[Amazon]The Kindle & Fire OS thread etc. - Page 22
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Ryndika
1489 Posts
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EngrishTeacher
Canada1109 Posts
Does it have to do with the screen or something? Although personally I can read for hours on my iPad just fine. | ||
{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
That and the UI is awful and dire need of an update. | ||
icydergosu
528 Posts
On July 14 2014 06:53 EngrishTeacher wrote: Could someone explain to me succinctly why anyone would choose a kindle over a tablet? (higher price, inferior hardware for the kindle) Does it have to do with the screen or something? Although personally I can read for hours on my iPad just fine. An e-ink display has paper like properties. You really cannot compare it to LCD displays. I suggest to have a look at an e-ink display in person. +great viewing angles +pretty much only draws power when turning pages +supposedly no eyestrain(some people find it irritating to read on LCD displays) -slow refresh rate -small screen size -only black and white | ||
{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
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Jibba
United States22883 Posts
On July 14 2014 08:11 icydergosu wrote: An e-ink display has paper like properties. You really cannot compare it to LCD displays. I suggest to have a look at an e-ink display in person. +great viewing angles +pretty much only draws power when turning pages +supposedly no eyestrain(some people find it irritating to read on LCD displays) -slow refresh rate -small screen size -only black and white You can also read outside with it. A lot of people like to read outside on vacation, which doesn't suit LCD screens very well. The best are legible, but not easy and you'll kill your battery at max brightness. | ||
{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/22/5923697/amazon-fire-phone-review Amazon’s consumption-first approach works on tablets, for watching and reading and shopping. But tablets are for fun. Smartphones are for work, for life. They’re not toys, they’re tools. Amazon doesn’t understand that, and the Fire Phone doesn’t reflect it. Amazon’s first smartphone is a series of interesting ideas in a package that is somehow much less than the sum of its parts. | ||
{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
Amazon's streaming-media box, Fire TV, added support Monday for Spotify, the on-demand music service with more than 20 million songs and -- at 10 million premium subscribers -- more paying members than any of its rivals. According to a Spotify blog post, premium US members can use and control Spotify on Amazon Fire TV with mobile phones or tablets as remotes through an offering called Spotify Connect. The Amazon Fire TV allows a member to control music using the Spotify app on a mobile device, so music streams can switch from mobile to the TV seamlessly and phones are free to make calls, open other smartphone apps and go out of Wi-Fi range, without interrupting the music playing. Source | ||
{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
Amazon.com is providing more bang-for-the-buck with four new Fire tablets, with prices starting as low as $99 for a Fire HD with a 6-inch screen. The company also announced a 7-inch Fire tablet for $139, and a refreshed 8.9-inch Fire HDX 8.9, which is priced at $379 for a Wi-Fi version and $479 for an LTE version. A thinner, lighter Kindle Paperwhite successor—the Kindle Voyage—was also announced. Amazon has extended its tablet offerings as it tries to offer a range of devices through which customers can buy more products and services from its online store. Amazon already sells the Fire Phone and the Fire TV streaming media player. Source | ||
Jett.Jack.Alvir
Canada2250 Posts
Ever since Amazon bought out Twitch, a big question is what will happen next? | ||
{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
Amazon is planning to expand its hardware operations in some new ways: Internet-connected household products and wearables, according to a report. Hiring will increase by 27% over the next five years at Lab126, Amazon's secretive hardware unit in Silicon Valley responsible for the company's e-readers, Reuters reports. The number of full-time employees is projected to grow from 3,000 to 3,757 people by 2019. Reuters discovered a vaguely defined, "little-known" government document that details Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' plan to beef up hardware development. The report describes the document as an "agreement reached with California in June that would give Amazon $1.2 million in tax breaks." Some of the projects being considered (according to nameless sources) are a Wi-Fi device that "could be placed in the kitchen or a closet, allowing customers to order products like detergent by pressing a button," as well as wearables. The news comes on the heels of the much-discussed Apple Watch and the growth of the two key trends: smart home and the Internet of Things. Source | ||
Darpa
Canada4413 Posts
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Manit0u
Poland17046 Posts
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
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skindzer
Chile5113 Posts
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
Amazon’s Fire phone has been an indisputable flop. CEO Jeff Bezos doesn’t care. Bezos said on Tuesday at Business Insider’s conference in New York that “it’s going to take several iterations” before he’ll be able to judge the Fire phone, the device that led to Amazon taking a $170 million write-down. “Ask me in some number of years,” he told interviewer Henry Blodget, CEO of Business Insider, in which Bezos is an investor. Bezos wouldn’t call Fire a failure. Instead, he made a point of mentioning all the initiatives that have taken time at Amazon. Bezos cited Amazon’s early auctions business and Zshops listings business as ideas that did not work but led to the creation of the third-party marketplace that now comprises 40 percent of Amazon’s overall revenue. When Blodget pressed Bezos for what mistakes the company might have made with the phone, Bezos again took a trip down memory lane instead of answering the question. Along the way, he stressed the importance of encouraging risk-taking at Amazon. “I have made billions of dollars of failures at Amazon.com … literally,” Bezos said. “You might remember Pets.com or Kozmo.” Source | ||
