After deciding if I wanted a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet, I pre-ordered Amazon’s tablet just two days ago and it arrived at my home office today during lunch. Here are my first 30-minutes worth of impressions to share on the hardware, software, and user experience. Read more »
Many are saying that the Kindle Fire is an example of a company finally getting an Android tablet right. But the Nook was the first tablet that was priced cheaply with a curated approach to content, and that content-first approach could big a big asset to Google. Read more »
The highly anticipated Amazon Kindle Fire arrived in our offices on Monday, and here we unbox it and take our first look. The Kindle Fire is Amazon’s first foray into tablets after proving it knows a thing or two about e-book readers. Read more »
Early reviews of Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire tablet appeared on Monday, in advance of the device being received by customers. What’s the verdict? It all depends on what you’re looking for in a tablet, but here’s a sampling of review thoughts and commentary from Twitter. Read more »
Amazon’s shiny Kindle Fire may be the sizzle, but Amazon Web Services — which pair vast compute power and customer behavior data to speed up browsing by anticipating a user’s next move — are the steak, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a Wired interview. Read more »
The Kindle Fire isn’t just getting attention from consumers. Developer interest is on the rise, making Amazon’s new device the top Android tablet developers want to code for in North America, just a few points behind where the iPad debuted, according to a new developer survey. Read more »
Both the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet start shipping after mid-week as fairly similar, low-cost options. You can’t go wrong with either 7-inch slate, but one is a better choice for me. Here’s which one I chose and why. Which interests you more? Read more »
New Android devices launched this week, but I’m intrigued in a older one. Can Samsung’s Galaxy Note be both a take-everywhere phone and tablet? Asus debuted its Transformer Prime with Nvidia’s Tegra 3, while the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet show off as low-cost tablets. Read more »
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A new ChangeWave survey of 2,600 early adopters found that 5 percent had pre-ordered or were very likely to buy a Kindle Fire. And of those consumers, 26 percent said they were planning on delaying or holding off on the purchase of an iPad. Read more »
Amazon is being widely viewed as the only legitimate challenger to Apple’s iPad. And while the online giant has a huge online presence, the crucial difference for the Kindle Fire’s success is going to be the old fashioned retail stores — especially the big ones. Read more »
On this week’s mobile podcast, Matt and Kevin discuss HTC’s new Radar 4G and Resound handsets as well as Motorola’s Xoom 2 tablet. The Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet may be smarter tablet strategies. Matt decides to buy a new Jawbone Up for health monitoring. Read more »
The HTC Rezound comes with a large 720p display, LTE radio and Beats Audio, but the $299 price doesn’t include Android 4.0 until 2012. Amazon and Barnes & Noble have created a second tablet market that looks successful while Motorola’s Xoom 2 appears marginally improved. Read more »
Details of Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet have already leaked, and it looks like a winning follow up to the Nook Color. It’s a shame computer makers don’t see the winning strategy: Build a solid, but inexpensive tablet that does a few key things well. Read more »
Google TV is taking a big step with its update to version 2.0 — but what’s in the card for the platform’s future? Could one day a vendor fork the code to establish a separate Android-powered TV platform, much like Amazon did with the Kindle Fire? Read more »
There’s this little tablet called the Kindle Fire that has been getting some press recently, but Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) is forging ahead… Read more at paidContent »
Just weeks after dismissing the Kindle Fire as a potential challenger to the iPad, J.P. Morgan is now upping its assessment of the Amazon tablet, saying the device is expected to move 4.5 to 5 million units in the fourth quarter. Read more »
Join Matt and Kevin for this week’s mobile tech podcast featuring thoughts on Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0: is now the time to upgrade to a new Android phone? Matt’s also preparing for next week’s Nokia World. Here’s what you should expect from it. Read more »
Reports on Tuesday claimed that Apple has ordered 7.85-inch test displays for a possible iPad mini to come with the next big hardware refresh. We’ve heard it before, and we’ve heard Apple say it isn’t happening. But things have changed since then. Read more »
The ado around the privacy settings of the Amazon Silk web browser is probably deserved, but it didn’t have to be this way. Had Amazon understood the difference between running a web site and selling devices, it could have saved itself a lot of trouble. Read more »
It’s no secret that Hollywood can be cruel to aging talent. Now, a 40-year-old Texas actress who lost acting gigs is taking Amazon (NSDQ: AM… Read more at paidContent »
Fearing that Kindle Fire users who buy an e-book version of 1984 may not realize that they, too, are being watched, congressman Edward J. Ma… Read more at paidContent »
The company behind Amazon’s Kindle Fire became the latest licensee of Microsoft’s mobile patents Thursday, when Quanta signed a deal that co… Read more at paidContent »
