Looks pretty much perfect, provided they support bluetooth keyboards.
No volume buttons, no bluetooth, no mention of battery life when streaming.
Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet
251–260 of 318 posts
Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet
#252Lack of cameras (one in, one out,) and mic really surprise me.
Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet
#253I wonder if they are selling these at a loss? I can see it going down well in the XDA/Hacker community...
Weird - according to this http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393740,00.asp#fbid=rvU... it is running 2.3? But they say they are not doing anything to prevent root - awesome!
This is what actually interests me, a rooted kindle fire. Only thing I care for is the hardware, I could not be less interested in amazons version of android though.
Since I did not get a HP Tablet, this might be the next best thing to get a cheap tablet running a modded version of android.
Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to mention some textbooks which are $50 less in Kindle format. That brings the total cost of the Kindle hardware to $29 for a college student with one required book. If more than one textbook is available for Kindle, it could actually be a net bonus.
The textbooks may be cheaper but if you're like most students and only use a textbook for one class its more expensive than buying the book used and selling it when you're done with it.
I think the kindle itself will still have fairly good resale value, although that won't make up the cost of the book.
Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet
#255http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051VVOB2
Wow, no mention of android in tech specs???
Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet
#256Earlier 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.
B&N doesn't have the operational chops that Amazon does. Its going to take more than Brick & Mortar to make a dent in the tablet market. B&N will fight with Dell for table scraps while Amazon and Apple each capture sizeable, material share. I wrote a bit about why I think Amazon is going to kill this on my blog earlier today - http://www.byte.org/2011/09/28/amazon-coming-into-its-own/ - tl;dr: Amazon is one of the fe…
How true. I had to buy a heap of textbooks recently, and had a discount coupon for B&N, so I decided to give them a try instead of just buying from Amazon as I had originally intended.
Bad idea. I saved about $75, but had to deal with billing errors, cancellation of part of my order, slow and overpriced shipping, and that cost me several hours of my valuable time. I was astonished at how poor the experience was.
Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think Apple has ever promoted its products as "luxurious". Jobs introduced the iPad as " a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price ". I think that Bezos quote is actually very Apple-like, what with "people are going to love these" and so on.
From the clip I saw, Bezos looked awkward and nervous. He looked like the wind was already out of his sails, which doesn't help to create that rock concert environment if that's what he wanted. He paused a lot to wait for applause and got crickets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whOlvV3HYFM
He paused a lot to wait for applause and got crickets.
It's a press conference, not a public event. You measure interest by camera shutter clicks, rather than applause :-)
He's already achieved his business objective, which is lots and lots of frothy press coverage and market position as a value provider. The longer the poor economic climate lasts, the more this pays off. I can see why you're skeptical, but I felt the same way when I first saw the kindle, and boy-was-I-wrong-about-that.
Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Not everyone will buy an iPad but some will when they see it plays games, has a richer app experience, has a larger display and so on. The kindle fire can play games and has a rich app experience thanks to android. The only thing the ipad has going for it is the larger display. Time will tell if people care about that.
"The only thing the ipad has going for it is the larger display." There are a few other key, and important differences other than screen size. o IOS 4 (and soon 5) - Lots of pre-existing premium apps. o 8 Gigabytes Flash vs 16 Gigabytes. (I was surprised to see no SD card capability on the Fire. That sucks. I have a 64 GB iPad, and the extra flash makes a difference on long trips when you are watching videos) o Video…
> IOS 4 (and soon 5) - Lots of pre-existing premium apps.
Android has tons of premium apps too.
> 8 Gigabytes Flash vs 16 Gigabytes.
The Kindle stores everything in the cloud for free.
> Video/Camera capability on iPad > 10 Hours Battery on iPad vs 8 Hours on Fire
I see everyone saying here that people don't care about features, they only care about the content, this is why previous Android tablets failed despite having more features than the iPad. Again, I think only time will tell.
> It's a nice first attempt, but for anyone with the extra money, I think the iPad still offers the better value play
But it's $300 more expensive, that's a huge difference for the regular customer. And as I explained, the difference in features isn't that perceivable for non-techies except for the size.
Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you think you are being screwed, take a look at how it is for Brazil. Items (2): $118.99 Shipping & Handling: $28.97 Total Before Tax: $147.96 Estimated Tax To Be Collected: $0.00 Import Fees Deposit $140.74 --------- Order Total: $288.70 Obviously not Amazon's fault. We have absurd taxes here.
If you think you are being screwed, take a look at how it is for China. ----------- Yes, it's not available for China, and never has been Obviously not Amazon's fault. We have absurd party here.
So we are both screwed, because I obviously wont buy it for $288.70. Atleast I think that our fellow european friends feel a little less screwed now.
Re: Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right next to the Amazon store ;-)
Touché! :-) Seriously though, do Barnes and Noble actually sell the Nook to international customers? They certainly don't market it over here, while Amazon have run quite a lot of TV and print ads. Buy the look of it I'd have to buy the device and books in US dollars instead of my local currency. These things don't give me the feeling that B&N are serious about sales outside the US, while Amazon definitely are.
no, the whole nook ecosystem is US-only. we don't even get it in canada.