The update also incudes a section in the sidebar meant for users who are new to the Kindle platform. This section is called Popular Samples, in which users can browse a number of free samples of books to read, to get them acquainted with the Kindle app, as well as find interesting books that they might like.

The new tablet interface has definitely changed according to our experience, and the home screen features the same Cover Flow-esque navigation that’s on the Kindle Fire, allowing you to swipe through different books, newspapers, and magazines. The sidebar also gives you quick access to other sections of the app, including the Kindle Store and the aforementioned Samples.

The app also comes with a slew of the usual bugfixes and general performance enhancements that we see in every app update, so if you’re not a big fan of the new design, you’ll at least have a more rounded-out app that’s a bit quicker and snappier than before. The update is available now in the Google Play store.

If you’re going to pick through a comment from a representative of a company creating gadgets, you may as well go all the way. What we’re seeing today is a very, very short comment from Amazon that’s committed to keeping a higher price point regardless of suggestions to the contrary – but what can we read into here?

“It’s not happening–we are already at the lowest price points possible for that hardware.” – Amazon Spokesperson

What if the company, on the other hand, continued to push the software edge along with the advertising element already present in several of their tablets? If Amazon was able to put enough bloatware into the Kindle – a future edition of the hardware, that is – could they make it free? Mobile carriers around the world make phones “free” all the time with connections to yearly contracts with monthly data costs.

When will it be time for the Amazon Kindle Fire – or whatever they call it by the time this happens – to be free to consumers? We’re not entirely convinced that time will ever come, especially considering the outcry that happens every time a Kindle is announced with non-removable ads. That’s a no-no!

Have a peek at the timeline below to see other recent moves Amazon has been making to make the Kindle universe a friendly place to work and play in, and let us know if you’re waiting for a cheaper model in the future!

According to TechCrunch, the sub-$100 tablet will come with a Texas Instruments processor and will feature a 1280×600 resolution display, so it looks like it won’t have anything too revolutionary, but we shouldn’t be expecting anything ground-breaking anyway, except for maybe the price, but as far as components are concerned, expect a bottom-of-the-barrel type of device.

Of course, you can grab a regular Kindle Fire for just $159, so a $99 Kindle Fire tablet seems pretty realistic. None of the major companies have outed a $99 tablet yet, so Amazon being first to the punch could be great news for the company. However, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not the tablet will sell at a loss.

Then again, $99 Android tablets already exist, but they’re mostly from generic brands, and they feature components and specs that aren’t too desirable to most people anyway. However, if Amazon could pull off a decent tablet at $99, it could be the start of something greater for prospective tablet buyers, and with the company’s large and lucrative ecosystem, taking a loss on tablet sales wouldn’t be a big deal.

UPDATE: We received word directly from Amazon that there are no plans for such a tablet: “It’s not happening — we are already at the lowest price points possible for that hardware.”

[via TechCrunch]

Previously, the 8.9-inch version of the Kindle Fire HD was priced at $299, while the 4G version costed $499, which means that the WiFi-only model received a $30 price drop, while the 4G LTE model received a healthy $100 drop, making it even more tempting to jump with both feet in and grab the tablet at a good price.

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 features a nice 1920×1200-resolution display, which provides 254 ppi of pixel density. The tablet comes with a Texas Instruments OMAP4470 dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz with 1GB of RAM. The WiFi-only version comes in 16GB and 32GB flavors, while the 4G model comes in 32GB and 64GB variants.

The Kindle Fire series of tablets are great companions if you’re particularly close with Amazon’s ecosystem. Prime members get a lot of exclusive features with the Kindle Fire software, including the ability to rent ebooks for free using Amazon’s lending library, something that normal Prime members can’t take advantage of.

Sadly, there’s not a lot of details available at this point, but the virtual currency will launch in the US sometime in May, and it will provide users with a secondary choice to buy apps or make in-app purchases. You’ll still be able to use a credit card like normal, but the new Coins system will also be an option.

Amazon plans to give away “tens of millions of dollars worth” of free coins to customers to celebrate the launch of the currency system. As far as developers are concerned, those who don’t yet have apps in the Amazon Appstore will have until April 25 to submit them in order for them to be compatible with the new currency system.

Since the new currency platform will allow you to use Coins for in-app purchases, as well as apps and games themselves, parents will have a bit more control over what their kids can buy on their Kindle Fire tablet, and it could be an a great alternative that would prevent you from having to put down your credit card information.

The deal includes $20 off a Kindle Fire (now $139), $25 off a 7-inch Kindle Fire HD (now $174), and $50 off an 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD (now $249). Essentially, that same deal that we saw on Monday is back, as well as a little bit of savings for the other two Kindle Fire tablets. The Kindle Fire series is already a good deal, so these extra savings are pretty astounding.

It seems like Amazon is on an inventory-clearing spree this holiday season, and it seems since Monday’s deal didn’t quite do the trick, today’s deal looks to be a second effort to clear Kindle Fire stock. And while today’s deal is only targeted for mothers, it’s a great way to get kids in on the Kindle Fire fun.

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is Amazon’s newest addition to the Kindle Fire family. It sports an 8.9-inch IPS LCD display with a huge resolution of 1920×1200. On the inside, there’s a Texas Instruments OMAP4470 dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz accompanied by 1GB of RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of storage. We highly suggest checking out our full review of the device to learn more about it.

[via Gizmodo]

To take advantage of the deal, you’ll have to be quick, since it only lasts for today and “quantities are limited.” All you have to do is head to the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 product page on Amazon, add it to your cart, and type in FIREHD89 at checkout. From there, the deal will take affect and you’ll save yourself $50 in an instant.

Amazon announced the deal on their Twitter feed, noting that it’s a “special, one-day deal” on the new 8.9-inch tablet. And while you have all day to ponder over the deal, the company notes that you should hurry, since supply is limited. Even if they had an abundant supply of these tablets, we wouldn’t be surprised if they all sold out sometime today.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is the company’s latest tablet to add to their Kindle Fire lineup. It has an 8.9-inch IPS LCD display with an impressive resolution of 1920×1200. On the inside, there’s an OMAP4470 dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz from Texas Instruments and 1GB of RAM. It also has a front-facing 1.3MP camera for video chatting.

However, if you’re still thinking about ordering one off of Amazon instead of driving to your local GameStop, the brick-and-mortar store will give you a $25 Amazon gift card if you buy a Kindle Fire tablet from them, which would essentially bring the price of the non-HD 7-inch Kindle Fire down to just a measly $135.

The deal will only last until January 31, so be sure not to putz around if you’re thinking about grabbing a Kindle Fire tablet anytime soon. If you already happen to have an original Kindle Fire and aren’t getting much use out of it, GameStop will also buy it from you and give you in-store credit for up to $100. You might be able to get a bit more cash out of it on Craigslist or eBay, but this is a great way if you need cash quickly.

GameStop has been growing its business for selling non-gaming devices for a while now. Last year, they started a pilot program to sell tablets in 200 stores, and expanded the program to over 1,600 locations later in May 2012. Back in March, GameStop also began selling refurbished iOS devices.

Content Delivery System

It’s a mistake to compare the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 to any other tablet on the market not inside the Kindle Fire family unless you’re a software developer, a hacker, or you’re just about to jump into the digital content arena and have never before purchased yourself a digital video. With the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, the iPad 4th generation (the one with the Lightning port that’s in the store now), and the Google Nexus 10, you’ve got extremely high definition displays, and it’s there you should start if you’re demanding to see the best hardware package.

But here’s the thing: there’s a massive amount of Android tablets on the market today, each of them able to access the whole of the Google Play store. There’s several iPad models in the line’s history, and a set of rather similar Kindle Fire models tablets out there able to access the Amazon content system – but Amazon’s system doesn’t stop at the Kindle Fire. The only system that stops at the hardware (and vice versa) is the iPad.

