Amazon Will Release Kindle Fire 2 in July with 10" Screen

Until a few weeks ago, Amazon was sure it had the top spot in the budget tablet market. Anyone looking to find a decent tablet without the huge price tag of the iPad would almost always go for the Kindle Fire, a 7" dual-core tablet priced at just $200. But then things started to change.

First, Microsoft announced that it would be coming out with the Microsoft Surface, a 7" tablet that would have many exotic features such as a bigger Windows Phone 7 OS (the icons stay the same size, but you see more of them), a stylus, and a clip-on keyboard. These features made the tablet a boom-or-bust, and right now most people are predicting bust, so Amazon wasn't unsettled at all.

Then, Google announced their Nexus 7. This was trying to be the iPad killer, but one thing for sure is that it will kill the Kindle Fire. At the same $200 cost, it has twice the cores, is much faster, has a sharper display and a nicer OS, a front facing camera, GPS, Bluetooth, and a much nicer feel. Amazon realized that they had to do something, or the Kindle Fire would soon be extinct.

Now, a set of reports from China Times and BGR have told us exactly what they are doing. Amazon plans to release the Kindle Fire 2 in July.

According to these reports, the Kindle Fire 2 will stay at the same price as the current Kindle Fire, but will undergo many updates. First, its processor will be upgraded to a quad-core one. Second, its screen probably expand to 8.9" or 10" (probably the latter). Third, it will have a new metal casing on the exterior instead of the current plastic one.

The thing that I like to hear most on this list is the bigger screen size. On the current 7" Kindle Fire, reading magazines becomes tough, because you can't read the text, so you either have to zoom in on the page and pan around to follow the text (ugh...) or go on text mode where it displays the text in the format that books are in (Where did the pics go?). On a 10" Kindle Fire, I'm expecting that you wouldn't have to zoom in on the text, as it would already be readable.

When will this Kindle Fire be available? Well, shipping of the components for this device began in June, which means that it should be announced some time in late July. Stay tuned.

Kindle Fire Review

There are many tablets out there on the market that are geared towards many types of people. You'll find tablets for movie-lovers, gamers, businessmen, travelers, budget-minded people, and many more. Yet, while you can easily download iBooks or a Kindle app on any of these tablets, there seems to be only one truly geared for readers. That tablet is the Kindle Fire.

The Kindle Fire was released last October in a New York City event. It generated great commotion, and is now the most bought product on Amazon. Unlike many other tablets, its design is more minimalistic, which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said they did to let you "lose yourself in the content you love" as its border seems to disappear. What really caused commotion was its price tag: just $199. Usually, low price tags make us wonder if its performance will be good enough, as that's usually how companies cut down on price. Yet, somehow, the Kindle Fire has still been able to compete with other tablets despite this. Jump past the break to read the full review.

Anrdoid 4.0 Running on Kindle Fire: Video

Most of the people reading this post right now are probably very familiar with this situation; you ask for something for Christmas, but the person who gets it for you isn't as technology-oriented as you, and they end up buying the wrong thing. This problem has never been more apparent this Christmas, because a lot of people who asked for an Android tablet received a Kindle Fire. And while a Kindle Fire technically does run Android, it's so modified that you can't even tell it's Android, except when you see the selection of apps.

Well, other people noticed this problem as well; hackers. And now, they have figured out a solution to the problem; put Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) on your Kindle Fire! Hackers have indeed figured out how to do this, and they even posted a video below:


As you might be able to guess, the Kindle Fire and the Ice Cream Sandwich don't go perfectly together, just as putting an ice cream sandwich over a fire would make it melt. There's a lot of bugs that could ruin your Kindle Fire, and they haven't figured out a way to let the Kindle do audio and video playback. Nevertheless, if the situation I described is exactly what happened to you, I would wait around until the hack is improved, and then you'll have your wish.

Amazon's Kindle Fire starting to burn up iPad 2!

When the iPad hit the market, it was quite revolutionary. Everybody was amazed by the new type of sleek, portable, and fun computer; the tablet. All the big technology companies, like Sony, Dell, HP, and Motorola saw opportunity in this tablet, yet somehow, all of their attempts at a tablet failed.

Some say the attempts failed because the companies couldn't make a tablet as sleek as the iPad. Some say the iPad had far more available apps than any of their tablets. But for whatever the reason, none of the companies ever had any more than 1% of consumers in the market for a tablet wanting to purchase theirs.  Even Samsung's Galaxy Tab only had 4% of consumers choosing their tablet. Yes, that's just how big Apple's monopoly on the tablet line is.

But, an unexpected competitor has made a whopping 22% of tablet shoppers choose their tablet: Amazon.

In a recent study with people who are interested in buying a tablet, 68% favored the iPad, 22% favored the Kindle Fire, and 4% favored the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

"The launch of the Amazon Kindle Fire represents a shot across the bow at Apple, who until now has almost completely dominated the tablet space," said ChangeWave, the company who ran the survey.


Apple's iPad 3 could make Apple reassume their monopoly, but for now, Apple's competitor has finally arrived. Finally.

More Fuel Added to the Kindle Fire

Next week, we'll get to see if the $200 Kindle Fire really will be a match for Apple's iPad. A price $300 lower already gives it a pretty good advantage, but now Amazon has announced that they've got even more coming.

First, they announced that "several thousand" apps will be available on the Kindle Fire, including Facebook and even Hulu. That doesn't sound like it have as many apps as the iPad (over 100,000), but it's quite a start anyway

Second, they said that over 400 magazines will be coming to the Kindle Fire; all in full color! Some of the magazines include The New Yorker, Reader's Digest, and Us Weekly.

Third, they announced that interactive books will soon be coming to the Kindle Fire. These interactive books will have built in audio and even video. That sure puts paper to shame.

Jeff Bezos patents mini-airbags on the bottom of your phone!

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon has just patented a "damage avoidance system" using mini-airbags on the bottom of the phone! Here's how it works:

When the phone's motion detectors detect that the phone has been dropped, it sends an emergency signal to a seperate protective sleeve, which in turn deploys several mini-airbags on the bottom of the phone, cushioning the phone's landing and therefore avoiding damage. Fancy, but exactly how much would that cost Jeff?

Amazon announces textbook rentals for Kindle

Amazon has just announced textbook rentals for the Kindle, which will save students up to 80% on textbooks, which are normally rather pricey. These textbooks can be viewed on any tablet, smartphone, or computer. You will be able to rent the text books for any amount of time from 30-360 days. The annotations you make will be stored in the cloud and you will be able to view them anytime on Amazon.com, even after your rental expires. And I thought getting a digital version of a textbook saved enough already...

Amazon is offering an ad-supported Kindle for just $114!

If you punch in "www.amazon.com" on your browser, you'll receive a surprise; a "Kindle with Special Offers" is avaliable for only $114! What does this mean? Amazon is offering a Wi-Fi only Kindle for just $114, if you agree to have ads placed on your screensavers and below the home screen on your Kindle. This Kindle saves $25 dollars, and could end up saving more seeing that you get some coupons on Amazon products like gift cards in your ads. If you prefer no ads, you can still get the Wi-Fi only Kindle for $139.

Amazon's Appstore App Shall Let You Purchase Apps Without a Device!

Apparently Appstore for Android (by Amazon) will let you buy apps even if the device you want to run them isn't on hand yet! Unfortunatley, we do not know when this app will launch. We can guess however, that Google could find itself making less money from the Android Market.