{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
Amazon's main push is multimedia right? But their Silk Browser doesn't support flash, thus they no longer have a YouTube App. I mean the fuck? What the hell is ProTube...? | ||
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United States41088 Posts
In recent months, a string of departures and managerial changes has hit Amazon’s Lab126, the company’s Silicon Valley-based R&D group that has developed its most high-profile consumer products, including the Fire Phone, the Siri-like Echo device, and the Kindle hardware. According to multiple sources familiar with the reshuffling at Lab126, the changes were long overdue, a response to an organizational structure that some contend had grown "bloated" if not "inexplicable," as one former high-level employee describes it. The insights were garnered during reporting for Fast Company’s new cover story on Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, which goes online tomorrow and hits newsstands next week. The feature is an inside look at the troubled development of the Fire Phone at Lab126, which has evolved from a small skunkworks subsidiary started years ago by Amazon into a hardware maker with nearly 3,000 employees. As the secretive operation grew, so too did redundancies and inefficiencies in its organizational structure. But while some argue the recent executive departures and organizational restructuring are a result of poor company performance or the Fire Phone debacle, others paint a picture that is more nuanced. They say the re-org actually represents a doubling down by Bezos on his company’s efforts in the consumer electronics space—a vote of confidence in the R&D group's direction—and serves as a sign that Lab126 is maturing as it takes on Apple and Google in more and more areas. The hardware re-org stemmed from executives recognizing that Lab126 had reached a point of maturity where it could no longer run like a startup, or multiple separate startups. As a slew of sources explain, a different skill set is required to build version 1.0 of a product versus version 4.0, which is why the re-org included two separate groups: one for longer-term skunkworks innovation (organized under David Foster), and the other for shipping new iterations of existing products at high volumes (led by Lindo St. Angel). Additionally, the re-org established a clear engineering lead for each program, and pulled all functional groups into a relevant vertical. Before, for example, there were audio engineers across four different groups, including on the Echo and Fire TV teams. Now, they’re all organized functionally into one audio engineering team, under one leader. The re-org, insiders argue, will allow Lab126 to scale more efficiently, better harness resources, and move faster. Foster’s group, for instance, is already at work on three entirely new product categories, all utilizing the same head count as before. In other words, the re-org is not happening because of the Fire Phone flop, but in spite of it, these sources say. Bezos believes in his company’s future in consumer electronics. Amazon plans to invest $55 million in its Lab126 operations in Silicon Valley, and ramp up hiring to at least 3,757 employees by 2019, according to a recent report. Source | ||
{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
Amazon announced this morning that its streaming media players Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV stick will be soon receiving a software update that will deliver a series of new features, including support for expandable USB storage and wireless Bluetooth headphones on the Fire TV, the ability to watch via Wi-Fi that requires authentication on both devices, and more. Additionally, the company says that the Fire TV Stick is now available in two new markets, the U.K., Germany and Austria. The devices will be available in those new countries for pre-order today, and will begin shipping on April 15. Captive portal support will make the two devices the first streaming media players which offer the ability for users to watch via Wi-Fi that needs you to authenticate, Amazon notes. That includes places like hotels, airports or even college dorms, in some cases. Source | ||
{CC}StealthBlue
United States41088 Posts
An FCC filing for a new media streaming device that is likely the next generation Amazon Fire TV has just surfaced. Huge thanks to Dave Zatz from ZatzNotFunny, who has a keen eye for uncovering FCC filings, for bringing this to my attention. The mystery device, which has a good chance of being the next generation Fire TV first seen in leaked benchmarks a couple months ago, features 4K streaming capabilities. Other improvements over the current generation Fire TV include a MicroSD card slot, 802.11ac wireless, and Bluetooth 4.1. You’ll be happy to hear that the device also still includes an RJ-45 ethernet port and a USB port which appears to support expandable storage via a USB flash drive. We won’t know for sure if this device is in fact the next generation Fire TV until the device is officially announced, but several reassuring indications are present. We have been expecting a new Fire TV ever since the existing model became no longer available through Amazon’s site. The beefed up specs in the leaked benchmarks, which reveal a device at least twice as powerful as the existing Fire TV, would indicate the new device comes with 4K video support. Source | ||
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