The Amazon Kindle Fire HD Thread

[MaCruz]

Amazon announces new Kindle Fire HD

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...1#.UEjqlSI-Fak

Amazon.com is firing up interest in its latest hardware at an event in Santa Monica, Calif., today. USA TODAY's Ed Baig is reporting from the scene.

Heavy speculation is that Amazon will unveil a new version of its popular 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet, and perhaps a larger-screen tablet as well. Amazon is also refreshing its Kindle eBook readers. First up in the event, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced Amazon a new Kindle called Kindle Paperwhite. It has a brighter, sharper front-lit screen. It will compete against the read-in-the-dark Barnes & Noble Nook with Glow Light.

Follow along with our latest updates here:

2:14 p.m. Amazon is upgrading Kindle Fire with a faster processor, 2x RAM, 40% faster and longer battery life. The price drops to $159 and it ships Sept. 14.

"We were happy last year to have the best tablet at a certain price. This year we want to have the best tablet at any price," Bezos says.

The result is Kindle Fire HD.

2:13 p.m. Bezos is talking about an Kindle Serials. You can buy once and receive all future episodes, automatically and seamlessly. Readers and authors can join the discussion.

First offerings will include Downwards Facing Death, a yoga murder mystery from Neal Pollack. All those books will be $1.99.

Amazon is also reissuing Dickens Pickwick Club and Oliver Twist to kick off Kindle Serials.

2:07 p.m. Bezos is reading rejection letters sent to Stephen King, Dr. Seuss and Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help. The latter sold over 10 million copies. Bezos asks, "Who are the creators we've never known." That is rejection letters sent before such authors struck it big.

It's a lead in to talk about Kindle Direct Publishing, which lets authors self-publish in hours, publish for free and keep their copyrights.

Amazon says that of the top 100 paid Kindle books, 27 are Kindle Direct Publishing books (KDP).

Bezos is showing a video featuring KDP authors.

2:04 p.m. Amazon said it is keeping the cheap $79 Kindle in the market but is improving it with new fonts. "And we're going to change it's name--now calling it the $69 Kindle, reflecting new price.

2:01 pm. Here's what you get.

It's $119 and ships today. Paperwhite with 3G costs $179 and ships Oct. 1

First-ever Paperwhite display

8week battery.

Light guide

Carry your library

Millions of books

Over 180,00 exclusive books

Lending library

XRay

Tiume to Read

Whispersync

Free storage in Amazon cloud

2 p.m. Bezos is showing off tiny fonts, yet the screen looks sharp. Couldn't have done it without this display, he says. And couldn't do a font like palontino properly without this resolution.

One new cool feature is called Time to Read. Tells you how many minutes are left in a chapter or how much time is left in a book. Kindle can detect your reading speed, and adjusts time accordingly. Very cool.

1:55 p.m. Bezos is showing another video with Kindle fans. It talks of new Kindle with an improved screen. It is a front lit device. Yes, this is Amazon's answer to the Nook with Glow Light from B&N.

It is called "Kindle paperwhite."

It will be perfect in bedroom, perfect in direct sunlight, Bezos say. "People are going to love the light and love the light so much they're going to leave it on all the time." It can get 8 weeks of battery life, even with the light on. You won't have to recharge paperwhite until Halloween.

It weighs 9.1mm or 7.5 ounces. It is thinner than a magazine, lighter than a paperback.

1:50 p.m. The event starts with a video, the TV commercial that aired during the NFL opener between the Giants and Cowboys last night.

Jeff Bezos comes on stage. "We love to invent. We love to pioneer. We even love to go down alleys that turn out to be blind alleys. Every once in a while those blind alleys open up to a broad avenue--and that's really fun."

He is now reading an email from an Amazon fan who says, "You keep adding more, but not charging more. So, thanks again for all the additions." Bezos says "we live for email like this."

Kindle Fire is a service, Bezos says. What does that mean. It greets you by name, prelaods content, buy once, enjoy everywhere in big ecosystem, keeps your place and keeps all your content in Amazon cloud backed up, worry free.

Our service, he says, includes 180,000 books exclusive to Kindle Store.

Includes Kindle owners lending library. No due dates. Never waiting list.

Includes all seven Harry Potter books in several languages.

25,000 movies on Prime with Epix added two days ago.

Hardware is a critical part of the service, he says.

1:25 p.m. I'm sitting in an airplane hanger at Santa Monica Airport, venue for Amazon.com's media gathering. The room is crowded with journalists and analysts but there are far fewer in attendance than you typically see at an Apple event. I even see empty seats. I don't detect the frenzied anticipation that you often feel at Apple media events. Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos is expected on stage shortly.

See photos of: Amazon.com

[xtop]

and a kindle fire hd 8.9 with 32gb of storage and 4g lte for only $50/yr.

Data plans costs will be $49.99 per year for 250MB a month, 20GB of cloud storage, and a $10 Appstore credit.

pretty impressive. but aside from the $199 fire hd, i don't feel compelled to buy them over the ipad. sorry amazon

[MaCruz]

The thing that's really interesting to me is their annual data plan. $50 a year!!!!

Shoot! I won't go over 250MB a month anyway when I'm connected to Wifi around the house or at some shop.

