Usually, solar panels charge solely off of outdoor sunlight, but the advanced solar technology built into this cover will charge your battery indoors as well. The cover is available with or without the solar charging option – but without the solar capabilities, this cover is just like many others. It’s only an extra $20 for the solar option, so it will be money well spent.

They claim it will triple your reading time, and could even supply up to 3 months or more of reading time on a single charge. Support for more tablets will be key for SolarFocus. I know some Android tablets that could sure use a boost in battery life, so this technology may benefit them even more.

The 7.9 x 4.7 x 0.72 inch case holds the Kindle in place using foam inserts, and controls are limited to a single power button. An LED indicator shows battery status – either red, amber or green – and an hour of direct sunlight is apparently good enough for three days of ereading.

As for the LED light, that’s an 800 lux lamp for bedtime or airplane reading, pivoting out of the top section of the case and illuminating the non-backlit epaper display. A pass-through USB port recharges both the Kindle and the case.

It’s available for order now, priced at $79.99.

You’ll be treated here to a vision of Ice Cream Sandwich working on the Fire, complete with some lovely widgets and the cyan coloring. Not one whole heck of a lot of the primary functions are working in full force as of yet, but it’s encouraging to see. This especially since this device was not approved by Google and therefor did not have the Android Market nor a suite of Google-made apps, not to mention a custom user interface that made the whole system appear Amazon in nature.

It’s not like the Kindle Fire isn’t up to spec when it comes to having a great user experience right out of the box, but here we’ve got a whole new world of accessibility. What will you do with your tablet when you’re able to do everything a normal tab could do? Surely not take photos or video, that’s for certain. Play some Riptide for a good time, even without the hacks. Instructions for making this process happen can be found here: Liliputing and take cation from start to finish.

[via Liliputing]

The eBooks were pulled from OverDrive a few days ago and apparently, the eBooks are back, for now. Penguin has agreed to allow the eBooks to continue to be lended via libraries for a limited time. Penguin has allows the books to remain in the lending library through at least the end of the year. At this late date that is only a bit more than a month that the books might remain.

Penguin had pointed the finger at security concerns. The rub was that the company had continued to sell the same books in digital format, presumably with the same security measures in place. The more likely reason was that Penguin wanted the reader to buy the eBook rather than check it out.

[via NYT]

Word has surfaced that Penguin Books has forced the removal of its eBook titles from the Overdrive lending library. According to OverDrive last week it received word from Penguin that it was reviewing the terms for lending on its eBook titles. While the terms were under review, OverDrive notes that it was asked to suspend lending of Penguin eBooks. It’s not looking good for the ability to lend books using eReaders like the Kindle.

I don’t understand the issue here. Penguin is claiming that security concerns with its digital versions are delaying availability in new titles on digital formats until the concerns are resolved. The thing is that the eBooks Amazon sells in digital formats are using the same security as the lending versions and the sale versions are still on Amazon. It sounds like Penguin is scrambling to find a way to squeeze more money out of readers by limiting loans.

[via The Digital Reader]

Amazon is strongly pushing content on both its traditional Kindle models and the new Kindle Fire, stomaching lower cash upfront on device sales on the expectation that ebook downloads, along with music and video rentals and purchases, will offset that.

That strategy will need to pay off if Amazon is to survive the strong demand for the Kindle. Analysts iSuppli did the bill-of-materials math and suggest each of the ad-supported Kindles costs $84.25 to manufacture, Mainstreet reports [via Ereader-Info], including components and production costs but not the cost of Amazon’s software and development, nor licensing fees. According to the teardown, the Kindle’s E Ink display module costs Amazon $30.50 per unit, the main PCB $30.37 and actually putting the whole ereader together contributes $5.66.

Amazon is yet to release pre-order stats for the Kindle Fire, though unofficial numbers suggest the company saw 250,00 orders in the first five days. The tablet is priced at $199.99, another loss-leading figure based on iSuppli’s $209.63 production cost estimate, and will reach customers on November 15. Meanwhile, an 8.9-inch Kindle Fire is believed to be in the pipeline next.

Titles bought on the Kindle Fire through the Amazon Appstore for Android will also be available to download on other Android-based devices with the store installed. As has been the case since the Amazon Appstore’s launch on phones, the retailer will be offering a premium app for free download each day to Kindle Fire owners. Amazon will be testing each app to make sure it plays nicely with its custom interface and the underlying Gingerbread OS.

The Weather Channel, Allrecipes, Bloomberg, Cut the Rope, Doodle Fit, Doodle Jump, Fruit Ninja, Jenga, LinkedIn, Zillow, Airport Mania, Battleheart, Pulse, The Cat in the Hat, Quickoffice Pro, Jamie’s 20-Minute Meals, IMDb Movies & TV, and Monkey Preschool Lunchbox will all be available, as will games from Zynga, EA, Gameloft, PopCap and Rovio. The Kindle Fire is expected to begin shipping to pre-order customers on November 15; check out our full launch report here.

