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Amazon Coins Virtual Currency Available Now, $5 Credit For Kindle Fire Owners Makes It Slightly Less Awful

Jeremiah Rice — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:44:17 +0000

Earlier this year, Amazon announced that it was preparing a proprietary virtual currency specifically for its Appstore. Then the incorrigible Eric Ravenscraft spent a few thousand words explaining exactly why Amazon Coins, and any system that substitutes real money for meaningless points, is just a pretense for sucking money out of people's wallets. If you can't wait to pay Amazon's tax on those without common sense, you can now hand over your real dollars for fake ones to spend on apps and in-app purchases.

If you're a United States Amazon customer and you own any model of Kindle Fire, congratulations, you've just been credited with 500 Amazon Coins, or $5 in non-fake money.

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Amazon Coins Virtual Currency Available Now, $5 Credit For Kindle Fire Owners Makes It Slightly Less Awful was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

WSJ Says Amazon Is Working On Two Smartphones... With The Caveat That The Projects Could Be Shelved At Any Time

David Ruddock — Thu, 09 May 2013 21:59:44 +0000

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is working on making not one, but two smartphones. And one of them will have some kind of awesome quasi-holographic glasses-free 3D display. That sounds like the kind of 3D people might actually want! The other one is... a phone of some kind. That's literally all the detail that was provided.

The one you're actually interested in, though, did come with a few extra tidbits about this glasses-free holographic voodoo magic. The Journal's sources claim that the phone will use "retina-tracking" technology to display an image that appears to actually float above the screen at any angle, and that this technology may also allow navigation of some parts of the phone using only your eyes.

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WSJ Says Amazon Is Working On Two Smartphones... With The Caveat That The Projects Could Be Shelved At Any Time was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Amazon's Kindle App Hits Version 4.0 With Reworked Interface

Liam Spradlin — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:26:55 +0000

Amazon's Kindle app has just received a significant update, bringing the reader up to version 4 and introducing a refreshed UI, among other things.

Just when I'd decided to try switching to Play Books (despite giving up things like quick two-finger brightness adjustment), Amazon has introduced a redesigned library that's much more lively than a simple grid of book covers. The new library interface has your books plus a nice "carousel" up top for recent items. The navigation panel has also been expanded for quick access to documents and Newsstand items, along with items that used to hide under the overflow button.

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Amazon's Kindle App Hits Version 4.0 With Reworked Interface was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Amazon Appstore Prepares For A Global Push: Availability Coming To 195 Countries Including In-App Purchases [Update: Full List]

Jeremiah Rice — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:59:16 +0000

At the moment, the Amazon Appstore is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan. But that's hardly enough for Amazon's global ambitions. In a press release, the company announced plans to widen the Appstore to "nearly 200 countries" across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. A specific timeframe was also absent, but prospective developers can manage their international distribution on the Mobile App Distribution Portal.

Important markets like India, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and South Korea were highlighted. With 195 countries in its marketplace, Amazon should be handily beating Google Play (currently sitting at 134 countries which can buy apps on the Play Store) even if it takes them the rest of the year to fully realize their goal.

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Amazon Appstore Prepares For A Global Push: Availability Coming To 195 Countries Including In-App Purchases [Update: Full List] was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

AT&T To Begin Carrying The Kindle Fire HD 8.9" LTE Beginning April 5th For $399

Eric Ravenscraft — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:57:24 +0000

The Kindle Fire HD is, at the moment, the best Android tablet that's not really an Android tablet but is still kind of an Android tablet. The LTE model, while pricier than the others, is handy for those that still need to download on the go. Now, AT&T is going to start selling the connected model for $399.

As a temporary introductory offer, AT&T has a "deal" that allows customers to sign a 2-year contract in exchange for $150 off. Unless you know for absolutely certain that you'll need to use mobile data on that Kindle Fire HD every single month for the next two years, though, you might be better off just paying for your device.

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AT&T To Begin Carrying The Kindle Fire HD 8.9" LTE Beginning April 5th For $399 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Amazon Pushes Software Updates For The Kindle Fire (2nd Gen), Kindle Fire HD 7", And Kindle Fire HD 8.9"

John Thompson — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:41:34 +0000

Amazon has been busy working on software updates for its line of Kindle Fire devices, and the latest versions of the software for each device are now available to download.