What the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 does is place the Amazon content system directly at the center of a machine that’s been checked and approved by Amazon itself. With that, it’s been limited to the Amazon content system so that you can be assured an experience that Amazon approves of – Apple does that same thing with the iPad. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is indeed a fabulous place to access your Amazon content.

The connectivity on this device is wi-fi but a 4G LTE bit of AT&T mobile data is available from Amazon if you pick up the edition with that ability. The offer behind that LTE is interesting at $50 a year, but with a limit of 250MB of data a month – this means you’ll be able to use this device for email using that data, and if you start watching streaming content or downloading media, you’ll go over in no time at all. Watch the overage costs rack up and that smile will turn upside down real quick.

Hardware

The display is extremely nice, bringing on a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels over 8.9 inches, that being 254ppi. That’s less than the iPad 4 and less than the Nexus 10, but up at this resolution we’re not able to tell the difference without getting up real, real close – closer than we’d get on any normal day, that’s for sure.

Colors are reproduced extremely accurately and with the darks on this machine being as deep as they are, we’ve been using this machine as a content machine via the miniHDMI as a top pick. Downloading an HD video from Amazon’s collection and playing it on the device or through the microHDMI port to an HDTV makes for a massively impressive experience – amongst the best on the market if not straight up the best there is with a wire.

The speakers on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 are Dolby powered and stereo – bringing on two channels for real. The speakers on this device are loud enough that you’ll not want to be a room away from a sleeping baby when them turned all the way up – you’ll wake that baby up. It’s unfortunate that they’re facing backwards as most of the tablet universe still has them aiming, but holding the tablet with two hands has the sound bouncing off your palms – that’s good enough for most.

Battery life on this device is rather good, especially since you’re only working with wi-fi connectivity at this time. LTE might make you bust down a bit quicker when it comes around, but for now you’ve got a couple of days at least with daily usage as a game-player and TV show downloader/watcher. Chatting on Skype (which is, mind you, generally OK but certainly not the nicest Skype experience on the market by a long shot due to less-than-perfect video quality) will drain your battery quickest.

There’s also a rather nice case/cover that you’ll probably want to pick up from Amazon if/when you purchase the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. It’s made by Amazon and looks like what you’re seeing above, complete with a magnetic “smart” off/on function (as the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 does indeed have that sensor) and has a rubbery bumper that allows it to stand up like you’re seeing here too.

Performance

With the processor mentioned above you’ve got a suitable environment in which you can play most if not all of the most high-powered games on the market. What you’ll see in the video below is Asphalt 7, a racing game, opened and tested in a real basic way just so you can see how quick everything renders out and responds – just as nice as the nicest devices on the market today.

We’ve heard of some people having small problems with the user interface and non-immediate opening of apps and switching between screens, but any such problems were negligible from our perspective. This is a high-quality device and Amazon has created a user interface over the top of Android that should do the original creators proud.

You’ve got a processor from Texas Instruments that’s one of the rarest on the market today, the OMAP4470 dual-core used only on the Nook HD family, Samsung Galaxy Premier, the BlackBerry Dev Alpha B, and a variety of oddities. This processor works perfectly well for this device, comparing in performance with the other dual-core processor on them market in a very general sense to the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor we’ve seen on a large number of smartphones this year including the Galaxy S III and HTC One series.

The processing power here does not bring us as ultra-swift a system as we’re seeing on the Nexus 10 or the iPad 4th gen – but the difference is invisible if you’re not using both one next to the other or doing extensive processor tests in a lab. Once you’ve got it in the lab, on the other hand, you’ll find the device ranking up on systems such as AnTuTu benchmark system with a score of 7247 – nowhere near the quad-core competition.

Store Access

If you’re not planning on purchasing videos from Amazon, you don’t want to use Amazon’s system for music, you’ve got no intention of purchasing any ebooks from Amazon, and you don’t want to use Amazon’s App Store, this is not the tablet for you. This unit is first and foremost a window into the Amazon library of digital content, and you’re going to have to pay for it.

The Amazon store exists at all corners in this device, and the different kinds of media you’re consuming here sit right up front and center. The first display you see on this device once you’ve started it up is a giant set of icons in a side-scrolling gallery that says quite clearly “you’re about to start” rather than “welcome to your Amazon tablet.” If there’s a scale from tablet interfaces that goes from standard computer to window, it starts at Android, moves up to the iPad, and ends at the Amazon Kindle Fire – this is not a device you’re going to use like your notebook or your desktop, it’s a consumption window.

X-Ray

There’s a brand overlay that exists between two different bits of in-content excellence that come with this device working with content from Amazon called X-Ray. This system works in videos as a direct connection to IMDB, showing the actors that are working in essentially any given scene and with books showing keywords and connections to them throughout the story you’re reading – find all the Ali Babas in the story and link in to them with ease.

This system works with a lovely collection of ebooks and videos coming from Amazon – not every single piece of content coming from Amazon, but certainly enough to warrant calling it a great selling point for this tablet. We’re always wondering who the heck that guy is getting his face cut off by the monster in the horror film scene we’re watching – now we know!

Kindle FreeTime

The folks at Amazon have come up with an extremely simple home screen replacement app that brings forth an environment for your kids. This environment is created by you, the parent, and is so simple that you can’t mess it up. You open up Kindle FreeTime and select the profile you want, deciding there what settings you want your child to work with and what apps/media they’re going to be able to see, and bang, you’re done.

From there the person in that profile – child or not – needs a password to exit again. That’s so simple that we wish Amazon would release FreeTime for the Google Play app store – please? Pretty please? For now you’ll need a Kindle Fire to use Kindle FreeTime – and for some parents that might be a deal-maker.

Wrap-up

If you’re deeply invested in the Amazon universe for content, this device is the best content delivery system you’re going to be able to buy today. It’s the biggest tablet Amazon makes at the moment and gives you access to all of your Amazon-held content in high definition, top to bottom. It’s not an Android tablet (as far as the Google Play store is concerned), it’s not an iPad, and it’s not a Windows device. It’s a unique tablet that’s deeply engrained in the Android environment.

The price of this device in its wi-fi configuration – that being the one we’re looking at here in this review – is $299 USD, and for that price there’s no competition unless you want a smaller display and a different content environment. For Amazon users, there’s nothing else – unless of course you consider the smaller version: see our Kindle Fire HD 7 full review as well.

In tests up against the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate found that Apple’s competitors provided sharper displays, making it clear that they, “both have considerably sharper displays with 216 Pixels Per Inch, and they both delivered considerably sharper text.” Also tested where color gamuts, with the iPad mini coming up with a 62 percent.

Both the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD have 86 percent color gamut while the iPad 3rd gen and the iPhone 5 have 100 percent color gamut. The iPad mini reflected 53 percent more ambient light than the Nexus 7 in these tests and 41 percent more light than the Kindle Fire HD. Color management processing, on the other hand, was found to be far above average on the iPad mini, this bringing high picture quality and accurate color reproduction across the board.

The iPad mini’s display resolution was up for discussion as far as cost goes – with DisplayMate noting that a retina display, 326-pixel per inch pixel density, would have cost a prohibitive amount given current yields in the industry. Apple’s traditional use of 1,024 by 768 pixel and 2,048 by 1,536 pixel resolutions meant that 163ppi was required with the iPad mini if it wanted to keep with the screen size and work with all legacy apps.

Of course that’s the real key for Apple – have a peek at our column Smart device specs are over, long live the ecosystem to see why it might not matter that the iPad mini has less sharpness in the end.