Kobo’s founding company, Canadian-based Indigo Books & Music, which owns 58 percent, will receive $140 to $150 million from the deal, while Rakuten will receive 100 percent of all issued and outstanding shares of Kobo. This will bring Rakuten a line of e-readers, tablets, software, and a 5.6 million user base spread over more than 100 countries.

Rakuten claims to be one of the world’s top three e-commerce companies by revenue and will be adding 50 million potential Kobo customers from around the world. Kobo will become a wholly owned subsidiary that will continue to operate as a standalone company under CEO Michael Serbinis in Toronto.

Kobo recently introduced the new 7-inch Kobo Vox Android-based e-reader that competes with Amazon’s Kindle Fire with a $199.99 price tag, but allows for full access to the installed Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

[via VentureBeat]

The HTML5 Kindle Cloud Reader app is now supporting Firefox. To start reading, Firefox users just need to go to http://read.amazon.com using the browser on their computer or device. This is the latest app from Amazon to use HTML5. It will synchronize the user’s library and track the last page read so you are on the same page no matter the device you use to read.

It will also sync bookmarks, notes, and highlights too. Readers can also use the Kindle Cloud App to buy and browse new books. The Cloud Reader is now available on Safari for iPad, Safari for desktop, Chrome, and Firefox 6.

In fact, Amazon could have quite the spread of tablet sizes, potentially rivaling Samsung in the breadth of its range if the tipsters are correct. The company is believed to be considering 9.7- and 10.1-inch models, though it seems unlikely that it would opt for both those sizes since the resulting slates would be so close in size.

LG Display and CPT, both suppliers of the 7-inch LCD in the Kindle Fire, will apparently also be supplying Amazon with its 8.9-inch screen. They’re reportedly already preparing production to meet Amazon’s demand.

It’s unclear what the motivation behind Amazon’s design decision change has been, though manufacturing issues could well be a part of it. Currently 7-inch, 9.7-inch and 10.1-inch displays are the most common, with Apple absorbing most of the 9.7-inch supply while many Android tablets occupy the 10.1-inch bracket. 8.9-inches has been a less saturated niche, and so Amazon could be more confident at securing the sort of bulk display order that it will presumably need as it tries to push its tablets on the mainstream market.

The Amazon Kindle Fire begins shipping on November 15. More details in our launch event coverage.

Titles that support borrowing under the scheme will have a new option in their listings – either on the Amazon site, its mobile apps, or on dedicated Kindle hardware – to “Borrow for Free”. Tapping that will download the ebook, with no limit on how long you can keep hold of it. However, readers can only have a single borrowed book on the go at any one time.

Highlights, annotations and bookmarking is all supported, with that data left behind when you return the book; if you subsequently borrow it again – or indeed purchase it – they should all show up in the correct place. Prime membership is $79 per year.

As for publishers, not all seem to be fully onboard with the concept at this stage. Amazon has agreed set fees for most of the 5,000 titles, the company says, but for others it’s swallowing a fee each time the ebook is borrowed:

“Titles in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library come from a range of publishers under a variety of terms. For the vast majority of titles, Amazon has reached agreement with publishers to include titles for a fixed fee. In some cases, Amazon is purchasing a title each time it is borrowed by a reader under standard wholesale terms as a no-risk trial to demonstrate to publishers the incremental growth and revenue opportunity that this new service presents” Amazon

iSuppli estimated that Amazon spends almost $210 making each Kindle Fire, the 7-inch Android-based tablet it announced in late September. Although Amazon has used Google’s mobile OS, the software has been heavily reskinned and modified to integrate with the retailer’s cloud storage, streaming media services and Kindle ebook platform. That, the company is betting on, will make owners more likely to purchase content and offset any hardware sales losses.

The sales tax issue will be tougher to crack, however. An increasing number of US states are demanding that Amazon hand over sales taxes, a shift that could see Amazon either increase prices to offset the losses, or swallow the shortfall in profit themselves. Either way, the market is expected to react negatively, with predictions of a 19-percent drop in 2012 profit if prices go up.

Shipments of the Kindle Fire are expected to begin on November 15, with Amazon tipped to have sold 250,000 pre-orders in the first five days. More on the Kindle Fire in our coverage of Amazon’s launch event.

If you’ve still been rocking your original Kindle, then the news isn’t so great. Amazon will give you up to $29.25 for the first-gen model, assuming the condition as as-new. If you’ve been less than careful with the ereader, then you’re looking at $18.50 for “acceptable” condition, which Amazon defines as fully-functional but perhaps missing one or all of the accessories, or showing scratches, marks or dents in the casing.

Should your Kindle be personalized, however, with a custom engraving or similar, don’t expect to get anything above “average” pricing for it; we guess Amazon isn’t convinced it will find a second-hand buyer with exactly the same name as you, wanting the same loving message from your wife. Credit will automatically be added to your Amazon account once the Kindle has been received and checked over.

Amazon announced a new range of Kindle ereaders last month, including a $79 entry-level model, a touchscreen version and the Android-based Kindle Fire tablet.

Get this update NOW via Amazon’s simple to use update process — not only will you get the update to be able to access your personal documents, there’s also an expansion of elements you’ve already been enjoying, including Whispersync of last page read, bookmarks, and annotations to your archived personal documents that have been converted into Kindle format. Can you resist such excellent updates all included in this free update?

