Amazon Kindle Fire tablet
and new e-readers: Unveiled
I Pad Killer : Amazon unveiled four new Kindle devices at a press conference in New York - the Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet, the Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G
The tablet computer is aimed at challenging Apple's iPad by extending its Kindle brand into the world of full-colour, multipurpose devices.
The Kindle Fire will sell for $199 (£127) in the US when it goes on sale in November. It will feature a 7-inch display, 8GB of internal memory, and Wi-Fi connectivity and will have a platform for games, movies, music and other applications. Weighing in at just over 400g, it's light enough to hold in one hand too.
The Kindle Fire uses IPS (in-plane switching) technology, which is similar technology as used on the iPad, for an extra-wide viewing angle - great if you want to share your content when sat around with your mates. The screen is also super sturdy to withstand knocks and scrapes - it's been strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic
For a speedy web browsing experience, the Kindle Fire will feature Amazon's own web browser - Amazon Silk. This uses a 'split browser' architecture that accelerates web browsing by taking the pressure off the hardware and using the computing speed and power of the Amazon Web Services Cloud as well. With each page request, Silk determines various factors like network conditions, page complexity and cached content in order to render a page quicker.
Users will get free cloud storage, which means - just like on the Kindle - all of your content can be deleted and re-downloaded at anytime.
Another feature from the Kindle being continued on the Fire is Amazon's Whispersync technology, a feature that remembers your last read page, bookmarks, notes and highlights across various devices and platforms. This has now been expanded to included video - start streaming a movie on your Kindle Fire and when you get home, carry watching it on your TV.
Even before its release, the Kindle Fire was heralded as a worthy competitor to Apple's iPad. Amazon is nearly unique in its ability to sell content such as e-books, movies and music suited for a tablet - just like Apple does.
But competing with Apple will not be easy. Many have tried to copy the iPad's success, but so far, it is the overwhelming front-runner in the tablet computer category.
Apple sold 28.7 million of them from April 2010 to June 2011. Analysts at research firm Gartner expect the iPad to account for three out of four tablet sales this year.
The Fire runs a version of Google Android software, used by other iPad rivals and will have access to applications through Amazon's Android store. Unlike the iPad, the Fire does not need to be backed up on a PC. Instead, it backs up its contents wirelessly on Amazon's servers.
"That model that you have to back up your own content is a broken model. We want to take responsibility for that," Mr Bezos said in a dig at Apple.
The Kindle Fire wasn't the only announcement - the Kindle Touch wi-fi and 3G versions were also shown off, Amazon's first touchscreen e-readers. Having ditched the QWERTY keyboard, and all physical buttons for that matter, the device is 11% smaller and 8% lighter than the previous Kindle, with a silver finish in place of the black
Chief executive Jeff Bezos showed off the black-and-white Kindle models, including its cheapest yet, at 79 dollars (£50). A touch screen model will cost 99 dollars (£63), and one with mobile network access will cost 149 dollars (£95).
The new Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G claim to have an improved battery life of up to two months (with wi-fi turned off). It will also be able to hold up to 3,000 books.
New Kindles will offer a new feature called X-Ray, which Amazon says allows you to explore the 'bones of a book'. When you're reading simply tap the screen to bring up more information on what's happening in the book. This could be a Wikipedia page that gives you more information on the ideas, characters, historical figures, places or events from the book - all of which is downloaded as part of the book, so can be viewed offline.
The screen offers multi-touch functionality and due to the devices not having any physical buttons, everything is controlled on screen. As such, it implements an 'easy reach system'. Tap the middle of the screen while reading to bring up the menu, or touch on the left or right of the screen to turn a page backwards or forwards
The Kindle Touch 3G will work similarly to the (now called) Kindle Keyboard 3G - you'll pay a bit more than the wi-fi version, but that will cover all of your 3G use for the lifetime of the Kindle, and will work in over 100 countries.
UK prices haven't been confirmed, but in the States the Kindle Touch will start from $99 and the Touch 3G from $149 (these prices are for Kindle with Special Offers - a subsidised price Kindle that features ads when the screen is idle. This is not currently available in the UK).
Finally there is the all-new Kindle, a non-touchscreen but also non-QWERTY Kindle with a rather attractive price tag - just £89. In place of the QWERTY keyboard there is a D-pad for navigation and four hard keys for home, menu, on-board keyboard and back.
The new Kindle is the smallest, lightest Kindle ever - weighing in at 170 grams. That's 30% lighter than the previous model. It's also 18% smaller, despite keeping its predecessor's six-inch screen.
While the affordable Kindle won't offer built-in 3G, it does have wi-fi support for wireless book downloads - there's enough room on the new Kindle for 1,400 books.
page turns are also now 10% faster on the new Kindle too.
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Sources: http://tech.uk.msn.com/in-pictures-amazon-kindle-fire-tablet-and-new-e-readers#image=16
http://tech.uk.msn.com/news/amazon-unveils-%c2%a3130-ipad-rival
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/28/scitech/main20112680.html
