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All posts tagged "kindle"


Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Kindle Fire Stops Blocking Android Market Site

Posted by Jon Westfall in "Android Slates/Tablets & Accessories" @ 12:00 PM

http://gigaom.com/mobile/kindle-fir...market-website/

"Earlier this week, I grilled Amazon for attempting to control web browsing activities on its Kindle Fire. Any attempts to browse Google's Android Market website were redirected to Amazon's own AppStore on the tablet."

One could make the argument that Amazon was just 'helping' users who were going to Google's market website versus their own. Or one could say they didn't want to admit that another, larger, market existed. Whatever your thoughts on Amazon's interesting redirections, they're gone now. The Fire is a pretty nice device, but remember folks, it's Amazon's walled garden, and you just get to play in it!

Tags: fire, kindle

Monday, December 12, 2011

Unofficial Ice Cream Sandwich Build for the Kindle Fire

Posted by Craig Horlacher in "Android News" @ 11:00 AM

http://liliputing.com/2011/12/andro...officially.html

"Sure, installing CyanogenMod 7 on an Amazon Kindle Fire is cool and all. But xda-developers forum member x1011999 decided to skip Android 2.3 Gingerbread and port Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to run on Amazon’s $199 tablet."

The Kindle Fire has some decent hardware in it. While it only has 512MB of RAM, a little light especially for a tablet, it does have a dual-core 1GHz OMAP CPU and a decent SGX540 GPU. The Ice Cream Sandwich build for the Fire is still in the early stages. Basic features like audio and WiFi are not working. But if you like to play with bleeding edge ROMs on new hardware you should definitely look into this a little more. Check out the source article for a video of ICS in action on the Kindle Fire.


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Install Android Market on Your Kindle Fire

Posted by Craig Horlacher in "Android News" @ 02:30 PM

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/17/...ure-out-how-to/

"Homebrewers, of course, will first have to root the device before tweaking with the Fire's Gingerbread-based build, but fortunately for them, there's already a guide for that. Once that's taken care of, you can also load the Android Market and a slate of other Google apps, using a handy how-to guide published on xda Forums."

Amazon released the source code for the Kindle Fire. That means we'll probably start to see all kinds of custom ROM's or other modifications coming out for it soon. One of the first things they did was figure out how to install the Android Market! They made a nice how-to in case you want to give it a try. The first step is rooting it but if that doesn't scare you go for it!

How do you like your Kindle Fire? Have you rooted it?


It Didn't Take Long. Root Your Kindle Fire Now!

Posted by Craig Horlacher in "Android News" @ 11:00 AM

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/16/...e-way-for-amaz/

"The solution comes courtesy of a user lovingly known as "death2all11o," who posted the "1-click' recipe to Android Forums earlier today."

If you bought the Kindle Fire hoping to get full access to the OS to "make the device yours" you don't need to wait anymore! Now there is a documented method for rooting this nifty $200 e-reader.

Updated: I just saw that if you root the Kindle Fire you will not be able to use Amazon streaming video.


Sunday, November 13, 2011

Kindle Fire Launches This Week With Android Goodies

Posted by Jon Westfall in "Android Software" @ 05:00 PM

http://androinica.com/2011/11/kindl...e-android-apps/

"The Amazon Kindle Fire launches next week with thousands of apps available through the just re-launched Amazon Appstore for Android. Amazon just sent us a note that Hulu Plus and ESPN Scorecenter will be among the big names of apps joining the lineup of Fire options."

Now the question simply is - how long will it take for certain nice things (like the Hulu Plus app) to make it from Amazon's Kindle Fire to the rest of the Android world (Amazon streaming video would be nice too!). Anyone got a Fire pre-ordered?

Tags: fire, kindle

Monday, July 25, 2011

Today's iPad Kindle App Update Removes Kindle Store Button

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Apple Talk" @ 11:01 AM

I was updating the apps on my iPad today - which is a daily occurrence that I wish Apple would streamline or automate somehow - and I noticed that the new Kindle app, released today, removes the Kindle Store button. This change has been brewing for a while now because Apple wants 30% of everything sold via any app. Taking 30% for selling an app itself is a good deal compared to the 50% cut most mobile developers we used to forking over in previous years. But when it comes to content where there are multiple parties involved and everyone wants a piece, 30% is untenable.

You have companies like Rhapsody and Amazon who are resellers of the content someone else creates - so they're the middle men - and Apple put a gun to their head and said "Give us 30% or get out". Amazon did the only thing that makes sense: they made the Kindle app a read-only tool, not a purchasing tool. Anyone using an iPad, myself included, will now have a degraded experience because I'll have to grab my Kindle 3 or Android phone in order to quickly purchase a book. The alternative is to buy the book via Safari on the iPad, and while it's not exactly difficult, it's certainly a lot less slower than buying from an app that allows for one-tap purchase of books.

What's your take on Apple's demand to have a 30% cut on every piece of content sold via an iOS app?


Monday, June 27, 2011

Amazon Android Tablet Release Possible as Early as August

Posted by Craig Horlacher in "Android News" @ 09:30 AM

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20110621PD222.html

"Amazon is poised to step into tablet PCs and will launch models as soon as August-September, with targeted global sales of four million units for 2011, according to Taiwan-based component makers."

