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Tag: Kindle Fire HD

  • Kindle Fire Tablets See Record Sales on Amazon

    Amazon’s line of Kindle Fire tablets saw record-breaking sales over the weekend, as the second-generation Kindle Fire HD, and the third-generation Kindle Fire HDX 7″, were the two top-selling items this holiday season for the world’s largest online retailer.

    A report released by Amazon detailing the success of Kindle Fire tablets from Black Friday through Cyber Monday says that they saw the best sales numbers for Kindle tablets of all time. The site offered extra savings this year, with a $50-off rebate on Kindle Fire tablets. The price for an HD model was just $119 and the HDZ 7″ was reduced to the lowest-ever price of $179.

    The announcement from Amazon came yesterday just after the 2013 IBM Holiday Benchmark report was released, indicating that Black Friday’s 2013 sales had dropped to their lowest since 2009.

    Many retailers offered extra savings this year, as well as longer store hours, and had record-breaking sales numbers, despite the information that sales were the lowest in five years.

    Amazon Kindle Vice-President, Neil Lindsay, said, “We’re excited that so many customers have chosen Kindle this holiday season—and it’s just getting started! Our new Kindle Fire tablets and Kindle e-readers are the best we’ve ever built, and we can’t wait for customers to unwrap their gifts this holiday.”

    Main image courtesy @amazon via Twitter.

  • Kindle Fire HDX Was Best Selling Item On Amazon Over The Black Friday Weekend

    For the past few years, the Kindle line of eReaders and tablets have been the best selling electronic devices on Amazon during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If you thought that was going to change this year, think again.

    Amazon announced today that the Kindle family had its best holiday weekend ever thanks a number of sales across Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In fact, the retailer notes that more people bought Kindle eReaders and Kindle Fire tablets this past weekend than any other weekend on record, and that the Kindle Fire HDX and Kindle Fire HD were the best selling items on Amazon all weekend long.

    “We’re excited that so many customers have chosen Kindle this holiday season—and it’s just getting started!” said Neil Lindsay, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “Our new Kindle Fire tablets and Kindle e-readers are the best we’ve ever built, and we can’t wait for customers to unwrap their gifts this holiday.”

    If you missed out on the Kindle holiday weekend rush, you will probably have more chances to score one on the cheap before Christmas. Amazon is known for its absurd holiday sales, and the retailer will undoubtedly put its Kindle Fire devices on sale again before Christmas. If not, you can always see if retailers like Best Buy, Radio Shack or Staples will put Kindle Fire devices on sale.

    It will be interesting to see just how well Barnes & Noble Nook did over the holiday weekend as the retailer dropped the prices of its Nook Simple Touch and Nook HD to $39 and $79 respectively. While the low prices were certainly attractive, was it enough to give a boost to the bookseller’s ailing consumer electronics business? We won’t know for sure until the company’s next quarterly report, or if they had a good enough holiday weekend to gloat like Amazon has.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Amazon Updates Fire OS To 3.1, Adds Goodreads Integration

    Less than two months after Amazon unveiled Mojito – Fire OS 3.0 – the company has now launched 3.1.

    It’s a free, over-the-air update available to Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HDX users, who should be getting it sometime within the next few weeks. If you want it immediately, you can go here and install the update.

    “The response to our new family of Kindle Fire tablets has been fantastic, and we’re excited to add new features we think our customers will love,” said Peter Larsen, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “This free, over-the-air Fire OS update brings new features like Goodreads integration, Second Screen, Cloud Collections, enterprise support, wireless printing, and more.”

    The update include deep Goodreads integration, as well as new second screen controls and enterprise BYOD support.

    Users can capture and share quotes with Goodreads friends from inside books, and see what their friends are reading with the Goodreads updates feed. You can also rate and review books, and share that info with friends, as well as import all your Amazon-purchased books (including print) into your Goodreads account.

    The OS lets users fling TV shows and movies from their tablet to the TV.

    “Second Screen turns your TV into the primary screen and frees up your Fire HDX to provide playback controls, a customized display for X-Ray, or simply a place to email, browse the web, and more while you watch a movie,” Amazon says. “Second Screen is available for PlayStation 3 and Samsung TVs, and will be available starting later this year for PlayStation 4.”

