AMAZON ANNOUNCEMENTS - NEW TABLET DEVICES
I'm highlighting the things you should know and I'll follow up later today with updates on the new offerings.
Note that ALL the new 7" 8" and 10" tablets have MicroSD slots that allow you to expand the total storage capacity by 128 GB.
And the TV Fire Stick now comes with a voice remote.
The UK new Kindle info pages are linked to on the Global Listing page.
FIRE tablet - $49.99
"This is a groundbreaking new tablet for under $50. The new Fire tablet includes a quad-core processor, 7" IPS display, front- and rear-facing cameras, up to 128GB of expandable storage, exclusive Amazon features and services, and access to the world's best content ecosystem -- all for just $49.99. Customers can also choose to buy Fire as a six-pack for less than $250. "
The businesswire quotation:
' Introducing Fire -- Setting an Entirely New Standard for a Tablet under $50
The best display on any tablet under $50, almost 2x more durable than the latest generation iPad Air, and 2x more processing power than Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite
Fire OS 5 “Bellini” features an updated user interface, adds hundreds of new features and platform enhancements, and provides instant access to Amazon’s vast content ecosystem of more than 38 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, apps, and games
Includes Amazon Underground with unlimited access to over $10,000 in paid apps, games, and even in-app purchases that are actually free
Prime members get instant access to a lending library of hundreds of thousands of books, over a million songs, free photo storage in the cloud, and tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes—all at no additional cost. '
I WILL add now that I have been following all the rumors that used actual government approval data sheets, and the speaker in these IS a mono one, and the storage space rumored was 8 GB and that's what it is, with 5 GB used for system files.
With everyone using the Cloud to move things onto and off their devices, these are choices made to lower the cost for those who need to budget.
HOWEVER, even this $50 model has a 128GB MicroSD slot. I bought, during an Amazon sale I blogged a couple of weeks ago, a 64 GB Sandisk Ultra MicroSD card for $19.95.
Amazon's pricing on Sandisk cards (these have been reliable for me) tends to be attractive. Here is a page showing Sandisk MicroSD cards, with ratings shown and reviews accessible. And here's a page with ALL MicroSD cards, sorted by average customer rating.
Note that the Sandisk cards are currently priced $5 to $20 lower than if bought with the tablets.
Display resolution is somewhat less than the current 7" HD model's for Year 2014, but that difference won't be particularly noticeable to most, and this is a no-worry tablet at only $50 when a family has younger folks who want to just read, play games, or watch free streaming videos.
Note the quote above that Amazon's offering a "6-pack" of these $50 tablets for the price of 5, or $250, useful for families or organizations -- and still less than one iPad Pro, it's been noted. 
Fire HD 8 - $149.99 and Fire HD 10 - $229.99 "These new tablets are designed from the ground up for entertainment with a stunning 8" or 10.1" widescreen HD display, an incredibly thin and light design, quad-core processor, stereo speakers with Dolby Audio, front- and
rear-facing cameras, and microSD card support providing up to 128GB of expandable storage..."
The Businesswire quotation
'Introducing the All-New Fire HD: Powerful Tablets ... stunning HD display with over 1 million pixels, fast quad-core processor, stereo speakers with Dolby Audio, front- and rear-facing cameras, expandable memory via microSD, and almost 2x more durable than the latest generation iPad Air—all of this for just $149.99 for 8” and $229.99 for 10.1”The display resolution in both the 8" and 10.1" tablets is not as high as that used in past HD models, with price apparently being a main consideration for families as well as a slimmer, lighter weight tablet.
