Kindle Fire Now Offers Parental Content Controls

January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Mobicip, an app company that focus on helping parents control what their kids see on the web, has now released an app for the Kindle Fire to help parents control what they see on the Fire. This is a great idea, and could be a great comfort to those of you out there who have small children. I can see the value of this, as just the other day a friend of mine was talking about their child grabbing a device of theirs (I think it was a smartphone), and ended up on a site watching a video they should not have been watching within a few minutes!

The way it works is the app is actually its own browser, and this is the browser that you would allow your kids to use. You can set the content settings to several different levels based on their age. Right now you can set it to elementary, middle school, high school. You can try it for free for now, as it is still in beta. On other devices it costs $4.99 for the app, so I would guess this would be how much it will cost when it comes out of beta.

There is the obvious workaround for your kids – they could just use another browser! However, Mobicip has that covered, too, as you can actually use the app to block other apps, such as browsers, video apps, etc.

Overall, I think this is a great product, and I am glad it is coming to the Kindle Fire.

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Filed Under: Kindle Reader

Kindle Took More Than 1 to 2 Million Potential Apple Customers

January 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Kindle Fire was a huge hit this Christmas! It was a great holiday season for Amazon, with them pushing out millions of Kindle Fire units. However, it also hurt Apple, with Fire sales taking away from the iPad. The stories below discuss just that.

Kindle Fire cannibalized 1M to 2M iPad sales ‘at most’ this holiday
By Neil Hughes The launch of the $199 Amazon Kindle Fire had a detrimental effect on iPad sales for Apple, but the company is still expected to report record sales this quarter, a new report states. Investment research firm Morgan Keenan on Tuesday …
www.appleinsider.com

Kindle Fire may have cost Apple $1 billion or more in holiday iPad sales
Amazon’s new Kindle Fire was a hot item during the holiday shopping season, and one analyst believes the new Amazon tablet may have cost Apple well over $1 billion in holiday iPad sales. Morgan Keegan analyst Travis McCourt on Tuesday lowered his …
www.bgr.com

As you can see, the holiday season was still good for Apple, but Amazon certainly took away from their profits. Fortunately for both companies, however, it is not a zero sum game. With the increased popularity of tablets comes many new users, folks who haven’t had a tablet up until now. Tablets are becoming more and more ubiquitous, so the two companies (not to mention Android) are not necessarily always fighting for the same customers every time they come out with something new.

I really believe that 2012 will be the year of the tablet. People are moving away even from laptops in favor of these devices, and they continue to get better at what they are designed to do. The Kindle Fire will likely play a big role in bringing inexpensive tablets to the masses!

Want to know more about the Kindle Fire? Make sure you check out our Kindle Fire review!

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Filed Under: Kindle Latest News, Kindle News, Kindle Reader

Amazon Now Selling over 1 Million Kindles Per Week

December 15, 2011 By 2 Comments

The economy may be down, but Amazon is doing just fine. Better than ever, in fact! They just reported that they are now selling over one million Kindles per week!

In addition, sales are growing each week. Now, of course, much of that has to do with the holidays; however, this is a great testament to the success of the device. The new Kindle Fire has not been without it’s detractors, however. Some Kindle reviews have been fairly poor, noting the smaller design and the lack of access to the full Android marketplace. However, almost every Kindle Fire review out there will tell you that it is a great tablet, and especially for the price.

Some people are even buying two Kindles since they are so cheap! They are purchasing the old style Kindle for reading and the Fire for other entertainment and computing needs. And since the devices are so inexpensive, this is totally doable!

You still have time to get a Kindle by the holidays if you order soon. Check them out at Amazon here.

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Filed Under: Kindle News, Kindle Reader

Kindle DX Sale – $120 Off This Week

November 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you are like me, you still love the size of the Kindle DX. While some have said that the 9.7 inch tablet is going away soon, it is still available, at least for now, and for a great price! It is $120 off for the next few days as long as their supply lasts at Amazon.

If you want a Kindle DX rather than a Kindle Fire, now is definitely the time to get it. They may well cancel them soon, and even if they don’t, I doubt the price on them will get any cheaper than they are right now. The DX is similar to the Kindle, with the e-ink screen, free 3G coverag, etc, he only difference being more storage and the larger screen.

Check Out The Kindle DX Sale Here, or watch the video review below first. It’s a bit dated, but still accurate -

 

Here Is The Link For That DX Sale Again

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Filed Under: Kindle News, Kindle Reader

Kindle Web Browser

November 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

kindle web browserThe Kindle web browser is very limited on all of the devices except the Kindle Fire, but is still nice to have for the avid reader who might want to get on the computer from time to time!  Kintweet, a web interface for twitter, works reasonably well.  It is based on Web Kit which is a popular mobile web browser engine. The Kindle web browser is still marked as “experimental” meaning it may gain features if Amazon decides to keep working on it.