    “Fire OS 3.1 delivers the ability to connect to secure enterprise Wi-Fi networks and access corporate apps, documents and resources like SharePoint; native VPN client for instant access to corporate networks; and a native SCEP (Simple Certificate Exchange Protocol) client to retrieve digital certificates for secure resources,” the company adds. “Fire OS also now supports Kerberos authentication, which enables the ability to browse secure Intranet websites from the Silk browser. The new Kindle Fire tablets also include Kindle-specific device management APIs that integrate with existing mobile device management (MDM) systems to make it easy for IT departments to manage Kindle Fire.”

    Amazon also lists the following features for Fire OS 3.1:

    • Cloud Collections helps you organize your books, newspapers, magazines, and apps in customized collections for easy reference, and Amazon’s Whispersync technology synchronizes the collections across your Kindle devices and reading apps so they’re available on all of your devices.
    • Voice dictation converts your speech to text—available in all languages when online; offline support available in US English.
    • 1-Tap archive which frees up space on your Kindle Fire by identifying items that have not been recently used and provides a 1-tap option to store them in the Cloud for later retrieval.
    • Wireless printing of photos, PDF, e-mails, contacts, calendar and docs.
    • New accessibility enhancements that enable blind and visually impaired customers to save a separate accessibility profile for children in Kindle FreeTime, scroll lists automatically when swipe navigating, hear enhanced sound feedback and screen orientation changes announced, and have more control when editing text and navigating web content.
    • Dozens more new features, performance and battery life improvements, and bug fixes.


    Amazon unveiled the Kindle Fire HDX and Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ in September. Read more about the devices here.

  • Amazon Announces Kindle Fire HD Refresh, Ships October 2

    Last year, Amazon entered the HD tablet market with the Kindle Fire HD. It was a 7-inch tablet with a 1280×800 resolution, and some decent specs. Now that very same tablet is getting a refresh to become the cheap entry level tablet in Amazon’s Kindle Fire fleet.

    Amazon announced today that the newly refreshed Kindle Fire HD is now available for pre-order and will be launching on October 2. The new Kindle Fire HD is nearly identical to last year’s model. It’s a little slimmer, sports better audio, but doesn’t really do anything new beyond that.

    Well, there is one thing – the new Kindle Fire HD will retail for only $139. The original Kindle Fire went on sale for $199 two years ago, and now Amazon has managed to bring the price down of last year’s flagship tablet to an incredibly affordable $139. That price will get you a decent tablet outfitted with Amazon’s latest Android-based OS – Fire OS 3.0, or Mojito.

    “Two years ago, we revolutionized the tablet industry with the breakthrough $199 price point for tablets—now we’re doing it again with the $139 price point,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “$139 now gets you a 1280×800 216 ppi HD display, a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, Fire OS 3.0, dual speakers with Dolby audio, vast selection and Amazon-exclusive features like Prime Instant Video downloads, Second Screen, Kindle FreeTime, X-Ray and more.”

    The Kindle Fire HD isn’t the most powerful tablet anymore, but it’s more than decent enough to serve a casual user’s everyday needs. At that price point, it’s almost hard to ignore too. That’s obviously what Amazon wants though as it uses the allure of low pricing to hook users into its ecosystem of digital sales.

    Now then, you may be scoffing at the Kindle Fire HD and want something with a little more kick. Well, that’s where the newly announced Kindle Fire HDX tablets come in. They pack the latest hardware, and will be shipping later this year.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Amazon Announces Kindle Fire HDX, Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″

    Just like every other consumer electronic device, the Kindle Fire HD was expected to get a refresh at some point this year. It was just that nobody expected Amazon to suddenly unveil them without any word of warning.

    Amazon suddenly announced three new Kindle Fire models yesterday evening – the new Kindle Fire HD, the Kindle Fire HDX and the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″. The first is just last year’s Kindle Fire HD serving as a replacement for the entry level Kindle Fire, whereas the latter two is where the real magic is happening.

    As the rumors suggested, the Kindle Fire HDX sports a much higher resolution than the previous generation. The Kindle Fire HDX sports a resolution of 1920×1200 whereas the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ sports a resolution of 2560×1600.

    Besides the new resolutions, Amazon made sure that its tablets are packing best-in-class hardware. Both Kindle Fire HDX models sport a Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.2GHz and an Adreno 330 GPU. In other words, the Kindle Fire HDX will be one of most powerful tablets to be released this year.

    Rounding up the hardware specs, both Kindle Fire HDX tablets sport dual stereo speakers, a front-facing HD camera, an 8MP rear-facing camera and 2GB of RAM.