Moving away from that rather depressing news, we heard some more whispers about the different iPad Mini variants today, and Google announced a brand new Samsung-made Chromebook (that’s super cheap, too!). The controversial Copyright Alert System is said to be going live in the next few weeks, and today AT&T released a statement in which it objects to SoftBank’s planned buyout of Sprint. Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has started a new file sharing site, and we learned that Apple may just be looking to buy the talent behind the soon-to-be-shutdown Color app, rather than the whole thing.

comScore says that the Amazon Kindle Fire has the highest readership rates for digital content, and today was the day the Motorola RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD launched at Verizon. Twitter is ruffling some feathers with the way it censors content, and TweetBot landed on the Mac App Store with a pretty high price tag. Chevrolet announced today that it will be unveiling the 2014 Corvette on January 13, while Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said that his company is ready to compete if Microsoft launches a Surface-branded smartphone. Researchers are considering launching a probe to a recently-discovered exoplanet, and Caldexa said that it has plans to begin using 64-bit ARM chips in 2014.

New rumors are pegging AMD with an itch to drop prices on APU Llano chips, and beloved digital distribution site GOG added support for Mac today with the addition of 50 games. Battlefield 3: Aftermath will be available for PS3 Premium subscribers on November 27, so get ready to battle on a handful of new maps that have been decimated by an earthquake. Finally tonight, we have a number of original articles for you to take a look at, as Chris Burns compares the RAZR MAXX HD and RAZR HD side-by-side in a new hands-on article. Chris also gave us his review of the MAINGEAR Potenza, and we ask if picking up the new $249 Chromebook is a good idea for students. One last thing to note before we go – we’ve released version 2.0 of our iOS app, making it compatible with the iPhone 5′s larger screen. You can get it right this minute from the iTunes Store by clicking this [download link]! Enjoy the rest of your night folks!

comScore notes that around 1 in 10 tablet owners read digital periodicals on their devices every day as of August 2012. 37.1% of tablet owners read a newspaper on their device at least once a month, while 11.5% read a newspapers roughly every day. 11% is definitely a small figure, but we may see that number creep up in the next few years.

According to comScore, a whopping 43.9% of Kindle Fire users read magazines on their device. The iPad came in at 40.3%, and 13.4% for NOOK Tablet users. The newspaper category was a much closer race, though. The Kindle Fire came in at 39.2%, the iPad with 38.3%, and the NOOK Tablet with 31.8%.

To clarify, this isn’t about which tablet gets the most magazine/newspaper readers (and thus being the most popular tablet in this category), but rather what the most popular type of periodical is on which tablets. The survey was conducted during a three-month period ending in August 2012 consisted of 6,000 tablet owners across the US.

On the Android side, Amazon’s Kindle Fire is reported to be the most popular Android tablet with a 21% market share, making it the second most popular tablet to the iPad. It’s certainly a close race OS-wise, but breaking it down by manufacturer puts it into a different perspective. Apple alone dominates the tablet market with a 52% share, and if you break down each Android tablet maker, each of them only owns a fraction of the remaining 48% that’s designated for Android tablets.

It’s worth noting that these results were tallied before the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD were released, so it’s possible that the already close race between the iPad and Android is now razor thin. And with the Kindle Fire being the most popular Android tablet, it’s easy to see that budget tablets are sweeping the country in a big way.

As for smartphones, Android continues to claim the top spot in the US, with 46% of users running Google’s mobile operating system. In comparison, the iPhone accounts for 38%, while RIM’s BlackBerry platform owns just 10%. Again, breaking it down by manufacturer may tell a different story, with Apple most likely owning the overall market share.

[via Ars Technica]

They state that ad impressions for the new Kindle Fire HD is already taking over 11% of all Kindle devices, meaning the adoption rate and sales are obviously doing quite well compared to the other Kindles. Considering the original has been available for more than a year shows the HD has some serious room to grow, and dominate.

However, according to TheNextWeb Chitika then compares the Kindle Fire HD (or the original for that matter) to ASUS and Google’s popular Nexus 7 and the hill is looking pretty steep. With Chitika calculating the Android Jelly Bean powered tablet accounts for a 68.5% of the web share when compared to the Kindle Fire and the new Kindle Fire HD. That’s a different story indeed!

Obviously there’s a few things to consider here though. For one the Nexus 7 has been available for the better part of the summer and a few months now, while the Fire HD just launched a few weeks ago. Another thing could be the simple fact that more Kindle users are reading books and watching Amazon Prime content, while Nexus 7 users are browsing the web — so that could slightly skew the numbers. Either way both tablets appear to be doing quite well but only time will tell how the HD does overall. Be sure to take a peek at our Kindle Fire HD review, as well as our Nexus 7 review.

[via Chitika]

Meet the Kindle Fire HD. This time around everything’s been completely improved. It’s faster, more powerful, lighter, thinner, and even looks a bit better too. The styling has seen a massive change from the original, and the curved edges and aluminum band around back gives it some character. No longer is this just a black squared rectangle that wishes it ran Android.

Hardware

As we mentioned above everything has been improved with the Fire HD. That old and dare I say ugly design of the original has been replaced with a unique, custom, and elegant design that surely will have a few happy. While it could still use some improvements (like a smaller bezel) it certainly is prettier than its older brother.

The Kindle Fire HD measures in at 193 x 137 x 10.3mm in size. Which is about 1.1mm thinner than the original but a little wider and taller. So while it doesn’t offer a huge change in size, the curved edges and smooth corners makes it feel and look much thinner. The designs starting to grow on me although I’ll never get used to those buttons. It’s also slightly lighter than the original while getting a bump in all specs under the hood, but only by a hair. Take a peek at our unboxing and first impressions below.

As you can see from the video everything is quite elegant this time around. The flooding of matte black is nicely changed with the aluminum band around back, and the stereo speaker grills — while odd in design — give it even more character and a unique look we’ve not seen yet from most tablet manufactures. Overall the design is quite calm and looks to by flying under the radar with nothing loud about it. Sleek, dark, and powerful.

As far as internal specs Amazon has stepped it up considerably but still isn’t up to par with recent devices like the Nexus 7. We get a brilliant and vivid 7-inch display (more on that below) with a 1280 x 800 HD resolution. The Fire HD is powered by a Texas Instruments 4470 dual-core processor, it has been stepped up to 1GB of RAM, and of course has 16GB of storage all for $199. A few notable features is the Kindle Fire HD is the first tablet with dual-band MIMO WiFi support (for better, faster connectivity) and it also features Dolby Digital stereo speakers.

If we didn’t make it clear enough in our video above, while we love the design and slim edges, the fact that the power and volume buttons are so hard to find/push was a cause for concern. We were constantly searching for the power button and it will surely take some getting use to. There’s nothing on the left side, around to the top you’ll have a single microphone for video chatting, then the right side houses the buttons just mentioned. You’ll also get micro-USB and micro-HDMI down on the bottom for charging, syncing, and streaming all that Amazon HD content to a bigger screen.

Display and Speakers

As we mentioned above the display has been rather impressive. Amazon made a big deal about their technology and coating to prevent glare for those movie watching or outdoor readers but we’ve hardly noticed a difference. Screen glare remains a problem, but might be less of a problem with the Kindle Fire HD.

As far as actual screen quality however, it is stunningly gorgeous, bright, and crisp. The 1280 x 800 resolution HD display is an IPS panel. This means we have accurate and not overly saturated colors, vivid and crisp text, and excellent viewing angles. Now that we have a higher resolution all that HD content from Amazon can finally be put to use — at a premium. Movies will cost a little extra, plus their size will take up extra space, and the same goes for games and apps. However that is worth the tradeoff because it’s rather fun to look at.

The Stereo speakers are also pretty stellar. The Fire HD is the first tablet with Dolby Digital Plus technology integrated into the tablet. While sound quality wasn’t of the highest we’ve heard, it certainly was loud and crisp and certainly can be heard from a distance. Most tablets don’t have this type of audio quality so we’ll give both of them a thumbs up for that.