All you’ve got to do to get to this update on your Kindle 3 is, starting from the Home screen, is hit Settings. From there you’ll see your Kindle version at the bottom of your display. If you see Version Kindle 3.1″ or earlier, you’ve got an update coming to you. To download, just head to Amazon or hit one of the following links:

Kindle Keyboard Wi-Fi: Download 3.3 
Your serial number will start with “B008″

Kindle Keyboard 3G (Free 3G + Wi-Fi) – U.S. and Canadian Customers*: Download 3.3
Your serial number will start with “B006″

Kindle Keyboard 3G (Free 3G + Wi-Fi) – European Customers*: Download 3.3
Your serial number will start with “B00A”

If you’re unsure of your Kindle serial number, just check at the bottom of your Settings menu just like you did for the Kindle software version. Once you’ve got the software downloaded, you’ll have to transfer it to your Kindle device. To do this, again follow directions as provided by Amazon:

1. Transfer software to your Kindle Keyboard: Turn your Kindle Keyboard on and connect it to your computer using the USB cable. Drag and drop the new update file from your computer to the root Kindle drive. (The drive contains a number of folders – such as “audible,” “documents,” and “music” – and is typically displayed as a “device” icon).

2. Monitor file transfer and disconnect: Check your file transfer progress to ensure file transfer to your Kindle Keyboard is complete before disconnecting. After the file has transferred successfully, eject the Kindle to safely disconnect Kindle Keyboard from your computer. Disconnect the USB cable from your Kindle Keyboard and your computer.

3. Start the software update: Go to the Home screen, press the Menu key, and select “Settings.” Press the Menu key again, and then select “Update Your Kindle.” (This option will be grayed out if the most recent update has already been installed or if the file transfer was not successful.) Select “Ok” when prompted if you want to perform an update. Your Kindle Keyboard will restart twice during the update. After the first restart, you will see “Your Kindle is Updating”.

4. Once the update is complete: Your Kindle Keyboard will automatically restart a second time. When you go to the Settings page, you should notice Version: Kindle 3.3 at the bottom of the screen. Once you see this, you know your update is complete.

Got it? Any troubles, ask below or go straight to Amazon for support. Get in the cloud!

BONUS have a look at the Kindle Touch while you’re at it.

Kumar, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw, said that his check with the supply chain indicated that Amazon could move as many as 5 million tablets in Q4. That would give the Fire about half the numbers of the iPad. The reason for the increase is also cited as the record pre-orders that were received. Naturally, supply will need to go up to meet that demand.

The Fire might give Apple a real run once things get going, if it can keep the momentum. Amazon is the first real competitor to launch a tablet that has a chance at matching the iPad. Things can turn quickly for Amazon though it the tablets get into customer hands and have issues with performance.

[via CNET]

The Pearl E-ink screen here should be a real winner as its already tried and true, and with this new form factor (seen above), Bookeen may well have a winner on their hands. In addition to having these things in its favor, there’s a video out there showing off how Bookeen has been optimizing this tablet in regards to refresh rate on the “ink”, and wow, it does look pretty darn neat if I do say so myself:

The video isn’t the newest in the world, but it does show the possibilities in this new Bookeen ereader tablet. This video was filmed all the way back in May – can you imagine where they’re at today?! We can’t wait to hear more from Bookeen on the device. E-ink progression forever!

[via The Digital Reader]

French readers will find a choice of more than 35,000 French-language ebooks – including all 28 L’Express best sellers, Amazon is keen to point out – along with “hundreds” of graphic novels and ore than 4,000 free classics in French. They’ll also have access to a catalog of English-language ebooks, while French authors will be able to use the Kindle Direct Publishing tool to put their titles up for sale as well.

The Kindle hardware itself misses out on the keyboard of its third-gen predecessor, making do with a potentially-fiddly D-pad control system to navigate an on-screen keyboard. However it’s also lighter and smaller than the model it replaces. Pre-orders for the French Kindle begin today, with the ereader expected to begin shipping on October 14.

I bet after using the Kindle for a while there are plenty of folks out there that are now wishing they had paid the extra $30 for the standard Kindle reader. Amazon knew that a bunch of folks would tire of the ads on the eReader and rather than have people angry about their purchase or making returns, there is a way to get out of the sponsored screensavers and ads.

All you need to do is head to the Manage Your Kindle page and choose to unsubscribe from the ads. You will have to pay the $30 discount to remove them, but at least you can then use your device without ads bothering you. I’m actually surprised that all Amazon wants is the difference you would have paid for the normal Kindle at the time of purchase. I bet there are some that would have gladly paid more to shed the ads.

[via The-digital-reader]

The Kindle Fire may not have turned out to be the ulimate iPad-killer given the great disparity in specs and price point, but analysts still consider it to be a lot more competitive than expected. In comparison, Apple’s iPad 2 sold 2.5 million units in its first month, which is about 80,000 units a day. Amazon’s Kindle Fire is looking at about 50,000 units a day right now and that’s not too shabby, especially when you consider that the Motorola XOOM is rumored to have sold only 100,000 units after a month and a half, while the BlackBerry PlayBook, which the Kindle Fire is modeled after, only sold 500,000 units total in its first quarter. But again, pricing is surely a huge factor and Amazon’s known to be aggressive with that. The $199 price tag for the Kindle Fire is believed to be about $10 below the actual cost of each unit.

