AT&T tempts cord-cutters with $40-a-month broadband with HBO and Amazon Prime

If you tried to count the number of times that we’d wished cable companies would offer nothing more than HBO Go and broadband, you’d run out of limbs well before you hit the total. AT&T, however, is following Comcast’s lead in offering a cord-cutter bundle that offers us exactly what we want without any of that messy cable grift we normally have to pay for. The $39 a month U-Verse + HBO bundle offers U-Basic TV and U-Verse Internet Max Plus, paired with HBO and HBO Go but also, more notably, a year’s free Amazon Prime subscription as well. The company is also trialling a package that ditches the U-Basic TV and HBO options and just offers you broadband and Amazon Prime for $29 a month, although that’s only available in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco. The catch here is that once the 12-month contract expires, you’re bumped up to AT&T’s standard rates, but, hey, at least that’s a year you don’t have to worry about paying through the nose for 900 channels you’ll never watch.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Amazon, AT&T

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Via: Variety, Re/code

Source: AT&T

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New Oppo N3 Render! Amazon Announces New Fire Devices! – ManDroid Daily

The ManDroid Daily is here for you my friends, and hopefully it satisfies your Android needs. Amazon decided to announce some new products that are sure to aim to impress. A new Oppo N3 render surfaced that seems to be a little more legit than the last render we got. Your guess is as good as mine on which one is the real one. Enjoy the Daily!

Android News
New Oppo N3 render
Amazon Fire HDX 8.9
Fire HD Kids Edition
Fire HD Tablets in 5 colors
Fire OS Sangria
Motorola commercials behind the scenes

The post New Oppo N3 Render! Amazon Announces New Fire Devices! – ManDroid Daily appeared first on AndroidSPIN.

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What’s new with Amazon’s Fire OS 4.0 “Sangria”?

Amazon has just announced four new Fire tablets and along with them comes the next iteration ofFire OS, named “Sangria.” Sangria is based off of Android 4.4 KitKat but is coated with goodies and adjustments from Amazon. The user interface has seen some improvements, but what really makes this update interesting is the features that come packed with it.

The most notable feature is the addition of profiles. With profiles, the tablet can be shared between multiple people with each one having their own account with personalized settings. Profiles can have different Twitter and Facebook accounts, settings configurations, games, email, and more. This will be extremely useful for parents whose children want to play on their tablets. Just make a profile for the kids that tailors the content specifially for them.

Family Library is still in the works but it promises the ability to sync your family’s content across multiple devices. This way a family can share books, movies, and games without having to sign-in to different accounts or share the same device.

Sangria also comes with ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) which is popular on Amazon Fire TV. This feature predicts which movies and television shows you will want to watch next and prepares instant playback for them before you even start watching.

Smart Suspend is another very useful feature that promises to provide extended battery life. When the device is not in use, Smart Suspend turns wireless on and off to conserve battery. Amazon is touting that it can provide 25% more standby time which is quite impressive.

A few other improvements include the addition of Firefly technology seen on the Fire Phone, the ability to edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, and support for printing and Private Browsing Mode in the browser.

Sangria focuses on tapping into Amazon cloud which allows a deeper cross-platform and cross-device syncing. Announcing Sangria along with four new Fire tablets was a good move by Amazon because they can show that Sangria is an operating system that is made for the whole family.

You can read the entire press release here and check out the new line of tablets and Fire OS 4.0 “Sangria” here.

What do you think of Sangria? Tell us in the comments!

The post What’s new with Amazon’s Fire OS 4.0 “Sangria”? appeared first on AndroidGuys.

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Amazon refreshes Kindle Fire line with four new tablets

As has been the case with the last few fall seasons, Amazon has refreshed its Kindle Fire tablet lineup. For 2014 we find the online giant introducing no less than four models including its first designed specifically for children. All four are the first to run Amazon’s latest UI, the Fire OS 4.0 known as Sangria.

Kindle Fire HD

First up is the standard Fire HD model which now comes in both 6-inch and 7-inch versions. Available for $99 and $139, respectively, the tablets will begin shipping in October a variety of color options: black, white, cobalt, magenta, and citron. Powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, other specifications include front and rear facing camera, all-day battery life, and Dolby Digital Plus Audio.