Software

Android… Fire… Ice… What do we have here? The Amazon Kindle Fire is running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but you’d never know from looking at it. Aside from the pulldown notification bar Google’s old Andy is no where to be seen. They’ve got their own Amazon App Store, their own Maps (powered by Nokia) and their own slew of video players and reader solutions. This is nothing new and exactly like the previous Kindle — just a little faster. Their Fire UI has completely put out the blazes of Android.

The user interface in general will either appeal to most, or be bothersome. The content-rich in your face design never fades, and Amazon’s constant nag (recommendation) of other movies, apps, books, videos, or other purchases is as present as ever. Instead of explaining the Fire UI to everyone, since you’ve probably seen it before, enjoy our extended hands-on video review for a better idea of software looks and performance.

As you can see, the interface is largely the same and basically unchanged. However, it’s extremely smooth. Not quite buttery smooth, but a huge increase and certainly smoother than before. While we did experience the occasional hiccup or browser lag, in general performance has remained swift even after hours of usage.

The “customers also bought,” “More products” and “similarly viewed” content is all in your face. We’ve talked a lot about the ads or commercial space, and well, because it’s everywhere. Amazon has stated there will be an opt-out, but we’ll talk more on that another time.

Everything from reading, enjoying a movie, or checking out the latest set of apps has all remained unchanged. Why tweak the reading experience when it’s so excellent. What Amazon has done however is improved it with small additions. We now have X-Ray as shown in the video above. X-Ray gives users an in-depth look at the book their engulfed in, details on every character, and where in the book (or movie) they are mentioned. With videos you’ll be treated with the same awesome X-Ray feature and it’s also integrated with IMDB. From there you can pause the movie you’ve just rented and look up everything you’d ever like to know about that cute girl in the scene. See other movies she’s been in — and of course they’ll obviously recommend more films for you to purchase.

Overall we’ve been rather satisfied with the largely unchanged yet faster software and user experience. Productivity is certainly not on the forefront here as this tablet is all about content consumption and purchases. The awesome and easy-to-use multitasking features of Android, especially 4.0 ICS have been completely removed. There’s a few small multitasking options like music in the dropbown bar but for the most part any sort of multitasking is slow, cumbersome, and a chore.

At the end of the day the software is pretty solid. For those that want a streamlined user interface with everything you need (and might need) directly provided front and center with suggestions and large HD content this is surely for you. For the Android enthusiast this is a long ways from anything Android. Oh and if you don’t like all those ads and suggestions you can opt out for about $15.

Battery Life

As far as battery life is concerned you shouldn’t have much of an issue here. For the occasional users that gets up and reads the occasional webpage, checks a few movie times and sports scores and more this tablet can clearly last a solid 3-4 days of medium usage. When it comes to more intensive things the Fire HD was on par with most recent tablets.

With the Fire HD running a continuous video loop we managed just over 9 hours of usage. Amazon quotes it for 11 but you probably won’t quite be getting that unless you have the brightness pretty low and do light tasks. The Nexus 7 lasted a tiny bit longer with rundown tests, but sadly we weren’t able to fire up the usual Android apps to test most of those things we like to test.

It’s safe to say you can read for hours, enjoy videos for an entire road trip, or casually use this device on the couch all without worrying about a charger too much.

Competition

As far as the competition is concerned, no one can hit this price point except for Google. Most tablets in this size range, even with lower specs, aren’t able to come near the $199 price point Amazon introduced — and now reintroduced while beating out the Nexus 7. With the iPad Mini looming but still not announced we can’t compare that — yet. As far as the Android ecosystem goes the Nexus 7 gives this a pretty good run for its money.

When we reviewed the Google Nexus 7 we said it was the best 7-inch tablet money could buy, if not the best Android tablet in general. Now just 3 months later we have this nipping at its heels. Overall however the Nexus 7 performs better in all tests. The Android 4.1 Jelly Bean speed with the Chrome Browser always won by at least a few seconds. Intensive games seem to handle things better, and the Nexus 7 has the full Google Play Store. In the end though it isn’t about which is better for your $200 crisp dollar bills. It’s about what you need. For those looking for that all around tablet experience the Nexus 7 reigns supremacy simply for the fact that it’s pure unaltered Android. For those looking for an awesome consumption device that doesn’t need the bells and whistles that Google provides — the Kindle Fire HD is a finely tuned content consumption machine.

Wrap-Up

Just like we mentioned above, the Kindle Fire HD is a mighty fine device. Amazon’s increased the speed and performance throughout, improved the display (obviously) and added even more awesome features. If you don’t mind the slightly subsidized feeling, or pay for the opt-out, you’ll surely be in for an enjoyable experience. In the end we can’t help but feel like this tablet is just as much for shopping and browsing Amazon.com than it is for searching the web and enjoying movies.

In terms of Amazon’s complete ecosystem of games, apps, videos, movies, books, music and more this is the perfect tablet. Deep down however for those looking to do more with their tablet like what we see with the iPad and the Nexus 7 — the Kindle Fire still has a little ways to go. If Amazon will ever take it there is a different story.

Nokia spokesperson Dr. Sebastian Kurme confirmed the rumors to the The Next Web, saying in a statement that Amazon’s decision is “further proof point that our competence in this space is a key differentiator also for other leading players in the industry to offer great location consumer experiences.” Though Google Maps is the more popular mapping and navigation service, the Nokia Location Platform has won a fair number very pleased fans, and it’s already used in services like Yahoo! Maps and Bing Maps.

Amazon has already rolled out a Maps API to allow developers to integrate location data into their Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD apps, and now we know that Amazon will be using Nokia’s Location Platform as the backbone of its mapping service. It wasn’t too long ago that we heard Amazon will be making Bing the default search engine of the Kindle Fire line up, further distancing itself from Google. Naturally, the Kindle Fire family comes equipped with Amazon’s online storefront rather than the Google Play Store, which we see running on most other Android-based devices.

Of course, Nokia’s Location Platform is also used in Nokia Drive, which has featured prominently on Windows Phone devices. With Windows Phone 8 just around the corner and Amazon’s new Kindle Fire line getting some major attention, it looks Nokia has an excellent opportunity to position itself as a key player in the mapping space, so the further development of its Location Platform is definitely something to watch. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more information.

Amazon was met with anger from prospective buyers once it said that would be no opt out option, and now the company has changed course completely. According to CNET, Kindle Fire users will be able to opt out of the Special Offers program by paying a $15 fee. That fee is a bit lower than we’ve seen in the past, but don’t expect consumers to be happy with the fact that they have to pay to remove ads from a tablet – it’s one thing when ads are displayed on an eReader, but when ads are shown on a more expensive tablet, to many that’s an entirely different beast.

After paying the $15 fee, the ads from the lock screen and the home page will be removed. Some will likely be perturbed with having to pay a fee regardless of how much that fee actually is, while others are breathing a sigh of relief at this news. After all, since it’s understood that Amazon keeps its prices low by showing ads on its products, some never had a problem with paying an opt out fee in the first place. A number of potential Kindle Fire HD purchasers are probably just happy that they’ll have the option to opt out of Amazon’s special offers.

Still, there are some who are questioning why they need to see ads when the Kindle Fire HD’s biggest competitors – the Nexus 7 and the iPad – don’t force users to view ads anywhere. It’s true that these special offers could potentially save users some cash, but with one of the Kindle Fire HD models costing $499, it leaves a number of Kindle fans wondering why ads are necessary. Amazon says in its statement that “customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out,” so perhaps these offers do have value to some customers. What do you think of Amazon’s latest move – are ads on the Kindle Fire HD line unnecessary, or do you not mind the idea of having them shown?

That’s a change that’s likely to make some waves, considering that Google used to be the default search engine for the Kindle Fire. Ubergizmo said that they didn’t know if users could change the default search engine, but in the time since their hands-on went live, Ars Technica has confirmed with Amazon that changing the default is possible. Bing comes as the default for Silk, Amazon says, but users will have the option of switching to Google or Yahoo if they wish.

