Android Central |
- Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch hands-on demo
- Amazon beats Google to the punch, introduces Kindle FreeTime custom profiles
- All new Kindle Fire versions will make use of ads on the lockscreen
- Beach Buggy Blitz for Tegra devices is totally tubular, man (and totally free)
- Amazon Kindle Fire HD vs. iPad vs. Nexus 7 vs. Surface RT vs PlayBook
- Verizon 4G LTE expands to over a dozen new locations
- Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD coming to the UK for £129 and £159
- Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch gallery
- Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch available November 20th for $299
- Amazon announces Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE with $50 per year data plan
- Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7-inch available September 14th for $199
- Poll: Will you be buying either the Kindle Fire 2 or the Kindle Fire HD?
- Amazon hails improved MIMO Wifi on Kindle Fire HD
- Amazon introduces upgraded Kindle Fire for $159, ships September 14th
- Amazon announces Kindle Fire HD in 7-inch, 8.9-inch, and LTE varieties
- Amazon introduces Kindle Paperwhite with new high-contrast display
- Sprint updates their Galaxy Nexus support page, confirms Jelly Bean coming yet again
- Vodafone announces Vodafone Red with unlimited calls and texts
- HootSuite swoops in and acquires Seesmic
- AT&T turns on LTE in 7 cities, announces many more to receive it by year end
- Deal of the Day: Seidio ACTIVE Case (with kickstand) for HTC One S
- Live from the Amazon Kindle event in Santa Monica!
- Sony Xperia Tablet S now shipping in the UK, yours for £329
- HTC revenues slide ahead of new product launches
- Samsung sells 20 million Galaxy S3 phones in first 100 days
| Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch hands-on demo Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:10 PM PDT Amazon didn't disappoint those who were hoping for a larger Kindle Fire. The Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch will be making its way into consumers hands come November 20th and we've got a hands-on demo with the device for you all to check out. As a reminder of what exactly the Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch is packing for specs, here they are: Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch - starts at $299, shipping November 20
Whether or not it's he best tablet out there for the price will really depend on what you're looking for in a tablet but overall, Amazon has put together some nice hardware. We're looking forward to spending some more time with them all soon. Preorder the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 
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| Amazon beats Google to the punch, introduces Kindle FreeTime custom profiles Posted: 06 Sep 2012 03:39 PM PDT One standout item Amazon introduced today was what they are now calling Kindle FreeTime. With Kindle FreeTime, you'll be able to go ahead and set up custom profiles for individual users making sharing your Kindle with family and friends a whole lot easier. Dubbed as a reinvention of parental controls here are some examples of Kindle FreeTime can be used:
Recently, there has been a lot of talk of Google having the frameworks built into Android 4.1 Jelly Bean that would allow such things as multiple user profiles but it's not complete as of yet, so in a way -- Amazon beat Google to the punch by allowing multiple users and custom settings for each one.
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| All new Kindle Fire versions will make use of ads on the lockscreen Posted: 06 Sep 2012 03:12 PM PDT
With the Amazon event now mostly wrapped up and Amazon having setup all their preorder pages, some unannounced information about the devices has now come up. Unlike previous Kindle models, which offered a cheaper version for the inclusion of ads, Amazon has now decided that with the new Kindle Fire line it'll no longer be optional. Yes, all new versions of the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD will have ads and sponsored screensavers built into them as now is noted on the Amazon website and there is no option to opt out of them. For some, it's not a huge deal but for others it could sway them to another device. Do you all care about the ads? Sound off in the comments. Source: Amazon; via: The Verge
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| Beach Buggy Blitz for Tegra devices is totally tubular, man (and totally free) Posted: 06 Sep 2012 03:04 PM PDT