The best entertainment experience on a tablet with Fire OS 5 “Bellini,” which features an updated user interface, adds hundreds of new features and platform enhancements, and introduces exclusive features like On Deck, Activity Center, Mayday Screen Sharing, and more
First tablets with Amazon Underground built-in, delivering a one-of-a-kind app store experience where over $10,000 in apps, games, and even in-app items are actually free—including extra lives, unlocked levels, unlimited add-on packs, and more '
Fire Kids" Last year, we introduced Fire HD Kids Edition at $149 -- and parents and kids alike loved it. Today, we're making it even more affordable." [$99.99]
Businesswire quotation:
' Introducing the All-New Fire Kids Edition -- Built from the Ground Up for Kids, Now Under $100
New Fire Kids Edition comes with an all-new Fire tablet, a year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, a kid-proof case, and a 2-year worry-free guarantee—if anything happens, simply return it and we’ll replace it for free -- no questions asked
Kids now get access to over 20,000 age-appropriate websites and YouTube videos -- all hand-curated by a team of Amazon experts -- kids can dive in to this content immediately with no set up or extra costs
Includes a year of FreeTime Unlimited, with more than 10,000 books, videos, educational apps, and games -- a 2x increase in selection over last year -- that have been curated for age-appropriateness '
New Devices - Comparison Tables
Here's Amazon's Yr 2015 tablet-comparison table
and
Amazon's Yr 2015 FireTV-comparison table
These can be useful kept in a separate browser window when looking through the various product pages while reading about specific features and wondering if they're in the other models.
Fire TV 2015
INCLUDES Fire TV ($99.99) and Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote ($49.99) (standard remote optional, for $39.99 instead - but WHY not choose Voice search rather than typing in a search, for $10 difference?)
"Last year, we introduced the first Amazon Fire TV, combining voice search
that actually works, fast and powerful performance, and an open ecosystem to
deliver the easiest way to watch Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO NOW, Hulu,
WatchESPN, and more on your big-screen TV. Since launch, Fire TV has become
the #1 best-selling Amazon device category, with Fire TV Stick quickly
becoming our fastest-selling product ever.
Today, we are making those best-selling products even better. Today we are intrducing the next generation of Fire TV -- the new Amazon Fire TV with support for 4K Ultra HD,
and the new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote."
Businesswire quotation
' Introducing the New Amazon Fire TV with 4K Ultra HD and Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote
The new Amazon Fire TV is 75% more powerful, with best-in-class Wi-Fi, support for Alexa, and 4K Ultra HD—and is still less than $100
Amazon Fire TV offers the most 4K Ultra HD movies, and is half the price of any other 4K Ultra HD streaming media player
Voice features on Fire TV just got better: Alexa, the brain behind Echo, is now available on Fire TV devices -- ask for music, information, weather, traffic, and more
Over 3,000 channels, apps, and games now available -- more than Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, or any other streaming media player -- plus you can now add up to 128 GB of additional storage via microSD to take advantage of this great selection
New Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote—simple and easy-to-use voice search and Alexa integration via included remote—all for less than $50 '
Fire TV Gaming
"Today we also introduced a new version of Fire TV designed for affordable,
high-quality gaming. Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition includes the all-new Fire
TV, the new Fire TV Game Controller, a 32 GB microSD card, and two popular
games: Shovel Knight and Disney's Ducktales -- all for just $139.99 (regularly
Businesswire quotation:
' Introducing the New Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition—Take Game Night to the Next Level
Fire TV Gaming Edition combines the new Amazon Fire TV, new game controller, a 32 GB microSD card, and two included games: Shovel Knight and Disney’s Ducktales—all for $139.99
New Amazon Fire TV Game Controller includes an all-new ergonomic design, a headphone jack, and voice search -- available as part of the Gaming Edition or as an optional accessory for Fire TV
The all new Fire TV has 75% more processing power, 2x GPU performance, plus expandable microSD storage up to 128 GB—offering incredible value and powerful performance for gamers
Amazon Fire TV has more games than any other streaming media player - new popular games include Minecraft Story Mode, Pac Man 256, Disney’s Ducktales, and Shovel Knight. '
Their Fire Stick page points out that (until Google updates its stick again) Fire TV Stick is the only video-streaming stick with Voice-Remote Control and has "4x the storage and 2x the memory of Chromecast plus a dual-core processor, 1 GB of memory, and ASAP" for fast Amazon video loading.
