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Amazon planning to open a brick and mortar store in Seattle

Posted by Andrey Malskiy Categories: Corporate News, Handhelds, Rumors

Here at Gear Live, we have a love affiar with Amazon. They've got our credit card numbers, our accounts are Prime, and the Kindles flow like wine. However, unless you choose overnight shipping, you still have to wait for the items you purchased. It's a small price ot pay for the convenience, but for some, instant gratifiction is what's missing. That may even be changing with Amazon, as the company will be venturing into the brick and mortar store business.

Those lucky enough to live in the Seattle area (that's us!) may soon be seeing an Amazon store popping up at a local mall. Amazon is exploring the idea, kind of a trial and error run, to see if they have a profitable market in physical stores. Amazon wants to provide an Apple-like store experience for consumers who want to buy a Kindle, for example. This is a brilliant move on Amazon’s part, as the Kindle currently is not under its full control in retail, being left to the whims of a retail associate at Target or Best Buy who likely don't know much about it.


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Kindle Fire 6.2.2 firmware update brings full-screen Silk browsing, optimizations

Posted by John Ball Categories: Handhelds, Software

With the Kindle Fire being one of the biggest tablets to rival the iPad this holiday season, it is no surprise that we are seeing an update so soon into the New Year. The Kindle Fire update 6.2.2 brings full screen browsing to the Silk broser, as well as a handful of performance tweaks to the Amazon device. Of course, as it is with all software updates, some minor bugs in the software were also fixed. If you are one of the many that have rooted their Fire, you might also want to note that your increased user ability will be taken away. This update can be applied over the air or by visiting the official Kindle Fire site to manually download the update right now, and if you don't have one, you can pick up the Kindle Fire for $199.


Just got a new Apple device? Get AppleCare!

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Apple, Cell Phones, Handhelds, Hot Deals, PC / Laptop

AppleCareWe know a ton of you got some new  gear over the past few days, and we want to make sure you protect those items appropriately. Whether it's a new iPad 2, iPhone 4, MacBook Air, or even an old-school iPhone 3GS, we thought it would be prudent of us to recommend you get AppleCare for the devices you’ve acquired. Here’s the trick though—don’t buy AppleCare from Apple. If you buy it from Amazon, you can get up to 30% off of the price that Apple will charge you for the same 3-year warranty. Even better, when you go to resell your Apple hardware, if you have an AppleCare Protection Plan attached to it, you get a higher resale value. We’ve compiled a list of the different AppleCare Protection Plans available for the entire line of Apple hardware, check it out:

Apple Mobile Devices:

Apple Mac Computers:


Amazon Kindle Fire 6.2.1 update review

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Product Reviews, Software

Amazon has released its newest update for the Kindle Fire and it has some tweaks many users will find welcome, and one tweak power users will hate.

I've been using my Kindle Fire since it came out, and while I'm still waiting for CyanogenMod9 to come out and let me actually put Ice Cream Sandwich on my Kindle Fire, I've been relatively happy with the performance.

The main interface tweak added to the Kindle Fire is the ability to remove items from the carousel on the home page. This is a small but useful way to keep your most commonly used apps organized and, if necessary, make sure other users don't see whatever naughty things you might have been perusing.

That's the only change to the main screen; you still can't organize your apps into categories or customize your menu beyond adding and removing items from favorites and the carousel. I use my Kindle Fire for several different things, and it would be great to organize my apps by categories like Online Content, Books, Network Tools, and Games. The Fire still has Amazon's default seven tabs and single app list organized alphabetically or by date.

Click to continue reading Amazon Kindle Fire 6.2.1 update review


Amazon set to release bug-killing Kindle Fire update in under 2 weeks

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Software

Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire ($199 on Amazon) is undoubtedly a success in terms of the sheer amount of sales that the tablet has seen since its launch. However, many customers have complained about the various small issues that, when added up, can make for a frustrating experience. Things like unresponsive touch gestures, and lagginess in the UI. The good news is that Amazon's been listening, and its set to release the first over-the-air update for the Kindle Fire in under two weeks to address many of these issues.

Kindle Fire is the most successful product we’ve ever launched – we’ve already sold millions of units and we’re building more to meet the strong demand.  As with all of our products, we continue to make them better for customers with regular software updates – in fact, in less than two weeks, we’re rolling out an over-the-air update to Kindle Fire that will improve performance, touch navigation, and give customers the option to choose what items display on the carousel.

