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Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"
11–20 of 77 posts
Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"
#12"based on Android 2.1" Ugh. Android is after all cursed on the Tablet and Amazon is just doing their bit. Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on modern hardware. Oh and no Email client and no Google integration if that wasn't enough. [Edit] Consider JIT (2.2+) and low pause GC (2.3+) that they will be missing. Also consider Flash support which is also 2.2+. The…
> Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on a modern hardware.
There's a more than reasonable reason:
Perhaps Amazon's project froze that portion of the code at some point during 2010. They're shipping v1 of a brand new product based on heavily customized code. At some point, you need to eliminate moving targets if you're ever going to ship.
Amazon's use of Android here is almost an implementation detail. They want to sell you a Kindle so you'll buy content. They're not trying to sell an Android tablet. As a result, I think they're going to sell a ton of them. Enough to make Apple sweat a bit. Very exciting.
Corresponding edit:
>[Edit] Consider JIT (2.2+) and low pause GC (2.3+) that they will be missing. Also consider Flash support which is also 2.2+. Then there is competition from the likes of Archos and you can take their $299 Honeycomb 3.2 tablet and run everything Amazon has to offer on it - Kindle, MP3, Instant video etc.
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"
#13I like the play on the words, but wary of headlines like "Can the Kindle Fire kindle fire in the tablet market?"
My favorite of these is from Ars Technica: "Magic Trackpad or tragic Mac pad?"
Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"
#14"based on Android 2.1" Ugh. Android is after all cursed on the Tablet and Amazon is just doing their bit. Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on modern hardware. Oh and no Email client and no Google integration if that wasn't enough. [Edit] Consider JIT (2.2+) and low pause GC (2.3+) that they will be missing. Also consider Flash support which is also 2.2+. The…
I'm not an Android dev (yet), but does it matter much outside of the UI? Honeycomb isn't open source, so 2.* is all they can use without talking to Google. Seeing as how Ice Cream Sandwich is meant to better unify the APIs, I don't mind if they skip Honeycomb as long as they do get on track eventually.
It matters a bit. With 2.2 (Froyo), they added a JIT Compiler that, in my experience (upgrading from 2.1 to 2.2), resulted in a drastic performance improvement.
[Edit: This was on my phone. Sibling response from stonemetal provides interesting counterpoint.]
Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"
#15Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"
#16"based on Android 2.1" Ugh. Android is after all cursed on the Tablet and Amazon is just doing their bit. Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on modern hardware. Oh and no Email client and no Google integration if that wasn't enough. [Edit] Consider JIT (2.2+) and low pause GC (2.3+) that they will be missing. Also consider Flash support which is also 2.2+. The…
I'm not an Android dev (yet), but does it matter much outside of the UI? Honeycomb isn't open source, so 2.* is all they can use without talking to Google. Seeing as how Ice Cream Sandwich is meant to better unify the APIs, I don't mind if they skip Honeycomb as long as they do get on track eventually.
yes android 2.2 and 2.3 introduces significant performance improvements, that are definitely noticeable. Just moving from froyo to gingerbread, feels like a new phone.
Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"
#17I like the play on the words, but wary of headlines like "Can the Kindle Fire kindle fire in the tablet market?"
a better name would be "the kindle tablet"
That would be a great name if they were in this to sell hardware. Boom – it's a Kindle, and a tablet, here it is, buy it.
But I'm not sure that would address Amazon's goals here. Amazon doesn't want to sell you a tablet. At all. They want to sell you digital content. But until we jack right into our occipital lobes, they're stuck needing a medium upon which to display that content.
So they sell you a "Kindle Fire." What is that? Well, Amazon gets to define that for themselves, rather than being freighted with all the expectations that "tablet" carries. Which, now that I think about it, worked pretty well for Apple, too.
Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"
#18That mockup has enough bezel for a few tablets...
The same was said about the iPad but it turns out you need a place to put your thumbs.
Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"
#19"based on Android 2.1" Ugh. Android is after all cursed on the Tablet and Amazon is just doing their bit. Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on modern hardware. Oh and no Email client and no Google integration if that wasn't enough. [Edit] Consider JIT (2.2+) and low pause GC (2.3+) that they will be missing. Also consider Flash support which is also 2.2+. The…
> Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on a modern hardware. There's a more than reasonable reason : Perhaps Amazon's project froze that portion of the code at some point during 2010. They're shipping v1 of a brand new product based on heavily customized code. At some point, you need to eliminate moving targets if you're ever going to ship. Amazon's use of Andro…
That line of reasoning might fly for a $100 tablet. For a $300 tablet, it does not.
Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"
#20"based on Android 2.1" Ugh. Android is after all cursed on the Tablet and Amazon is just doing their bit. Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on modern hardware. Oh and no Email client and no Google integration if that wasn't enough. [Edit] Consider JIT (2.2+) and low pause GC (2.3+) that they will be missing. Also consider Flash support which is also 2.2+. The…
> Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on a modern hardware. There's a more than reasonable reason : Perhaps Amazon's project froze that portion of the code at some point during 2010. They're shipping v1 of a brand new product based on heavily customized code. At some point, you need to eliminate moving targets if you're ever going to ship. Amazon's use of Andro…
Which is why it's 7", and why it doesn't have an email client on it. They're directly competing with the Nook Color, and positioning themselves as a multimedia tablet that's cheaper than an iPad.
Which is in my opinion a much better idea than trying to compete on price, features AND software with the iPad. Get a couple clear differentiators - price, Kindle bookstore, multimedia content, etc - and actually compete.