Amazon announces latest Fire tablets, priced as low as $50
At least for now, Amazon might be out of the smartphone game but that doesn’t mean their device ambitions are winding down. Today Amazon unveiled a number of new products, including a refresh to its Fire media streamers. Additionally, the company has outed the latest members of the Kindle Fire tablet family, bringing us a total of four new entries dubbed the Fire HD8, HD10, Fire, and the Fire Kids.
Kindle Fire and the Fire Kids
At the lowest-end of the spectrum we find the Fire, which is probably the model that will arguably find the most commercial success. The entry-level tablet has a 7-inch IPS display with a 1024×600 resolution and a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek processor. Other specs include a 2MP rear cam, VGA front cam, 1GB RAM, and 8GB storage. That said, it does have a new trick up its sleeve: microSD for expansion. Even more exciting, the tablet is priced at just $50.
While it isn’t impossible to find a working tablet for around $50 in 2015, generally you are talking about an off-brand tab that may or may not have a functional app store present and will have limited to no support from the company that produces it. Amazon, on the other hand, is a big company with a reasonably solid rep and so we wouldn’t be surprised if the new Fire becomes a favorite among parents looking for a cheap tablet to gift their children.
For families looking to give a Fire to everyone, Amazon is even selling a six-pack for the price of 5 tablets. At $250 for six, that’s still cheaper than many people pay for just one tablet (cough.. iPad buyers…. cough).
Speaking of family and children, next up in their line-up is the Fire Kids. Basically this is just the $50 tablet wrapped in special protective clothes and coming with a two-year “no worry guarantee” that means your kid can destroy the device and Amazon will replace it without asking questions. The Kids version also comes with a year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, which offers kid-friendly books, games, and shows.
Fire HD8 and H10
For Amazon fans on the higher end of the spectrum, the HD8 and H10 are the flagship offerings of the tablet line. As you guessed by their names, they are 8-inch and 10.1-inch tablets respectively. Both screens have Gorilla Glass for added protection, and give off 400 nits of brightness and have resolutions of 1280×800.
Under the hood for both flagship models, you’ll find a quad-core MediaTek 1.5GHz processor with again just 1GB RAM. The new tablets have 5MP rear cams and 720p front cams, and battery lives rated at around 8 hours. On the storage front, you’ll find 8GB for the HD8 and 16GB for the HD10, both with microSD for expansion. These specs aren’t exactly high-end, but the pricing is still rather aggressive at $150 for the HD8 and $230 for the HD10. Color choices include black, magenta, blue, and tangerine colors for the HD8, while the Fire HD 10 comes just in black or white.
All three tablets will run a new version of Fire OS, OS 5.0 Bellini. The latest update offers a new user interface that focuses on making it easier to find things, while looking sharper than the old UI. There’s also a new Word Runner app for speed reading, and the two higher-end entries get a new “On Deck” feature that lets the HD8 and HD10 automatically download movies and shows based on the preferences of the user. This video content will then be ready to go at an airport, without the user having to remember to download anything for a flight or other trip where they won’t have access. An interesting feature, though we imagine it is probably possible to disable it for those worried about space constraints.
That wraps up Amazon’s latest Kindle Fire entrants. What do you think, would you buy any of them? If so, which model and why?
Amazon announces revised Fire TV and Fire TV Stick
Amazon has just launched a refresh its living room line-up with a new Fire TV Stick, Fire TV box and a new Fire TV Gaming package. The battle for that little space by your TV has become even more contested.
Beginning with the Fire TV Stick, the biggest change is the introduction of Amazon’s new voice control system named Alexa. The voice control allows the user to search for shows across a variety of libraries and load up applications. Alexa is coming to existing Amazon TV boxes too, via a Fire TV OS 5 update. The Fire TV Stick comes with a dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The new model costs $50, or you can grab the non-voice option for the old $40 price tag.
The updated Fire TV is a more powerful beast, as you might expect. Amazon is looking to one up many of its competitors with support for 4K TVs and content. Amazon claims that its new CPU is 75 percent more powerful than the old version, and there is now twice the GPU performance for gaming too.
The new Fire TV boasts a quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory, complete with a microSD card slot for up to 128GB of extra space. The updated model also comes with voice support and will cost $100.
Living room gaming has leapt into the spotlight again recently, so Amazon has also announced a Fire TV Gaming bundle to make use of all that extra GPU power. The package will retail for $140 and contains a Fire TV, a redesigned game controller, 32GB microSD card and and two free games: Shovel Knight and Disney’s Ducktales.