Updates (As of 9/22/15, 12:20 pm PDT)
I'll do a separate blog entry for highlights from some tech site reactions I've read, mostly quite positive.
• Mainstream tech sites point out, of course, that Apple released this week its new Apple TV update without support for streaming 4K 'Ultra HD' video until later on.
Forbes was pretty clear on the situation.
• Note that ALL the new Fire tablets -- including the "kids" version with 2 year warranty (no questions asked) which also has an IPS screen -- have MicroSD card slots that allow you to expand storage space by 128 GB.
• Here are comparison tables for the new Fire tablets and FireTV devices. They can be kept in a separate window that you can switch to and from while reading about features on an individual product page.
• I asked Amazon for info on the MicroSD card types compatible with the new devices.
Here is the response:
" - We support class 4 and above, including Class 10, UHS etc.
For best performance we recommend Class 10 cards or above.
" - It supports both SDHC and SDXC.
" - The tablets provide the amount of on-device storage you've purchased with
the tablet, plus up to an additional 128GB via microSD card."
My Microsoft Surface Pro 2 laptop's MicroSD slot supports only (at least officially)
a 64GB MicroSD card.
• I added a note to the $50 Fire to highlight the Amazon reference to a "six-pack" for for the price of five.
• In the Comments area of this blog, it's been pointed out that the new UI emphasizes sets of regular-sized icons for favorite content, including ones recently accessed, so many are hoping the huge Carousel icons are gone. The reader comments themselves may be of interest to those with questions about the latest offerings.
• The comparison chart shows that even the $50 tablet gets "Mayday" help (but first, phone or email is tried and if that doesn't work, then an Amazon rep can help by working on your tablet with you, live).
• Added a note that the display resolution chosen for the 8" and 10.1" tablets is somewhat lower than for the previous HD/HDX units, in a trade-off for more attractive pricing and a slimmer, lighter tablet.
• Added, within the blog section for the $50 model, a link to Amazon's nicely-priced Sandisk MicroSD cards. This will give an idea of the cost after adding any extra storage wanted, though the unlimited, free Cloud storage for Amazon-purchased content can help.
And here's a link to ALL MicroSD cards, sorted by average customer rating.
The Sandisk cards are currently priced $5 to $20 lower than if bought with the tablets.
• Added UK product pages to the Global Listing of Kindles.
• Had not pointed out that the new Fires don't offer cellular network 3G or 4G access options, only WiFi.
• While the $50 Fire TV cannot 'mirror' to an HDTV what you're doing on the tablet, it DOES come with the 'Fling' feature.
"Fling" lets you send, from even this inexpensive tablet, an Amazon video to the TV so that it plays from the Cloud instead of from the tablet, freeing it so that you can use the tablet for other things -- whether just to read about what you're seeing ('Xray' feature) or do normal tablet things on it (read a book, play an app) while the movie or TV show displays on the HDTV for everyone in the room, with none of the buffering issues common to other ways of doing this.
This can be done using a Fire TV or Fire TV stick, which both offer Amazon's Fling technology.
This can be a workaround for those whose TVs no longer function with Amazon Instant Video due to changes. Amazon Instant Video no longer has support for Google TV and no longer functions on some smart tv's. Software updates may help in some cases.
• See this heavy.com article which takes information from several sites, about changes that affect watching Amazon Instant on certain TVs.
In connection with that, here is Amazon's page for its database listing of every compatible device and television. (It doesn't include, yet, the new Fire tablets and FireTV, Fire-Stick devices.)
• Note the follow-up blog article 10/2/15 for reactions to the delivered tablets as well as the product reviews posted by Amazon Friday night.
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Well, I had been expecting an event - instead we get a slew of PR's -- none of which were too terribly compelling to me. Display resolution on the new Fires is only so so.
ReplyDeleteThe Fire TV now supports 4K video and has Alexa (nee Echo) support.
Seems like we're seeing some good price cuts on the tablets (Fire TV prices are unchanged).
New FireOS -- more parental controls -- nothing to see here, move along move along :grin.