Last quarter we highlighted the fast maturation of the Platform-as-a-Service and big data spaces. Those two trends only picked up speed during the third quarter of 2011. Joining them on the cusp of IT greatness, though, are the OpenStack project and flash storage. The former gathered serious validation from big-name companies, while the latter saw less funding than last quarter but a significant number of product launches. Of course, the third quarter wasn’t all lollipops and rose petals. We saw new computing technologies and delivery models such as tablets wreak havoc on both HP and Cisco, and there are concerns (aren’t there always?) about how the Internet will handle our increased use of streaming video and cloud computing. Unfortunately for HP and Cisco, the latter problem might be an easier fix than the strategic woes facing them. Additional companies mentioned in this report include CloudBees, Rackspace, Engine Yard and Joyent. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
When the Hammock children, both now over two-decades old, were brand new, they were never more than a few inches away from an Eric Carle boo… Read more at paidContent »
The third quarter of 2011 was a busy one in the connected consumer segment. Netflix shot itself in both feet with its clumsy public handling of a price hike and spin-off of its DVD business this quarter — though the move may eventually pay off. Facebook, meanwhile, unveiled a major revamp of its news feed and user profile features, including the addition of real-time sharing of activity, while Amazon delievered its new $199, tablet-like Kindle Fire and posed perhaps the strongest challenge yet to the iPad’s overwhelming dominance of the tablet market. Finally, and despite the hopes of the cord cutters out there, the traditional pay-TV business remains as stubbornly undisrupted as ever. Companies mentioned in this report include Hulu, LivingSocial and Spotify. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Amazon’s new tablet won’t be available until November 15, but it’s never too early to file a patent suit. Smartphone Technologies LLC, which… Read more at paidContent »
Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet is on pace to be the best selling Google Android tablet of the year, even though you wouldn’t know it runs Android. Leaked sales figures reported by the Cult of Android site show that Amazon has already taken more than 254,000 pre-orders. Read more »
When Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) introduced the first Kindle four years ago, the e-reader market barely existed and e-books were almost a novelty. S… Read more at paidContent »
John S. Wilson of Policy Diary sees some strong similarities between Google’s mobile operating system Android: They’re both open, free (aside from patent issues), and just a utility. Android means different things to different companies, and ultimately, this could be Android’s downfall into irrelevance. Read more »
A AT&T Galaxy S II video shows what to expect before the phone goes on sale. Samsung is planning an event with Google that could bring the next Nexus. And Amazon’s Kindle Fire may be the best Android tablet yet, even though you won’t see Android. Read more »
After a brief break, this week I return with some great readings that involve Biggie Smalls, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Google’s Larry Page and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. And just when you were feeling too smart, well, I got some news for you. Read more »
Amazon’s Kindle Fire may be a feature-rich 7-inch tablet, but it has a key attribute that competitors need to pay attention to going forward: the $199 price tag. The market simply won’t support $499 tablets of this size, so look for cheaper tablets in the future. Read more »
When Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) introduced the first Kindle four years ago, the e-reader market barely existed and e-books were almost a novelty. S… Read more at paidContent »
In the months leading up to the press conference earlier this week, speculation about the prospects for Amazon’s new tablet reached a crescendo. Would the new tablet be a worthy competitor? Dr. Phil Hendrix of immr and R. Paul Singh of SocialNuggets weigh in. Read more »
They say Apple has met its first real tablet competitor. And no, it is not Samsung or Motorola. Instead it is from Amazon. And while there is some truth to that assertion, I wouldn’t put a lot of weight in the argument. Here is why. Read more »
Of all the announcements from Amazon today, the most audacious one is about Silk, a hybrid browser that essentially pre-fetches the web, caches it and then serves it up to Fire owners. And that has implications – both good and bad, for consumers and Amazon rivals. Read more »
On Wednesday, Amazon introduced color screens and touch screens to its Android-powered Kindle lineup. With this, Amazon brings a combination of three critical elements to the tablet marketplace that no company — not even Apple — has matched: a full product line, a powerful business ecosystem and a unique combination of revenue streams. How will it compete in the tablet, video and online media spaces? This research note examines the prospects at hand. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
To this point, the companies that have tried to challenge Apple’s dominance of the tablet market have failed in head-to-head comparisons whe… Read more at paidContent »
The Kindle Fire was the star of today’s Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) show but don’t ignore the retooled Kindle e-reader lineup. CEO Jeff Bezos knows… Read more at paidContent »
