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Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet vs. Nook Color: The Details
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Handhelds,
The low-cost Android tablet space is heating up. And just in time for the holidays.
Barnes & Noble today unveiled the Nook Tablet, a beefed-up follow-up to the popular Nook Color ebook reader/tablet. The Nook Color also remains in the company's arsenal, but with a lower price. The Nook Color is available now, while the Nook Tablet is available for pre-order and ships by November 18.
Amazon, meanwhile, last month took the wraps of its first color touch-screen ereader/tablet, the Kindle Fire, which is currently on pre-order and ships by November 15.
Click to continue reading Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet vs. Nook Color: The Details
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Nook Tablet: The new $249 multimedia tablet e-reader from Barnes and Noble
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds,
This morning Barnes and Noble unleashed their answer to the Kindle Fire, and it's the Nook Tablet. The Nook Tablet focuses on multimedia consumption, and keeps true to its e-reader roots with a great book and magazine reading experience. It's got a 7-inch display with Wi-Fi built-in and 16 GB of storage as well. It's thinner and lighter than the Nook Color, with a much faster 1 GHz dual-core processor as well.
The Nook Tablet also has 1 GB of RAM, and weighs in at under a pound. B&N says you should expect 11.5 hours of battery life from the device, which runs a customized version of Android 2.3. That customization, by the way, means that this isn't the type of Android tablet that you can just take and do your will with. It's geared towards things like reading books/magazines/periodicals, email, Internet browsing, video streaming, etc. In fact, a partnership with Netflix means you'll have deep integration of the platform on this tablet, with suggestions showing up on your home screen. Expect games, music services like Pandora, and other entertainment options (like Hulu) as well.
The Nook Tablet ships on November 18th, and can be pre-ordered now.
New Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader set for November 7
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds,
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Looks like Barnes and Noble is set to release some new Nook hardware on the heels of all the new Amazon Kindle goodness that's been all the rage in the e-reader world lately. It all goes down a week from today, and we expect to see a new Nook Color, but also wouldn't be surprised if the Simple Touch Reader got a facelift as well.
Apple having trouble with iPad 3 Retina Display
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds,
Apple released the iPad 2 last March without upgrading its display, and but a CNet report has said Apple is now facing challenges with bumping the screen of the iPad 3 up to Retina Display standards.
Apple would like its third-generation tablet to have a Retina Display, but CNet’s source said LG and Samsung, makers of Apple tablet panels, are having trouble packing the huge number of pixels necessary into a 10-inch screen.
Retina display, according to Apple’s definition, means the “display’s pixel density is so high, your eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels.” The iPhone 4S features a Retina Display with a resolution of 960x620. Apple packed 326 pixels per inch (PPI) into the 3.5-inch screen to give graphics a super sharp, seamless look. It’s the most detail a human retina can see at a distance of 12 inches, Apple has said.
CNet noted that it’s not possible to cram that many pixels into the iPad 3. Display manufacturers like Samsung and LG have created displays with a maximum of 2,048x1,536 resolution, for 264 PPI, and at this point, that’s as high as they’ve been able to take the resolution of tablet’s screens. While that’s twice the 132 PPI on the iPad 2, it’s still not quite Retina Display quality.
Click to continue reading Apple having trouble with iPad 3 Retina Display
Amazon hurrying Kindle Fire production in response to massive demand
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Handhelds,
Amazon said Tuesday that Kindle Fire pre-orders exceeded expectations and the company is now ramping up production on the tablets.
"September 28th was the biggest order day ever for Kindle, even bigger than previous holiday peak days," Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, said in a statement. "In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch. And based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned."
The $199 Kindle Fire will debut on November 15. Last month, Amazon also debuted a $79 version of its original, e-ink Kindle, and will start selling a touch-based version on November 21. You can pre-order the Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch now.
Click to continue reading Amazon hurrying Kindle Fire production in response to massive demand
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus launches next month
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Handhelds,
Samsung's big hardware upgrade to its first-ever tablet, the 7-inch Galaxy Tab, had a name as of the device's announcement late last month. And Samsung has now finally gotten around to announcing a release date and price for the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. According to the company, the upgraded version of the Galaxy Tab will start selling in the U.S. on November 13 for $399.99 – all of $100 less expensive than the starting price for tablets from Samsung's chief rival as of late, Apple (it's also much smaller than the iPad as well.)