The Kindle web browser is basically an exercise in “I can” rather than “I will ever have the patience to” for me, but if I had no other options, it’s there.  The Kindle web browser is based on Web Kit which is a popular mobile web browser engine.  The  kindle web browser  is designed and improved by Amazon to allow the readers in getting the easiness and the comfort when they are reading.

Sure the Kindle web browser leaves a lot (and I mean a lot) to be desired, but it’s nice to have it.  With the Kindle Web Browser (Home / Menu / Experimental / Launch Browser) you can access the mobile version of Evernote  – you’ll need to press the Sym button on your Kindle Keyboard to add the forward slash in th e Evernote web address.  Still,  the Amazon Kindle Web Browser is adequate for reading text websites.  It should be noted that with the Kindle web browser you can easily access sites such as  Google Reader  and connect to RSS feeds in this manner.

But with the release of Touch, I believe Kindle web browser will be one of the browser that could be used for real, not only a gimmick.  If you know of any other routes for getting onto the Kindle web browser quickly – leave me a comment please.

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Filed Under: Kindle Reader Tagged With: ,

Kindle Fire Hits Shelves Today!

November 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Finally, the Kindle Fire hit shelves today, giving us all a chance to finally get our hands on the newest ereader from Amazon. Have you got yours yet? If so, let us know what you think in the comments.

Amazon is now going head-to-head with several new devices in the ereader and tablet market. There is of course the iPad, along with the Kobo Vox, the new Nook Tablet, and all the Android tablets out there, the biggest one right now being the Samsung Galaxy Tab. So how does it stack up?

Pricing

Of all the devices mentioned above, the Fire is the cheapest or tied at $199. The Vox is also $199, but lacks many of the features of the Kindle. The others are quite a bit more expensive.

Features

I would put the Kindle Fire up against any of the tablets and ereaders mentioned above when it comes to features. Instead of rehashing everything here, you can read all about it and/or watch the video on our Kindle Fire review page.

Reviews

Now that people actually have the Kindle Fire in their hands, they seem to be very pleased overall. Many are even calling for a Fire phone to match the tablet (and I think that is actually in the works).

Tomorrow, I am going to show you how you can install the Nook app on the Fire, for those of you who are making the switch to the Kindle, but still want your books from Barnes and Noble. Make sure you check back for that!

Also don’t forget to check out our Kindle Fire case and cover reviews!

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Filed Under: Kindle News, Kindle Reader

Kindle Fire Getting Voice Recognition?

November 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It appears that Amazon intends to add voice recognition to their line of products in the very near future.

As you may have seen, Apple recently added Siri, the intuitive voice recognition software, into the the newest iPhone. It looks liek Amazon wants to get in the game with voice recognition as well, with the company’s recent acquisition of Yap. According to Mashable, Amazon tried to keep it a secret by merging the company with one of its obscure subsidiaries known only as Dion Acquisitions. However, someone took notice that the address for the merged company was the same as Amazon’s corporate address.

Why would Amaozn want to add such a feature to the Kindle Fire? The first thing I can think of is the fact that they are continuing to try to compete directly with Appl and want to offer the same bells and whistles that they can. Also, I think voice recogntion could be a good selling point for the Kindle Fire, as it seems to be a big selling point for the new iPhone.

The bigger question will probably be functionality. Most of the other attempts out there at voice recognition have either filed or had at least questionable success. However, most accounts seem to show the current Siri setup as working quite well, at least anecdotally. I personally don’t think it would be something that I would use that much unless it could significantly reduce or simply the time for me to do a task on the Fire.

What do you think? Would you use this? Let us know if the comments below!

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Filed Under: Kindle News, Kindle Reader

Kindle Owners’ Lending Library!

November 5, 2011 By 2 Comments

Img Source:Amazon.com

Add one more great reason to purchase the Kindle – the new Kindle Owners’ Lending Library! – coming soon to a Kindle near you!

Kindle users have been trying to find a good way to lend books to one another for a while, and there have been some great systems; however, this seems like it will be the easiest way to do so up to this point.

How It Works

Basically it will work like this -

  1. First, you must own a Kindle and be an Amazon Prime user (totally worth it if you by much on Amazon, as you get free hipping on just about everything)
  2. Once you are part of the program, there will be a new option in your menu on the Kindle for the Lending Library.
  3. You can go to the Library and browse what books are available to borrow.
  4. You choose to either borrow or buy the item.
  5. You can borrow one book per month.
  6. You do not have to worry about deleting it or getting rid of the book. It will stay on your Kindle until you borrow another one, if you choose to do so in future months.

The book selection will not be too shabby, either. You will be able to pick from over 5,000 books at any one time, along with lots of NYT bestsellers in the list.

I think this is a great idea from Amazon. Some have said that it may cause Amazon to lose some money up front, as people will be borrowing and not buying. However, I think it will instead lead to more purchases of Amazon Prime, which can only be good for Amazon in the long run.

Read more here.

Also, check out our Kindle Fire Review!

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Filed Under: Kindle News, Kindle Reader
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