Sales of Amazon’s Kindle Touch e-reader, however, have not been as impressive. According to the same source that leaked the sales data for the Kindle Fire, the WiFi and 3G e-reader has only sold 32,000 units in the five days since it launched. For more details on Amazon’s Kindle Fire and its latest series of Kindle e-readers, make sure to check out our wrap-up post from the launch event last week.

[via TechCrunch]

The way the firm that found the numbers for the Kindle Fire is via “tracking email purchases found in The New York research firm’s database of millions of email, Twitter and Facebook marketing campaigns dating back to 2003.” Given that Amazon has already reported that the Fire tablet had already been it’s top seller for several days in a row, it doesn’t seem out of line to guess that they’re exactly right on their high-flying estimates. Speaking with AP, Brian Dunn, aka the current CEO of Best Buy, said that he estimated that “these Kindles are going to be some of the hottest gifts this year,” adding that ereaders and tablets have “captivated consumers.”

You can find out a bit more on what Best Buy is doing to make sure that captivation continues in a post on our sister site Android Community called Best Buy Takes Tablets Seriously with Massive Floor Setting – been to Best Buy lately? They’re for real on the tablet market. Also check out Chris Davies’ column Watch out iPad: Even indirect Fire can cook Apples and see our Amazon Kindle 2011 Wrap-up post including each of the several new models we got to take a look at.

THEN here’s our hands-on video from the release event, look at that winner!

[via Android Community]

Previous Kindles had allowed general web access using the 3G models’ integrated cellular modem, though the user experience was generally underwhelming until the third-gen brought the Webkit engine to the table. Just as with downloading ebooks and browsing the Kindle store, accessing regular webpages was included in the no-charge 3G access.

That’s all changed in the new Kindle Touch 3G, with all webpages bar Wikipedia access being out of reach for the 3G connection. The Kindle Keyboard 3G, the renamed third-gen Kindle, still has 3G webpage access, so that’s a good reason to opt for the older model if you think you might want to go online more often.

[via Beyond Black Friday]

Apparently, Bezos encouraged his designers to find inspiration from his then beloved BlackBerry, which must have been a BlackBerry 8700 like the one shown above. There’s definitely a resemblance.

“Jeff Bezos would come into our design meetings and say he loved his BlackBerry and the ease with which he could find e-mails and respond to people,” explained the former Amazon designer. “That’s why the first Kindle was so boxy, had the funky square keyboard and that strange scroll wheel on the side; it was all inspired by Jeff’s BlackBerry.”

The design of the Kindle gradually changed over time, becoming increasingly influenced by Apple’s aesthetic. The second- and third-generation Kindles took on thinner and more rounded designs akin to Apple’s iPod. And now we have the Kindle Fire tablet that is once again based off of a RIM creation, the BlackBerry PlayBook, which was luckily based off of Apple’s iPad.

Here’s the thing. One of the stronger arguments for why the iPad has succeeded where Android tablets have struggled is that Apple does an excellent job of putting its slate into context. Apple’s adverts are all about how you can use your iPad – how the functionality will come alive when you integrate it into your life. Its rivals, however, haven’t seemed to twig that potential buyers need a helping hand to figure out where these new fangled tablets really shine.

You could call that “perceived usefulness”, if “context” alone isn’t enough. That’s where, so far, the Kindle (and other e-paper based ereaders) have held their own against the iPad and other tablets: the context, the perception of their usefulness in the eyes of consumers, is very specific to reading. I doubt I’m alone in having both a tablet and an ereader, and as I wrote just before the Kindle Fire’s launch, the new Amazon model isn’t really targeted at the “avid reader” audience.

Some people never take a trip without their iPad: I seldom travel without my Kindle. Most of the time my Apple slate stays back home, while the Kindle comes with me. Yes, I could load the Kindle app on the iPad, but the Kindle package as a whole – form-factor, weight, battery life, e-paper rather than backlit LCD – means that it’s good enough to earn a spot in my rucksack.

That combination of “good enough” and “perceived usefulness” is what will cause the iPad headaches. I don’t disagree that Apple’s tablet has far more potential than the Kindle Fire when it comes to functionality. However, I also expect that many people will look at the price/feature balance and deem $199 sufficiently wallet-friendly to excuse the absence of some of the more advanced abilities, abilities that most iPad owners don’t get to grips with until they’re months into ownership. The Kindle Fire ticks all the obvious boxes – email, browser, video, etc – and best of all it comes from a retailer people recognize and trust to stick around for the foreseeable future.

How much will the Kindle Fire eat into iPad sales? That’s a question analysts are still arguing over; Munster suggests the iPad will hold a 60-percent tablet market share by the end of next year, with Amazon probably making the biggest gains out of Apple’s rivals. It’ll be particularly interesting to see how many people “downsize” from a tablet like the iPad (or a similarly priced Android model) and an e-paper Kindle, to just the Kindle Fire. I can’t see many people opting both for a 7-inch Kindle Fire and a regular Kindle/Kindle Touch, though maybe that will change once the rumored 10-inch Kindle Fire arrives.