    The specs may be nice, but what about the software itself? Amazon say its latest tablets will be running Fire OS 3.0, or Mojito. It’s based on Jelly Bean, but Amazon isn’t saying which version. I’d put my money on Android 4.2, but a 4.3-based OS would be a nice surprise.

    So, what does Fire OS 3.0 bring to the table? For starters, there’s an improved interface that better integrates Amazon’s digital storefront with the tablet. That means X-Ray is expanding to include music, alongside its previous support of movies and TV shows. Now you can use X-Ray to see the lyrics of any particular song.

    X-Ray for movies and TV has been improved as well with X-Ray for music integration. Now you can see a list of songs that appear in any particular movie or episode of a TV show, and even jump to when that song is heard. Users can also be alerted to random trivia while watching a movie, or see detailed character backstories while watching a TV show.

    Amazon is also jumping onto the second screen experience with a new feature that lets users move content from their tablet to the TV. It’s very much like Google’s own Chromecast in that the user just simply “flings” the content to the TV and it immediately starts playing there while the tablet becomes a remote control. The new feature will only support Samsung TVs and the PlayStation 3 at first, but it will launch on the PS4 later this year.

    This is all well and good, but most of it is pretty much expected at this point. Does Amazon have any out of left field ideas to differentiate its tablets from the competition? It does, and it’s called Mayday. Here’s how Amazon describes it:

    Having trouble or want to learn how to use a new feature? Simply tap the Mayday button in Quick Settings, and an Amazon expert will appear on your Fire HDX and can co-pilot you through any feature by drawing on your screen, walking you through how to do something yourself, or doing it for you—whatever works best. 15 seconds or less is the Mayday response time goal. Mayday is available 24×7, 365 days a year, and it’s free.

    As you can probably guess, Mayday is a pretty big deal. Sure, other companies offer 24/7 tech support, but this is entirely new. Not only are you talking face-to-face with the tech support, but they can actually take control of your tablet to show you how something works. It’s an incredibly helpful feature, and one that I see only Amazon being able to do.

    If you find yourself suddenly interested in the new Kindle Fire HDX, you’ll be able to pick up the 7-inch model on October 18 for $229 whereas the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ goes on sale November 7 for $379. There will also be 4G versions available at a later date for $100 more.

    [Image: Business Wire]

  • Kindle Fire Being Doused, Says Analyst

    For Amazon, the Kindle Fire has been a huge success in the 7-inch tablet category. For the past two years Amazon’s device has competed with the largest mobile industry players – Apple and Samsung. Now, with Amazon preparing to announce its updated Kindle Fire lineup, news has come that Amazon’s hold on the tablet market may be slipping.

    Analyst firm Jumptap this week released data showing that the Kindle Fire has lost 11.4% of its tablet market share over the past year. This is at the same time Samsung has begun to roll into the tablet market in a big way, with its Galaxy Tab devices rising 5.8% in tablet market share year-over-year.

    “Previously, the iOS vs. Android battle could not crown a standing victor for Android,” said Matt Duffy, VP of marketing at Jumptap. “Yet in the past year, we’ve seen Samsung rise above the pack in both tablet and smartphone share.”

    Jumptap’s new report also held other surprising (and some not-so-surprising) findings from the mobile world. The iPhone is still the world’s top smartphone, at the expense of HTC, Blackberry, and Apple’s own iPod Touch devices, though Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone lineup is gaining traction. Also, apps are now a larger part of the mobile experience than ever before. Jumptap estimates that 84% of mobile traffic is now from apps, up from just 50% two years ago.

    (Image courtesy Amazon)

  • This Year’s Tablet War Will Begin in September

    As shown by nearly every analyst’s estimates, tablet shipments slowed during the second quarter of 2013. It turns out, though, that this past quarter was the calm before the storm, with this September slated to be, quite possibly, the biggest month in tablet computing history.

    Google has already launched the refresh of its Nexus 7 tablet, getting out ahead of the competition. According to a DigiTimes report, Amazon is also readying a new lineup of Kindle Fire tablets, to be released in September. The report’s unnamed sources “from the upstream supply chain” also predict that Intel and Google will wade even further into the tablet market with new tablets and “2-in-1 devices.” Intel has scheduled an event on September 15.

    While the Android manufacturers fight it out for market share, Apple will also be releasing its new iPad and iPad mini device this fall. The tech company is holding an event on September 10, and is expected to at least reveal, if not release, its new iPads on that day.