If Amazon’s new gear takes your fancy, you can already pre-order the devices. The Fire TV will ship out on October 5th and the Fire TV Stick with voice commands will be heading out on October 22nd.
Amazon’s thinner Fire HD tablets always have something to watch
Amazon tablets are for content consumption. That’s what the company keeps saying and with today’s announcement of new two new Fire HD tablets, it’s clear that the company that sells you socks and cat food over the internet is doubling down on that message. The new lighter tablets come in eight and 10.1-inch versions and are only 7.7mm thick. But that’s only a small part of the news, the tablets and new Fire OS 5 are laser focused on reading, watching and listening. For example, the new tablets now preemptively download Amazon Prime videos based on your video recommendations so when you are offline, you have videos ready to watch. The new Word Runner feature for reading is to help you quickly get through a chapter or a book in record time, And to make sure you have enough room for all those videos, songs and books you’ll be consuming the tablets ship with microSD slots for additional storage for content. Content is king at Amazon and these are the devices they’ve created to deliver it to you. Slideshow-320565
The new eight-inch tablet starts at $149.99 (£130) with 8GB of memory while the 10.1-inch base model costing $229.99 (£170) for 16GB of memory. The inclusion of microSD cards means that up to an additional 128GB can be added to any of the tablets. For offline viewing of streaming Prime Videos, Amazon has adjusted its DRM so you can now store those movies and TV shows on the microSD card.
Of course if you forget to actually download any videos before you leave, you’re usually gonna have a bad time. But Amazon has introduced a feature that downloads videos in the background called On Deck. It determines what you would like to watch using Amazon’t recommendation engine. On Deck adds and removes videos are storage space fluctuates. The idea is that you’ll always something to watch when you’re offline. It’s a bit like when a TiVo records shows you may like. They’re there just in case you need them.
If you’re more of a bibliophile, reading on the Fire HD might have just got a bit quicker. The speed-reading Word Runner feature displays one word at a time at between 100 and 900 words a minute. It slowly speeds up the text to your desired word-per-minute rate and pauses ever so slightly for difficult words, punctuation and paragraph breaks. If you miss a word, you can pause it for a timeline of the words and you can slide back and forth until you figure out where you’re supposed to be.
All the new features are housed in new enclosures. Both tablets have laminated metal backs. The 8-inch version is available in black, magenta, tangerine, and blue. Sadly, the 10.1-inch Fire HD is only available in black or white. Amazon has stuck with the widescreen IPS Gorilla Glass displays so there’s very little letterboxing while watching videos. The rear-facing camera is now 5MP with the front-facing camera hitting 720p. Both are powered by the same quad-core 1.5GHz processor found in the former Fire HD 7.
But again, it’s not about the tablet, it’s about an experience. Amazon said it had two goals with Fire OS 5: Make it fun and help with content discovery. Discovery is no problem for the Fire OS, fun is in the eye of the tablet holder (see what I did there).
The Fire HD 8 and 10 are available for preorder now and will start shipping on September 30.
Filed under:
Misc, Tablets, Amazon
Source:
Amazon
Tags: amazon, FireHD10, FireHD8, FireOS, FireOS5
Amazon Fire TV comes out to play with 4K and Alexa, stays at $99
If you’re one of the folks that’s purchased a 4K TV, Amazon has some good news for you: The new Fire TV supports 4K and still costs $99.99 (£80). In addition to handling all those extra pixels, the voice remote now calls up Alexa, the Echo assistant with access to more than just movie and TV titles. Ask it about the weather, sports, traffic and have it play music from your Amazon playlists and Prime. All of the information is displayed on your TV. The company also announced a $49.99 (£45) Fire TV Stick with a Voice Remote (finally) and a new game controller also with voice control and a headphone jack so your zombie shooting ways don’t disturb the rest of the house. Slideshow-320558
Folks with regular HDTVs can take advantage of the Fire TV’s support of HEVC (high efficiency video coding) for higher quality 1080p streams at lower bit rates. Amazon says that HEVC is roughly two times more efficient than the standard h.264. If you live in an area where your streaming video quality is on par with an 8-bit video game, HEVC might help.
The new box also supports 802.11ac for better long-range performance, has 75-percent more processing power and a GPU that’s twice as fast. All that extra silicon strength is for the company’s updated focus on making the Fire TV a low-cost console for mobile games on your TV. To further convince you to start playing games with the device, Amazon not only updated its game controller with a more ergonomic design, voice control and headphone jack, but it also introduced the Fire TV Gaming Edition. The $139.99 pack comes with a Fire TV, controller, 32GB microSD card and two games (Duck Tales and Shovel Knight). It will also only be available in the US.
While the Fire TV Stick got some update love with its new Voice Remote, the regular $39.99 (£35) version will let you use the Fire TV Remote app for iOS and Android to chat with your TV.
While the Alexa-powered voice feature on the now TV-connected boxes is nice, unfortunately it won’t be as robust as what’s available in the Echo. For example, you won’t be able to tell your TV to turn off your lights. But during a briefing, Amazon spokespersons said that while not available in this release, the company does see the TV as an IoT hub.
All this new Alexa-powered chit chat will also be available via an upcoming OTA Fire TV OS 5 update for to current Fire TV and Fire TV Stick owners that will also bring Amazon’s tech support feature Mayday to your TV.
The new hardware is available now for pre-order with the Fire TV shipping on October 5 and the Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote heading out on October 22.
Filed under:
Gaming, Home Entertainment, Household, HD, Amazon
Source:
Amazon
Tags: 4K, amazon, FireTV, FireTVStick, hdpostcross, UHD
Amazon’s selling its $50 Fire tablet in six packs
It was rumored and now the 7-inch $49.99 (£50) Amazon Fire tablet is here. The content peddling device is cheaper than dinner for two at a medium nice restaurant (without drinks but probably including appetizers). While it’s cheap, it actually looks better than other sub-$100 tablets on the market with an IPS display with a wide viewing angle and a nice rich contrast level. It’s powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and has 8GB of storage. But like the new Fire HD tablets it has a microSD card so you can add up to 128GB of space. It’s cheap, durable and Amazon offers them in a six pack. Slideshow-320582
No really, you can buy a six pack of Fire tablets from Amazon. It’ll cost you less than $250 (£250) so you’re buying five tablets and getting the sixth one free. For less than the price of the cheapest iPad you can have a Fire in every room in your house.
The Fire will run the latest Fire OS 5 and still has the same features found on other Amazon tablets: X-Ray, ASAP, Mayday, the new Word Runner and FreeTime for kids.
Speaking of kids, Amazon also introduced a new Fire Kids edition for $99.99 (£100). It’s just the 7-inch Fire in in a thick pink or blue bumper with a two-year warranty that covers any damage your kid does to the tablet. Knock it off the table and shatter the screen. Get new one for free. Drop it in the toilet. Get a new one for free. Launch if off the second story of your house… Well you get the point.
It comes with a free year of FreeTime Unlimited Amazon’s kid-friendly OS so parents don’t have to worry about their offspring wandering onto 4chan. Both the Fire and Fire Kids Edition are available for pre-order now and will ship on September 30th.
Filed under:
Tablets, Software, Amazon
Source:
Amazon
Tags: amazon, Fire, FireKidsEdition, FireTablet
Google Glass team reportedly named Project Aura; new talent and devices incoming
The Glass team is still working hard on the consumer version of Google’s augmented reality headset. They stopped selling the $1,500 developer iteration earlier this year, with the plan of polishing the product and making it something we could all afford and use. But it now seems the team behind Google Glass is looking far beyond those tiny screens in front of their eyes.
According to Business Insider, “sources familiar with the matter” swear the team behind Google Glass is now known as Project Aura (not to be confused with Project Ara). It’s also apparent the group is no longer focusing only on this head-mounted gadget. This report suggests Project Aura is to expand its plans and start working on wearables, as well. The source describes Project Aura as something along the lines of “Google Glass and beyond”.
In addition to taking on more endeavors, Project Aura is to welcome some talented new members. What’s more interesting is that the company recruited this new employees from Amazon’s Lab126, the online retailer’s hardware division (which let go of plenty workers recently). These include software development manager Dima Svetlov, manager of technical program management Tina Chen and director of software development Amir Frenke.
Obviously, no one is commenting on the matter just yet. We will have to wait until this develops before we get to see what Project Aura is really all about. So far all we have heard about Glass is that the 2nd generation is being launched with professionals in mind, mostly targeting those in healthcare, energy and manufacturing. A second report says it will come with improved battery life (thankfully!), a stronger Intel Atom processor and a larger prism display for more comfortable viewing.
What is to come out of this Project Aura ordeal (if it even exists)? We are not sure, but rumors say Google is still dedicated to Glass and a consumer version is to come. Now, I wonder what those side wearable projects are all about.
