71–80 of 318 posts
On the one hand the predictive thing seems really cool and the techy in me is excited about the idea. On the other hand I'm really not a fan of a remote cache from a privacy perspective.
Interested to see what type of web browser they ship on these new devices.
I was checking out the specs on the Fire at Amazon's product page and got to the bottom, where they talk about Amazon Silk -- the 'split browser' used on the Fire. It appears to offload intensive processing to Amazon EC2 instances. Very cool stuff and, to me, more newsworthy than the launch of a tablet. I'd like to hear more details on Silk. More info (and video from Silk developers): http://amazonsilk.wordpress.com/…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great price point. It's basically in impulse zone: "This book is 6 dollars cheaper at Kindle price... if I buy 12 it pays for itself..." but note there's no physical keyboard. Without a touch screen, it looks like it won't do note-taking, which is a bummer.
I'd be interested to see what % of Kindle users make use of the Keyboard. I'm pretty sure that I've only ever touched it for inputting URIs when web-browsing from abroad.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"With this price, though, Amazon won't steal Apple's customers.." I think a lot of people with iPads would have been more than happy to spend half as much to get an easy-to-use tablet.
I hesitate to agree because it seems like the iPad and Fire will provide different experiences. For what it's worth, I couldn't justify an iPad for $500. I would absolutely consider a Fire for $200 (or a Fire 3G for $250-300).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
why do people get upset by this? Android is a nice baseline. Think of it as the tide that raises all ships. What's wrong with a manufacturer experimenting? NB. I don't support lock downs or anything like that, of course. my point is that there's nothing wrong with them customizing and branching it off into something else. isn't that the whole point?
I agree with you, except that years of painful Windows crapware experience has taught me that manufacturers don't often do a very good job at "value adding", unless you define value as meddling pointlessly with things that work, or lining their own pockets through pre-installed junk software partnerships. That said, Amazon have a solid reputation so I don't think any of that applies in this particular case.
but the counter is that debian is really cool, but the ubuntu branch is a home run. so in conclusion… I dont know. but new is better than stagnate.
Main Amazon pages don't seem to be updated, but this URL is: http://www.kindle.com Interesting stuff: * Will still sell current Kindle as "Kindle Keyboard" for same price. * New non-touch Kindle is 2 ounces lighter than old Kindle, but has half the battery life. * The new touch Kindle is 1 ounce lighter than old Kindle, with same battery life. * Kindle Fire is 6-7 ounces lighter than an iPad 2. * All the prices that…
Seems that E.U. Europeans get to pay VAT: "Your international shipment is subject to VAT. This is the same VAT rate you pay when you buy products in your country. There are NO customs duties or any other fees."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The business model to compete with Apple has been known for extremely long: offer lesser products at lesser prices. Everyone else failed at the "lesser price" part. Amazon can pull it off, because they don't need to make money with the tablet: as long as it sells ebooks and movies, it remains profitable for them. Since there's nobody to challenge them on this market, they will get the volumes to drive the BOM prices…
Since there's nobody to challenge them on this market, they will get the volumes to drive the BOM prices down, too. Barnes & Noble is in this space too, and they have hundreds of stores that will serve as points-of-sale for the Nook. Don't forget them. EDIT: apologies to the European HNers. Still, those B&M stores in America are incredibly popular, making it easier for Barnes & Noble to find new Nook users.
Apparently there will be a $79 regular Kindle as well: http://thisismynext.com/2011/09/28/amazon-launches-79-kindle...
Great price point. It's basically in impulse zone: "This book is 6 dollars cheaper at Kindle price... if I buy 12 it pays for itself..." but note there's no physical keyboard. Without a touch screen, it looks like it won't do note-taking, which is a bummer.
If more than one textbook is available for Kindle, it could actually be a net bonus.
They show a lot the device in kid's hands : because 7" is too small for grown up? I have played with a RIM Playbook once and the size factor was the same concern. Seems like under 9-10" it can't be a replacement for my laptop in any situation and it feels more like a toy. (Disclaimer : I own an iPad)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Kindle Touch's killer feature would be better PDF support. The Nook Touch looks totally unusable for PDFs.
It seems to me that PDF is not a format suitable for much more than printing on paper. A very important feature of Kindle is to allow choosing font size. It make it an ideal tool for elders. But PDF documents have a fixed layout that won't allow resizing font conveniently, or you have to break it in pieces.
For graphical content, such as technical drawings/illustrations, wireframes or just B&W document proofs, the resolution and fidelity of an E-Ink Pearl screen combined with the true WYSIWYG nature of the PDF format across digital/print would be a dream come true for me...