    Beyond the third and holiday quarters of 2013, some interesting things are on the horizon for the tablet market. Wearable computing is expected to become a large segment, meaning companion apps for tablets are likely. Both Apple and Samsung are also rumored to be working pioneering the mega-tablet market – tablets with screens larger than one foot.

    (Image courtesy PC Today Thailand)

    (via DigiTimes)

  • Amazon To Launch Three New Kindle Fires This Year [Rumor]

    It’s another year and that means another Kindle Fire. It doesn’t look like Amazon will be introducing any new models this year, but it will be substantially upgrading all three of its current models though.

    BGR reports that it has learned Amazon will be upgrading the displays on the Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″. With this latest rumored upgrade, Amazon will finally have HD displays in all of its Kindle Fire models.

    First up is the current $159 Kindle Fire. Amazon released an improved version last year, but it still had a measly 1024×600 display resolution. The company will be fixing that this year by using a 7-inch 1,280×800 display – the same display resolution seen in last year’s Nexus 7. The tablet is also expected to remain the low cost option, but it remains to be seen if the price will remain at $159.

    Moving onto last year’s new models, the Kindle Fire HD will be received a pretty substantial upgrade. The current model only sports a display resolution of 1280×800, but the new one will reportedly have a 1920×1200 display resolution. It’s a solid resolution for a 7-inch tablet, and one that the new Nexus 7 will probably also sport.

    The Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is geting the biggest upgrade as it’s moving from a 1920×1200 display resolution to a 2560×1600 resolution. At only 8.9-inches, Amazon’s Kindle Fire 8.9″ will be the smallest tablet to features such a large resolution. In fact, most current 10-inch tablets can’t match that display, with Google’s Nexus 10 being its only current contemporary.

    As for general design, the rumors state that the new Kindle Fires will feature a more “chiseled” design with sharp, instead of round, corners. The power and volume buttons have also been moved from the side to the top sloping back to avoid accidental button presses.

    So, when can we expect the new Kindle Fires to start hitting stores? It’s currently rumored that Amazon is pushing for a September launch. The original Kindle Fire was announced and launched in September of last year so it makes sense to look forward to a similar scenario this year.

    It should be noted that all of this is merely speculation for now, but it does seem highly plausible. We also might just hear something about the oft-rumored Kindle Phone this year, but that’s far less likely than the above rumors.

  • Amazon Set To Take Over The World With Kindle In June

    Amazon hasn’t been able to effectively compete with Apple just yet as its Kindle Fire devices are only available in a select few countries. That’s all going to change next month.

    Amazon announced today that the Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ will start shipping to over 170 countries in June. If you don’t believe them, pre-orders are open now in all those countries.

    “Kindle Fire HD is the #1 best-selling item in the world for Amazon since its launch, and we’re thrilled to make it available to even more customers around the globe today,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “Not only does Kindle Fire feature advanced hardware, it’s also a service. When combined with our content ecosystem, great email and browsing and top-rated customer service, we hope people around the world will agree that Kindle Fire HD is the best tablet for an incredible price.”

    Coinciding with the announcement, Amazon also announced that its Appstore for Android is now open for business in over 200 countries. Those getting a Kindle Fire next month can start downloading the very best Kindle has to offer while those who already own Android devices can start taking advantage of Amazon’s free app of the day, among other promotions.

    Speaking of which, Amazon will be making Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope: Experiments available as free downloads on its Appstore on May 23 and May 24 respectively to celebrate the launch. The offer is available to everybody who has access to Amazon’s Appstore for Android.

    “We are thrilled to be expanding the reach of our global app distribution to nearly 200 countries. We think our customers will love the app selection we have to offer and also find features such as Free App of the Day and personalized recommendations very helpful as they discover and explore new apps and games,” said Mike George, Vice President of Apps and Games at Amazon. “By further expanding the distribution of apps to millions of customers around the world, we are continuing to make it easy for customers to enjoy their Amazon apps on Kindle Fire and any Android device.”

    This is a pretty big deal for Amazon. It can now compete on a global level with other device manufacturers, like Apple, who have been selling tablets for years now. The cheap price of the Kindle Fire HD has the potential to undercut Apple, Samsung and more around the world.

    Needless to say, it will be very interesting to see how the global tablet market reacts to this news.

  • Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE Arrives On AT&T April 5

    Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE Arrives On AT&T April 5

    Are you in the market for Amazon’s 4G LTE Kindle Fire HD 8.9″? Do you prefer to buy your 4G LTE enabled devices from a national carrier? If so, you’re in luck later this week if you happen to subscribe to AT&T.

    Amazon and AT&T announced today that the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE will be available at AT&T stores starting April 5. The tablet, which recently received a price drop, will still cost $399 at AT&T. The price will be reduced to $249 if you sign a two-year contract.

    “We’re excited to work with AT&T to offer the 4G LTE version of Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ to AT&T customers across the country,” said Mike McKenna , Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “Customers tell us they love our large-screen Kindle Fire HD for browsing the web, writing emails, watching movies, reading magazines, and more – and with AT&T’s 4G LTE technology, everything is faster and more convenient.”

    If you already subscribe to AT&T’s network, you can add the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE for $10 a month on a mobile share plan. It can also be added to individual or family plans.

    “Being the first carrier to connect Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD to our 4G LTE network provides the best mobile internet experience,” said Chris Penrose , senior vice president of emerging devices, AT&T. “Combining our 4G LTE with Kindle Fire HD’s rich features at an incredible price point yields a great value and experience for our customers.”

    For now, AT&T is the only carrier to have the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE. There’s no word yet on if it will come to other carriers, but it’s really only a matter of time until other carriers, like Verizon, get a hold of Amazon’s flagship tablet.

  • Amazon Is Making A $99 Kindle Fire HD [Rumor]

    One of the big rumors from last year was that Google would release a $99 Nexus tablet. Those rumors never went anywhere though. Now it’s Amazon’s turn to take up the rumored cheap tablet torch.

    TechCrunch is reporting that Amazon will introduce a $99 Kindle Fire HD tablet later this year. The tablet will reportedly be powered by a TI processor and feature the same 1280×800 display of the current Kindle Fire HD.

    What’s interesting about this rumor is that the Kindle Fire HD is not the first tablet that comes to mind when a price drop is rumored. Amazon still sells the non-HD Kindle Fire for $159, and would seem to be the most likely candidate for a price drop to $99.

    Still, the Kindle Fire HD being dropped to $99 would give Amazon a huge advantage in the current tablet wars. It would undermine every other 7-inch tablet on the market by offering better specs at an extremely low price while offering the entire digital content ecosystem from Amazon.

    Amazon’s digital content ecosystem is the main reason why this rumor is so believable. In the past, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was quoted as saying, “We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices.” That philosophy is the sole reason why the Kindle line is so cheap, and how Amazon is able to lower prices on its tablets faster than the competition. In fact, the company just recently chopped a sizable chunk off the Kindle Fire HD 8.9’s price. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to see the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD getting a price drop as well.

    Regardless, this is all just a rumor for now. Amazon even told TechCrunch that its already selling the Kindle Fire HD hardware “at the lowest price points possible.” If we’re going to hear anything about a $99 tablet, it will probably be at a Kindle event later this year.

    UPDATE: An Amazon spokesperson has told Business Insider that a $99 Kindle Fire HD is “not happening.” The spokesperson also reiterated its previous statement to TechCrunch saying that the company is “already at the lowest price points possible for that hardware.”

  • Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ Gets A Permanent Price Cut, Launches In Europe And Japan

    The Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ launched late last year for a rather affordable $300. To perhaps undercut the competition even more, Amazon has decided to make its flagship tablet even cheaper.

    Amazon announced today that the 16GB Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ now retails for $269. The 32GB model now retails for $300. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE also got a price cut as the 16GB model now retails for $400, while the 64GB model retails for $500.

    The price cut coincides with the tablet’s launch across select European countries and Japan. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ will set UK consumers back £229 ($341 USD) for the 16GB model or £259 ($386 USD) for the 32GB model.

    “We’re thrilled with customer reaction to Kindle Fire HD 8.9”. Customers tell us they love our large-screen version of Kindle Fire HD for web browsing, email, gaming, watching TV shows, reading magazines, and more,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “As we expand Kindle Fire HD 8.9” to Europe and Japan, we’ve been able to increase our production volumes and decrease our costs. Across our business at Amazon, whenever we are able to create cost efficiencies like this, we want to pass the savings along to our customers.”

    With the price cut, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is now the most affordable tablet of its size. Apple and Google best be taking notes on how to subsidize costs through content sales because Amazon has proven that it’s still king of this rather risky, but so far profitable, venture.