So, it isn’t that big of a deal, just an annoyance at first for those who prefer Google. Why did Amazon make the switch? It’s probably because Microsoft paid them to make Bing the default browser. The amount Microsoft paid likely isn’t paltry either – the company is serious about pulling people away from Google and getting them to use Bing, so money probably isn’t an issue for the big M. Microsoft, of course, is declining to comment on the deal with Amazon, but you can bet that some money changed hands in order to get Bing as the featured search engine in Silk.

Microsoft has had a difficult time getting users to leave Google behind and switch to Bing, so it’s no surprise that the company is aggressively trying to get Bing onto as many devices as it can. We’ve seen Bing become a little more prevalent since its launch, but it still has a very long way to go before it can catch up with Google. Perhaps this new team up with Amazon will help with that? We’ll see soon enough. Stay tuned.

We suspected as much, mostly because it’s clear that Amazon wants this new tablet to offer some stiff competition to the Nexus 7. If you want the larger, 8.9-inch variant of the Kindle Fire HD (again with 16GB of storage), that’ll cost you $299. Those prices aren’t too bad for either tablet, and we’re sure that Amazon will have no problem netting significant sales from Kindle Fire veterans and newcomers alike. Additionally, the Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE 8.9-inch with 32GB of storage will be available for $499. Amazon’s also got a solid 4G plan ready to go as well – 250MB of data a month, 200GB of cloud storage, and $10 Amazon credit for $50 a year.

The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD will be available on September 14 – just over a week away. If you’re interested in either of the 8.9-inch versions, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer, as those aren’t launching until November 20. This means that all three will be arriving in time for the holiday shopping season, so expect them to be big hits at the tail end of 2012, especially the 7-inch version. All three are available for pre-order today, so have at it folks.

Yes, you heard that right – The Verge reports that Amazon has a smartphone of its own in the works, and it might announce the device during tomorrow’s press event. The Verge’s sources “confirmed” that such a smartphone exists, and said that it will come running a modified version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Apparently, it will support Nokia Maps instead of Google Maps, which seems to jibe with Nokia’s announcement earlier today that it will soon be adding a major Nokia Maps partner. Very interesting indeed.

There aren’t too many other details at the moment, as these sources say that the phone is incomplete. Why would Amazon want to announce the phone tomorrow then? Nokia and Motorola both announced a new round of phones today, HTC has an event coming up later on in the month, and the iPhone 5 looks set for reveal on September 12. If Amazon was planning to announce a smartphone of its own, it would probably want to keep up with its competitors, which might be why we’ll get an announcement tomorrow.

If Amazon is truly planning to enter the smartphone business, this is pretty big news. With the current rumors telling us that Amazon may be planning a new, beefed up Kindle Fire that can challenge the likes of the Nexus 7, it becomes easier to believe that the company is also plotting a smartphone reveal. Stay tuned, because we’ll have the information you need tomorrow, straight from Amazon’s press event.

[via Android Community]

We also got to have a look a bunch of interesting devices and accessories today, ranging from the Lifeproof case for the iPhone4/4S and the Jarba Soulmate to the E-Ink concept phone and the iRobot Scooba 390 and 290. It was definitely an exciting day for new gadgets and devices, so be sure to look through all of those hands-on posts.

The next iPhone made an appearance in some new images today, and in them we get an idea of its measurements. Speaking of rumored iDevices, the iPad Mini has apparently popped in one app developer’s device files, and Apple may eventually face an iPhone 5 stock bottleneck due to a shortage of screens at Sharp. The Nokia Lumia 920 PureView and Lumia 820 Windows Phone 8 handsets suffered a leak today (complete with images of the Lumia 820 Arrow later in the day), and Facebook had to revise its profit forecast by slashing $1 billion from it.

We were introduced to a slew of Windows 8 products today, most of which belong to Lenovo. This includes the Lenovo IdeaCentre A520, the IdeaPad Z series of notebooks, the IdeaPad U510 ultrabook and the Lenovo IdeaCentre B340 and B545 all-in-one PCs. Acer got in on the Windows 8 action as well, introducing the world to the Acer Aspire M3.

It may not be long before your Samsung device can react to your body language, today we seemed to get confirmation that the iPhone 5 is on the way with a new iPhone “recycling” program, and a round of Xbox-branded games have been confirmed for Windows 8 PCs. On the same day that reported images of the next Kindle Fire leaked, we get word that Amazon is planning to announce two new Kindle Fires at its press conference on September 6. The Samsung Galaxy Stellar appears to be hitting Verizon on that same day, and finally tonight, Bethesda has hinted that Skyrim‘s first DLC, Dawnguard, may not make it to the PS3.

That’s all for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up! Enjoy your weekend folks, and be sure to keep checking back with us here at SlashGear for more news from IFA 2012!

We don’t know too much about either of these new Kindle Fires at the moment, but CNET’s source claims that the lower-end model will come with a reworked user interface. Its price is still unknown, but the person – who has supposedly seen both of these new tablets – says that it will sport a price that’s lower than the original Kindle Fire’s $199 tag. If that’s true, then Amazon should have no problem getting these to fly off the shelves, regardless of the fact that it will only offer a slight improvement over last year’s model.

This unnamed person gives us a better idea of what to expect in the higher-end model, but still doesn’t delve into specifics. This particular Kindle Fire will come with a faster processor working under the hood, along with a camera, more memory, physical volume controls and an HDMI port. This one seems poised to become one of the Nexus 7‘s main challengers, but without knowing any pricing information, it’s difficult to make that call.

Still, this new rumor suggests that Amazon is more than happy to stay in the 7-inch market, and now it has some solid competition to go up against. If this is all true and Amazon slaps a sexy price on these new Kindle Fires, then it shouldn’t have any issue competing and raking in the cash. Keep it here to SlashGear, because we’ll reporting straight from Amazon’s press conference on September 6 with everything you need to know.

The images you see below show off what The Verge has been tipped is a new Kindle Fire. This unit appears to have a slightly updated user interface working on it as well as a bit of picture-in-picture video chat. You’ll also see a front-facing camera sitting on the top of the long side of the tablet near a microphone hole as well.

This tablet appears to have a rather similar look to the original Kindle Fire with basically the same edge bumper and display size. The unit pictured here is likely a mock-up as some “pixelation” – if you will – does occur in each of the different poses. The border size on each model appears to be a slight bit different as well – it may be, however, that there are two models and one brand.

The image showing two tablets may be showing the 7-inch version of the Kindle Fire 2 while the upright tablet may be the 10-inch Kindle Fire 2. This would lend itself well to the rumor that there are indeed two units and that the smaller one is still a media-toting beast while the larger has a more powerful processor and the ability to work with higher-requirements media. The user interface also reflects the Android Amazon app store’s relatively new look as well – check it out and let us know if you agree!

Starting right off with Sony, we have a hands-on post with the absolutely massive 84-inch 4K Bravia 84X900 TV for you to check out. If a display that’s a little more wearable is more your cup of tea, then have a look at our hands-on with the Sony HMZ-T2. Of course, we’ve also got a hands-on with the Sony VAIO Duo 11, and for those of you who still want more big, we’ve got you covered there too with this Sony Tap 20 oversized tablet hands-on.

Lenovo has announced a number of devices during IFA, revealing the IdeaPad S Series Laptops. We have a hands-on with the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 for you to peruse, along with this Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 hands-on and this hands-on with the IdeaTab A2109 and A2107. That does it for the Lenovo and Sony hands-on articles, but in the words of some guy we see on TV all the time, “we’re not stopping there!” We also spent some quality time with the new Liquid Image EGO HD Mountable Camera, and we recommend that you also have a look at our hands-on with the HTC Desire X.

