Amazon pitches cheap new Kindles for Blighty Amazon is bringing its Kindle Fire to the UK almost a year after the 7in Android tablet's US debut. The good news for folk who've been patiently waiting: it's only 129 quid. Punters may prefer the better spec'd Fire HD. It's the obvious choice, particularly since it's only 30 quid more expensive. So, just £159 for a 7in, 1280 …
problem with the dx is it treats pdf's as images (don't know if calibre cure this only seen reviews) i wanted one for PDF's but after researching went for a tablet instead. if you do go for a tablet it is essential to get one with an IPS screen they ar eperfect for pdfs and use the small kindle for everything else.
i went for an onda vi40 dual core 9.7 inch IPS. it has the same screen as the iPad 2 and performs similar and to top it all off is cheaper then a kindle dx.
What an absolute bugger to be an Android OEM. You've got Google on one side of you, punting the Nexus 7 at pretty much cost price. You've then got Amazon going for a bit of loss-leader action, and this time their hardware might actually be a lot less horrible. Although I have personal doubts about their software...
Then you've got the bastards at Apple, hoovering up all the profits at the top-end (stopping you going premium). Plus they get all the free publicity that the world's media can throw at them.
And Microsoft coming up on the rails, who might try a bit of loss-leadering themselves... OK, a lot of people have their doubts about how Windows 8 will go, but it might go brilliantly, and certainly adds an awful lot of uncertainty to your life.
I got an email from dabs.com yesterday, offering the new Samsung Galaxy 10.1 for £210. Admittedly that's including £50 cashback - where they hope you'll forget to claim it so they keep the money. Samsung can make huge profits on the Galaxy III, selling at £500 odd, but clearly not on tablets.
.......... clearly not on tablets."
I have to admit that I do not understand it. In both cases they are running the same os as the equivalent phone and both phones sell gangbusters to their respective customer bases, so it is not unfamiliarity with the respective operating systems. In certain ways Sammys offering is clearly better equipped than the iPad and both systems have a very large choice of apps. If it is not primarily the screen (iPad 3) then I have to say I am at a complete loss as to how to work out how Sammy's high-end phone can compete with the iPhone and then some but apparently not the tablet.
I am at a complete loss as to how to work out how Sammy's high-end phone can compete with the iPhone and then some but apparently not the tablet.
For one thing, the Samsung phones have USPs that distinguish them from iPhones and make them more attractive to some users -- things like removable batteries, upgradeable flash memory, choice of screen size, and so on. The Galaxy tablets do NOT offer the obvious hardware differences that many of us would like to see (host USB ports, memory slots, etc) so one might as well buy an iPad -- especially one with the lovely retina screen.
Then again, it could just be cost. The high-end Samsung phones are cheaper than the nearest-equivalent iPhones, but the Galaxy Tab costs just as much as a similarly-spec'd iPad.
I find it's crucial to have such a fast connection to download a one meg ebook (and that's a big Tom Clancy jobbie). Saves me 0.2 seconds every time, and at a book a week that's almost 10 seconds a year! Now I just have to think about what to do with all that extra free time.
Too sarcastic?
To be fair, the 802.11n is probably only because the wifi chip has been updated - I doubt Amazon went out of their way to source an n-capable chip rather than a g-capable chip.
Also it provides a bit of future-proofing (although getting cheaper every year it might not be too long til the e-ink kindles are only £30 or so, almost disposable) for if/when there are no more g-capable wifi networks around.
I'm having nothing more to do with Kindles until Amazon gives UK customers the same rights to lend and borrow Kindle books as US customers. It's bad enough charging the same or more for a bunch of bytes as they do for paper and ink, but to make me buy it again so a family member can read it? It's an outrage!
Indeed, finding a website that describes how to remove DRM using Calibre plugins is very easy.
And the process is actually even easier than that.
I have no qualms about removing DRM from books I pay for - now I actually do it as a matter of course once I've bought one, as now the relevant plugins are installed it happens automatically when I import the new book into Calibre.
Ditto. And when my original keyboard model died, just under two years old, they told me that 'it only had a limited 1 year guarantee'. I pointed out the EU said otherwise and am still waiting. Meanwhile, have a Nexus 7 which, apart from a battery life of one day versus the 3 to 4 weeks of the Kindle, is very nice indeed.
http://rootkindlefire.com/
Personally I run CyanogenMod on my phone, I'd be happy running the same on the Kindle - it just made my birthday list I think...
Need to run a side by side with the Nexus before I put one on the list properly.
Hmm - KFHD / Nexus
GPS vs extra memory
Having recently lost my kindle, I have ordered a new one - Amazon don't give any indication of thier product line-up/road map in the UK and its shit. Needless to say I will be instantly returning my kindle and rebuying one of the newer ones at £20 less, unless they send the new one in the first place. morons.
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