I guess they're going back to their "cut the prices to the bone" roots. :D
Hi, Edward. For me, the microSD slot is HUGE. Supporting a 128GB SD card is quality. Even my Microsoft Surface Pro laptop only supports (officially) 64GB. During the recent SD card sale last week, I bought a Class 10 64 GB Samsung Ultra MicroSD card for only $20. Great way to get the added storage space.
DeleteI do wish it was USB 3 but then that drives prices higher, I suppose. I am very happy with my 8.9" Yr 2013 HD Kindle Fire HD tablet. If I do decide to get the 10.1" after reading more about it, it'll be because I use the tablet to watch a lot of live TV and the added size would be nice while the unit is nicely slim.
Another key item will be how good the built-in speakers are on these. These were weaker than they should be on the year 2013 models and some Yr2014 ones. The Yr 2012 7" HD tablet had a stupendous speaker with great volume and clarity, so I keep that one around.
They have been said to be going back to recognizing price-conscious Amazon consumers. Rumors had mentioned 3D and I'm glad that's not involved here. It caused too much complexity and awkwardness on the Fire Phone for many, although I think what killed the phone was the initial pricing, which I read that AT&T pushed when Amazon wanted to include a lower-cost phone at the time. Rumors are that what's left of the phone team are now in Seattle where they are working on a new Fire phone.
I love the Fire TV I have although I mainly use my tablet for TV now since some of the apps are so good and the screen is so fine. I also hook it up to good speakers.
Fire TV specs look really good. Apple is taking a beating from the press over the lack of support for 4K Ultra HD streaming. Amazon shamed them on this one. Especially with pricing at half Apple's. The Gaming edition looks very good for more serious gaming, though Amazon had the lead there anyway with streaming devices.
Any word if current Fire TV can/will be upgraded with Alexa? I use the Echo mainly for streaming music and would love that capability on my current Fire TV.
ReplyDeleteCommander Clay, I haven't heard about an update for Alexa, but if it's possible with the hardware they have in the current version, they're likely to do it a few months down the road. Will keep my eyes out for news on that.
DeleteI too use the Echo mainly for streaming music. I've been using Amazon's trade-in program, which is very reasonable and nicely run. At some point they may take in Echo 1's. but I do think that Alexa might show up on the current version. They did such a good job with Alexa that I keep finding myself saying 'Thank you." :-)
The new FireTV (and the FireTV stick) both include Alexa support -- that uses the Alexa S/W facilities in the cloud, and doesn't involve the Echo H/W at all.
DeleteEdward, Commander Clay was asking if they might provide Alexa for the CURRENT version of the *Fire TV* which we already have. (And mentioned that Commander Clay's use of the Echo is mainly for streaming music and wanting it to be as easily called up on a current Fire TV version 1 ... and I mentioned that my own use of Echo is for streaming music also.)
DeleteI missed that -- sorry -- I have both the current TV and the Stick. In order for it to work the current H/W would need to have microphones -- don't know if they do or not. If they do, then there's no technical reason why Alexa couldn't work -- as it's all S/W in the cloud
DeleteI did read somewhere where a lot of the new S/W (like FireOS 5) will be coming to older H/W (like my Fire HDX 8.9 from last year :grin)
Edward, the current H/W does have a voice remote control with a microphone ... and the requests would be similar to the searches but a lot depends on how they might, in the FireTV software, separate Search requests from requests for some streaming music or news of a current sports event.
DeleteQuote about the $50 model: "and the storage space rumored was 8 GB and that's what it is, with 5 GB used for system files." If I understand you correctly, that leaves only 3 GB for other apps, ebooks, videos, pictures, and the rest. Coupled with the lack of a microSD slot, that's going to make some purchasers most unhappy despite that low price.
ReplyDeleteOne bit of good news. If Amazon and others continue to include microSD slots on their tablets, that'll put pressure on Apple to do the same, particularly on high-end models.
Inkling, the Year 2014 6" and 7" HD models came with only 8/16 GB options and MANY chose the 8 GB one.