At IFA today, Toshiba announced a set of three new ultrabooks, and ZTE was there to show off its new Grand X IN smartphone – the first ICS phone to sport Intel inside. It seems that the incoming Windows 8 is making manufacturers go a little bit touch-crazy, and today we were treated to a number of leaks in addition to all of the news from IFA. The Motorola DROID RAZR M 4G LTE has suffered yet another leak, and it would seem that both the next Kindle Fire and the next Kindle Touch were leaked today as well. Speaking of the Kindle Fire, it turns out that the tablets have sold out in anticipation of Amazon’s big reveal next week.

Samsung seems to be learning more toward Microsoft after its loss to Apple, and the company may just have a plan to make Apple pay up should the iPhone maker release a new device with LTE capabilities. The iPhone 5 was featured in a new video and photo leak today, Steam Greenlight is officially up and running, and the Mars Curiosity Rover has finally left its landing site to go and look for clues on the surface of the Red Planet. Finally tonight, Windows Phone 8 may be getting a handy new parental control feature, and Google and Apple’s CEOs have gotten together to talk about a potential patent settlement. That does it for Thursday’s Evening Wrap-Up, but be sure to join us back here tomorrow for more straight from IFA 2012!

It does not appear to make a whole lot of sense that this tablet would have a more streamlined user interface over Android while it mysteriously grows a collection of buttons on its side. What you’re seeing here is a keyboard inside the software aside a bar of buttons also inside the screen. It seems as if this tablet too will have no physical buttons (other than a power button and maybe a volume rocket) and will continue the Google trend of on-screen controls with a wide mix.

This bar has a home key, back button, gray arrow button that more than likely reveals an expanded set of controls, full-screen button, menu button, search, and favorite star. The star will likely interact with online sales of digital content as well as with your Amazon shopping experience. The keyboard as well is nothing like the standard Android experience – unless you’re using Android 2.3 Gingerbread, that is.

The top bar above the search bar we’re seeing here has a battery symbol and wi-fi connectivity icon that appear to be part of Android, so we can probably use these and the rest of the clues to assume that Google will have built at least the software that this tablet will be based on. This is the same as the first Kindle Fire tablet, while Amazon will probably once again be heavily modifying the software to the point where Google will not certify it for Google Play. Amazon will be OK with this, of course, as the aim is to make the Amazon app store mainstream – or continue to do so – here in the next generation.

Join us on the 6th of September to see the full real deal via the Amazon event scheduled for that day – and expect something slightly advanced!

Not only has the Fire been the top selling item on Amazon for almost an entire year, but the top 10 products on Amazon have been Kindle devices and content, as well. This device is a 7-inch tablet with an IPS TFT display at 1024 x 600 pixel resolution running Android with a special Amazon-made user interface over the top. Users have been working with 8GB of memory built-in, wi-fi connectivity, and otherwise cloud storage managed content for many months.

The Amazon Kindle Fire is now officially sold out on Amazon.com if you’re thinking of buying it straight from the source, but it’s certainly still out on the market in used condition. Those of you waiting for the next generation tablet from Amazon will have to wait just a few more days – the big event comes down on the 6th of September – and we’ll be there to let you in on the full experience. What will the next generation of Amazon tablet action be?

We’re expecting something closer to what Google has up for sale in the Nexus 7. Expect a slightly more powerful processor, higher definition display, and a more aesthetically unique situation in the chassis. This next Amazon tablet will likely be attempting to move into more of a unique range rather than replicating the BlackBerry PlayBook as the first generation did, both inside and out. Their unique look at Android will also more than likely be updated bringing on a more advanced appearance and interface. Stay tuned!

This burglar is snapping photos from behind an e-reader you’ll all recognize and the “Tech Headlines” blog his work has been published in lets it be known that Q4 will be the place for the machine’s delivery. Amazon wants no such news to be released before they’re prepared to release it, of course, thus the poster was born. The poster also warns employees that they’re in for a world of hurt if they don’t recognize: “Who are you really talking to?”

Of course this poster also pops up right before a press event that’ll be taking place on the 6th of September in California. There we expect that we’ll be seeing at least one Amazon e-reader device of some kind or another as well as some updates to their online store initiatives. The poster all but confirms that we’ll be seeing more slate devices in the very near future, and makes it clear that a time machine will not be popping up in Q3, unfortunately.

Stay tuned as SlashGear keeps on the path of the next generation and Amazon attempts to stopper up all of their future leaks.

Twitter has taken away Tumblr Friend Finder functionality, and the inexpensive T-Mobile Concord has launched to bring 4G to budget-minded consumers. It was recently discovered that the SMS security hole known to plague iPhones doesn’t affect other devices running a different OS like Android or BlackBerry, and LG has apparently started working on the screen that may end up gracing the iPhone 5. Speaking of the iPhone, it seems that production on the next model has slowed thanks to a shortage of supplies.

The FCC has approved Verizon’s bid to buy up additional 4G LTE spectrum, and the Xbox 360 will be offering users election coverage starting next week, complete with live streams of the three debates that are planned. A large percentage of consumers are saying that they don’t need 4G LTE service, despite the fact that carriers are advertising it like mad. There’s a new OS X Mountain Lion update on the scene, and it’s bringing some software fixes with it, while today we received word that Facebook’s storage requirements grow by 500TB each and every day.

Sony Mobile has announced that it will be laying off 1,000 employees by March 2014, and the jury that is deciding the Apple and Samsung patent case decided to put in a little bit of overtime today. Paypal will be teaming up with Discover to bring its service to a ton of retail locations, Nissan will be giving prospective buyers of its 2013 Pathfinder a virtual tour of the car with a little help from Kinect, and Amazon has a new event coming up next month, where we’re thinking it will announce a brand new Kindle Fire. It just so happens that we’ll be at that event, so if there is a new Kindle Fire announced, you’ll be able to read all about it here at SlashGear.

Finally tonight, we have a brand new hands-on with the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. Enjoy the rest of your evening everyone, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow night for Friday’s edition of the Wrap-Up!

Amazon has traditionally held conferences in New York City, this California location throwing many for a loop. It may be a sign that the book company is ready to change their face when it comes to appealing to a certain side of the country, but likely the choice was made simply because their venue of choice happened to be near Marina del Rey. It’s a nice sunny place, after all.

We’ll be at this press event with live in-action coverage for you all straight from the source. Join us at 10:30 AM on the 6th of September, California time, and see what they’ve got to bring to the table. Also remember that we’ve got two more events coming up, both of them on the 5th of September in both the morning and afternoon – Nokia and Motorola will be presenting new devices galore!

Remember to follow our Amazon tag for more information on the event as it nears, and stick around SlashGear for more up-to-the-minute updates as it pops off!

This new Kindle device has been dubbed EY21, and it appears to come with both Wi-Fi and 3G functionality. Sadly, it looks like it doesn’t come equipped with a front light like so many Kindle owners have been hoping for, so we may end up missing out on that particular feature this time around. Though a lot of the details are being kept under wraps, it seems pretty safe to assume that this is a new e-ink reader in the vein of the Kindle.

Like the tablet that surfaced last week, this device was submitted to the FCC through a front company. The company this time around is named Hannaford LLC, and The Digital Reader has discovered that the address for this LLC belongs to Corporation Service Company, which is another front company Amazon uses. The same thing happened last week, only then the front company was called Harpers LLC. Like the address for Hannaford, the address for Harpers led back to CSC, so it seems pretty likely that Amazon is behind both of these FCC filings.

Another interesting thing to note is that Amazon now owns the trademark for “Firedock,” which was the name of an upcoming Kindle Fire speaker dock from Grace Digital Audio. It appears that Amazon wants this term for itself, and while it’s unclear what Amazon will stick with the Firedock branding, it’s possible that the company will be revealing a Kindle Fire dock of its own soon, perhaps along with a new Kindle Fire and Kindle. With Barnes and Noble announcing that the Nook will soon be arriving in the UK, it looks like Amazon is gearing up to make the the war of the eReaders a little more interesting. Stay tuned.

Thanks Nate!