Kindle Fire HDX

The more powerful tablet experience gets even better with the integration of Dolby Atmos which promises to be “twice as loud as the iPad Air”. What’s more, the tablet improves on the Wi-Fi front and is now compatible with 802.11ac MIMO. The 2.5GHz quad-core processor keeps things humming; the battery is able to withstand 12 hours of usage. Another key feature is the Dynamic Light Control, a custom touch that changes the white point based on ambient lighting in the environment. Due later this year, it aims to more closely resemble a piece of paper.

Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition

For the first Amazon has introduced a new product which is aimed expressly for children. The tablet will come in both 6-inch and 7-inch versions and include 2-year “worry-free” warranty. Further, the tablets come with one-year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, an all-in-one subscription of books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games.

“Kids break things, so we added a 2-year, no-questions-asked, worry-free guarantee”

No slouch, the Kids Edition features an HD display, quad-core processor, and a pair of cameras. Shipping in October, the 6-inch version is $149 while the 7-inch carries a $189 price tag.

The post Amazon refreshes Kindle Fire line with four new tablets appeared first on AndroidGuys.

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Amazon gives its flagship Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 a modest spec boost

If you’ve ever seen a TV commercial for Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets, you know the company isn’t shy about comparing itself to Apple. Indeed, the retail giant is hoping you’ll buy its flagship Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 this holiday season instead of a boring iPad Air. This year, though, Amazon appears to be competing purely on specs: The company just refreshed the HDX 8.9, and while it has the same design as last year’s model (20 percent lighter than the iPad, as Amazon is quick to point out!), everything under the hood is just a bit better. A bit faster. The tablet is up for pre-order today for $379, the same price as last year’s HDX 8.9. Which makes sense: All things considered, this is a fairly modest upgrade.

For starters, this is the first tablet with Snapdragon’s top-of-the-line 805 chip — a 2.5GHz, quad-core processor that brings a 70 percent graphics improvement boost, according to Amazon. Raw performance aside, Amazon is claiming 12 hours of runtime this year, roughly similar to its predecessor. In addition to that 805 chip, this is also the first tablet with Dolby’s Atmos surround sound technology. Naturally, Amazon is quick to say that it’s twice as loud as the iPad Air, but that’s not really the point. The point is that the sound feels more immersive, like it’s coming at you from all directions. Indeed, after getting hands-on, I can confirm the audio is impressive — if you plug in a pair of headphones. Preferably some over-ears. You’re simply not going to get the same effect with just the tablet’s speakers, and an Amazon rep admitted in an interview that even in-ear earbuds might not be the same. Still, the next time you find yourself on a plane with some noise-canceling headphones, you could have yourself quite the movie-watching party.

Moving on, the HDX still has an 8.9-inch, 2,560 x 1,600 display with a pixel density of 339 ppi. That said, Amazon added a new “Dynamic Light Control” feature, which changes the white balance of the pages in reading mode to make it look more like paper depending on the ambient light conditions. That means it can go from cool to warm, from blue to nearly yellow. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of such a feature — the Samsung Galaxy Tab S works much the same way — but it’s a welcome addition here, especially since the price is staying the same. (If you disagree, Amazon says you can turn that feature off.) Finally, the new HDX has 802.11ac WiFi, a step up from 802.11n. Kind of a no-brainer upgrade, if you ask us.

http://www.engadget.com/embed-5min/?sid=577&playList=518421001&responsive=false

Other than that, many of the HDX 8.9’s improvements boil down to Amazon’s new software, dubbed Fire OS 4.0. (Following Amazon’s grand tradition of giving its software alcohol-themed code names, this build is called “Sangria.”) New features include unlimited online photo storage, the ability to add up to six user profiles, as well as a so-called Family Library where you can share apps, games, books and videos with someone else in the family — your spouse, say. For the first time, Amazon is also throwing in a word processing suite, WPS Office, which — surprise — stores files on Amazon’s own Cloud Drive service.

Firefly, a feature first introduced on the Fire Phone, is also making its debut on tablets. If you recall, it basically lets you scan anything you set your eyes on — and then buy it. Additionally, Amazon ported over its ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) feature from Fire TV, which guesses at which movies and TV shows you’re searching for, and gets ready to stream them before you actually hit “play.” This time around, the software is built on Android KitKat — not that this looks anything like Android. If anything, the move to KitKat might make it a little easier for developers to bring over their apps to Amazon’s own app store. But as far as the UI, this is uniquely Amazon: easy to use, but heavily skinned.