The iPad isn’t going anywhere, we know that. It’s shaped the consumer tablet market immeasurably – well, I guess sales would be one good way of measuring – and has had a huge impact on how rivals have approached the segment. With the Kindle Fire, though, Apple will likely find it has to share some of its “game-changer” kudos.

Foxconn already produces the Amazon Kindle ereaders for the retailer, though reportedly passed up on the Kindle Fire production contract as it was already stretched manufacturing Apple’s iPad. Instead, Amazon supposedly worked with Quanta on designing and producing the 7-inch Kindle Fire, basing the tablet, in part, on the existing legwork Quanta had done on the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Previous rumors have suggested that it’s the larger tablet that Amazon is most proud of, with the model announced on Wednesday being something of a rush-job to get to the market in time. It’s not expected to ship until November 15, however, which wouldn’t leave much time prior to the holidays for Amazon to also make a suitable song and dance about the 10-inch version.

The exact number of tablets ordered at this point has not yet been revealed, but we do know that the official shipping date is all the way down the line at November 15th, 2011. It goes without saying what season this device is aimed at, with Amazon’s media content library very clearly at the center of the entire situation here. Meanwhile we’ve got a feeling that at $199, this tablet will be used for more than just that, Android integration making this a prime target for developers of all legitimacies.

You can head to our big [Amazon Kindle Fire portal] for all the information on the device anyone could want and ALSO you can head below this paragraph to see yourself a few hands-on and eyes-on videos. The first is from here on SlashGear, the next is from our sister site Android Community, then you’ve got a gallery as well – all of this done in larger scale in the Kindle Fire portal via the hands-on posts. Enjoy!

BONUS check out our Q and A session amid the hands-on for some greater detail on a few points you’ll be interested in hearing.

What you’ll see here is some video that you might be familiar with if you also frequent Android Community. This video is another hands-on look at the Kindle Fire tablet after which we (and some other innocent bystanders) get to ask a few questions of the rep at hand. Check out the video or just skip down to the transcript.

Kindle Fire hands-on video

Android Community: Do you have to swipe or can you just [tap]?

Amazon PR: This one’s an app so it requires swiping.

AC: What about zooming in and out?

PR: I don’t know if they support it – we support multitouch zooming, but it doesn’t look like they support it here [in this app].

AC: Can you side-load PDFs?

PR: Yeah sure, but we don’t think people are going to do that as much because under the docks tab you have an email address for each Kindle Fire so you can just email [content] for free and it’ll just magically appear on the shelf.

At this point some of the questions come from other publications, so we’ll just switch to Q and A, watch the video to see who asks what if you need to know.

Q: Do you have an email client on there?

A: We do have an email client we’re not showing today, but it will come out of the box with an email client.

Q: And what about if you want to do some word processing, what’s the best way to go about doing something like that?

A: App store. Hopefully we’ll have multiple selections by the time we ship, in the app store, that’s the plan.

Q: Is it just going to be Amazon App Store or will there be stock Android App Store [Android Marketplace] as well?

A: Today it’s just he Amazon App Store – we’ll certainly talk to Google – if they’re interested – we’ll certainly talk to them.

Q: You’re doing browsing, can’t you [access] the Android Market that way?

A: Well no, because Google requires that you authenticate the device with their DRM and we don’t have their DRM on the device at this point.

Q: From a hardware perspective, what ports are available? Is it just charging?

A: Yes just USB, that’s for connecting to your PC or also we have a charger, fast charger, and then on the bottom you have a headphone jack for headphones and then a power/sleep button.

Q: And then battery – how long? Usage-wise – video?

A: You should get – in sort of a run-down test – you should get three films. If you want to play them without Wi-fi on you should get up to seven hours.

This all sound decent to you? Specifically I’d like to re-address the fact that this tablet seems to have no way of transmitting video to a larger display like an HD TV. I don’t know about you, but I’ve gotten quite used to each of the devices I review being able to show off their wares via an HDMI cable with some sort of port or another. With nothing like that in place here, will we have to rely on the display we’ve got in our hands to get into all that juicy Amazon library content? You’ll see mention of a couple other services with which Amazon works to bring said content to your television – is this their way of saying that this is our only choice?

Hit up our portal for Amazon Kindle Fire to see all the detail you could possibly want!

Shown in the photo above, we have the Kindle Touch on the left (top) with the new Kindle Fire and its IPS display on the bottom. One thing I do want to note first is Amazon has always touted their e-ink and awesome Kindle displays for working great in any light condition, especially outside. It will be interesting to see how the Kindle Fire and the IPS panel handle the direct sunlight, but for now all we have is some video comparing text on the two so give it a look and let us know what you think.

