Amazon Kindle and Fire Devices on special sale, Black Friday (See Update 2: 30% off PRINT book.
The special pricing on the Black Friday Amazon Devices page tends to be available until Nov 28, said to be 11:59 pm that day, tho' some have later ending dates. Some will become available again only during lightning deals for the following "CyberMonday week" and for as long as the items are in stock).
Clicking on the small-version images of Amazon's special sales page for its devices today will get you to the larger, much more readable page at Amazon.
The special device deals today include e-Readers, tablets, as well as Fire TV box and Fire Stick.
HighlightsFire TV devices
Fire TV Stick, normally $39.99, is nearly 40% off at $24.99.
Fire TV Box (more fully-featured), normally $99.99 is 25% off at $75.99 and that's a rare price for this.
Here's Amazon's Yr 2015 FireTV-comparison table
Kindle e-Readers and tablets
The basic Kindle e-Ink e-Reader is almost 40% off at $49.99.
You can save $15 on the new Fire tablet, which has been, Amazon says, "the #1 best-selling product" on Amazon.com since launch. Normally, $50, it's $34.99 today.
Once more: the sometimes confusing lineup of Kindles and how to decide
which ones would work best for you
Here's a set of links that should help clarify the differences between models and allow easier comparison of features and prices:
• Amazon's Tablet Comparison table
• Amazon's Comparison table for the e-Ink Kindle eReaders
• Paperwhite 3 vs Paperwhite 1: photos
* Yr 2015 lineup: Details
plus a quick-text listing or table of the various models:
• Which Kindles Where? (Models available)
The previous blog article was on how the 8 days of Black Friday would work and the coming CyberMonday Week starting Nov. 30 will see similar multiple sales events.
GENERAL Black Friday pages for the US, UK, and Canada
UPDATE 2: Additional 30% off ANY Print Book 11/26-11/29 (thru' Sunday)
I got word of this and forgot, and it's not easily findable on the Amazon pages:
' Shopping Alert: Amazon Books announced it's offering shoppers an extra 30% discount on any print title beginning on Thanksgiving Day. Shoppers must enter "HOLIDAY30" at checkout between Thursday (11/26) and Sunday (11/29) to receive the discount. '
[Amazon adds that the Amazon Book editors recently announced their Best Books of 2015 and that if any of you are looking for gifting options to use this 30% off on, take a look at the Editors’ Holiday Gift Picks.]
I'll end this here, since Thanksgiving and other events kept me from getting this out last night.
I'm also working today on another blog article, to be completed this weekend, on how to dictate emails (voice dictation) and notes to Evernote and other apps on the Kindle HDX models.
I've tested what works and doesn't in the way of punctuation and certain formats it understands (currency and time). This works very well for me on the 8.9" HDX that I have and for a friend's 7" HDX.
UPDATED, after initial posting:
EDITED: According to Amazon help pages on Language and Keyboard options:
"For Kindle Fire HDX (3rd Generation), Fire HD (4th Generation), or Fire HDX 8.9 (4th Generation) devices, tap the microphone icon on your keyboard to use your voice to dictate text instead of typing."
This means that the current HD6 and HD7 "Fire" tablets do have the Voice-dictation-to-text feature.
One more thing
I'll also include, in that later blog article today, an example from a very effective voice-recorder app (NOT voice-to-text but an audio file) that I bought ($3), which is clearer than others I'd tried earlier, and is even said by commenters to be very good for recording singing.
This is of course for Kindle tablets that use a microphone, although I saw that someone who bought earbuds with a mic attached was able to do the simple recording of voice to an audio file, which they can save and send or keep in a library.
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You missed the Kindle Voyage Essentials bundle, a 'savings of $30'. But that's not very tempting: who needs another USB charger, and one that costs $20?
