Amazon launches new Kindles and Kindle Fire
From left to right: the new Kindle, the Kindle Touch and the Kindle Fire.
Kindle
There’s new basic Kindle eReader that’s set to cost £89 (or, weirdly, £79) for the ad-supported version. Ars Technica reports that despite the low price, ‘the device feels solid and robust.’ The new Kindle is based around a 6in e-Ink screen and weighs only 170g, but has ditched the keyboard of the current model in favour of a D-Pad and on-screen keyboard.
The physical page turn buttons have also moved to the sides of the device, rather than the large buttons on the bezel. This is because the current buttons are too easy to press accidentally, as Ars says, ‘the new hardware buttons are unobtrusive and might actually be a bit difficult to spot until you're used to the device’
The new Kindle is available for pre-order now on a first-come, first-served basis, and will be released on 12 October.
Kindle Touch
Amazon also revealed a touchscreen version of the new Kindle, with infrared sensing rather than the capacitive screen of the iPad or the resistive screens of rubbish touchscreen from ten years ago. Set to cost £99 for the ad-supported version or £139 without ads (there’s no UK price or release date as yet), this 6in device weighs 213g. It’s said to be ‘8 per cent lighter [than the current Kindle, and] 11 per cent smaller.’
The 3G version is set to cost either $149 or $189, depending on ad support.
Kindle Fire
Possibly the most intriguing new Kindle is the Kindle Fire, an Android tablet based around a 7in, full-colour touchscreen. The Android Silk OS has allowed Amazon to closely link the Kindle Fire to Amazon’s cloud service, meaning that the device can offload complex tasks such as rendering complex web pages to an Amazon cloud server, and receive a more manageable stream of data back. The cloud servers can also cache popular content, again speeding up the browsing experience.
It’s this ‘split’ architecture that has likely allowed Amazon to include a dual-core processor and reasonably large touchscreen in a device that’s set to cost $199. The CPU really doesn’t have to be all that powerful or advanced if it can rely on servers to do a lot of the grunt work.
Ars Technica got to have a look at the Kindle Fire and said, ‘The screen itself looks very good, and the demos that Amazon representatives performed seemed to indicate it was quite responsive to touches.’
Interested by any of the new devices? Let us know which ones and why in the forum.
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29 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyThe other ones, not so much however!
Love my Kindle, and the pricing for the Kindle Fire looks very very apealing...
As for that touchscreen kindles, can't say I love the idea, the smudges you can get on the screen will make yer head hurt!
personally I dont want or need a tablet - my phone is fine.... I would have bought them for mothers/grandmothers though if and only if it worked with skype and had camera - it doesn't - so I wont.
I'd buy one in a heartbeat as well as buying a kindle fire, tablet + e-book reader for less than the cost of an ipad? Where do I sign?
Fair enough the kindle touch's on screen keyboard wont be the fastest in the world due to e-ink refresh technology but I'm pretty much always near a computer / my smartphone if i need to search the amzon store to find a book I can do it there
Shame amazon are being colossal cocks and not releasing the touch or fire in the ukch or fire in the uk
I believe that is down to copyright issues in the UK, they are trying to work out a solution and as soon as that happens you should expect to see them in the UK quite quickly!
It's more likely the lack of cameras, large flash memory, I/O connectors, Bluetooth and 3G that make it cheap. It still has a TI chipset with a dual-core Cortex-A9 which doesn't count as cost-cutting at all!
As for the Kindle Fire I do not understand people who can live with 7" tablets. I find my 10" Xoom to be just a bit too small for my liking. For me, a 7" tablet would only be useful as a tv remote, or to control music/lightning in my room. I couldn't image myself browsing the web with such a small tablet. It's too large for a pocket and yet if I have a backpack with me I would always have room for a larger 10" version.
im with you, i got a zte blade it has a 3.5" screen its not very powerful (600mhz) but has the perfect screen size for watching vids and runs internet very well for the price
@Picarro: One of my brothers has a 7" Galaxy because it fits neatly in a jacket pocket, no bag necessary, but has a larger screen than a smart phone. Another carries a man bag with a 10" iPad 2 all the time. I prefer the former option to the latter but have no need for a tablet, I only want to read my books on the go, my Kindle fits the same criteria - it fits neatly inside my jacket pocket so I don't need to carry a bag as well. Horses for courses mate, if I have to carry a bag I'd prefer something with a keyboard anyway.
Its ergonomics. That "wasted" space allows users to handle and rotate the devices without catching the sensitive touchscreens. Slim bevel design is something you don't want on a tablet.
With the recent Microsoft, Google Cloud services outage. Cloud rendering? Hmm...
Amazon are going to release a 10" tablet early next year. If they keep the price low, add a camera and expandable memory it will rape the ipad. I will definitely get one.
The problem with the ipad is there is no competition so this is sorely needed.
Surprised assholes at Apple haven't launched a lawsuit yet for using the word Touch.
Don't worry, they will eventually, but like all good patent trolls they are giving the other company some time to make millions with the device first so they can then inflate the numbers more when they go to cry in Court.
The fire isn't an upgrade to a normal kindle. It us the normal backlit display so isn't meant for use as a ereader.
If she wants a device for web browsing and TV watching on the move then it looks very good owever it not designed tobe used for reading books.