Kindle Fire IPS vs Touch E-Ink screen comparison

As usual with e-ink you have this sort of “refresh time” as the display loads the content, this has always been a fast process and still works just as smooth and quick as any Kindle thus far. With the Fire we no longer have that issue, instead we have instant and smooth text, as well as great animations while flipping through the pages. The IPS display truly has an amazing set of viewing angles thanks to the IPS panel and can be seen at 178° and more. Sharing text and showing off stories or magazines will be easier than ever on the new Kindle Fire.

Even though the Fire only has a screen resolution of 1024 x 600 the text looks crisp, and vivid and will be easy on the eyes. Some may opt for the e-ink but this will ultimately come down to user need, and preference. Feel free to look over the rest of the images in the gallery provided, then let us know what you think in the comments below. For the rest of the Amazon Kindle coverage today just check out our Kindle portal.

Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire is Amazon’s big news, the 7-inch Android-based tablet we’ve been waiting to see take on the iPad. Amazon may have used Google’s platform – and the smartphone version, Gingerbread, at that – but it’s been heavily reskinned to suit the retailer’s purposes. Behind the 1024 x 800 IPS LCD touchscreen is a dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP processor and WiFi, though by leaving out 3G, any cameras and Google’s Android Market certification Amazon has managed to keep the price down to $199.99.

You can check out all the hardware and software details of the Kindle Fire here, and our eyes-on first impressions here.

Kindle fire eyes-on video:

Kindle Touch/Touch 3G

The Kindle Touch and Touch 3G are the new mainstays of Amazon’s ereader line-up, dropping the third-gen model’s QWERTY keyboard in favor of an infrared touchscreen. With no physical buttons for page navigation, tapping the display itself moves through your ebook – Amazon has prioritized the page-forward control, with the majority of the touchscreen serving that purpose, while a smaller strip on the left handles page-back. Pricing is $99 and $149 for the WiFi and WiFi+3G models respectively, if you don’t mind adverts on the homescreen, or $109 and $189 if you do.

You can check out all the details on the Touch/Touch 3G here, and our hands-on report here.

Kindle

Amazon’s entry-level Kindle doesn’t have a touchscreen or a keyboard, but it does have a low price: just $79 for the Special Offers supported model ($109 without). Text entry is via the D-pad, moving around the on-screen ‘board, while edge buttons work to navigate through the ebook. WiFi is the only connectivity option.

You can find all the details here, and our hands-on here.

Kindle Keyboard

The third-gen Kindle hasn’t been put out to pasture: instead it’s had a change of name and a new focus. Those unwilling to deal with on-screen ‘boards can keep the physical QWERTY in the renamed Kindle Keyboard, priced at $99 for the WiFi-only or $139 for the 3G model. That’s with Special Offers discounts, mind; without you’re looking at $139 and $189 respectively.

Amazon Silk

Silk isn’t a hardware product, but in fact Amazon’s new browser. Designed for the Kindle Fire, it uses a combination of client- and server-side processing, caching and compressing to make browsing on the tablet faster. By shrinking images to suit the Kindle Fire’s display, as well as preloading common files from popular sites and predicting what pages people are likely to click on next, Amazon reckons Silk can considerably speed up your browsing experience.

Physically there are a few more buttons than the Touch but less than before: flanking the D-pad are home, menu, back and keyboard keys, while narrow page-turn buttons run down the edges. It’s fine for navigating the menus and ebooks, but text entry is a real chore. The on-screen keyboard is laid out alphabetically, and you have to nudge through it with the D-pad, selecting as you go. Punching in an author name for the Kindle ebook store is one thing, but we wouldn’t want to use the entry-level Kindle to make notes.

The E Ink screen itself refreshes swiftly, using the latest panel that can quickly show around six different pages before demanding a “proper” scrub that takes a second longer. As always the Kindle reading experience soon becomes transparent, with you able to focus on the book itself rather than what you’re reading it on.

There’s quite probably a large market of users out there who don’t use their Kindle to make annotations or grab notes, and who aren’t particularly bothered by some minor D-pad navigation once in a while. Anyone else can spend a relatively minor $20 more and step up to the Kindle Touch; you can find out hands-on with that model here.

Without the Special Offers discounting on the Kindle Touch 3G, the ereader is $189, while the entry-level Kindle jumps from $79 to $109 if you don’t agree to allow adverts on your homescreen. In fact, only the Kindle Fire doesn’t seem to come with an advert option, though there’s the possibility of promotions being injected into the Kindle Silk browser system.

Outside of the US, however, things are not so clear cut. With Special Offers not yet being an international service, that only leaves the non-subsidized pricing available; in the UK, for instance, the entry-level Kindle is £89 ($139) with WiFi only, and there’s no sign of the Touch or Touch 3G models. The Kindle Keyboard is still on sale in the UK, but the Kindle Fire is not.

Amazon isn’t letting us get particularly hands-on with the Kindle Fire, with security at the NYC event playing over-cautious with the new slate. Still, it’s definitely compact and the IPS display – though only 1024 x 600 resolution – is bright and color-rich. The Gorilla Glass, making its first appearance on a Kindle, might also mean you can drop the Kindle Fire into a bag without a case.

We’ll not know for sure how Silk handles and how the rest of the heavily modified OS holds up to proper use until Amazon relaxes a little and lets us play properly. Until then, check out the demo video and live photos.