If you're the proud owner of a Tegra device there's a great new game you have to try, Beach Buggy Blitz. The folks at Vector Unit (the same people who brought us Shine Runner and Riptide GP) have really outdone themselves with this one. In Beach Buggy Blitz, you're tasked with driving from waypoint to waypoint, in an endless driving game. Along the way you'll find coins, which you can use to buy power ups and new equipment, all sorts of destructible scenery (carnage is fun), and a beautifully rendered environment. The effects, physics, and gameplay take full advantage of Nvidia's Tegra extensions, for one of the funnest driving games to ever hit Android. It's addictive, and it's harder than it looks. While you're power sliding around corners, and laying waste to crabs and tiki torches, the clock is ticking. If you can;t make it to the waypoint before the timer runs out, your game is done and you have to start all over again. Right now the game is for Tegra devices only, but Vector has plans to bring it to other devices "soon". If you're like me and bought a Tegra device to play great games, you just found one. Grab it from Google Play through the link above, it's free (with in-app purchases for coins if you like). There's also a quick video of the game in action after the break. More: TegraZone 
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| Amazon Kindle Fire HD vs. iPad vs. Nexus 7 vs. Surface RT vs PlayBook Posted: 06 Sep 2012 02:39 PM PDT
Alright, we've rounded up just about all of the specs on Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD tablets, now let's see how they size up against the competition: Apple's new iPad, the Google Nexus 7 by ASUS, Microsoft's upcoming Surface RT, and RIM's LTE BlackBerry PlayBook. At the lower price points, only the Nexus 7 is really competing. We're still waiting on more information on RAM, but the new Kindle Fire HDs offer a lot more local storage further up the ladder. Next to the new iPad, the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with LTE doesn't look so hot. Sure, the new iPad with data starts $130 higher, but it includes a much higher-resolution screen, a rear camera, and few more key bonuses. In any case, what do you think of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD when sized up against these other major tablets? Does it stand a good chance at holding onto its major share of the U.S. tablet market? How about abroad? Be sure to stick around for a hands-on comparison from Kevin, who handled our most excellent liveblog earlier today. Pre-order New Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD 7 and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 
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| Verizon 4G LTE expands to over a dozen new locations Posted: 06 Sep 2012 02:17 PM PDT
Verizon has continued their crazy fast expansion of 4G LTE network coverage this week with over a dozen new markets or locations. More LTE markets can only be a good thing, especially if you're one of the millions who recently picked up a Samsung Galaxy SIII (S3) on Big Red. Here's a full list of the locations that went live this week:
With this rate of growth in the Verizon 4G LTE network, it's going to be hard for AT&T to catch up -- and seemingly impossible for Sprint. Source: Verizon News Center 
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| Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD coming to the UK for £129 and £159 Posted: 06 Sep 2012 01:32 PM PDT
Amazon UK sends word that the new Kindle Fire (second-generation) and Kindle Fire HD (7-inch) will be launching in the UK soon. Importantly, Amazon's bringing both devices to the British isles at highly competitive price points -- £129 for the basic Kindle Fire, and £159 for the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD (the 8.9-inch versions were not mentioned in today's press release). The move represents Amazon's first foray into the UK tablet space, as the original Kindle Fire was never released in the country. The £159 price point puts the 16GB Fire HD in direct competition with the 8GB Nexus 7, and Amazon's offering comes with a compelling content package, which crucially includes music, something lacking from Google Play in the UK. British Kindle Fire owners will also get one month of free access to Lovefilm, the European movie subscription service owned by Amazon, as well as a free month of Amazon Prime. Both devices are due to land in the UK on Oct. 25, and are available to pre-order today. Needless to say, the UK budget tablet market just got really interesting. And with Apple due to join the fray in mid-October, it looks like there'll be no shortage of competition for Google's Nexus 7 in the months ahead. We've got Amazon's press release in full after the break. Also be sure to check out our continuing coverage of the new Kindle devices by directing your attention a few pixels down. 
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| Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch gallery Posted: 06 Sep 2012 12:51 PM PDT
Here's the first round of images of the new Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9. We're getting our hands on one as we speak, so stick around for more. Pre-order Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 
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| Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch available November 20th for $299 Posted: 06 Sep 2012 12:10 PM PDT
Aside from the 7-Inch version, Amazon also announced the 8.9-Inch Kindle Fire HD. Just like the 7-Inch version, the 8.9-Inch will come with 16GB of storage though you'll have to wait a little bit longer and empty your pockets a little bit more if you go that route. The 8.9-Inch Kindle Fire HD ships on November 20th and will come in at $299. Still not bad pricing. 