  • Amazon GameCircle Drives Engagement And Monetization In Kindle Fire Games

    Amazon introduced GameCircle in July of last year as a way to help developers easily add features like achievements, leaderboards and more into their Kindle Fire games. In a recent study, Amazon has found that GameCircle integration has proven to be most advantageous to developers.

    Amazon conducted a study into GameCircle’s engagement and monetization rates from November 2012 to January 2013. The three month period showed games that integrated GameCircle produced 38 percent higher conversion rates and 33 percent more in-app orders than games that didn’t integrate GameCircle. When those stats are combined, Amazon says that GameCircle enabled games drive 83 percent more average revenue per user.

    Game Circle Study

    So, where’s all this money coming from? Unsurprisingly, GameCircle has been kind to the free-to-play model where players can enjoy the game for free, but are offered in-app purchases. GameCircle’s leaderboards encourage players to compete with friends in FTP games like Temple Run 2. Those players will also be encouraged to buy in-game items to better compete with friends. That’s where part of the increased revenue comes from.

    GameCircle also offers a robust discovery mechanisms which help drive engagement. These discovery mechanisms are visible from the user’s game library, and include information on how many friends are playing each game, the number of achievements unlocked and leaderboard activity. This information encourages players to jump into games and compete with others.

    As such, a separate study conducted in January found that 32 percent more players will open a game when it has this GameCircle enabled information on the games screen than those that do not. It once again into ties into the idea that FTP gamers are more likely to play your game, and spend money, when they’re encouraged to compete with others.

    For those thinking about building a Kindle Fire game, you might want to check out GameCircle. It has helped other developers be successful on the Kindle Fire, and it might just help you as well. Check out the documentation here to get started.

  • Kindle Fire HD Discounted $50 For Students

    One of the promises that came with the growing tablet market was an end-run around college textbook price-gouging. Students everywhere were supposed to be using interactive textbooks and doing homework within social class apps by now. Obviously, that hasn’t happened yet, but Amazon is still pushing to make sure it’s tablets are in the hands of students.

    Slashgear is reporting that Amazon has launched a $50 off promotion for its Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ tablets – but only for students. Anyone who is signed up with Amazon Student (using a .edu email address) for a discounted Amazon Prime membership has access to the deal. Both the Wi-Fi and 4G LTE versions of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ are eligible for the sale price, and the deal lasts throughout the month of January.

    Amazon is encouraging Kindle owners to use their devices as learning tools. Amazon Student members can subscribe to Amazon Prime for $39 a year, which is slightly less than half the normal price. In addition, Amazon allows textbook rental through its Kindle tablets, and recently introduced the X-Ray feature for textbooks. X-Ray is an integrated glossary allows users to cross-reference words and passages throughout a book and on the web through Wikipedia and YouTube.

  • A Charlie Brown Christmas And Other Peanuts Books Will Soon Be Available As eBooks

    It’s almost Christmas which means that you’ve probably watched A Charlie Brown Christmas about 20 times already. It’s a holiday classic for sure, but the book isn’t half bad either. It and a number of other Peanuts printed works will soon be available on the digital devices you’ll undoubtedly get for Christmas.

    Peanuts Worldwide and Graphicly announced today that the library of Peanuts children’s books and comic strips will be available as eBooks on iBooks, Kindle, Nook, Kobo Reader, Google Play Books and other eBook retailers. Over 60 titles will be available at launch with A Charlie Brown Christmas leading the pack. Other titles include Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown and the complete Peanuts newspaper strip archives.

    “For years, publishers have waited like Linus in the pumpkin patch for an integrated, simple and cost-effective way to convert, distribute and promote digital and interactive books. We are excited to partner with Peanuts Worldwide to help make the rich history of Peanuts available to readers everywhere,” said Micah Baldwin, CEO and Founder of Graphicly.

    This is actually the best time for Peanuts to go digital as more and more children are starting to own tablets. The eBooks format ensures that a whole new generation of children can enjoy stories of Charlie Brown never winning at life. If that’s too heavy, kids can enjoy the simpler tales of Snoopy being an all around badass. There’s a little something for everyone which may be why Peanuts is still so endearing after all these years.

  • Amazon Smartphone to Launch in 2013 (Rumor)

    Back in July there were hushed rumors that Amazon would enter the smartphone market with a device that would compliment its existing Kindle tablet lineup. Today it appears that those rumors have been corroborated and the “Kindle Phone” may be coming as soon as next summer.