Otherwise it’s the same Kindle we’ve known for a while now, with a choice of WiFi-only or 3G enabled connectivity. Pricing is $99 for the Kindle Keyboard (WiFi) and $139 for the Kindle Keyboard 3G, assuming you’re willing to put up with Amazon’s “Special Offers” adverts on the homescreen.

If you don’t want the ads, the Kindle Keyboard will be $139 and the Kindle Keyboard 3G will be $189. The white version is only available if you go for the 3G model. More on the Kindle news from today here.

The system also supports optimization of multimedia, so a photo that’s 3MB online may be compressed down to 50KB before it’s sent to your Kindle Fire. That means less bandwidth and faster load times. Amazon has also factored in some user-behavior predictive tech, that can track aggregate browsing behavior and preload the next page it thinks you’ll want to see.

Meanwhile, even if Amazon’s EC2 servers were to crash, the retailer says that Kindle Fire owners won’t be left without internet access. Described as a “decentralized view” of the sub-systems involved, the browser on the Kindle Fire itself is capable of acting in a standalone fashion, meaning users will still be able to get their online fix (albeit at a potentially slower pace than they’re used to).

Both have a new “X-Ray” feature which is used to store sections of titles you’ve read in the ereader’s cache, and allow you to return to them later on. As you can see from the photos, the sub-6oz Touch is considerably more compact than the model it replaces, helped by the removal of the dedicated keyboard.

The Amazon Kindle Touch is available for preorder from today, priced at $99. The Kindle Touch 3G will be $149 and include free 3G access as with the existing Kindle 3G. Both will ship on November 11.

Details on the new Kindles are yet to be confirmed, though first leaked by Bloomberg Businessweek, with Amazon’s press event in NYC still ongoing. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has stressed the importance of the Kindle ecosystem as being an end-to-end continuation, from content to services to hardware used to consume them.

The Kindle Fire will add a new element to that ecosystem, with support for streaming video and music on the first color display – albeit LCD not e-paper – to join the Kindle line-up. It’s expected to go on sale in mid-November, with preorders from today at $199.

On the face of it, the Kindle Fire should deliver the existing Kindle experience but with bells on. Not just ebooks (and some half-hearted audio playback, if you can be bothered to load a handful of MP3s onto the limited internal storage, as well as rudimentary web access) but the full internet, streaming video with whispers of Amazon Prime bundled content, fulsome music access and the reassuring caverns of cloud storage to not only hold all your documents and media but give you access to it on the move.

To achieve all that, we’re expecting that Amazon has had to make more than a few compromises. Not just the relatively tiny onboard storage – tipped to be in the region of 6GB – that helps keep costs down, or the whispers of slower processors after the faster chips Amazon originally wanted caused untold headaches, but some altogether more fundamental changes that signify how little the Fire is aimed at ebook readers.

Biggest will be the screen. So far, Amazon has stuck with e-paper screens from E Ink, replicating the experience of a traditional paper book but in a digital device. Critics – many of whom were particularly vocal when the first iPad was revealed – point to e-paper’s relatively sluggish refresh rate in comparison to LCD, the fact that it’s greyscale and can’t support video.

It’s e-paper that makes the Kindle so superb for readers, however. With no backlight there’s less eye-strain involved; there are also suggestions that using backlit devices before you go to sleep can mess with your body-rhythms, in short that staring at, say, an iPad display to pass time while you’re trying to nod off could be counter-productive. E Ink panels can also be easily read outdoors, even in direct sunlight, when LCD displays require increasingly strong backlighting to counter ambient light levels.

Then there’s portability. Amazon reportedly took the BlackBerry PlayBook as a template, with ODM partner Quanta using the work it had done on RIM’s slate to fast-track the Kindle Fire’s development. Now, the PlayBook is a reasonably compact tablet – 0.4-inches thick, in fact – and only a little thicker than the current third-gen Kindle, at 0.34-inches, but it’s considerably heavier at over 14-oz versus the Kindle’s 8.7-oz. When you’re trying to replicate the minimal heft of a paperback (for users who, say, are trying to hold their ereader one-handed above their head, lying in bed) those ounces can make a big difference.

The Kindle Fire will offer plenty to make up for some of that ebook-centric shortfall. Amazon Prime – with its existing streaming video, but also the rumored library-style ebook loans – is likely to be a big draw for the multimedia obsessed. Amazon expects to set its Fire underneath Apple’s iTunes and iBookstore monoliths, broadening its range and – as recent research has suggested is the case – cashing in on the increased tendency of tablet users to make impromptu purchases. As someone who turns to his Kindle for the focused joy of reading, however, it’s looking more and more likely that the Kindle Fire won’t be for me.

SlashGear will be covering the Amazon Kindle event from NYC this morning, so stand by for all the news as it’s announced!