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| Amazon announces Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE with $50 per year data plan Posted: 06 Sep 2012 12:01 PM PDT
At its Kindle event in Los Angeles, Amazon has just announced its high-end Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE tablet. Speaking at the event, Amazon's Jeff Bezos said that to sell a tablet at $499, Amazon would have to include "the ultimate tablet feature." The 8.9-inch, $499 Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE will come with 32GB of storage and a $49.99 per year data plan, including an allowance of 250MB per month, 20GB of cloud storage and $10 Amazon Appstore credit. Nothing's been mentioned just yet regarding how much it'll cost once you go over that small monthly allowance, but we're hoping there will be some option to top up a few extra gigabytes. Amazon didn't say specifically which network it was partnering with, but the 4G LTE logo displayed matched that of AT&T. Amazon was keen to promote the advantage of its setup versus the Apple competition, highlighting the savings involved in an integrated data plan. Bezos summed up the company's bullish attitude, simply saying "we have just built the best tablet at any price." The Kindle Fire HD with 4G LTE is available to pre-order today, and will ship on Nov. 20 alongside the Wifi-only version. 
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| Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7-inch available September 14th for $199 Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:59 AM PDT
With the all around announcement of the new Kindle Fire HD, Amazon managed to differentiate the product line much like their other Kindle offerings announcing that the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7-inch will be available as of September 14th. For those concerned about pricing, the updated Kindle Fire will come in at a very reasonable $199. One difference here though over the 8.9-Inch is that the 7-Inch only comes with a screen resolution of 1280x800. 
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| Poll: Will you be buying either the Kindle Fire 2 or the Kindle Fire HD? Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:39 AM PDT
Now that Amazon has announced the Kindle Fire 2 and the Kindle Fire HD with some pretty interesting specs and price points, we've got to ask whether or not you're interested in either of these devices so, go ahead and sound off in the poll below. If none of the options fit for ya, let us know in the comments your thoughts on the devices. 
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| Amazon hails improved MIMO Wifi on Kindle Fire HD Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:33 AM PDT
We're live at Amazon's Kindle event in Los Angeles, where the company's showing off a range of new products, including the Kindle Fire HD tablet. Amazon's Jeff Bezos has been walking through the main features of the new tablets, and one stand-out for the Kindle Fire HD is its MIMO (Multi-In, Multi-Out) Wifi connectivity. Using multiple antennae, Bezos says Amazon's new flagship tablet boasts Wifi that's 54% faster than the Nexus 7, and 41% faster than the new iPad. The Fire HD also includes support for less-crowded 5GHz Wifi bands, unlike the Nexus 7. Positioning the Kindle Fire HD as a high-definition multimedia consumption device, Bezos says "if you're going to have HD content, this is important," and a Amazon displayed a chart showing their new tablet pulling 31Mbps over Wifi compared to the Nexus 7's 20 and the iPad's 22. Bezos claims the Kindle Fire HD is the world's first tablet with MIMO support. In addition to faster throughput, having more than one antenna should eliminate the "death grip" issues seen in some devices, where gripping near the antenna reduces signal strength. Amazon's still in the middle of unveiling its new products, so join our liveblog for all the developments as they happen! 
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| Amazon introduces upgraded Kindle Fire for $159, ships September 14th Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:24 AM PDT
Amazon is hosting an event today (follow our live blog!) where they're introducing a brand new lineup of Kindles. They just announced an updated version of their 7-inch tablet, the Kindle Fire. The new version will have a faster processor, double the RAM, is 40% faster and sports longer battery life. The best part? It's price is down to $159, which is a ridiculous price for any tablet. The upgraded version of the Kindle Fire is available for pre-order today and will ship September 14th. 
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| Amazon announces Kindle Fire HD in 7-inch, 8.9-inch, and LTE varieties Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:22 AM PDT
Today, Amazon announced the Kindle Fire HD, a big sequel to their affordable tablet. One is in the familiar 7-inch size, and another at 8.9 inches with an option for LTE and an awesome data plan. For $49.99/year you can get a data plan that offers 250 MB/month (which you'll blow through in 5 seconds if you're downloading at full tilt). The plan is coming from AT&T, though Amazon says the Kindle Fire HD will support all ten 4G bands. 20 GB of cloud storage come included, plus upgrades areavailable for 3 GB or 5 GB plans. Let's run through the device specs. Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7-inch - starts at $199, shipping September 14
Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch - starts at $299, $499 for LTE/32GB, shipping November 20
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| Amazon introduces Kindle Paperwhite with new high-contrast display Posted: 06 Sep 2012 11:01 AM PDT
Today Amazon announced the Kindle Paperwhite, a $119 e-reader that's shipping October 1st, with preorders available today. A version with 3G will also be available for $179. The big seller here is the new high-contrast touch-sensitive display; whites are whiter, blacks are blacker. The thing can even get 8 weeks of battery life with the light on. Wowzers. Three's also this cool feature called X-Ray which lets you keep track of characters in novels. Handy for those particularly complicated books, eh? The announcement is ongoing, but based on this shot of a demo, it's looking like the device runs Android. Still waiting on confirmation... In the meantime, follow our liveblog! Even if this one doesn't end up running Android, Paperwhite is likely to find its way into an Android device from Amazon at some point. It's got something they're calling a "nanoimprrinted light guide" to help figure out just exactly how much light to emit given ambient conditions.