Sounds good to us. In the past, Amazon hasn't really been the best in terms of Kindle software updates, but the Fire is a full-on tablet, and thusly people expect more out of it than they do its e-Ink couterparts. Anything you're hoping gets fixed in the update?

Click to continue reading Amazon set to release bug-killing Kindle Fire update in under 2 weeks


Amazon Cyber Monday Deals Week

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Hot Deals, Internet

Amazon Cyber Monday

Amazon is following up its Black Friday deals week with Cyber Monday Deals Week. All week long Amazon will be featuring soem killer deals in its Cyber Monday section, and we're already seeing some nice discounts, particularly on video games and consumer electronics. Be sure to check it out if you've stull got some shopping to do!

Read More | Amazon Cyber Monday sales

Black Friday 2011: Amazon is now live!

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Apple, Wearables, Hot Deals, Music, PC / Laptop, Video Games

amazon Black Friday 2011

The Amazon Black Friday 2011 sale is now live, and they've got tons of deals that you can take advantage of from the comfort of your warm home - seriously, why would you wanna brave the lines and the cold if you can get a similar deal on Amazon? The nice thing is that Amazon seems to have been keeping tabs on other retail stores, and has matched many of the Black Friday deals that are already out there. Go check out Amazon now to get in on the good stuff.


Deal: Kinect sensor with Fruit Ninja Kinect, Gunstringer, Kinect Adventures

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Hot Deals, Microsoft, Video Games

Kinect sale amazon

Amazon has a great deal on the Kinect going today. While supplies last, you can get the Kinect sensor with three games included for $125 - that's $25 less than Kinect sells for without the extra games. The titles are Kinect Adventures, Fruit Ninja Kinect, and The Gunstringer. Go and grab it now!


Bleeding Edge TV 403: Amazon Kindle Fire review

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Features, Handhelds, Podcasts, Product Reviews, Videocasts, Videos

In this episode we review the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet e-reader (also see our text version of our Kindle Fire review.) Amazon's looking to disrupt the tablet landscape with the Fire, and is pricing it aggressively at $199. The Kindle Fire weighs 14.6 ounces and packs a 7-inch IPS display, dual-core processor, 512 MB RAM, and 8 GB of on-board storage. It runs a forked version of Android that Amazon has customized in a major way. You also get Wi-Fi built-in as well. Purchasers of the Kindle Fire also get a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime, which'll let you get a nice sampling of what the company's Video on Demand service offers.

The browser, Amazon Silk, will be exclusive to the Kindle Fire for the time being, and it aims to speed up web browsing by a significant margin by offloading some of the heavy lifting to the Amazon EC2 cloud servers.

You can pick up the Kindle Fire for $199.

Big thank you to GoToMeeting and JackThreads for sponsoring the show - be sure to check them out! As for JackThreads, we've got exclusive invite codes that give you $5 to use towards anything you'd like.


Amazon Kindle Fire review

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Handhelds, Product Reviews

Kindle Fire review

The Amazon Kindle Fire is the first small tablet that average users can pick up and immediately use, with a simple, clear interface. Then there's the price: Android along with amazing specs for just $199. It's open enough to attract geeks, too. While the user interface occasionally gets sluggish, we're willing to have a bit of patience to get a first-rate tablet for half of what most competitors charge, thus the Kindle Fire is our first Editors' Choice for small tablets.

Design
A solid little brick at 7.5 by 4.7 by .45 inches and 14.6 ounces, the Kindle Fire looks and feels a lot like the BlackBerry PlayBook, but the Fire is smaller in all dimensions. There are no slots or tabs; both the memory and battery are sealed in, and the only interruptions in its smooth, black form are the headphone jack, Power button, MicroUSB jack, and dual stereo speakers. There's no camera, but I've never been sold on the value of tablet cameras anyway. It uses 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi networks to get online; there's no cellular radio or Bluetooth connectivity.

Turn the Fire on and the 7-inch 1024-by-600 IPS LCD screen lights up. This display is very sharp and clear, but it's also rather reflective. Just like on the Apple iPad 2, you may have trouble reading in bright light because of the screen's sometimes mirror-like gloss. While this is par for the course with tablets, I expected more given the Kindle name. This isn't a dedicated e-reader by any means.

Click to continue reading Amazon Kindle Fire review


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