For each device, the update provides enhancements for viewing textbooks, with the 2nd generation Fire and the Fire HD 7" getting "X-Ray for Textbooks". This feature allows users to access the most important terms and concepts, with glossary definitions and links to relevant pages within books.

The update also provides enhancements for print replica textbooks across each device. Thumbnails of each page are now available at the bottom of the screen, and you can make notes and highlights in your books, as well as jump from one chapter to another.

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Amazon Pushes Software Updates For The Kindle Fire (2nd Gen), Kindle Fire HD 7", And Kindle Fire HD 8.9" was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

AT&T Offering Free Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, Sonos Play:3, Or Xbox 360 To Customers Packaging U-Verse Internet With TV Or Voice

Liam Spradlin — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:04:00 +0000

If you're a new AT&T U-Verse internet customer (or considering becoming one), listen up – the service provider announced yesterday that it is now offering a selection of devices free when new customers package internet service with either U-Verse TV or Voice. Customers can choose between a Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, Sonos Play:3 (with WiFi bridge), or an Xbox 360. What's more, customers will get access to AT&T's WiFi network free of charge.

While a free Android tablet (or Play:3 or Xbox 360) may not be your primary reason in signing up for brand new lines of service, those in the market for new internet, TV, or voice service who also happen to want a new gadget (Android-powered or otherwise) may find this deal appealing, and would be well-advised to mention the offer when ordering.

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AT&T Offering Free Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, Sonos Play:3, Or Xbox 360 To Customers Packaging U-Verse Internet With TV Or Voice was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Amazon Slashes Prices On Kindle Fire HD 8.9 Across The Board ($30 Off Wi-Fi, $100 Off LTE), Now On Sale In Europe And Japan

David Ruddock — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:54:23 +0000

Whether to combat flagging sales or reflect lower component prices, Amazon dropped the price of its Wi-Fi 8.9" Kindle Fire HD today by roughly 10% - down to $270 for the 16GB model. The price of the 32GB model dropped by $30 as well, to $300. The LTE model received a much more substantial 20% cut, and now costs $400 - $100 less than the price it debuted for.

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 isn't exactly old news - it began shipping only 5 months ago in the US, and $300 for the entry-level model was scarcely believable even at that time.

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Amazon Slashes Prices On Kindle Fire HD 8.9 Across The Board ($30 Off Wi-Fi, $100 Off LTE), Now On Sale In Europe And Japan was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

CyanogenMod 10.1 Lands For 7 New Devices: DROID 3, 4, RAZR, BIONIC, One X (GSM), Kindle Fire (1st And 2nd Gen)

David Ruddock — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:43:19 +0000

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

It could oftentimes be unstable and not properly tested, lacking any changelogs, but eventually evolving into alphas, betas, release candidates, and finally stable releases.

After rolling out CyanogenMod 10.1 nightly builds for three other devices yesterday (along with M2 builds), the CM dev community has kept the steam going into today - adding 7 new supported handsets to the latest version of Android's most popular custom ROM.

Here they are:

In addition, the Optimus L7 received its first official CyanogenMod build, though it's only version 10 (Android 4.1), and can be found here.

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CyanogenMod 10.1 Lands For 7 New Devices: DROID 3, 4, RAZR, BIONIC, One X (GSM), Kindle Fire (1st And 2nd Gen) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Amazon, Not Content With Duplicating Everything Else Google Does, Releases A Mobile Ad API

Eric Ravenscraft — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:40:55 +0000

When Android first came out, there were a lot of concerns about an open source OS. One of the biggest ones was, what if a company takes Android, strips everything Google out of it, and builds an entirely new platform on top of it? Well, Amazon seems dead set on making sure we know what that's like. The company has already built its own Appstore, content delivery services, and closed hardware on top of Google's baby. Now it's taking aim at Mountain View's money maker: ads.

The new mobile ads API will allow developers to easily embed advertisements in their apps.

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Amazon, Not Content With Duplicating Everything Else Google Does, Releases A Mobile Ad API was written by the awesome team at Android Police.