Amazon's Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD available next month in the UK

[Arthur]

It's good to have more competition, but I don't think I would sell my Nexus 7 for a Kindle Fire or Fire HD.

Links: Kindle Fire HD (£159-£199) / Kindle Fire (£129)

The Kindle Fire and Fire HD 7 are both coming to the UK on October 25th. Both tablets are currently up for preorder on the site, with the Kindle Fire priced at £129 and the Fire HD 7 coming in at £159 for 16GB and £199 for 32GB. Unlike their US counterparts, UK versions of the Fire will not include any of the Amazon Prime benefits such as Amazon's Instant Video service. Instead, customers will receive a one-month free trial of LoveFilm. Other than the differences between Amazon services, the UK Fire tablets seem to be exactly the same.

Although Amazon has updated its site to include the new tablets, there's no sign of a preorder page for the new Kindle Paperwhite. The new tablets have also been spotted around Europe; a number of countries, including France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, all have a letter from Jeff Bezos on the front page of their Amazon sites extolling the virtues of his new tablets. European pricing on the tablets starts at €159 for the standard Fire and €199 for the 16GB Fire HD 7. (Source)

[Arthur]

Amazon have clearly saved the best feature for last!

All new Kindle Fire tablets are ad-supported
Amazon announced a boatload of new members of the Kindle Fire tablet family earlier today at a press conference in Santa Monica. However, when the company's CEO Jeff Bezos was showing off the Android-based tablets to the assembled members of the press, he apparently forgot to inform them of one major "feature".

As revealed in Amazon's new press release, all of the new members of the Kindle Fire lineup, including the $499 Kindle Fire HD with 4G LTE support, will included mandatory ads on the product's lock screen. While Amazon has sold versions of its Kindle eReaders with the option to either buy ad or ad-free devices, the original 2011 Kindle Fire did not have these ads at all. (Source)

[plexer]

Just got the email today about them being available.

Possible tablet for the kids I think.

Ben

[AMLightfoot]

Mandatory ads? No, I don't think so thanks. It's bad enough that I'm tight enough to only download free games for my android and tolerate the ads, but that is a choice. To PAY for a device AND have ads, what planet are they on?

[Technomancer]

They look great, BUT, direct from Amazon:
Posted on Oct 26, 2011 1:29:54 PM PDT
Amazon Kindle Customer Service says:

Hello Butch and A Picky Buyer,

Amazon Silk does not currently support custom proxy settings. We will continue working to develop new features for Amazon Silk.

Best regards,

Shannon L
Amazon Kindle Customer Service

[rich_tech]

The ads thing just put me off a fair bit there, I agree with @AMLightfoot, I accept them on games that I play the free versions off like angry birds and such, but :/ to forcing them down your throat.

Reminds a bit of the old Gizmondo and its smart ads

[Arthur]

Reminds a bit of the old Gizmondo and its smart ads

... and Amstrad's E-m@iler Plus.

[LosOjos]

Amazon Silk does not currently support custom proxy settings. We will continue working to develop new features for Amazon Silk.

That is, unfortunately, still Android's thorn in the side. Why on Earth it's not supported yet is beyond me, especially now when I feel Android is right at the brink of taking control of the market. Such a simple feature, it's even available in certain custom ROMs. Google appear to be doing this out of sheer stubbornness now!


As for the Kindle Fire - no thanks. I will not pay for you to advertise to me, thanks Amazon.

Now, if they release an Android tablet with full colour e-ink display, then I'll be interested... I think we're a long way off that though.

[mavhc]

I installed IPCop as a virtual server to do transparent proxy for ios, android, kindle etc. Plus you could probably block the ads at that point. Does this mean we also get Kindle 4s with ads cheaper?

[AMLightfoot]

Now, if they release an Android tablet with full colour e-ink display, then I'll be interested... I think we're a long way off that though.

Are you sure about that? 20 years ago mobile phones were bricks and browsing the internet while on the train was the preserve of the secret service. E-ink displays are already here. The tablet format is evolving rapidly. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we don't bypass tablets with e-ink screens and move straight past and onto direct-to-retina displays at this rate. Or a pair of glasses with the text scrolling past your eyeball... Or a flexi-ink display that can be folded or rolled and tucked away in your bag... I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this stuff appear in the next 5 years or so.

Although I suppose 'long way off' depends on your perspective. 'Long way off' in the tech world is 'next year' at the rate we're going...

[LosOjos]

Are you sure about that? 20 years ago mobile phones were bricks and browsing the internet while on the train was the preserve of the secret service. E-ink displays are already here. The tablet format is evolving rapidly. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we don't bypass tablets with e-ink screens and move straight past and onto direct-to-retina displays at this rate. Or a pair of glasses with the text scrolling past your eyeball... Or a flexi-ink display that can be folded or rolled and tucked away in your bag... I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this stuff appear in the next 5 years or so.

Although I suppose 'long way off' depends on your perspective. 'Long way off' in the tech world is 'next year' at the rate we're going...

I agree with everything you just said - and yes, I consider 12 months a long time in tech!

I suppose what I was getting at was at the moment, e-ink is black, white and grey with a refresh rate that's just good enough for reading static pages, so in terms of tech available, that's a long way off 32-bit colour and 24 FPS (minimum!) refresh rate. In terms of time; who knows?