DeleteI've always warned there'd be a lot of swapping in and out of apps/games that way, and made sure to put that in this time, but in the forums I visit I don't see complaints about it.
I guess people got used to using the Cloud and Amazon's Cloud has unlimited use of that for purchased items -- and if you're a Prime member, that includes unlimited photos stored there as well.
One mainstream tech site wrote today that a family can buy 6 of these Fire 2015 basics for the cost of one new iPad Pro :-)
The $50 model is sold at what is, practically, the cost of a disposable item. So, expectations may be lower and the Cloud and swapping is just taken for granted.
Especially on high-end models, Apple will need to take heed. But with the Microsoft Surface Pro laptop 2 (model 4 is due in October), we've had a USB 3.0 port, a 64GB MicroSD slot, and a port for HDTV and chainted TV monitors, but Apple has released its latest without a USB port or MicroSD slot.
And now their latest release of the Apple TV (just this week) was done without streaming 4K Ultra HD support despite costing twice as much. Otherwise it looks to be fairly slick in other ways and one that should be connectable eventually with all types of other household Apple gizmos.
I am almost shocked that Amazon went for the 128 GB MicroSD slot and I think it's a killer feature at the price of these tablets that have FINE display resolution. My Yr 2013 8.9" Kindle Fire HDX has 64 GB on it and I love the freedom of that, since I love to keep videos.
Inkling, the 8 GB internal storage problem is mitigated by the fact the $50 tablet DOES have a MicroSD slot that makes storage expandable by 128 GB.
DeleteAmazon is running a deal you can buy a 6-pack of the $50 Fire tablets for the price of 5 ($250) -- they even come in a little cardboard beer-like six pack container :D. This will be a boon for large families and schools.
DeleteEdward, yes, saw that deal later and other things and must update my entry again after stopping earlier this morning.
DeleteA set of 6 at that special price undercuts the price of one Apple iPad Pro, it's been mentioned. Love it. But of course the display resolution of the Apple and the speed of it is another matter. I've found that most people on budgets don't seem to pay that much attention to finer display resolutions. I would miss it as I'm used to the Year 2013 8.9" tablet, which has a higher-resolution display than the coming tablets though it's not as svelte nor as fast.
Sure agree with you on the six-pack :-) !
Has the Carousel gone away or at least made optional? That is my least favorite feature.
ReplyDeleteDon't really know. FireOS supposedly changes the home page UI. The photos on the Amazon site don't show the carousel -- just a page of icons/tiles.
Deletebfree2read, I missed this one when first browsing comments. I doubt that Carousel would be gone because they mention reminders of your most recently accessed content and recommendations based on that.
Delete(I turn off 'Personal Recommendations' in settings on my tablets.)
HOWEVER, with the Yr 2013 tablet I use daily, I just push up to see my many Favorites (little icons) on the 'Home' page and that moves the Carousel off the page and I never see those huge Carousel icons again for the entire session -- not ever again on any given day.
In fact, it's hard to pull it down to see the Carousel after you push it up out of the way. Sometimes when I want to see my last-used app, then I actually want the Carousel and it's a little difficult to pull it back. :-)
So I think you'd be happy with that if you try it.
There was something in the discussion of the FireOS 5 aboutUI changes -- in particular can put books, music, video "side by side" on the home page -- several Tech reviewers mentioned this as well -- not an awful lot of info @Amazon specifically about FireOS -- it'll have to get there by the end of the month (:grin)
DeleteThis is the verbiage taken from Amazon's HD 10 page:
"The new home screen includes dedicated content pages for books, games, and apps, video, music, audiobooks, and Newsstand, making it quick to pick up right where you left off. Powered by Amazon’s recommendations engine, you can quickly browse books, movies, TV shows, music, apps, and games suggested just for you."
Edward, yes, on that last sentence. As mentioned above, I turn off Recommendations on the current tablets and like that they have a setting for that.. I don't mind them while browsing Amazon and they can be a big plus while actually shopping, but I don't like to see them when I'm just trying to enjoy my tablet and the content I put on it, whether from Amazon or an interesting article kept from a newspaper or magazine.
