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Amazon’s new Fire heats up tablet race
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) unveiled the Kindle Fire on Wednesday, a 7-inch tablet that The Wall Street Journal says could be Apple’s “biggest” challenger to the almighty iPad. 
Much like iPad’s Android competitors, the Kindle Fire’s price is sure to compel consumers to give it a second look: It’s priced at an attractive $199; the cheapest iPad2 is $499.
The Kindle Fire was just part of Amazon’s growing Kindle family: Also announced were a lighter, cheaper Kindle ($79), the Kindle Touch ($99) and the Kindle Touch 3G ($149). Read the full news release about the Kindle family here.
The Amazon Kindle Fire at a glance:
- Weight: 14.6 ounces (413 grams)
- Size: 7.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.45″ (190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm)
- 1024 x 600P resolution at 169PPI
- 8GB on-board memory
- Battery Life: Up to 8 hours of reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off.
- Full charge in approx. 4 hours
- Free cloud storage for all Amazon content
- Audio: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, top-mounted stereo speakers
- Wi-Fi: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, or 802.1X standard
- USB 2.0 port (micro-B connector)
- Warranty and service: 1 year limited
- Supported formats: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8
EARLIER: Acer Iconia A500: A honey-sweet alternative to iPad? ~J’s Pages, May 26
EARLIER: A honey-sweet alternative to the Xoom? ~ J’s Pages, April 9
Acer Iconia A500: A honey-sweet alternative to iPad?
The Wall Street Journal says Acer’s Iconia Tab A500 is “compelling competition to Apple’s dominant iPad in one crucial area: price.”
At the time of this writing, the Wi-Fi-only A500 was priced at $449.
Full article is here.
The Iconia Tab A500 at a glance:
- Weight: 1.7 lbs.
- Dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
- 1.0GHz processing speed
- 1GB DDR2 memory
- 16GB eMMC on-board memory
- 4G LTE connectivity
- 2MP front-facing camera
- 5MP rear camera
- HDMI
- Supports microSD up to 32GB
- High-speed USB 2.0 port
EARLIER: A honey-sweet alternative to the Xoom? ~ J’s Pages, April 9
HTC Thunderbolt: $129 at Amazon
Verizon is offering new customers the HTC Thunderbolt for $129 on Amazon. The offer is good only for this weekend, expiring at midnight PT April 25.
Here’s the rub: A two-year contract is required. If you want just the phone, it’s a stout $669.
The HTC Thunderbolt at a glance:
- Android 2.2 with HTC Sense
- 768MB of RAM
- single-core 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU
- 8GB of built-in memory
- 32GB preinstalled microSD card
- 8MP camera
- 4.3-inch screen
One way to go
At right is a sign spotted days ago at a closed Borders in Chicago. There are a lot of fourth-grade-level bathroom jokes I could make, but I won’t. I will agree, though, the sign makes a good argument for the brick-and-mortar bookstores.
In other publishing news, Barnes & Noble is recruiting app developers for its Android-based NOOK Color Reader Tablet. For more information, check out the NOOK Developer blog or register as a developer.
This news comes on the heels of the late-March frenzy inspired the April update for NOOK.
The NOOK Color at a glance:
- Height: 8.1 inches
Width: 5.0 inches
Depth: 0.48 inches
Weight: 15.8 ounces
Price: $259
And that concludes my reporting on eBooks today because my portfolio needs polishing and I have an e-commerce project I need to wrap up.
Photo via e-reads and e-BookNewser.
A honey-sweet alternative to the Xoom?
Acer announced the April 24 release of its 10-inch Honeycomb tablet, the Iconia Tab A500, priced at a-not-unreasonable $450. With nearly identical hardware specs and $150 cheaper than the pricey Motorola Xoom’s, ZDNet is hailing the A500 as “Xoom Light.” The bad news? It has half the flash storage. Still, not a bad deal if you want to test drive Honeycomb and don’t want to sell your soul to do it.
You can preorder the A500 at Best Buy.
The Iconia Tab A500 at a glance:
- Weight: 1.7 lbs.
- Dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
- 1.0GHz processing speed
- 1GB DDR2 memory
- 16GB eMMC on-board memory
- 4G LTE connectivity
- 2MP front-facing camera
- 5MP rear camera
- HDMI
- Supports microSD up to 32GB
- High-speed USB 2.0 port
HTC and Acer sweet on Honeycomb
Source: Amazon.co.uk
Gigaom is reporting Acer’s Iconia A100, a 7-inch Google Android Honeycomb tablet, has appeared on the UK’s Amazon site for pre-order ahead of its April 20 release date and is priced at around $485 (US dollars), a bit less the Motorola Xoom, which begins at around $600.
The Iconia A100 at a glance:
- 512MB RAM (not KB as on the site)
- 8GB hard drive
- NVIDIA Tegra 250, 1GHz Dual-Core processor
- 1024 x 600 screen resolution
- 5MP auto-focus camera
- 2MP front-facing camera
- Dolby mobile sound enhancement
- 3.5mm audio jack
Meanwhile, HTC tweeted Friday that they’ll be offering Honeycomb upgrades for its HTC Flyer when it’s made available.
@Geekhangover We will be offering a Honeycomb upgrade when it’s made available. What feature are you most excited about?—
HTC (@htc) April 01, 2011
Source: HTC press room
The HTC Flyer at a glance:
- 1.5GHz single-core processor
- 1GB RAM
- 32GB flash storage (expandable via microSD card)
- aluminium unibody construction
- 7-inch display
- 1024 x 600 screen resolution
- 5MP rear camera
- 1.3MP front-facing camera
Motorola Xoom, Android 3.0 can get Flash today
Here’s a little bit of Xoom news from my inbox.
Eweek.com reminds Motorola Xoom adopters can get Flash today as a beta on the Android Market, and CNET is offering its first impressions.
Meanwhile, the folks at Android Community is reporting the Xoom is available for pre-order at Staples and at Costco. Droid Life also notes that Amazon is taking orders, too.
Looking for specs for the WiFi-only Xoom? Click here.
UPDATE 3-21-2011: Business Insider says Flash for Xoom is “lame,” and ZDNet offers a hands-on review of SwiftKey for Tablets, the keyboard app for Honeycomb.
Xoom: A return
On the bleeding edge: Android Guys' Sam Herren reviews the Motorola Xoom — Weighed, measured and found wanting. http://bit.ly/gZH2sJ—
Jacqui Barrineau (@JBnotes) March 09, 2011
Mobility, mobility, mobility: Who’s using what
comScore Jan. #mobile subscriber report: Samsung has 25% of handset market; Android is 31% of smartphone platforms. http://bit.ly/gpXEFd—
Jacqui Barrineau (@JBnotes) March 07, 2011
Also of note: Apple has 7% of the handset market, and 25% of the smartphone platforms. And Research in Motion shows no signs of going away.
Tablet roundup from Business Insider
Although I have an iPad, I’m very excited about the Android tablets and hope to get one in the near future. Business Insider has a terrific roundup of everything you need to know about the tablet market, including charts that break down the OS markets shares, adoption and purchase rates, content consumption and sharing, and even consumer intention.
From a consumer’s point of view, this is one of the best time sucks I’ve fallen into.
(ED’S NOTE: I would have used Business Insider’s very cool embed feature for the graphic, but the code wasn’t showing up.)
Who’s J?
I am Jane Q. Public: consumer and citizen. As I go, so goes the nation. Sometimes.
(But really, click the link.)
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No, really, who’s J?
Jacqui Barrineau
Editor. Writer. Consultant.
I'm an editor and writer with certifications in public relations and e-Commerce. I also have a background in information technology. (In another life, I was a systems analyst.)
When I'm not editing copy for USA TODAY, I write an occasional short story or poem. My work has appeared in Calliope and the feminist journal So to Speak, and I'm a regular flash-fiction contributor to Paragraph Planet and Doorknobs & Bodypaint. Also on occasion, I interview editors for The Review Review, a comprehensive guide to literary journals and the people who produce them.
My points-of-view are collected on such esteemed outlets as Wordpress, Facebook and Twitter. The views expressed here and elsewhere are mine, not my employers'.
I live in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., with my husband, Trey, our Shetland Sheepdog, and two unhelpful-but-funny cats.
