kernel in there somewhere, but it's almost entirely inconsequential and invisible to me as a user; it's just the core the dev team happened to use.
Re: Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It.
#10If there's one thing they need to nail on this device (beyond the Kindle app) it's web browsing.
a $250 7" tablet with a top class browser is a hugely compelling product all by itself.