So what are some of the big improvements arriving on this 7-inch tablet refresh? For starters, the 7.0 Plus is taking a leap from Android 2.2 to Android 3.2 – that's a move from the Froyo iteration of Google's operating system to Honeycomb. Samsung's still slapping its Touchwiz interface on top of Honeycomb, which includes new resizable widgets and a sticky "mini app" tray that can be pulled up from any screen on the device and used to load a variety of preset apps on the device.
Click to continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus launches next month
Amazon Kindle Fire sells 95,000 units on day one
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Handhelds,
Amazon and retail partners took 95,000 pre-orders for the first Amazon tablet, the Kindle Fire tablet on its first day, according to a digital marketing firm.
That's about a third of the 300,000 first-generation iPads Apple sold on its first day, but still impressive given Amazon is only shipping the Kindle Fire on November 15.
On Wednesday, Amazon launched its first and long-awaited tablet, the Kindle Fire, for $199. Though it won't be released until November, Amazon and select retail partners, like Best Buy, began taking pre-orders and expect to to have the product shipped out in time for the holidays.
Pre-sales of Amazon's three other Kindles launched this week, the $70 original Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch, totaled approximately $25,000 units.
Click to continue reading Amazon Kindle Fire sells 95,000 units on day one
Amazon Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Fire wrap-up
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Hot Deals, Software,
Today Amazon announced a slew of new Kindle hardware, and we covered it all extensively. We wanted to make sure you knew where to find the details on each new device, as well as how to order (or pre-order, depending on the device you want) the new goods as well. Here's what went down today:
Amazon Kindle Fire
Announcement: Kindle Fire: Amazon's $199 tablet e-reader
Pre-order: $199 at Amazon, ships November 15th
Amazon Kindle Touch
Announcement: Amazon Kindle Touch: Multi-touch, 3G, $99
Pre-order: $99 at Amazon, ships November 21st
Amazon Kindle
Announcement: Amazon launches new $79 Kindle
Order: $79 at Amazon, available now
In addition to all that new hardware, the company also announced its new Amazon Silk web browser.
Kindle Fire: Amazon’s $199 tablet e-reader
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Handhelds,
That Amazon tablet we've been waiting on for months has finally arrived, and it's called the Kindle Fire. Amazon's looking to disrupt the tablet landscape with the Fire, and is pricing it aggressively at $199. So, what do you get for your money? Well, the Kindle Fire weighs 14.6 ounces and packs a 7-inch IPS display with Gorilla Glass protection, dual-core processor, 512 MB RAM, and 8 GB of on-board storage. It runs a forked version of Android that Amazon has prettied up in a major way, customizing and optimizing it to take advantage of Amazon's various services. The Fire also has Wi-Fi built-in, but lacks a 3G option, camera, and microphone.
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. Other services you can access from the Fire include Amazon's Android Appstore, Kindle books, a host of magazines, Cloud Drive, Cloud Player, and the Amazon MP3 service. One nice feature is that WhisperSync, the technology that let you continue reading Kindle books from where you left off across multiple devices, now works with movies and TV shows. In other words, you can start a show on your Kindle Fire, and continue where you left off on your television. Another big feature is the inclusion of the Amazon Silk web browser, which does all the web processings on Amazon's EC2 servers, greatly speeding up the browsing experience.
You can pre-order a Kindle Fire now, and it'll ship on November 15th - check out the commercial after the break.
Click to continue reading Kindle Fire: Amazon’s $199 tablet e-reader
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0 revealed
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Handhelds, Portable Audio / Video,
Samsung on Monday offered the first glimpse of a new 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab tablet with Google's Android 3.1 Honeycomb that will be available Oct. 2, as well as two new media players, the Galaxy Player 4.0 and Galaxy Player 5.0.
"These three additions to the Galaxy family of products are impressive examples of our commitment to offering consumers an unrivaled array of choices for entertainment and information on-the-go," said Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Mobile, in a statement.
"People want their mobile device to fit their lifestyle and the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Players offer unparalleled power and portability to meet the widest consumer needs."
The Wi-Fi-only Galaxy Tab 8.9 (pictured above left and below) comes in two flavors, a 16GB tablet priced at $469, and a 32GB version priced at $569, the company said at its Samsung Experience event in New York. Samsung's Galaxy Player 4.0 is priced at $269 and the Galaxy Player at $229—b;oth; are set for U.S. release on Oct. 16.
Click to continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0 revealed
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