The Quanta connection helped Amazon take a big shortcut in the Kindle Fire’s design, so gdgt‘s sources claim, which had already helped RIM design much of the PlayBook. Rather than task its own in-house Kindle team, Lab 126, to get up to speed on developing a slate, Amazon supposedly looked to Quanta’s existing experience with the PlayBook and the QNX tablet acted as a “shortcut” of sorts. Ironically, previous leaks out of Taipei have suggested that RIM demanded Quanta use its Taiwanese production facilities rather than those in China, specifically to avoid Chinese white-box vendors from copying the PlayBook design.

Amazon apparently came across some frustrations with processor choice – eventually requiring a slower TI dual-core chip than what’s in the PlayBook – and made some tweaks, but there’s still the chance that the RIM tablet’s flaws could be carried over somewhat. Sources reckon the Kindle Fire is “supposed to be pretty poor” and little more than a “stopgap” until Amazon’s more polished second-gen hardware drops in 2012.

The clunky early Kindle, however, suggests that customers may be willing to look beyond hardware if the content is right, and leaks point to that being the case. AllThingsD‘s sources have spilled a list of three magazine titans – Hearst, Conde Nast and Meredith – which have each apparently signed up to distribute digital magazines on the Kindle Fire. That could mean titles like Wired and Vanity Fair appearing on the new ereader.

“You’ve got beauty and design with Apple, which we love. But with Amazon you have marketing, and ease of use. We’re very optimistic.” Unnamed publisher

Time Inc. has apparently been less enthusiastic, with a deal tipped “hopefully by the end of the year.” Amazon is reportedly offering a roughly 70/30 split on sales revenue, in the publisher’s favor, though each deal is being negotiated separately and there’s flexibility in the percentages that rival Apple isn’t willing to concede. For their part, publishers are supposedly tweaking their digital magazines to suit a 7-inch display, though with a mind to larger screens thanks to long-standing rumors of a 10-inch Kindle tablet in 2012.

SlashGear will be at the Amazon event on Wednesday, September 28, to bring back all the juicy details.

According to the sources, the Amazon tablet will be called the Kindle Fire, to help differentiate it from Amazon’s e-ink Kindle e-readers, since Amazon plans to maintain sales for the e-readers instead of replacing them with the new full-color tablet. The tablet is still expected to be a 7-inch device with a backlit display that looks similar to the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Despite this similarity to the PlayBook as it is produced by the same contract manufacturer, Quanta, the Amazon tablet is said to offer much better software and a much more complete ecosystem of services and content. The software is developed from a fork of Android and is integrated with Amazon’s own Appstore for Android.

When it comes to the ecosystem of services that will attract customers to the Kindle Fire, Amazon has it pretty much covered. In addition to Amazon’s own Appstore, which already has plenty of big name Android apps and some exclusives, its other services include Amazon Prime for streaming movies and TV shows as well as its Cloud Player for MP3s.

Although the slate likely won’t be an iPad-killer, it will certainly pose a great threat to the Barnes & Noble NOOK Color. However, its suspected that Barnes & Noble will be releasing a NOOK Color 2 next month, so it will be interesting to see how the two go head to head this holiday season.

Over the weekend, currently unused code in Amazon’s “manage your Kindle” page was spotted by The Digital Reader, making reference of “Pdocs_Archival_Support” that implies Cloud Drive access from the tablet itself. “Pdocs” is an abbreviation of “personal documents” it’s suggested; meanwhile, there are also code references to “Prime ebooks” that lend weight to rumors of an ebook subscription service.

Amazon is already expected to offer Kindle tablet buyers an inclusive subscription to Prime, that would give them access to streamed music and video. Cloud Drive access would be a natural evolution; currently new users are offered 5GB of complimentary storage, but while you can upload and access content from your PC or Mac, currently there’s no way to grab files saved there from a Kindle.

Of course, eschewing local storage in favor of cloud-based content would also allow Amazon to further minimize component pricing for the tablet. With an estimated purchase price of $250 when it launches – and Amazon tipped to be selling the Kindle tablet at a loss anyway – anything that would shave off hardware costs would reduce the amount of content users would need to buy before the retailer was back in profit.

What Amazon would need to ensure was that users had sufficient connectivity to actually access their content while on the move. As early adopters of Google’s Chrome OS discovered, like the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook we reviewed last week, without internet access a cloud-based system is severely hamstrung. Currently Amazon bundles free 3G access as part of the purchase price of its Kindle 3G ereader; whether it can negotiate similar deals for the Kindle tablet – and its broader use of cloud-based data – could prove a significant differentiator against the rest of the tablet market.

Amazon is tipped to be announcing the Kindle tablet on Wednesday, September 28. For more, check out our rumor-roundup.

The much anticipated tablet has long been speculated to be an iPad-killer thanks to Amazon’s established ecosystem of services, price competitiveness, and strong distribution channel. However, the latest reports from analysts and industry folks who have been privileged with a limited preview of the slate say that it’s a 7-incher that’s more of a Barnes & Noble NOOK Color competitor than anything else.

The reports also claim that the tablet will be running a fully customized OS forked from Android, but it’s not clear which version it was created on. It’s believed that the tablet won’t launch until November, when it will hit the market priced at $250. So there’s definitely a good chance that we’ll catch our first glimpse of the much anticipated slate next Wednesday. We’ll be there to cover it live, so make sure to stay here for all the details.