Pocket-Lint: Is it a jumped-up e-reader, a cut-price iPad or nothing more than a portable shop window for Amazon’s endless shelves? The Kindle Fire blunders into the tablet wars with something to annoy everyone: an LCD screen to irritate E Ink fans; a GPS-less, camera-less, Bluetooth-less spec to infuriate the techies; and a closed, corporate retail interface that makes a mockery of Android’s open source roots.
And yet Jeff Bezos can’t seem to make enough of them: Amazon will ship several million Fires to cash-conscious consumers this Christmas. At 7-inches in size and under $200 in the US (no UK release plans yet), this top-of-the-range Kindle could be the perfect stocking filler for the mass market eager to embrace our tablety future. Or at the very least, the first in a new wave of tightly integrated devices that don’t need a second mortgage to buy in to.
If you own an Amazon Fire tablet (we know you’re out there), we have some news for you. The company recently introduced the Show Mode Charging Dock for select Fire tablets. With it, you can turn your device into something closer to an Echo Show. For us that have a random Fire tablet lying around, this is a great update to give it more functionality.
CNET: The e-commerce giant marks the launch by disbursing 500 free Amazon Coins -- which buys as much as does a $5 bill -- into the Amazon accounts of existing and new Kindle Fire customers in the U.S.
Geek: After an image was uploaded to a Chinese forum site, rumors are swirling that Sony may be working on a 6.44-inch phablet to take on devices like the Galaxy Note and Huawei’s new 6-inch Ascend Mate. But at a half inch larger than the Huawei and just a half inch short of the Nexus 7, Galaxy Tab 7, and Kindle Fire, it’s quite possible Sony isn’t building this device to get in on the phablet action.
why would they set themselves up for this...
Nexus pretty much locked that tablet sizing option down and then sony is in critical condition ...