Delete. When I'm in buying mode I know I can just click to Amazon shopping and see an abundnace of recommendations just for me :-).
bfree2read -- Edward makes a good point about the new UI. That Carousel of huge icons does seem to be gone, finally, and we'll get pages of icon sets instead. And, to replace the Carousel, there'll be a page for recently-accessed apps or content. I do like that idea.
The 'Favorites' section of icons has been changeable by us on the current or older tablets, and I would put my favorite favorites ;-) at the top but then Amazon would boot up and CHANGE all that and show me Amazon app icons at the top of Favorites instead, which drove me bonkers, so I finally made Collections of fave apps and put those at the top of Favorites, and those would survive the bootups that changed the icon order, as I can just put the Collections back at the top and see everything I wanted to see, in categories, and in the order I want.
They are a little quirky but they work. I actually liked the black background and I hope they can keep that as an option.
Is there any info yet on the new generation of Fire HDX 7"?
ReplyDeleteDeborah, I haven't seen any rumors at all about a change to the 7" HDX. There were rumors for a few weeks about the new lineup though. I think the 8" with MicroSD slot is the 'upgrade' to that HDX except that the display resolution is lower. They seem to be focusing on lower-cost models now. But will keep my eyes out and report here if I hear anything.
DeleteI'm just going to wait for the update to my Fire HD6, which works perfectly fine and except for lack of SD storage (which I don't care about) is not inferior to the new ones. I would not necessarily say Amazon has abandoned the premium tablet market: most of the 2013 & 2014 Fire HDX configurations are still available, and the 2014 HDX8.9 still measures up well to the competition. I'm guessing we may see HDX tablets next year some time. The tablet market seems rather saturated, but low cost ones can still sell.
ReplyDeleteWalmart sells a $50 tablet (similar in specs to Amazon's) and also 10" and even 12" tablets for less than the new HD10, with higher screen resolutions in some cases. The ones I looked at were slightly slower but I think they all had SD slots, were running Lolipop, and access to Google Play. So that is Amazon's competition, in a way, not Amazon.
Tom, I kept the "Older Kindles" chart at the top of the reference column to the right in case people are looking at used models. The models I checked are out of stock and future availability is up in the air or nil in their presentation.
DeleteI don't think they'll make new ones with the higher display resolution available unless they come with less internal storage (to keep the price down) and the MicroSD slot.
They probably wouldn't make as many of them because most people don't seem to care about highest display resolution and so the economies of scale thing would not figure in, making the price a bit higher...
Even my Yr2013 HDX8.9" is, to me, a beauty. It's used everyday. I've 64GB on mine and have used 32GB already. Love having video files on it :-)
There are a lot of software pluses with Amazon's $50 tablet that won't be seen with the inexpensive Walmart competitor. The ASAP thing is not a small factor when watching streaming video, which can be slow loading and somewhat problematical with other cheap tablets.
Now, your 6" and every other Fire tablet can mirror and fling content to HDTV. But I have a question into Amazon about the $50 tablet. The product page says it can use the Fling technology (which surprised me), but I don't see anything about mirroring (which I thought was less complex).
Right, your 6" has good specs.
Tom - As it turns out, the $50 Fire CAN 'Fling' material to an HD TV but it doesn't do mirroring, which just mirrors onto an HDTV what you're doing on the tablet.
DeleteFling, which this cheap tablet does, lets you send, from one of these tablets, an Amazon video to the TV so that it plays from the Cloud instead of from the tablet, freeing it so that you can use the tablet to just read about what you're seeing ('Xray' feature) or do normal tablet things on it while the movie or TV show displays on the HDTV for everyone in the room, with none of the buffering issues common to other ways of doing this.
I guess I should include that in an update.
I'm just adding that the $50 Fire is the only non-HD Kindle tablet that can also access Amazon Underground apps...
Delete