[Kocheese99]

Originally Posted by MaCruz

The thing that's really interesting to me is their annual data plan. $50 a year!!!!

Shoot! I won't go over 250MB a month anyway when I'm connected to Wifi around the house or at some shop.

My thoughts exactly. I was debating over another iPad, iPad mini, or a new iPod touch if they come out but this might make me change my plans. I'd have to try one first.

[madlost1]

Placed an order for the 32GB 8.9" HD without 4G. I always have my phone on me so no need for the 4G on the fire.

[IndyMLVC]

Will Best Buy have these available tomorrow? Or no?

[Groge511]

Just ordered mine!

[Omegaice]

What the hell am I suppose to do now with my Fire that I got last November?

[madlost1]

Originally Posted by Omegaice

What the hell am I suppose to do now with my Fire that I got last November?

Give it as a gift. Trade it in to Amazon for $80 credit.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

[xtop]

curious. to those of you buying the not 8.9 inch version. why are you choosing it over the nexus 7?

[Groge511]

Originally Posted by xtop

curious. to those of you buying the not 8.9 inch version. why are you choosing it over the nexus 7?

one of the main reasons for me was the HDMI out so i can hook it up to my TV. Nexus 7 doesn't have that

[Omegaice]

Originally Posted by madlost1

Give it as a gift. Trade it in to Amazon for $80 credit.

True I could do that but I just don't see the need to upgrade now.

[arcadeforest]

Just got one for my wife for her birthday. This thing is really nice. I've only played with it for about an hour but I'm very impressed. Internet on it is very quick and easy to use. Instant viewing with Amazon Prime is great - watched a little of a film and liked what I saw visually. This is a step up from her old Kindle and she is very excited about it. I'm excited about having Amazon Prime and free shipping now . Think I will pick up a second one of these for myself in the next month or two - at $199 its hard to beat.

[Omegaice]

Originally Posted by arcadeforest

Just got one for my wife for her birthday. This thing is really nice. I've only played with it for about an hour but I'm very impressed. Internet on it is very quick and easy to use. Instant viewing with Amazon Prime is great - watched a little of a film and liked what I saw visually. This is a step up from her old Kindle and she is very excited about it. I'm excited about having Amazon Prime and free shipping now . Think I will pick up a second one of these for myself in the next month or two - at $199 its hard to beat.

The Fire is a good little media device. I've had mine since last Thanksgiving & I can't say there hasn't been a day I haven't used it.

[arcadeforest]

Originally Posted by Omegaice

The Fire is a good little media device. I've had mine since last Thanksgiving & I can't say there hasn't been a day I haven't used it.

Good to hear - I'm still rocking a first generation iPod Touch for around the house (not sitting at my main PC) quick access to net (when I do not want to break out the netbook for portable use). This Fire HD blows it away.

[IndyMLVC]

I checked out the Fire HD at Best Buy and it was too damn small. I'm waiting for the 8.9"

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by xtop

curious. to those of you buying the not 8.9 inch version. why are you choosing it over the nexus 7?

I have Amazon Prime and like the easy access to all my Amazon content. I know the Nexus 7(and iPad for that matter) has Amazon apps, but it's a lot more streamlined on the Kindle Fire.

My experience thus far with the Kindle Fire HD is overally pretty solid. I had to exchange the one I bought Friday because it had a dead pixel, but that's bound to happen when they're manufacturing hundreds of thousands of these suckers as quickly as they do to meet demand. It is a little glitchy at the moment with books reappearing on the carousel even after I remove them, but that can be fixed via firmware.

As far as the good stuff, the bump in screen resolution is noticeable. The speakers are fantastic. And the additional 6-7 GB in storage space is welcome. I don't mind the ads all that much. Especially since one of them was a free $5 credit for the Amazon MP3 Store. Hopefully someone figures out how to root the thing like I was able to do on the older Kindle Fire, but in the meantime, I have been able to sideload some apps including Dolphin which is a much faster browser than the Silk one they included.

I guess the Nexus 7 vs. Kindle Fire HD debate hinges on what you want the tablet for. If apps and games are your thing, the Nexus 7 beats the Kindle. And the former has the superior Android OS. But from a technical standpoint, the additional storage space and the outstanding surround sound do give the Kindle Fire HD an edge in that area over the Nexus 7. The good news for consumers is that this will undoubtedly light a fire under Google's butt and guarantee that the next gen Nexus will blow everything else away.

[arcadeforest]

Originally Posted by xtop

curious. to those of you buying the not 8.9 inch version. why are you choosing it over the nexus 7?

I bought the fire hd for wife because she primarily will use the thing to read books (with internet and video second) so size wise it's most like the kindle she used to have. She is already immersed in the the kindle family so it was a natural selection. At this point we need to see how it will hold up as a reading device, with this screen type in comparison to the older Kindle w/electronic ink or whatever it was. At $199 its a no-brainer for her - with the really low price on the true dedicated kindle reader ($69) I can pick her one of those up as well if need be (if she has a hard time with the screen).

[IndyMLVC]

Question: can you attach an external drive to any of the kindle fire hd's?

[silversnake]

Originally Posted by IndyMLVC

Question: can you attach an external drive to any of the kindle fire hd's?

Originally Posted by John M

I was wondering also is it possible.

+ 1

Big reason why I don't want to buy an iPad.