    The China Economic News Service, a Taiwanese business publication issued a report stating that Foxconn, the famed manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone devices, has created a new smartphone for Amazon. The device is reportedly set to be launched between the second and third quarters of 2013. The manufacturer is “expected to ship as many as five million units” of the smartphone. The handset is also expected to be “budget-priced,” with a unit price of $100 to $200.

    With the success of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet line-up this holiday season, the leap to a phone-sized device isn’t a large one. Based on Amazon’s tablet strategy, it’s likely that the smartphone will run a heavily-modified Android operating system similar to the Kindle Fire HD. The Kindle Fire OS focuses heavily on Amazon’s products and subscription service, Amazon Prime.

    The smartphone market is already so dominated by Android and iPhone devices that platforms such as RIM and Windows Phone 8 hold only marginal shares of the market. It will be interesting to see if Amazon can put out a true competitor device that is low-priced and lures customers who are already heavily invested in Amazon’s digital media ecosystem.

    (via BGR)

  • Kindle Fire Is Now Available At GameStop

    When you think of GameStop, you generally think of console titles lining the walls and 8,000 copies of Madden NFL 08 going for $1.99 each. The gaming retail giant has changed its image over the past year, however, to a store that peddles all gaming devices, including Android and iOS tablets. Now the store has earned a powerful partner in Amazon.

    GameStop announced today that it’s now an official retailer for Amazon’s insanely popular Kindle Fire tablets. The games retailer will sell the updated Kindle Fire, the Kindle Fire HD and the Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch. As an added incentive, those who purchase a Kindle Fire from GameStop will get a $25 Amazon gift card.

    “Android tablets are topping many holiday lists, so it’s the perfect time to add Kindle Fire to GameStop’s mobile electronics selection,” said Joe Gorman, vice president of mobile at GameStop. “And with customers able to trade old video games, devices and more toward the purchase of new products, including Kindle Fire, we’re making it easier than ever for customers to get the holiday gifts they want.”

    In a year where tablets are topping wish lists for kids and adults, GameStop has to capitalize on the holiday rush for said devices. The Kindle Fire is one of the more accessible and cheaper tablets that folks can buy, and the quality of games on the Kindle Fire rivals that of other platforms.

    The Kindle Fire joins GameStop’s large portfolio of Android tablets the retailer offers. The most notable being the Nexus 7 from Google. GameStop offers five free games with purchase so the decision may come down to getting five quality games or a $25 gift card that can be used on more than just games as Amazon’s digital storefront offers quite a bit in the way of music and movies.

    On a final note, GameStop is also kicking off its trade in program for Kindle Fire devices today. The retailer is offering $100 in-store credit for any original Kindle Fire traded in. It’s a limited time special offer only for the original Kindle Fire as the retailer is only offering $85 for a Kindle Fire HD.

  • Amazon Launches “Kindle FreeTime Unlimited” Kids Service

    Amazon announced the launch of Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, which the company describes as “the all-you-can-eat content sercvice built from the ground up just for kids”.

    “Kindle FreeTime Unlimited brings together for the first time all of the types of content kids and parents love—books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows—into one simple, unlimited, easy-to-use service for kids ages 3-8,” a spokesperson for Amazon tells WebProNews.

    The service is only available on the new Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. For Amazon Prime members, it costs $2.99 per child per month or $6.99 for the whole family. If you’re not a Prime customer, you can get FreeTime Unlimited for $4.99 per child per month or $9.99 per family.

    Amazon Kindle Freetime unlimited
    The service includes individual profiles, so everything in each person’s library is their own. Kids can browse by actual content or by category (like “Princesses”), and see applicable books, games and shows.

    Apps have in-app payments, ads and social media removed, so you don’t have to worry about your kids getting involved with any of that. Amazon says the content is all pre-screened for “age-appropriateness”.

    “As a parent it’s hard to predict what my daughter is going to enjoy, or which movie she’s going to watch 50 times in a row—so I buy a range of content and hope for the best—but I get it wrong frequently,” said Peter Larsen, VP, Amazon Kindle. “FreeTime Unlimited gives kids the freedom to explore age-appropriate content on their own and pick for themselves what they want to watch, play or read next. For as little as $2.99 a month, your child will have unlimited access to thousands of popular books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows from Disney, Nickelodeon, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, PBS, Sesame Workshop and more.”

