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Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet

bloomberg.com

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Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet

#111

Post by maximilian »

smackfu wrote: post #49

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…

What popped out at me was the battery life for the fire:

8 hours continuous reading or 7.5 hours video playback

8 hours doesn't seem like very much. Clearly its an LCD panel with back lighting and all that, but 8 hours seems a bit short.

Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet

#112

Post by ableal »

abuzzooz wrote: post #82
gbog wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You are right. But, I have an extensive library of PDF files that I'd like to read. I expect many people do too. Most are technical documents with equations, graphs and other images. I would love to have an e-ink based reader that will render such documents correctly. But, Amazon are probably more interested in selling their content, so I understand the lack of PDF support.

I have an older Kindle DX which can do technical PDFs. Aside from the cost (nowadays triple the smaller Kindle), it's still not entirely satisfactory for three reasons:

- It's cumbersome to do anything other than reading sequentially.

- The screen is still not big enough for letter/A4 pages - it does perform decent scaling, but you know how scrunched many technical papers are. Can go landscape and read half a page, which is a pain in two column layouts ...

- It's a tad heavy, almost like a hardcover textbook that needs to be held in both hands.

Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet

#114

Post by AndreiVajnaII »

ableal wrote: post #76
smackfu wrote: post #49

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…

Thanks for the link, looks good. The price "with special offers" is U.S. only, but most everybody else can also buy from amazon.com at 109 USD. 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."

Also, it seems that the Kindle Touch is not available in Europe!?

Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet

#116

Post by babblefrog »

mhw wrote: post #77
achompas wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm in London. Where's my nearest B&N so I can go and pick one up?

Right next to the Amazon store ;-)

Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet

#117

Post by estel »

AndreiVajnaII wrote: post #114
ableal wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the link, looks good. The price "with special offers" is U.S. only, but most everybody else can also buy from amazon.com at 109 USD. 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."

Also, it seems that the Kindle Touch is not available in Europe!?

Nor is the Kindle Fire.

Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet

#118

Post by malnourish »

abuzzooz wrote: post #91
buff-a wrote: post #69

And it has a browser that renders on the cloud. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u7F_56WhHk&feature=playe...

Isn't that what Opera does on their mobile platform?

Mostly correct. Opera servers compress pages before passing them along to the mobile device. [0]

[0] http://www.opera.com/mobile/features/

Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet

#119

Post by adhipg »

nodata wrote: post #109
cletus wrote: post #65

If Amazon want to not make comparisons with the iPad, something I'd strongly suggest, they should stop making statements like this: > The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display and sell for $199, compared with $499 for Apple’s cheapest iPad, Amazon executives said in interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek. Also, it's disingenuous. Of course a 7" "tablet" is cheaper than Apple's 10" tablet. Film at 11. That being said…

> and me having just bought a Kindle like 2-3 months ago, grrr I wouldn't be annoyed, the Kindle you have has a battery that lasts twice as long as the new Kindle, and it has a proper keyboard. The only plus for the new Kindle is it's a bit lighter.

And Amazon knows that. They will still be selling the 'old' Kindle at the current price.

Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet

#120

Post by drivebyacct2 »

cletus wrote: post #65

If Amazon want to not make comparisons with the iPad, something I'd strongly suggest, they should stop making statements like this: > The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display and sell for $199, compared with $499 for Apple’s cheapest iPad, Amazon executives said in interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek. Also, it's disingenuous. Of course a 7" "tablet" is cheaper than Apple's 10" tablet. Film at 11. That being said…

>> The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display and sell for $199, compared with $499 for Apple’s cheapest iPad, Amazon executives said in interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm not sure that Amazon told Bloomberg "The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display and sell for $199, compared with $499 for Apple’s cheapest iPad". I understood that as "Amazon told us it was $200, now we're going to make a reference to the iPad, because we just can't not."

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