Slashdot Mirror


Amazon Plans iPad Competitor (and 2 New Kindles)

destinyland writes "Some time in the next 10 weeks, Amazon will release a new Android tablet device, which will compete directly with Apple's iPad, according to the Wall Street Journal. Amazon hopes to leverage the digital content they've already made available online — digital video, music, and ebooks, as well as their new app store for Android devices. The device will ship without a built-in camera, prompting one tablet watcher to report that 'it feels like Amazon is trying to strip it down and bring it in at the lowest cost possible.' Amazon will also release two new versions of the Kindle — one with a touch screen, and one at a lower price." Now if only they'd make it a proper e-reader by including a Pixel Qi (or similar) daylight-readable screen, I'd be sold.

18 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. huh? by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Now if only they'd make it a proper e-reader by including a Pixel Qi (or similar) daylight-readable screen, I'd be sold.

    Huh? Make what a proper ereader? The Kindle? The kindle eInk is easily readable in broad daylight. It's useless in the dark.Or are you talking about the tablet? Your syntax is unclear. Please rephrase.

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
    1. Re:huh? by destinyland · · Score: 2

      Hey! Destinyland didn't say that. Timothy did.

      Sincerely,

      Destinyland

  2. UI replacements on Android by tepples · · Score: 2

    Do you find Android devices complicated to use?

    Yes, when customizations by the manufacturer or carrier overcomplicate the UI. It's also complicated to find apps for entry-level Android-powered devices whose manufacturers don't pay Google for Android Market access.

  3. Re:kindle started it all by geekoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No ti didn't. I mean is was out, but no one wanted a tablet' until the iPad. well, the VAST majority of people.

    They are not really comparable. one is a device designed for a specific task, the other is a multipurpose portable computer.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  4. Re:kindle started it all by Moridineas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What about the Newton? What about those brick thick tablets in the 90s/early 2000s that you could draw on?

    I have a Kindle and an iPad. I read books on both. The Kindle experience is, imho, far better. The Kindle is great, but the Kindle is not a general purpose tablet. The iPad is. It's absolutely fair to say that the iPad started the current tablet craze.

  5. Touchscreen....No Thanks! by Fool106 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Am I the only one who doesn't want a touchscreen kindle? I do not want to see my finger prints all over the screen while I try to read a book.

    1. Re:Touchscreen....No Thanks! by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Am I the only one who doesn't want a touchscreen kindle? I do not want to see my finger prints all over the screen while I try to read a book.

      Ditto. I suspect most people demanding touchscreens have never actually used one for long.

    2. Re:Touchscreen....No Thanks! by mlts · · Score: 2

      You are not the only one. I much rather have buttons on a bookreader, especially for page turning, and not have to worry about fingerprints. The Kindle is a decent form factor for holding like a novel.

      The Kindle is a bookreader. Having Web browser functionality is nice, because sometimes clicking on a link in text to do something may prove fruitful.

      However, if the Kindle turns into a touch screen tablet, it will just be a face in a herd, and lose the usefulness that made it a sellout item in the first place. We have a ton of touch screen tablets.

      What Amazon should do instead is get the Kindle to work with the epub format, add a SD card slot, so if someone wants 32 GB, they can have it. Since Amazon also has a decent cloud store, why not offer to stream/download from that as well? This doesn't need anything fancy on the screen, although AT&T may not like Whispernet being used for this.

      Amazon should not lose what makes the Kindle great, and that is the ease of reading books with it, regardless of light. If they make the Kindle into another tablet, they will lose their market because they will be just another generic iPad competitor.

    3. Re:Touchscreen....No Thanks! by steveg · · Score: 3, Informative

      When Barnes and Noble announced the new touchscreen Nook, one of my objections on various forums was about the reduction in clarity that came with touchscreens. A number of people told me that, while that was a problem with the 1st gen Sony touchscreens, the newer Pearl touchscreens used a different process and there was no optical penalty for the touchscreen part.

      You'd still have to deal with the fact that it's a touchscreen, and I'm not too enthusiastic about that, but it seems that clarity is no longer the problem it was.

      --
      Ignorance killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.
    4. Re:Touchscreen....No Thanks! by Fool106 · · Score: 2

      Because your fingers dont have any natural oils on it right? The kindle is also not backlit. It's e-ink.

  6. No sale until I have control by Anomalyst · · Score: 2

    Bozo will not have the ability to push his whims down my throat. I paid for it. It is MINE.

    --
    There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
  7. Re:Ugh by cyber-vandal · · Score: 2, Funny

    There's a lot of BS in Computer Science already we don't need any more.

  8. Re:kindle started it all by jojoba_oil · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No ti didn't. I mean is was out, but no one wanted a tablet' until the iPad. well, the VAST majority of people.

    They are not really comparable. one is a device designed for a specific task, the other is a multipurpose portable computer.

    I have trouble calling the iPad a computer. Can you save files on its harddrive? Not directly. Can you word process on it? Not really. Can you edit pictures on it? Not very effectively. Can you program/create things on it? Not that I've ever seen.

    Can you explain to me how it's a portable computer instead of an oversized phone? When would I need an iPad that I wouldn't be able to use a netbook?

  9. Re:kindle started it all by Telvin_3d · · Score: 2

    If you don't have any apps, what are you saving? The pictures you are not editing? The text files you are not writing?

  10. Re:New Kindle.. we'll see by dakameleon · · Score: 2

    Because a specialist device doesn't need to and shouldn't compete with more generalist devices?

    You can stick to the philosophy of "Do one thing, do it well" and still endure. Attempting to be a jack of all trades chasing competitors for ancillary features shouldn't be important if you know what you're selling should sell on its own merits.

    I use my Kindle for reading, and my iPhone for music - I charge my Kindle once a month, my iPhone daily. Two separate but complimentary devices.

    --
    Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
  11. Re:kindle started it all by Eskarel · · Score: 2

    The thing is none of that is actually true.

    Yes mobile devices are selling like hotcakes, but I don't know a single person who had a computer of some sort(laptop, netbook, desktop, etc) before they bought an iPad and doesn't have one now. I don't even know anyone who put off an upgrade or replacement to one of those devices because they bought an iPad.

    People like Jobs keep touting the end of the PC, but as far as I've seen and read there's absolutely no evidence of it happening. Sure PC sales are slowing, but that's because everyone who can currently use one and wants one has one. The few people who don't are too poor to buy an iPad either.

    Maybe you're seeing stuff I'm not, but I just don't see any evidence of a decline in PC ownership, a decline in the rate of increase in PC ownership sure, but that was coming with or without the new sort of tablets.

    The same prediction has been made for years but it's never happened. No one is throwing out their laptop to buy an iPad.

  12. Re:New Kindle.. we'll see by Eskarel · · Score: 2

    Amazon also can't, and won't, do anything to the documents you manually put on your kindle, 1984 was yanked because it was sold by Amazon improperly, Amazon doesn't back up private documents, nor have they ever yanked them.

  13. Re:kindle started it all by hey! · · Score: 2

    The Kindle experience is great for novels. It is not so good for technical books or non-fiction books with illustrations and figures. As for math books -- forget it. A page with equations is either rendered as if it were put into an open blender and splattered across the wall, or as an unreadable image. Ironically, I *can* read those book on my iPod touch using the Amazon Reader. The rendering infrastructure must be better. Also on the touch I can zoom in and out of illustrations and photos, a capability for some reason not implemented in the Android reader software for Amazon of Barnes and Noble.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.