With technology in our pockets, living rooms, handbags and offices, buying gadgets for the holidays isn’t just about satisfying the geek in your life any more, but making sure everybody gets the tech-toy they’ve been desperate for all year. SlashGear’s Holiday Gift Guide 2011 helps you cut through the battery-powered confusion and pick out the best products on the market today, whether you’re looking for a tablet, a laptop or a digital camera.
The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet may be just a day away from launch, but further details of the Android-based ereader slate continue to leak. Originally tipped to be aesthetically similar to the BlackBerry PlayBook, thanks to a shared ODM in the shape of Quanta, there’s talk that the Kindle Fire actually used RIM’s tablet as a template. Still, it’s software which will arguably be more important – or, to be precise, content – and the pipes are groaning with word of which publishers have lined up to be included in Amazon’s roster.
Amazon sent out invitations last week for a press event this Wednesday and although the company did not specify the agenda, all speculation pointed to the unveiling of the much anticipated Amazon tablet. TechCrunch claims that its sources have confirmed that the event will indeed be for unveiling the slate and they’ve also revealed some additional details.
Amazon's Kindle tablet may be the most cloud-centric slate we've seen to-date, reports indicate, ironically making it perhaps the purest implementation of Google's cloud ambitions, despite the search giant reputedly having zero involvement in its development. In addition to delivering streamed music and video from Amazon's Cloud Player and Prime Video services, the Kindle tablet could also put all documents - both ebooks purchased from the retailer's virtual store, as with the existing Kindle ereaders, and user's own personal files - into the cloud.
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The folks at Amazon have this morning sent out an invite to an event that more than likely will see the first look the majority of the tech world will have seen at their new “Amazon Kindle Tablet”. We’ve done a couple of details / rumors / leaks roundups recently, one for the iPhone 5 / 4S, the other for the upcoming Google Nexus phone – it’s time to go tablet style, wouldn’t you say? Join us here in this run-down then join us next week (September 28) as we find out what’s REALLY going on with what may be Amazon’s biggest Android-based effort yet.
Amazon is reportedly considering a subscription-based ebook service, in effect a Netflix-for-readers, which would charge an annual fee for content access. The scheme would initially be part of Amazon’s Prime scheme, customers of which currently get unlimited two-day shipping and streaming access to the retailer’s digital TV and movie library, the WSJ reports, although the response from publishers Amazon is in talks with has apparently been mixed.
More signs of a November launch for the Amazon Kindle tablet, as supply chain checks suggest that the bulk order of touch panel controller ICs used in the upcoming 7-inch slate should be in the retailer's hands - or, at least, those of its assembly partner - by the end of that month. ILI Technology (aka Ilitek) is supplying Amazon with 5m controller ICs, the Commercial Times reports, expected to show up in the $250 tablet that the online retailer hopes will best Apple's iPad.
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One of the two long-rumored Amazon tablets has been shown to TechCrunch for some hands-on time under the condition that no photos be revealed. This is the first time we've gotten more concrete details and specs on what the first Amazon tablet has to offer. Unfortunately, it's sounding much less like an iPad-killer and more like a super-charged Kindle ready to take on the Nook Color.
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Amazon is rumored to debut two tablets this fall, but a new report from the supply side suggests that only one of the tablets will make its way to market before year-end. According to DigiTimes, mass production on Amazon's larger 10.1-inch tablet will not begin until the first quarter of 2012.
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Amazon's upcoming tablets are expected to sell as many as 5 million units this fall. According to Forrester Research, Amazon could easily achieve this number as long as it prices its tablets below $300 and doesn't run into any kinks in its supply chain. And at that volume it would become the top competitor to Apple's iPad.
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Just a couple of days ago, the folks at Amazon took it upon themselves to scoop up the domain name KindleScribe.com - this of course fueling speculation that the upcoming Kindle e-reader would at last be named. This and KindleScribes.com were registered on August 20 2011, and along with their last registration of a domain, KindleAir.com, all point toward a future tablet name OR some defensively purchased names just in case someone wanted to capitalize on the fact that Air, Scribe, and Wave are associated very closely at the moment with tablet computers.
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Apple may counter Google's surprise acquisition of Motorola Mobility with further investment in the supply chain, analysts have predicted, leveraging its significant cash reserves to secure tablet and smartphone screen suppliers. MF Global FXA Securities analyst David Rubenstein suggests Apple will dump $1bn into Sharp, Reuters reports, so as to further soak up the limited supplies of top-spec display panels for future iPhones and iPads.
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