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| Sprint updates their Galaxy Nexus support page, confirms Jelly Bean coming yet again Posted: 06 Sep 2012 10:09 AM PDT
Just in case you needed one more reason to believe that Sprint will begin rolling out Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to Sprint Galaxy Nexus owners, they've now gone ahead and updated their software update website with the details and change log. Of course, it contains nothing surprising that you all didn't already know but have a look any how:
We've not yet received any reports it showing up for anyone as of yet, but I'm sure it'll be along shortly. If you see it pop up, drop a comment here or in the Android Central forums and let everyone else know they should commence smashing their check for update button. Source: Sprint, Thanks, adavisme! 
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| Vodafone announces Vodafone Red with unlimited calls and texts Posted: 06 Sep 2012 09:32 AM PDT
Vodafone UK is to launch a new range of service plans aimed at heavy users, dubbed Vodafone Red. The new plans, which start at £29 per month, offer unlimited calls and texts and between 1GB and 2GB of data. Vodafone Red plans come into effect from tomorrow, Sept. 7, and will be available across Voda's range of smartphones. At the entry-level, £29 per month will get you something like a Huawei Ascend G300, while those looking to take advantage of the Red plan and score a high-performance handset at the same time will be looking at up to £47 per month. Voda's new plans represent a move in the opposite direction to competing networks T-Mobile and Three. Both rivals offer unlimited data around this price point, along with finite, though large, allowances of calls and data. It'll be interesting to see whether Brits are still interested in call-focused price plans, as subscribers are increasingly turning towards heavier mobile data usage. Nevertheless, Vodafone insists its new price plans offer the "best value ever" for its customers. We've got more details in Vodafone's press release after the break. 
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| HootSuite swoops in and acquires Seesmic Posted: 06 Sep 2012 07:01 AM PDT
After a good, long run on Android, Seesmic has been acquired by HootSuite. Seesmic users don't have to worry too much, as HootSuite has promised that they'll continuing supporting the app, though business users will get moved over to HootSuite's offering. Both CEOs sound pretty amicable about how the whole thing worked out.
Both companies are big in the social media management scene, and their products have been just as great for everyday consumers as for pros. Although Twitter is the main focus, HootSuite offers tools for Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and a few other networks too. I haven't touched Seesmic in awhile since I generally stick with HootSuite or the native Twitter and Facebook apps, but what do you guys use? The last update we saw from Seesmic added Instagram viewing, which is pretty cool, but what else does Seesmic do that HootSuite should make a point of integrating? Source: HootSuite 
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| AT&T turns on LTE in 7 cities, announces many more to receive it by year end Posted: 06 Sep 2012 06:57 AM PDT
AT&T announced this morning that it has turned on its LTE network in 3 new cities and also announced that several more will receive the high speed network by the end of the year. Here are the new cities that now have AT&T LTE:
So if you're in any of those cities, congrats as you'll be able to take advantage of the high speeds. The places that AT&T announced will receive LTE by the end of 2012 are:
In addition, AT&T has expanded their service in Northern Montgomery County and Northern New Jersey. It's great to see AT&T continue to expand its LTE network. Hopefully this trend will continue. 
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| Deal of the Day: Seidio ACTIVE Case (with kickstand) for HTC One S Posted: 06 Sep 2012 06:38 AM PDT
The Seidio ACTIVE Case (with kickstand) is available for $15.00, 57% off today only. Backed by our 60-day return policy and fast shipping. 