Speaking of Samsung devices, we may have received our first glimpse at the front panel of the Samsung Galaxy Note II today, and a video of the Jelly Bean update for the Samsung Galaxy S III surfaced today as well. Looking at Samsung’s current court battle with Apple for a moment, Samsung delivered the argument many on its side were waiting for, saying that the iPhone’s design is “obvious.” HTC rallied employees today by saying that it’s coming back, Amazon might have a new Kindle Fire in the works, and we were treated to a mock up of what the rumored iPad Mini might look like if it, you know… existed.

Verizon will begin offering an LTE-enabled version of the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 later this week, and a new SwiftKey update brings Google Voice recognition with it. Facebook is in trouble with data protection officials in Germany again, a reported iPad Mini dock connector surfaced today, and we happened upon some specs for the Motorola RAZR HD. Anonymous claimed today that it had hacked the PlayStation Network, but Sony was right there to say that it was all a hoax. Microsoft detailed the problems it’s currently having with the Windows Phone marketplace, and Pinterest revealed new apps for both Android and iOS, and if you’re planning to pick up, be sure to have a look at our review first.

LG announced that it has sold 5 million smartphones worldwide, and Netflix is about to roll out to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Nokia has reiterated its commitment to Windows Phone, and the Windows 8 RTM software build is now available. Finally tonight, the Waverider hypersonic aircraft has crashed during an Air Force test flight, and the Humble Indie Bundle for Android 3 is now available, so if you’re in need of some games, be sure to check that out!

That does it for the evening wrap-up everyone, so go and enjoy what’s left of Wednesday!

The filings were issued by a company called Harpers LLC, with The Digital Reader tracing the company back to an address rented by CSC Entity Services. The listed name on the paperwork, Stephen Facciolo, is apparently the President of Harpers, who just so happens to also work for CSC. Meanwhile, his name appears on LinkedIn for CSC, with the website concluding that CSC is the first front company that Amazon employed to set up the second front company.

The Digital Reader stipulates that this isn’t the first time that Amazon has gone about its FCC filings in such a roundabout way. Amazon reportedly used three front companies for its Kindle Fire submission to the FCC the day before the official announcement back in September 2011. While The Digital Reader may have cracked the code, the actual FCC filing leaves much to the imagination, with little to no details surrounding Amazon’s next Kindle Fire iteration.

Having said that, the aspect ratio of the device indicates that Amazon is moving to a 4:3 form factor instead of 16:9 ratio that many Android OEMs use. Why the company has chosen to do so remains to be seen, but given that the one-year anniversary of the Kindle Fire is rapidly approaching, we may soon find out exactly what Amazon has up its sleeve.

[Thanks, Nate.]

With several manufacturers hoping to stay on top in the 7-inch and reader categories here in the right-before-school season, Amazon is certainly feeling the strain of sticking with essentially one model for an extended period with the Kindle Fire. Because of this, they’ve prepped bargains for release here (as Gizmodo notes, starting last Friday) that appear to be emptying out their shelves for the very near future where they’ll be filled back up with new equipment. What will Amazon bring to the table?

We must assume that the Kindle Touch and the Kindle Touch 3G, also appearing to be low in stock in several stores across the nation – or completely sold out – will be turned out along with the DX and the Kindle Fire. Rumors thus far have pointed toward a Kindle Fire 10-inch tablet as well as slightly more advanced displays for e-readers of all types and models.

Over a Barnes & Noble you’ll find that the price cuts continue to their own models of tablets, these and Amazon’s also likely partly due to their cut from Target stores across the nation – though that tip now seems less solid as the big red chain continues to sell some models online. The 8GB Nook Tablet is now available for $20 off its normal price while the Nook Color remains its discounted price – since the Tablet was released – at $149.

A new Amazon tablet in the Kindle Fire line would likely continue with the rather-low prices as the Nexus 7 from Google cuts out the bottom of the price environment, while e-reader devices have been tipped as remaining essentially the same prices that they’re at now. We’ll know more soon!

[via CSM]

This release places Spotify on a tablet that’s been doing quite well in its first few months being on the market but has caught quite a bit of flack lately as Target dropped it from its ranks almost entirely. Have a peek at that giant retail cut-down and ask yourself if you’re glad you got yours while the getting was good. Then whip it out and have a peek at all the new features on this streaming music app.

Spotify for Kindle Fire has an all-new slide-out navigation bar and comes with a lovely collection of social features for all! You’ve got artist imagery and album covers in full high definition greatness, and you can work with related artist view to learn more about musical groups you might never have otherwise realized existed! When you’re listening in on this device you’ve also got 320kbps listening power that Spotify called “extreme” sound quality.

This build of the software is what Spotify tells us is “lightening fast” and, again, it’s available right this second – so go out and get it! Of course you’ll want to note that this version is limited based on your subscription status, you might have to grab the billfold as well. Have a peek at the timeline below to see other Spotify updates in recent weeks too!

The folks at Huawei are getting set up to offer a wider range of storage products for the near future. It’s seeming more and more likely that Steve Ballmer will be revealing the details of Office 15 later today. Have a peek at the Gauntlet keyboard-glove that’ll be perfect for your Google Glass early next year.

You can now order Raspberry Pi in general, pre-orders having been shipped and the online store ready for action. There’s a bit of talk surrounding iPad challengers this morning, starting with a new 10-inch Kindle Fire. Those of you that own the HTC Desire HD, you might be out of luck as far as Ice Cream Sandwich goes.

The folks at Activision and Marvel Comics have finally made way for a Deadpool-centric game that’ll be released later this year. The relationship between Anonymous and WikiLeaks has beed detailed in part. It appears that SpaceX is ready to complete its Dragon design review – kids in space next year!

Al Capone’s 1928 Caddilac will be heading to auction very soon. The New York Times has reported that they’ve got sources confirming the iPad Mini. Google’s Project Glass has had its Artificial intelligence and controls detailed in full in a patent application. Microsoft has sold its share of MSNBC.com in its entirety to Comcast.

The Nokia Lumia 900 has had its AT&T price cut in half, and we can expect Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion to launch on the 25th of July.

Online sales of tablets from several well-known tablet manufacturers such as ASUS, Acer, and Sony, will continue while in-store sales will be completely cut off at all or nearly all Target stores in the USA. This comes not least of all, we must assume, because of less-than-stellar offline sales over the past few months. We spoke with one employee earlier today on the subject, and though he wished to remain anonymous due to the nature of the subject, he was quite open about the situation:

“We had [tablets] out for a while, the iPad is still out, but they wont be out now at least in this area now until Christmas. … We sold just a couple back when they were out here, some Acer tablets, they sold to people who specifically were real anti-Apple, other than that not much [as far as tablet sales go.]” – Anonymous Target Employee

This should come as no surprise for a couple of reasons to SlashGear readers, first of all because Target made a statement on the Kindle lineup back in May:

“Target continually evaluates its product assortment to deliver the best quality and prices for our guests. Target is phasing out Kindles and Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012. We will continue to offer our guests a full assortment of ereaders and supporting accessories including the Nook.” – Target

Above: Target’s previous tablet selection in-stores circa Spring 2012

Before that, we’ve had a discussion or two about the placement of non-iPad tablets as well. Take a look at the news bit entitled Target Android tablets lifted above iPad 2 and Target is finally selling some Android tablets as well. Peek at the timeline below to continue on with the Target news back several weeks as well.

Not much is known about the ROM right now, although it looks like basic functionality is working. Users will need to root their Kindle Fire first, then flash the provided ROM and Google Apps package. A quick fix is then needed in order to restore WiFi functionality, but after that you should be good to go. The only major feature that’s missing is hardware acceleration for video playback. Texas Instruments hasn’t added in code to support Jelly Bean just yet, so users may be waiting before they can get perfectly smooth playback in apps like YouTube and Netflix.