ReplyDeleteI was not very tempted by any of the Kindle/Fire deals. But today got a 25% off deal for a new Fire tablet, Kindle, or Kindle Paperwhite (for Amazon Rewards Visa cardholders). This would shave almost $50 off PW3 3G to replace my PW1 3G. Of course, maybe I don't really need 3G if I'm willing to tether when needed. I just like everything to sync reading position wherever I am, with any reading device. Just not sure I would use it enough to justify getting it, even with a heavy discount. I'm barely using my Fire HD6 (wheres the darn Fire OS 5 update?), doubt I would find use for HD8/HD10 either.
I just bought an unlocked Lumia 640 for $30 (Microsoft Store). It is slated to get update to Windows 10 Mobile, which I'd like to play around with. Cheap thrills..
Tom, I missed a lot :-) The 'bundle' did not discount the charger???
DeleteI have 4Gigs on my AT&T account for data so I use Internet Sharing.
Am still stuck on the older premium HDX and they seem to be limiting purchase availability to larger storage space (since there is no SD slot in those). So they seem more expensive now. I would miss the display resolution and faster speeds. But most people just want Net access.
Nice re the Lumia 640 ! I'm avoiding Windows 10 until others improve it :-)
Well, I don't mind trying it on my Lumia 1020 but there are certain things missing on the Surface Pro 2 laptop that owners miss after upgrading to Win 10.
Sure, I know I can tether, and PW would not consume much data, it is just that I want my smartphone to have dedicated use of wifi when that's available, and not have to keep switching between the two modes. But, yes: I'm not anywhere close to using the data I pay for, it's probably more rational to save $70 (or with 25% off deal more like $52) if I'm going to buy a PW3, especially if I'm not even sure how much I'll like and use it.
DeleteReminder that Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile are completely different platforms. I've upgraded my Windows laptop (it was pretty smooth) and everything seems happy, fresh, and new. I think they have made some improvements to the upgrade process since I did that, and I'll probably upgrade my wife's desktop over holidays. Is it available for your Surface Pro yet? I think they are still working out things for compatible Windows tablets (the ones with more limited RAM and so forth). The Lumia I'm getting is not mission critical, just for play. Microsoft I know has low expectations for Windows Mobile, it will probably go the way of Windows RC within a year or two, and they'll probably try Intel-based Surface Phone running full Windows next year. They've lost the smartphone game, again, but I hope they persist, as they tend to do.
Still disappointed that Amazon killed Fire Phone after only one try, they should have treated it like the version 1 it is, made adjustments, and tried again. But I think they are liking making profits for a change and watching the stock price go up. I don't really see much future in Fire tablets or Kindle going forward, the smartphone is all 99% of people need or want, and they're great reading and media consumption devices. And Amazon doesn't make any. That is why they should make a cheap smartphone at least, sell through all the wireless providers this time around. I don't think we'll see 'premium' tablets from Amazon ever again, and I think we'll see one more generation of Kindles, tops. Maybe not even Voyage 2. No LiquaVista display to the rescue. But such is my mood today.
I also got a a Kangaroo PC ($99) a slab that runs Windows 10 expandable with USB, microSD, dock included, etc. The cool thing about that is you can tether it to an iPad, which can then serve as display and control surface with the free iOS app. Or plug it in to an HDTV.
I don't consider the Paperwhite with 3G anymore since I have so much data I don't use on the smart phone.
DeleteRe Win 10 on Surface Pro 2/3,,the SP community mostly seems to miss some aspects of Win 8.1 on that laptop, and many want to go back to that. It'll probably improve soon. It's just that they improved Win 8.1 so much on my SP2 that it seems seamless and easy to me, so I don't see changing until things are fully stabilized for Win10 on those, with others doing the complaining and suggestions and then going through the updates while it gets better.
I agree re Fire Phone, but I read that some of the team went up to Seattle and that there is a bit of movement to use that expertise on a 2nd attempt. That only makes sense. They need to take part in the phone market.
That Kangaroo PC sounds fun !