Though the software contains some useful new features, it’s not reason enough to buy the HDX 8.9 specifically: Amazon’s other new tablets run the same OS, and last year’s models will also get upgraded to Fire OS 4.0. On that note, the 7-inch HDX will still be around, except Amazon is cutting the price by $30 to $199. Always an option if you want the user profiles, but not necessarily the Snapdragon 805 chip. (We can’t blame you there.) Again, the new HDX 8.9 is up for pre-order today. Aside from the tablet, there’s also a keyboard to go with it ($60) and a new folding “Origami” cover that’s about 20 percent lighter than last year’s case. Will we review it? Maybe we will; maybe we won’t. Either way: You generally know what to expect here.

Terrence O’Brien contributed to this report.

Filed under: Tablets, Amazon

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Amazon’s new budget tablets include 6- and 7-inch sizes, as well as a kids edition

Here’s the funny thing about Amazon: Because it’s already selling you stuff, it has an easy way of knowing when a product category is starting to take off. Case in point: budget tablets. After reading lots of user reviews complaining about cheap, unreliable slates, the company had two major takeaways. One, people actually buy this crap and two, maybe Amazon can do better. That brings us to today’s news: The outfit just introduced a 6-inch, $99 tablet, its least expensive yet. In addition, the company refreshed its $139 Kindle Fire HD 7 along with so-called Kids Edition models, which are basically the same 6- and 7-inch tablets, just with a two-year warranty and some robust parental controls. All of them start at under $200.

All told, with the exception of screen size, the two tablets have the same specs, including an unspecified quad-core 1.5GHz processor, a 1,280 x 800 screen, an eight-hour battery, Dolby Digital Plus audio and dual cameras, with the rear one capable of shooting 1080p video. Both run Amazon’s new Fire OS 4.0 (code-named “Sangria”), which brings over the Firefly scan-and-buy feature from the Fire phone and ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) from the Fire TV. With the new software, you can also add up to six user profiles. Finally, a new “Family Library” feature lets you share books, apps, games and videos with someone else in the house — maybe a spouse who has a different Amazon account.

Really, then, the only difference between the two tablets is screen density, with the 7-incher coming in at 216 ppi and the 6-inch model going up to 252. Obviously, since we haven’t tested these, we can’t vouch for the performance, but even so: Those are impressive screens for tablets this cheap. Other than that, the main selling point seems to be durability. Amazon used a Gorilla Glass panel to help ward off scratches, and it tested its tablets with sunscreen, salt water and even a machine that simulates items being tossed around inside a bag. Naturally, your mileage may vary, but Amazon is at least hoping its tablets will fare better than all those no-name brands people have been giving two-star reviews.

Meanwhile, as we said, the Kids Edition features the same 6- and 7-inch tablets, except it comes with a rubber case and a two-year replacement plan that covers the sorts of accidents not normally included in standard gadget warranties. Additionally, Amazon is including its “FreeTime Unlimited” package free for one year, which features various kid-friendly content that includes books, movies, TV shows, apps and games. (All this stuff varies in age-appropriateness, though Amazon says the tablet is primarily aimed at children ages three to 10.) Given that these are the HD 6 and HD 7, they do have front- and rear-facing cameras, though a future software update will also give kids the ability to add digital “stickers.” Like you do when you’re seven.

http://www.engadget.com/embed-5min/?sid=577&playList=518421001&responsive=false

Speaking of software, there are naturally lots of parental controls on board here. By default, in-app purchases aren’t allowed, and kids don’t have access to the Appstore. Children can’t get into the settings — or email or the web browser, for that matter. Parents can set time goals (e.g., read for 30 minutes a day), and they can forbid kids from opening any of the “entertainment” content until they eat their vegetables get a certain amount of educational work out of the way. Parents can also limit time for different activities as well as set a curfew, after which the kids can’t access the device anymore. Finally, like other new Kindle Fire tablets, the Kids Edition has room for up to six user profiles, with the option to set different parental controls for each. And yes, if you happen to be the adult in the house, you could, if you wanted to, use the tablet in an unrestricted way, just like any other Amazon tablet.

The HD 6 starts at $99, while the HD 7 is priced the same as last year, at $139. Both are available in five colors, including white, black, fuchsia, cobalt blue and a neon yellow-green color (our name for it, not Amazon’s). The Kids Edition, meanwhile, starts at $149 for the 6-inch model and $189 for the 7-inch version. All of them ship in October, though you can pre-order them starting today. No word on whether we’ll enlist a kid to toss one of these around, but in the meantime, we’ve got some hands-on photos if you feel like taking a closer look.

Terrence O’Brien contributed to this report.

Filed under: Tablets, Amazon

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