    The service will be part of a free over-the-air software update that Amazon will automatically push to the Kindle Fire devices in the coming weeks.

  • Kindle Did Pretty Well For Itself Over The Weekend

    Amazon has an advantage as an online retail giant – the company can participate in both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Sure, other companies do as well, but Amazon had great deals going up all the time over the weekend and well into the night on Monday evening. There must have been thousands of TVs, smartphones and other devices sold over the weekend, but the biggest winner was definitely the Kindle.

    Over the past weekend, the Kindle family saw its best weekend ever as Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales catapulted the device to the top of the charts. The devices are still sitting atop the worldwide best sellers list, and the Kindle Fire HD is leading the pack.

    The Kindle family of products did well on Black Friday, but Cyber Monday is where things really took off. That’s more or less thanks to the Kindle Fire being dropped to $129 for one day. The deal was advertised on Amazon’s front page, and customers responded by making it the “biggest Cyber Monday deal ever for Amazon.com.”

    The Kindle Fire HD is also doing pretty well for itself. Amazon says that the device has been the most gifted and most wished for product on Amazon.com since the device’s launch. The tablet will most assuredly be added to more wish lists as the nation moves closer to the holiday season.

    “Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fires have held the top 4 spots on the Amazon worldwide best sellers list since launch, and that was before the busiest shopping weekend of the year,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “We’re excited that customers made this Black Friday and Cyber Monday the best ever for Kindle worldwide—Cyber Monday was the biggest day ever for Kindle sales, and we’re looking forward to millions of customers opening a new Kindle this holiday season.”

    Amazon made no distinction between sales of the Kindle Fire HD and its bigger sibling, but I’m sure we’ll see a breakdown at the company’s next quarterly results. It will be interesting to see if the larger Kindle is more popular than its 7-inch counterpart.

  • The Bigger Kindle Fire HD Is Now Available

    During Amazon’s Kindle event earlier this year, the company announced multiple Kindle Fire HD devices. The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD has been available for a few months now, but the larger 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is finally available.

    Amazon announced today that the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is now shipping to customers who had pre-ordered the device. It’s a little earlier than expected as Amazon announced back in September that the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD would ship on November 20. It should be noted that the $299 Wi-Fi only device is the one that’s shipping today. The Kindle Fire HD 4G, which costs $499, will be shipping on the expected launch date of November 20.

    “Kindle Fire HD has been Amazon’s best-selling product worldwide since launch, and that was before we even started shipping the best tablet we’ve ever built,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “With the holiday season upon us, we’re excited to make our $299 Kindle Fire HD 8.9” available early—we think customers are going to love web browsing, email, gaming, watching TV shows, reading magazines, and more on the large, stunning HD screen, with fast Wi-Fi and exceptional audio.”

    Those who were waiting for the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD won’t be disappointed. The device features a 1920×1200 resolution display powered by a TI OMAP 4470 processor. Games built with this processor in mind should look spectacular on its display. The battery life is also no slouch as it offers 10 hours of continuous play.

    Consumers opting for the Kindle Fire HD 4G next week will get a decent deal as far as data plans go. Users will get 250MB a session of data, $10 Amazon Appstore for Android credit, and 20GB of CloudDrive space for a one-time payment of $50. Those who want more data will be able to upgrade to a 3GB or 5GB plan through their devices.

    Those who prefer to go through retail channels will be able to pick up the bigger Kindle Fire HD from Best Buy tomorrow. The device will be available through other retailers like Staples and Radio Shack in the coming weeks.

  • iPad Mini, Kindle Fire HD, and Nexus 7 Smoothies, Anyone?

    We’re not sure how BlendTec’s viral ad campaign is affecting sales of their products, but we do know it’s a damn good viral ad campaign. Whenever a new device is released – new iPhone, new tablet, new Kindle, etc. – people wonder when BlendTec will torture it. Their “Will it Blend” videos get hundreds of thousands, occasionally millions of views on YouTube.

    And the formula is simple. Take new, shiny, expensive gadgets and destroy them beyond all recognition with whirling metal blades. If that isn’t a winning strategy for views, I don’t know what is.

    The last time we checked in on the “will it blend” campaign they were testing the new iPhone 5 against the Galaxy S III. In that trial, the iPhone 5 blended a bit faster than the Galaxy S III, but they both wound up as goop and dust by the end.

    Today, we get an all-tablet episode. Check out the iPad mini, the Kindle Fire HD, and the Nexus 7 get demolished: