Amazon’s Fire HD Kids Edition tablet is available to pre-order in the UK from £119

Amazon launched its Fire HD Kids Edition tablet in the U.S. last year September, and now the global retailer has decided to finally launch the kid-friendly 6-inch tablet in the UK. Amazon has bundled a protective case, two-year ‘Worry-Free’ guarantee and 1 year’s subscription to its Fire for Kids Unlimited service with the tablet.

The Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition tablet is available to pre-order from Amazon themselves or the UK retailer, Argos, for £119 for the 8GB model. The 16GB version will set you back £139. Amazon has said orders will begin shipping from June 18th. So, what will you be getting for your £119/£139?

Specifications:

• 6-Inch IPS display; 1280 x 720 resolution and 252ppi
• Quad-core processor. 2 cores @ 1.5GHz and 2 cores @ 1.2GHz
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB/16GB internal storage
• WiFi b/g/n
• Bluetooth 4.0 LE
• 3.5mm Audio jack
• 2MP Rear-facing camera
• VGA Front-facing camera
• 8 Hour battery life

Being a tablet aimed at being used by kids, one would think that there’s going to be a few mishaps with the device, either being dropped or submerged in water, maybe even being sat or stood on. Luckily, the Fire HD Kids Edition tablet comes with a pre-installed protective case that looks like it can withstand a fair amount of abuse. And if that isn’t enough, the 2-year ‘Worry-Free‘ guarantee covers the tablet for any mishaps, all you have to do is return the tablet and Amazon will replace it for free.

Amazon has also included a 1-year subscription to its Fire for Kids Unlimited service, offering content for 3-10 year olds ranging from apps, books, videos and games. Yes, it even has educational games.

Source: Amazon

Full Press Release:

Fire HD Kids Edition—the kids tablet that has it all, including the first-ever 2-year worry-free guarantee—now available in the United Kingdom
Unprecedented 2-year worry-free guarantee—if anything happens, return it and we’ll replace it for free—no questions asked

A real tablet, not a toy—a quad core processor for powerful performance, a vivid HD display, front and rear-facing cameras, Dolby Digital Audio, and access to Amazon’s world-class content ecosystem

Don’t worry about the bill—comes with the content kids love at no additional charge—thousands of books, videos, educational apps, and games in Fire for Kids Unlimited

Luxembourg—3rd June, 2015—Amazon today announced Fire HD Kids Edition, its first tablet built from the ground up for kids (and their parents) is now available in the United Kingdom. Fire HD Kids Edition is built around three ideas:

Despite best intentions, kids break things—Fire HD Kids Edition has an unprecedented 2-year worry-free guarantee—if they break it, return it and we’ll replace it. No questions asked.
Parents don’t want to worry about the bill—Fire HD Kids Edition includes a year of Fire for Kids Unlimited so kids get unlimited access to thousands of books, videos, educational apps, and games—at no additional cost.
Kids want a real tablet, not a toy—the Kids Edition features a quad-core processor, a vivid HD display, front and rear-facing cameras, Dolby Digital audio, and access to Amazon’s world-class content ecosystem of over 33 million songs, apps, games, movies, TV shows, books and more.

Fire HD Kids Edition is £119 with 8GB of memory and £139 with 16GB of memory, and is available for pre-order today at http://www.amazon.co.uk/kids-edition-tablet.

“Fire HD Kids Edition offers the best of both worlds for parents and kids,” said Jorrit Van der Meulen, Vice President, Amazon Devices EU. “With the 2-year, no-questions-asked, worry-free guarantee, and Fire for Kids parental controls, parents can rest assured that the device is well protected and that they’ll never be surprised by a bill, unwanted ads or social media posts. And, with a year of the Fire for Kids Unlimited subscription, kids can choose from thousands of books, videos, educational apps, and games – including many classics and favourites.”

Fire HD Kids Edition includes a year of Fire for Kids Unlimited, Amazon’s all-in-one subscription that brings together all the content that kids and parents love—books, videos, educational apps, and games. Fire for Kids Unlimited has the content kids want, including favourite characters like Thomas & Friends, Fireman Sam, Avengers, Mickey Mouse, Dora the Explorer, The Penguins of Madagascar, Shaun the Sheep, and many more.

Fire HD Kids Edition also comes with Fire for Kids, which offers innovative parental controls that encourage learning before play and that help manage screen time. With Fire for Kids, parents select all of the content their kids can see, and parents can limit kids’ screen time by content type—for example, they may choose to limit videos and games, but make reading time unlimited. Fire for Kids blocks stores and in-app payments, so parents don’t have to worry about additional expenses, and blocks unwanted advertisements and access to social media.

Dave Miles, European Director of the Family Online Safety Institute, the leading not-for-profit for guiding parents on how to use technology in their families, said: “We are excited to see this product released in the UK and commend Amazon for its efforts in building something with parents’ needs and safety in mind. Amazon’s attention to parental controls and the screen time balance makes Fire for Kids an ideal service to help families while teaching their children to use technology responsibly.”

Fire HD Kids Edition is just £119 with 8GB of memory and £139 with 16GB of memory, and is available for pre-order today at http://www.amazon.co.uk/kids-edition-tablet. It will start shipping to customers on 18th June and will also be available for purchase from Argos and http://www.argos.co.uk.

Come comment on this article: Amazon’s Fire HD Kids Edition tablet is available to pre-order in the UK from £119

Amazon won’t charge for shipping on small, light items

In an effort to better compete with rival eBay, Amazon announced a new service today that offers free shipping on small, lightweight items for every customer — not just Prime members. Dubbed “Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light” the new shipping scheme will bring tiny items your door in four to eight business days without the need for a minimum order value. The items just need to weigh less than 8 ounces, measure under 9x6x2 inches and cost less than $10 to qualify. Amazon reportedly hopes to attract a wider customer base including cost-aware shoppers — ie folks worried that shipping and handling will cost more than their ear bud inserts. Additionally, the new program will act as an alternative to the company’s existing $99 a year, delivery-in-two-days Prime subscription.

All orders will be fulfilled from the company’s Florence, Kentucky shipping hub. A majority of eligible items will be from third party vendors that give Amazon a cut of their profits in exchange for the mega-retailer handling storage, shipping and logistics of the products themselves. Previously customers had to order at least $35 worth of goods to qualify for free standard shipping. “Customers love that even if it’s a $5 item, shipping is free for everybody, Prime member or not,” Neil Ackerman, a senior manager at Amazon, told Bloomberg. “Customers love it and sellers love it.” Or at least Amazon is hoping customers will love it.

Filed under: Internet, Amazon

Comments

Via: Bloomberg

Source: Amazon

Amazon TV owners can now stream PC games via GameFly

Today, Amazon announced that it’s now hooked up with online streaming giant GameFly to supply Fire TV owners with the facility of streaming the latest and greatest PC games to their set-top box.

Here’s what Amazon had to say:

“Using the GameFly service, customers can play top quality PC titles, including Warner Brothers’ acclaimed Batman series, Darksiders II, and Dirt 3. Game packs start at $6.99 a month and at launch customers can choose from six gaming packs. Customers can use the GameFly service with the Amazon Fire TV Game Controller, which is available for $39.99.”

If you already possess a Fire TV you can register for the service starting today. If you’d like to find out more, hit the source link below.

Source: Amazon

Come comment on this article: Amazon TV owners can now stream PC games via GameFly

Deal: Samsung microSD cards 50% off on Amazon for a limited time

If you’re looking to get your hands on a microSD card, look no further! Amazon is running a sale on many of Samsung’s microSD cards, cutting prices by 50% off or more.

Whether you need a 16GB, 32GB or 64GB solution, Amazon has a discount for you. You can find EVO (48MB/s) models for less than $28, ranging from 16GB to 64GB. However, a PRO 32GB (90MB/s) version will only run you $17.99. Keep in mind that most of these come with the SD card adapter, which is usually far more expensive than what they are now, especially if you’re picking one up in a store.

Enjoy these sweet deals while they last!

Come comment on this article: Deal: Samsung microSD cards 50% off on Amazon for a limited time

Amazon crowns winner of first warehouse robot challenge

The robots that joined Amazon’s Picking Challenge aren’t quite ready to replace human warehouse workers, but some of them seriously showed great promise. Team RBO from the Technical University of Berlin, in particular, demolished all the other 27 competitors by winning the contest with a 60-point lead over the second place team. If you recall, Amazon challenged companies and institutions a few months ago to build a machine that can pick the right items from fully-stocked warehouse shelves to fulfill orders. For the test itself conducted during IEEE’s International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Seattle, the e-commerce giant had participants pluck different kinds of items from a standard shelf, including a rubber ducky, a pack of Oreo cookies, various dog toys and a paperback book.

The teams used an assortment of technologies during the event: LIDAR lasers, three-fingered robotic arms, tape measures that function as a tongue-like grasper and several types of suction mechanisms. Judges granted points for flawless item transfers and docked them whenever the objects were dropped, damaged or misplaced. Roberto Martin-Martin from Team RBO told Engadget that their winning entry’s comprised of two main components: a WAM arm by Barrett Technologies installed on top of an XR4000 mobile base their professor brought to Berlin from the US. He said the omnidirectional base with its four wheels allowed them to increase their workspace, since it was able to move the arm around and find the best position for it.

The arm itself can mimic the actual human limb with its seven degrees of freedom. It picks things up using a suction cup, which can conform to the shape of different objects, connected to a vacuum. The team also installed a number of sensors on the robot, including one for object recognition, another to find the base’s position in relation to the shelf and a third one to make sure the arm doesn’t exert too much force when handling items. However, the machine wouldn’t be half as effective without the object recognition algorithm the team developed for it. Martin-Martin described their algorithm as “simple but robust” and told us they credit it for their win, along with their “versatile grasping strategy” and the fact that they used a mobile manipulator.

Team RBO won the challenge (and $20,000) with 148 points, successfully moving 10 out of 12 objects in a 20-minute period, despite finding reflective and small items difficult to grasp. Their creation seemed to have the most trouble with the pencil cup, as it had metal meshes the suction couldn’t stick to. Team MIT, which used a robotic arm with a flat scoop and a suction gripper, got second place with 88 points overall.

All the robotic contestants are still orders of magnitude slower than their human counterparts at this point in time, though, as you can see in the video below. Andra Keay from Robohub even likened the event to “watching paint dry,” as the machines moved at a glacial pace. Still, this just marks the beginning of Amazon’s efforts to find an effective item-seeking warehouse robot. We’ll bet the corporation’s cooking up future events to entice more participants and to prompt contestants from this round to build better and faster machines.

[Image credit: Team RBO]

Filed under: Robots, Amazon

Comments

Via: Technology Review

Source: TU Berlin Robotics and Biology Laboratory, Amazon Picking Challenge

Amazon launches Kindle for Kids bundle just in time for Summer

Kids need to read too right? If they are going to be in front of any type of electronic screen while inside, some of that time should be dedicated to something other than gaming. Well to help alleviate that, Amazon has launched a Kindle for Kids bundle that aims to help get those bookworms a kindle of their own, and leave their parents with some piece of mind.

Included in the Kindle for Kids bundle, is a standard Kindle, a “kid-friendly cover”, and an extended warranty provided by SquareTrade. The kid-friendly cover comes in either blue, green, pink, purple or black, so there are plenty of options for your little ones. What’s really awesome is the SquareTrade warranty that provides protection up to two years, for accidental spills and drops.

If purchased separately, you would be spending close to $150 on all of this, just to get your kids up and rolling for some summer-time reading sessions. However, with the Kindle for Kids bundle, you get the Kindle, case, and the extended warranty for only $99. That’s a heck of a deal, and honestly, one that I was considering for myself. Kinda. Okay I was.

Now to throw some fun into the mix the Kindle that your child receives will include Kindle FreeTime which allows kids the ability to view their reading progress of each book, and earn badges for reaching specific milestones and accomplishments. This can really help out and make reading enjoyable for you and your children. Also, since this is just the traditional Kindle, there is no way for the kids to access regular websites or social media, so that they can just focus on reading without any other distractions from the device itself. Finally, parents won’t have to worry about accidental purchases or charges to their credit cards. This is thanks to the fact that the Kindle will only be loaded up via the parents’ existing Kindle library or purchased from the Kindle Store and added to the Kindle FreeTime Profile.

This is a great deal to get a jump start on the summer, and turn more than a few kids into some bookworms. Let us know what you think about this great deal from Amazon in the comments below.

Source

The post Amazon launches Kindle for Kids bundle just in time for Summer appeared first on AndroidGuys.

[Deal] Amazon offering $5 credit when installing the Prime Instant Video app

Getting a $5 credit to rent movies and television shows from Amazon could not be any easier. Now through June 14, the online retailer will reward people with a $5 Instant Video credit when downloading the Prime Instant Video app. The Prime Instant Video app comes as an external download from the Amazon app. So it’s not actually as quick as it may seem.

Here is Amazon’s email to customers:

Dear Justin Herrick,

For a limited time, you’ll receive a $5 credit to use on eligible Amazon Instant Video rentals and purchases when you download the Prime Instant Video App from the Amazon App for Android Phones by 11:59 p.m. PST on June 14, 2015. Terms and conditions apply. See details. Within 7 days of downloading the app, you will receive an email with a claim code and instructions on how to redeem your Amazon Instant Video credit.

With the Prime Instant Video app, Amazon customers can rent or purchase and instantly watch new release movies including Interstellar, Into The Woods and Gone Girl as well as the entire Star Wars saga, along with shows like The Walking Dead, Scandal and Better Call Saul.

Prime Members can instantly watch tens of thousands of great titles available at no additional cost to their membership. Some of the great titles available to watch as part of the Prime membership include the Golden Globe-winning Amazon Original series Transparent, the hour-long cop drama Bosch and the Emmy-winning kids animated series Tumble Leaf, along with hit network shows including Downton Abbey, The White Queen, Falling Skies, Orphan Black, The Americans, Under the Dome and Veronica Mars and blockbuster movies such as Noah, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Star Trek Into Darkness and The Captive, among others.

Click on the “Download now” button below from your Android phone. If you already have the Amazon App for Android Phones installed on your phone, you will be taken directly to the page to download the Prime Instant Video app. If not, you will first have to download the Amazon App for Android Phones. Once the download is complete, open the Amazon app and navigate to the apps and games tab and search for “Prime Instant Video” and download the Prime Instant Video app.

[Download now]

Come comment on this article: [Deal] Amazon offering $5 credit when installing the Prime Instant Video app

Amazon Prime same-day delivery is now free in 14 cities

Amazon can get you a package in an hour, but if you “only” need it the same day, delivery is now free in 14 metropolitan areas. To get the service, you’ll need to place an order of $35 or more and be an Amazon Prime subscriber at $99 per year. You’ll also need to be in specific urban centers, including San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle/Tacoma (check your zip code here). The move is yet another carrot for Prime subscribers and probably a blow to brick-and-mortar stores, who now rely a lot on impatient shoppers.

Filed under: Internet, Amazon

Comments

Via: LA Times

Source: Amazon