As reported earlier today Amazon annouced a new array of devices. 3 new devices were annouced the anticapted Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD and the Kindle Paper White. Check for the spec and details of each device after the break
At a press conference in Santa Monica, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos first unveiled the Kindle Fire HD, a tablet similar to the original Kindle Fire in build but with an impressive high-resolution display added on. The new HD tablet will come in two screen sizes (a 7-inch display, as on the original Kindle Fire, and a larger 8.9-inch display). Each display will boast a 1,920×1,200 resolution and will improve on the problems with glare that the original Kindle Fire suffered from. The Kindle Fire HD is equipped with Bluetooth, HDMI out, and dual stereo speakers (which Bezos noted was one more speaker than on the iPad,according to Engadget); it is also the first tablet with “Dolby Digital Plus” audio technology. Bezos also played up the new Wi-Fi technology in the Kindle Fire HD, claiming that the new tablet will cut down on interference and more reliably connect to networks. (The Kindle Fire HD’s Wi-Fi is 41 percent faster than that of the new iPad, according to Bezos, as quoted by Engadget).
The original Kindle Fire, meanwhile, has been updated for better battery life, twice as much RAM and faster performance. The device also gets a price cut: The “Kindle Fire SD” will now cost $159, down from the initial $199 price.
Bezos also detailed several new software features for Amazon’s inventive Android-based operating system. The Kindle Fire HD adds a front-facing camera, and Skype has built an app especially for the Fire; Facebook, too, has designed a new app, and Amazon has updated its own much-bemoaned email app for better Exchange integration, the ability to sync contacts and calendars, and faster email fetching. An interesting feature called X-Ray for Movies will allow you to tap on any actor’s face in a movie or television show to bring up that actor’s filmography and other information: This service is being powered by popular film database IMDB and is similar to Amazon’s X-Ray feature for books, which brings up dictionaries, word glossaries, and other educational tools.
Other new features include a parental control option called Kindle FreeTime, which will allow moms and dads to set time limits on how long they’ll allow their kids to play on the Kindle Fire per day. Parents can also designate the number of hours that can be spent by category, meaning a kid could read for an unlimited amount of time but might only get 30 minutes of game time and an hour of movie or TV viewing time. Another feature, Whispersync for Games, lets gamers save their progress on certain games across devices; so, if you beat thirty levels on your Kindle Fire HD, and then buy a different Kindle Fire, you won’t have to start over on the new tablet.
These new devices — the Kindle Fire HDs, as well as the Kindle Paperwhite — represent the first update to the Kindle line since September 2011, when Amazon debuted the $199 Kindle Fire tablet and three Kindle e-readers: The Kindle Touch 3G, the $99 Kindle Touch, and the $79 Kindle with physical page-turning buttons. It was the Kindle Fire that stole the show, with high demand for the cheap 7-inch tablet when it was released in November. Though Amazon does not release sales numbers, the company did recently claim to own 22 percent tablet market share, whichAnthony Diclemente of Barclays Capital estimates as 7 million tablets sold.
