13
May
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Amazon Coins Virtual Currency Available Now, $5 Credit For Kindle Fire Owners Makes It Slightly Less Awful

Posted by in Amazon, Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, News

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.

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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.

17
Apr
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Amazon Appstore Prepares For A Global Push: Availability Coming To 195 Countries Including In-App Purchases [Update: Full List]

Posted by in Amazon, Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, News

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.

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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.

28
Mar
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Amazon Pushes Software Updates For The Kindle Fire (2nd Gen), Kindle Fire HD 7", And Kindle Fire HD 8.9"

Posted by in Amazon, Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD

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.

19
Mar
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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

Posted by in Android OS, AT&T, Deals, Kindle Fire, Nexus 7

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.

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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.

05
Mar
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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)

Posted by in Bionic, Development, Droid 3, Droid 4, Kindle Fire, News, One X (Endeavor), RAZR / RAZR MAXX

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.

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d3

d4

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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.

04
Dec
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Amazon Introduces 'Kindle FreeTime Unlimited', Offers Slews Of Restriction-Free Children's Content For A Low Monthly Fee

Posted by in Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, News

It's no secret that Amazon is trying to turn the Kindle Fire/HD into the device that the entire family shares for content consumption, but now they've built a service that makes it even more relevant as such. Dubbed FreeTime Unlimited, the all-you-can-eat plan is serving up hot bowls of children's content, ready to be consumed day or night.

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Among the unlimited content, you'll find books, games, educational software, movies, and TV shows - all just for kids. FreeTime Unlimited lets children dig through everything that's available to them, picking and choosing what to do next. The cool thing here, though, is that they've also disabled all in-app payments, ads, and all social media links/references within the FreeTime content - so parents can rest assured that their kiddos are safe inside of the virtualized world.

30
Sep
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Amazon Kindle Fire (2012) Review: For The Budget Minded, A Great Entertainment Device - But Not Much Else

Posted by in Amazon, Kindle Fire, News, Tablet Reviews

According to Amazon, the original (2011) model of the Kindle Fire (KF) captured 22% of the tablet market. Whether or not you believe that figure, it was almost certainly the most popular Android tablet of the year. When compared to the often-times much more expensive tablets on the market, it was easy to see why: the Kindle fire offered 90% of the experience for 50% (or less) of the price.

But that was before the competition hit back. Samsung released the comparable (but more capable) Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 in April, and even with a keyboard and USB adapter, it cost just $250.

16
Sep
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[Weekend Poll] Will You Be Buying A New Kindle?

Posted by in Amazon, Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Do You Stream Your Music Library On Android, Or Store It Locally?

On September 6, Amazon announced three new Kindles: a 6" non-Android model called the Paperwhite (with or without 3G), the 7" Kindle Fire HD (16 and 32GB), and an 8.9" Kindle Fire HD (16 or 32GB), while updating the hardware and dropping the price of the original Fire to $160. Pre-orders for the new versions went live the same day, and release dates vary anywhere from September 14 to November 20.  The specs show Amazon's commitment to the ecosystem - and to not be undersold by Google:

As David found out, they certainly offer a compelling package at a very accessible price, especially thanks to the ecosystem Amazon has built up around the devices.

16
Sep
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The Kindle Fire HD And Second Gen Kindle Fire Both Have Locked Bootloaders

Posted by in Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, News

So, you were thinking about picking up a Kindle Fire HD, rooting it, and throwing a ROM on it for an impressive $200 tablet? Turns out that idea may not work out as well as we initially thought: both the Kindle Fire HD and the second gen KF have locked bootloaders. Bummer.

This may not mean that custom ROMs are impossible on these devices, only that it's more improbable.

For those who may not know, the bootloader is responsible for checking the firmware's signature before a device boots. In this case, if it doesn't match what Amazon says it should, then it simply won't do anything.

09
Sep
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Users Will Be Able To Opt Out Of Kindle Fire/HD Ads For A One-Time Fee Of $15

Posted by in Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, News

When the new Kindle Fire and HD models were announced three days ago, the tech world was abuzz with the fact that Amazon has laced them with "Special Offers" in order to keep the cost down. Immediately, one question came to everyone's mind: will I be able to remove the ads?

Initially, there was some confusion on the answer to that questions. We actually heard reports from both sides of the fence - some said "yes, the ads will be removable," while others stated that they were there to stay.

The subject quickly became a bit of a hot topic, so Ars Technica decided to reach out to Amazon for a definitive answer: will users be able to opt-out of Special Offers?

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