From the kindle, comes the fire. As the tech world so accurately predicted, Jeff Bezos introduced Amazon's newest addition to the Kindle family today. And as predicted, it was a 7" color Android tablet for less than $300. The Kindle Fire is very much an Amazon tablet however as it has no access to the Google Apps. Not surprising, as the tablet is certainly meant to connect to Amazon for all its services: Amazon Prime for video, Amazon MP3 store and Cloud Drive for music, Kindle Store for books, Amazon Apps for Angrybirds, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and all the Android apps that Amazon approves of. It's web browser is one Amazon Silk, and reportedly uses the power of Amazon's massive EC2 Cloud to boost browsing speeds. The price, at $199, is amazing low, in fact, lower than predicted.
Here's the specs:
OS: Android 2.3, heavily modified
Display: 7" multi-touch display 1024 x 600 IPS panel, Gorilla Glass coating
Processor: 1GHz TI OMAP dual-core CPU with 512MB RAM
Size: 7.5" x 4.7" x 0.45" (190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm).
Weight: 14.6 ounces (413 grams).
System Requirements: None, because it's wireless and doesn't require a computer.
On-device Storage: 8GB internal.
Cloud Storage: Free cloud storage for all Amazon content
Battery Life: Up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off.
Charge Time: Fully charges in approximately 4 hours via power adapter. Also supports USB.
Wi-Fi Connectivity: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n
USB Port: USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)
Audio: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, top-mounted stereo speakers.
Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8.
The big question however is what kind of tablet computer is the Kindle Fire. It's certainly no iPad killer, but that probably wasn't the point. Obviously, the device is the perfect gateway for Amazon selling content to you; why, it's probably even subsidized by the fact that Amazon's banking on the user buy content from them. It is reasonably priced, comfortably portable, and from the looks of it, extremely functional. But is it worth buying if you're not interested in any of Amazon's content? Is the Kindle Fire a real Android tablet? Or is it an Amazon slot machine?
On the web:
Kindle Fire from Amazon
the itjerk 
Recent Comments