Google Glass is now ‘Project Aura;’ welcomes ex-Amazon employees
Looks like Google Glass really isn’t dead like the company promised. Mountain View has been hiring engineers and software developers out of Amazon’s Lab126 for the initiative now dubbed “Project Aura,” according to The Wall Street Journal. The company has reportedly signed up at least three people from the e-retailers’ secret hardware facility, which recently went through an overhaul — Amazon laid off a bunch of folks and shelved a number of ambitious projects — due to the Fire phone’s failure to sell. Business Insider says Project Aura will work on other wearables, as well, and will remain under Google’s supervision instead of being established as a separate entity under the Alphabet umbrella.
It’s still run by Project Glass’ original head honcho Ivy Ross, but she’ll now report to Nest CEO Tony Fadell, who volunteered to rescue the initiative and work on the second iteration. Project Aura, however, will remain independent from the thermostat company. Since Google hasn’t even officially announced this new wearables initiative yet, we’re not 100 percent sure what else the team will be working on. BI dug through some of the new hires’ LinkedIn profiles, though, and found that one of them worked on the Fire TV stick, another on the Fire TV box and Amazon Echo, while the last one was the director of software development
Filed under:
Wearables, Google, Amazon
Source:
Business Insider, The Wall Street Journal
Tags: amazon, google, googleglass, lab126, projectaura
New 10-inch Amazon Kindle Fire tablet leaks out in new renders
It’s been quite some time since Amazon has released any new hardware, especially when it comes to the Kindle Fire tablet lineup. We’ve been hearing a few rumors as of late regarding a possible refresh to the lineup, which makes us think we may not be too far off from seeing some new devices. A report that surfaced early last week told us that Amazon is planning to release a 6-inch Kindle Fire tablet later this year, which will likely come to market for around $50. The report also mentioned there could be 8-inch and 10-inch variants of the new Fire tablet, and it looks like today we’re getting our first look at the larger version.
According to the leaked image (attached above), we can see that Amazon has decided to change up the hardware quite a bit from previous Fire tablets. The front-facing camera is in more of a traditional placement for holding the tablet in portrait mode, unlike the landscape-friendly placement that was found in older Fire tablets. And save for the front-facing speakers, the front of this Fire tablet looks very similar to the Nexus 9, mostly due to its slimmed down side bezels. The top of the tablet looks to house the power/standby button and volume keys, which is something we don’t normally see in the Android tablet market.
Looking to the software, the application tray is more in line with something you’d find on vanilla Android. With that said, we’re not looking at a stock software experience here, though it is a stark departure from the carousel-focused UI normally found on previous Fire tablets. As of right now, not too many other details have been leaked, but we’ll be sure to let you know when more information surfaces.
Amazon’s next Fire tablet could look a lot more like Android
While there’s talk that Amazon will soon release a $50 6-inch Fire tablet, the company apparently wants to make sure all bases are covered. Well-known leaker Evan Blass has shared an render of an upcoming 10-inch Fire slate, which would become the retailer’s biggest to date. While the specifications are unknown, it’s clear that the tablet runs Android Lollipop and the UI is a little different from what we’ve seen before. It signals that the company might be moving away from the carousel of apps and services on existing Fire tablets and embracing a cleaner look and feel for fireOS.
When the Fire Phone failed to light up the smartphone market, Amazon reportedly shelved future phone plans and laid off a number of engineers from its hardware division, Lab126. Today’s leak, coupled with rumors of a smaller tablet, suggests the company will offset its smartphone losses by placing a renewed focus on its Fire line-up. There’s no word on when we can expect Amazon to confirm such plans, so you’ll have to make do with a brief look at one of the rumored devices it may unveil in the future.
Filed under:
Tablets, Mobile, Amazon
Source:
Evan Blass (Twitter)
Tags: amazon, android, fireos, kindle, kindle fire, mobilepostcross
Amazon might be bringing Alex the voice assistant to Fire TV
Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa, is currently only available on the Amazon Echo. It looks like the company might be bringing her over to the Fire TV line in the near future, however.
Some code in Amazon’s Fire OS 5 developer preview points towards Alexa getting functionality in the Fire TV, but it’s not completely clear if that’ll be back ported to the original line of devices or if it will only be available in the newer line, whenever those are announced.
Some features just wouldn’t be possible, like having always-on listening on a Fire TV Stick, but being able to dictate what you want to a voice assistant should be possible on just about everything Amazon offers, since it supposedly will work with any voice-enabled remote. That should theoretically include the Fire TV Remote application.
Alexa also likely won’t be replacing the native voice search in the Fire TV, since that handles all of the TV and movie searching that isn’t possible with Alexa. The voice assistant does make it easier to order things from Amazon or find Pandora stations, though, which is cool on its own. We’ll find out more whenever Amazon makes Fire OS 5 official or a new line of Fire TV devices is made official.
source: AFTVnews
via: Android Police
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