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| Live from the Amazon Kindle event in Santa Monica! Posted: 06 Sep 2012 05:44 AM PDT
Show time! We're live on location in Santa Monica for the Amazon Press Conference. Fully expected to be announced is the successor to the Android-based Kindle Fire, as well as an update to their more traditional Kindle e-reader. Heading into the event there is also buzz that Amazon may even show off an Amazon phone based on the Kindle Fire's software. Will it happen? We'll know soon enough. The event gets going at 10:30 a.m. PDT, 1:30 p.m. EDT, and 6:30 p.m. BST. (To say nothing of all the other times you folks enjoy throughout the world.) With Phil and the usual Android Central "A team" tied up for this one, I'm filling in on the coverage (I'm still on my World Tour and rocking a One X at the moment, so it's all good). Also joining in on location from the Mobile Nations team is Ashley Esqueda and Steph Koenig. To tune into the action as it unfolds, jump on over to live.mobilenations.com. Take me to the Live Blog Coverage
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| Sony Xperia Tablet S now shipping in the UK, yours for £329 Posted: 06 Sep 2012 05:20 AM PDT
Sony’s new Xperia Tablet S, announced last week at IFA 2012 in Berlin, is now available to buy in the UK. The second-generation Sony tablet, which is the first to bear the company’s Xperia branding, includes an NVIDIA Tegra 3 CPU, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and a substantial helping of Sony multimedia goodies. It also evolves the unconventional “folded magazine” chassis design introduced in last year’s Sony Tablet S. The 16GB and 32GB Wifi-only Xperia Tablet S models are now available to buy from Sony UK’s online store, priced £329 and £379 respectively. The 16GB Wifi and 3G version remains up for pre-order with a £429 price tag. At £329, Sony’s 2012 tablet is a little more tempting than its predecessor was last year, and importantly, it’s undercutting Apple’s third-gen iPad by around £70. Given the Xperia tablet’s lower-resolution screen and the fact that Android still hasn’t caught up with iOS’s tablet app ecosystem, the device may be a tough sell even at this price. Nevertheless, as an electronics giant with global reach, Sony is in as good a position as any OEM to make this kind of device work. For more on the Sony Xperia Tablet S, check out our hands-on coverage from IFA 2012. Source: Sony, via: XperiaBlog 
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| HTC revenues slide ahead of new product launches Posted: 06 Sep 2012 04:44 AM PDT
HTC’s revenues continue to tumble, ahead of the company’s late 2012 product refresh, expected to begin at an event in New York in just under two weeks. The Taiwanese smartphone maker’s unaudited revenues for August 2012 were NT$24 billion ($800 million), down from NT$25 billion in July. The number represents a fall of 47 percent compared to the August 2011, when a hugely successful HTC was enjoying record sales. It’s no secret that 2012 hasn’t been kind to HTC thus far. As well as falling revenues, the company has been forced to withdraw from certain territories where it’s had difficulty competing with rival Samsung -- notably the latter’s native South Korea. In addition, HTC sold back half of its stake in audio firm Beats, and wrote off a $40 million investment in troubled cloud gaming provider OnLive. With new Android and Windows Phone 8 products likely to arrive imminently, HTC will be hoping that a new round of devices in late 2012 will help to reverse its fortunes. However it, like all other OEMs, will face fierce competition from Apple, which will be launching its next iPhone around the same time. Source: HTC 
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| Samsung sells 20 million Galaxy S3 phones in first 100 days Posted: 06 Sep 2012 02:08 AM PDT
It's been just one hundred days since the Samsung Galaxy S3 made its international debut in London, but already 20 million of the handsets have been sold worldwide, according to the manufacturer. In its official blog post today, Samsung notes that the S3 passed this milestone around three times as fast as last year's Galaxy S2, no doubt helped along by a streamlined U.S. launch and an aggressive marketing campaign. The S2, another big seller for the Korean manufacturer, took some ten months to reach the 20 million milestone. Today's announcement also shows that sales of the device remain strong. It took Samsung 50 days to sell its first 10 million S3 phones, and the company says they're selling at a rate of around 200,000 per day. As we rapidly approach the final quarter of the year, there's little doubt that the Galaxy S3 will emerge as the best-selling Android handset of the year. However, it's biggest test will come in a couple of weeks, when it's pitted against Apple's next iPhone. Update: We've got Samsung's press release after the break. Source: Samsung (Translated) 
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