Other than that, you’re getting the full AOSP experience, with the ROM compiled from the latest source (4.1.1). Google were keen to point out the new features at I/O which included Project Butter, introducing frame buffering and VSync for dramatically improved performance and fluidity throughout Android. Google Now, meanwhile, acts as a personal assistant that will monitor your habits and surroundings while serving up relevant information such as the weather or local transit points. Notifications have also been improved, and some mild UI changes have been made.

Jelly Bean was the obvious inclusion, and Google balanced its enthusiasm about the new Android version from a technological perspective – with encrypted apps and the perfectly named “Project Butter” for smoothing out the UI – with features that will make more of a difference for end-users. The new notifications system should make a major difference to Android usability, meaning you spend less time jumping between apps, while the Google Voice Search should present an interesting challenge to Siri.

I’ll need to spend some proper time with “Google now” before I can decide whether it brings any real worth to the table. Proper understanding of context is sorely missing from the mobile device market- our handsets can do no shortage of tasks, but they still wait for us to instruct them – though there are potentially significant privacy concerns which I think Google will likely be picked up on sooner rather than later.

The Nexus 7 is a double-hitter of a device, the tablet response not only to concerns that Android developers were opting out of slate-scale app creation, but to Amazon’s strongly-selling Kindle Fire. $200 is a very competitive price, without cutting on specifications, and Jelly Bean comes with all the bells and whistles you need for a tablet OS.

Of course, OS support wasn’t what let Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich down, it was the significant absence of any meaningful tablet application support from third-party developers. The Nexus 7′s low price should help get test units into coders’ hands, at least, though it will take more than a fanfare this week to decide whether Android can catch up on larger screen content with Apple’s iPad.

As for the Nexus Q, I’ll take some more convincing on that. $299 is a lot for a device that also needs an Android phone or tablet in order to work, and Google’s awkward presentation didn’t do a particularly good job of explaining why you’d rather have a Nexus Q than, say, an Apple TV, a Sonos system, or even just a cheap DLNA streamer.

The big surprise today was Google Glasses. Sergey Brin’s “surprise” interruption of the IO presentation, sporting Project Glass himself and then summoning a daredevil army of similarly-augmented skydivers, stunt bikers, abseilers and others onto the stage was a masterstroke of entertainment, and you could feel the enthusiasm and excitement in the auditorium. That the segment ended with a pre-order promise – albeit one at a not-inconsiderable $1,500 – was a suitably outlandish high-point, though we’ll have to wait until early 2013 to actually see Google make good on those investments.

Google Glasses are a long way off. More pressing is how the Nexus 7 holds up to the Kindle Fire (and, though it may not be quite a direct competitor, the iPad) and how quickly manufacturers can get Jelly Bean out to existing devices. Google may be putting a new system of early Android update access into place to speed that process for future iterations, but it looks to have come too late for Jelly Bean updates. We’ll have more from Google IO 2012 over the rest of the week.

Make sure to check out SlashGear’s Android hub for our full Google IO 2012 coverage!

Unboxing Nexus 7 and Nexus Q:

NOTE: the following piece is heavily opinionated – that said, it’s my set of opinions, so you can take them or leave them. Having also tried out the Kindle Fire, I can easily guarantee you you’ll be more satisfied with the NOOK Tablet or even the much cheaper NOOK Color when it comes to how great the device feels to work with and how nice the display is. These tablets sit next to one another at Target and you can see the quality difference from an aisle away.

Hold the Kindle Fire at a 30 degree angle and you’re suddenly in flipped colors world. Don’t get me wrong, the Fire does have its perks – like it’s ability to get a wide variety of applications right out of the box from the Amazon app store. But for the price, I feel like one should be getting something a bit more unique, and not just in software build.

The NOOK Tablet presents a fully unique experience for Android as well as tablets, a proposition that absolutely does not exist anywhere else. Android tablets are for the most part clones, and the Kindle Fire is what happens when Amazon wanted to differentiate but couldn’t bring themselves to create a whole new ecosystem, so put the Android operating system in a blender and shook it out like dice.

Where on the other hand, Barnes & Noble’s NOOK line fits the display size perfectly, and is clearly made for people wanting to not only read books, but play the occasional game or two and watch a movie. And read one whole heck of a lot of comic books.

There are cheap, ineffectual smartphones out there, and mediocre TVs, but the rise of Android, a glut of inexpensive 7- to 10-inch LCD panels and the halo effect of Apple’s iPad has prompted above-average growth in the tablet segment. That glut of cheap options demands plenty of compromise along with the low sticker price. At CES this year, we’re expecting to see…

Smartphone versions of Android

Android has flourished on tablets because, simply, Google gives it away. Or, more accurately, it gives some of it away: if you want the really eye-catching apps, like Gmail and the Android Market, then you have to toe the Google party line on what constitutes a “proper” Android gadget. Problem is, most cheap Android slates run Gingerbread or another smartphone-version of the OS, and with elements like integrated cellular wireless missing they’re not eligible for Google’s prime software.

That means no Android Market, no Gmail, no official YouTube app… in fact you’re left with a pretty basic browsing tablet. Third-party software stores fill the gap somewhat, but it’s definitely not ideal. Meanwhile, a UI designed for a smartphone starts to look stretched out and just plain wrong on a 7-inch or larger device, and Android’s (relatively few) tablet-specific apps won’t play ball either.

Underwhelming Interface mash-ups

Manufacturers are left either keeping Android’s smartphone interface, with all the compromises inherent in that, or cooking up some tablety UI of their own. Unfortunately, like a bad Glee rap-power-ballad combo, these design tweaks generally turn out rough, add to sagging performance and sit uncomfortably with both sides: phone apps still look odd, tablet apps – if even present – usually suffer from minimal investment.

Add in the fact that development on these custom interfaces tends to dry up after the first iteration, and it’s no surprise that many budget Android buyers turn to unofficial ROMs to strip away the manufacture’s dross and replace it with either a native UI or a tablet-centric OS altogether. That’s often beyond the skill-set of those drawn in solely by a sub-$200 price tag, however.

“Now you see me, now you don’t” Displays

That mid-sized LCD panel glut which helped spur the cheap tablet market has a significant downside: many of the displays are just plain bad. Narrow viewing angles meaning you have to be looking directly head-on to actually see text and images properly, or a screen that’s only usable when in either portrait or landscape orientation – but not both – are common complaints.

There’s a reason Apple, ASUS and Samsung get praised for their IPS and Super PLS displays: having a screen you can actually see makes for an altogether more usable tablet. One you’ll actually pick up on a daily basis, rather than being content to let expire under a stack of magazines.

Paper-performance, Real-world woes

You can see their argument: why buy a $200 Kindle Fire, and do without a camera, expandable storage and other features, when you could have a no-brand slate with far more ticks on the spec sheet for the same price? Problem is, models like the NOOK Tablet and Kindle Fire – and, indeed, the iPad – work because they fit into an overall ecosystem of video, music, books and other content. Each uses its tablet as a gateway into your pocket for ongoing multimedia and apps purchases.

Without that ecosystem built around the device, a cheap tablet is as good as the third-party apps and services you can access. Often that doesn’t include the Android Market, as mentioned before, and so you’re forced to use third-party app stores, sideload software and sync across media from your computer.

Meanwhile, even if you have a whiz-bang processor and the promise of a high-resolution camera, what sounds great on paper has a habit of disappointing if the software optimization, lenses and other kit aren’t up to scratch. Megapixels aren’t everything, after all, and neither are megahertz.

Although you’d think that budget manufacturers would’ve learned their lesson in the past 18-24 months, the sudden popularity of devices like the NOOK Touch is likely to have reawakened the hope that “maybe my cheap slate will make it.” We’ll be picking through the dross and bringing you the best tablets from CES 2012 all week, but you can send an even stronger message when you’re out shopping for your next slate. Simply leave the too-good-to-be-true models on the shelves.