Could this be the for Android Tablets what the Motorola Droid was for Android Phones? Amazon/Verizon Droid/Kindle - all some names with muscle behind them! We'll have to see. Now that Honeycomb has been cleaned up a little with Version 3.1 and more and more tablet optimized Android apps are released every day this fall could be a good time for a well respected company to release some good Android tablet hardware! The info from the source basically says Amazon wants to hit the Christmas season and it will use a TI CPU/GPU instead of the more common Tegra 2. I think that could be a good thing with rumors suggesting the TI processor has better GPU performance. It also mentions that Amazon will provide movie streaming services for it. Are you holding out to buy a tablet until you see what Amazon releases? What do you think about Amazon getting into the full-featured tablet business?


Thursday, June 23, 2011

5 Reasons Why Amazon Can Compete in The Tablet Market

Posted by John London in "Laptop Thoughts Articles & Resources" @ 12:30 PM

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/amazon-...news-11501.html

"It seems fairly reasonable to bet that Amazon will introduce an Android tablet in the foreseeable time. It makes perfect sense and it is not difficult to predict that Amazon where succeed where Samsung and Motorola have failed. Hope and disappointment in Android tablets is a repetitive cycle these days. There is this huge anticipation building up that there will finally be an iPad rival."

Even though Amazon has yet to release an Android based tablet, this makes perfectly good sense. Why? Developers can now develop and port apps. Amazon has sold millions of Kindles so in order to compete against an Apple iPad the specifications and price will probably have to competitive. Amazon seems to have built their loyal fan base so the Android operating system (O/S) will take them to the next level, something akin to the Barnes and Noble Nook.

If Amazon releases the Kindle on the Android O/S, you can count on the display being an excellent one. The other area is the User Interface (UI) that will most likely stay simple, again akin to the Nook. What will be interesting if Amazon will add ports and storage e.g. USB, VGA, Disk Drive/SSD, etc.? This will make for an interesting tablet, great display, easy UI, ports and competitive pricing. If Amazon moves to the Android O/S, the tablet market will continue to heat up.


Thursday, March 24, 2011

Can Amazon Take On The Tablet?

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Laptop Thoughts News" @ 12:30 PM

http://www.businessinsider.com/amaz...n-tablet-2011-3

"It would be foolish not to include Amazon on the list of potentially huge players in the tablet industry. While the company is still only selling simple Kindle e-readers, Amazon has quietly built all the tools it needs to compete against Apple and the other tablet makers with its own Android-based tablets."

Amazon has seen alot. It has survived dot com bubbles, Web 2.0 and an increasingly digital economy. It has come a long way from its history of selling books. Will Amazon expand beyond its digital storefront into hardware? It already has its feet wet with the Kindle, which is doing fairly well, despite competition from other ebook readers and tablets. It also has the infrastructure to handle a massive amount of data and sales. It would not be a stretch for the company to come out with a more powerful Kindle like device and release it to the masses. With the services that Amazon offers, it could potentially go toe-to-toe with iTunes in terms of features and services. Would you be interested in an Amazon tablet? Would a Kindle+ make your wallet lighter?


Friday, December 31, 2010

What The Geeky Got for Gifts

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home News" @ 05:30 PM

http://mashable.com/2010/12/31/ipad...-mashable-poll/

"If you got an iPad as a gift during the holidays, you certainly weren't alone. In a recent poll of holiday gift recipients, iPads accounted for a full 22.7% of all gadget or hardware gifts, making iPads the single largest category in our gift poll, outstripping the nearest runner-up by nearly 14% of votes. That runner-up was Amazon's Kindle - not surprising considering that the Kindle is the best-selling product in Amazon's history."

It's a relatively small sampling size - less than 2400 votes, and only from people who read Mashable - but among the geek-set, there are a couple of stand-out points: the iPad was the #1 gift, more people got Macs (60%) than Windows machines (40%), Android phones let the way in the smartphone category with a hefty 50.3% figure (iPhones were 30%), but Windows Phone 7 devices at 10.3% just eeked out Blackberry devices (9.4%). Not bad for a brand new platform that most people still haven't heard about! Lastly, the Xbox/Kinect one-two punch clobbered the PS3 with a 54.3% figure versus only 11.9% for the PS3. The Kinect really is driving the Xbox 360 to new heights of popularity!


Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Can The Kindle Survive In a Tablet World?

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Laptop Thoughts Articles & Resources" @ 08:00 PM

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/...pr_levy_kindle/

"We can read books on our phones, laptops, and tablets. So why would we throw in a dedicated e-reader like the Kindle when packing our already cramped carry-on bags? As you might expect, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos is happy to supply an answer: angry birds."

An interesting perspective, and one that I ultimately agree with. Although the Kindle and the iPad look similar on the surface, when one weighs 1.6 pounds and the other 8.7 ounces, one lasts hours on a charge while the other lasts weeks, and one is $139 and the other is $499, you start to realize they're very different sort of devices. I'm planning on getting a Kindle this holiday season - the cheap Wi-Fi one - and am hoping I'll like it quite a bit. I love reading, but devices have never reached the price point where I was willing to take the risk of purchasing digital, DRM-protected content. I think that point has finally come...and, yeah, I'm still thinking about buying an iPad. I think I'll wait for v2 there as well...


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