"THIS IS [NOT] AMAZON'S KINDLE TABLET
UPDATE - I missed an important point TechCrunch added at the end. See the
Update (which leads to Update2)
Gizmodo
It's a mockup done by
Gizmodo after
TechCrunch's MG Siegler wrote about having played with an early version of the coming 7" Amazon Tablet.
Gizmodo's Jesus Diaz summed up what the TechCrunch article described, although even then there are things that are not certain and it's not even due (according to their obviously good sources) until November.
This comes out on the day we also got the news that the
Nook Color 2 may be due out "within weeks" even if the news came from Digitimes, responsible for so many other of the Taiwan-computer-industry sourced rumors we've had, but which have proved to be rather accurate, including their reports of delays as they've gone on.. I had
retweeted that NookColor2 rumor at 4am Friday morning and I did expect we'd hear something today about Amazon's own plans,
What did interest me about the NC2 news was that the features promised were no different from what I see with the Barnes and Noble NookColor I do enjoy very much (it has a great screen but features that, for reading, are more limited than I have on the the Kindle 3 - the NC curiously has no zoom for images in its books, no rotation to Landscape -- I expect those should be fixed, but who knows -- a lot of that was said to be due to Adobe's ePub restrictions), so I wonder what Amazon will be up against there in what should be an improved NookColor 2.
While I've expected an Amazon 7" to be a walled garden too in the way an unrooted NookColor is (and the iPad, but with gazillion apps for the latter), it's more walled than even I expected, except that for some it'll be a rather attractive garden, as TechCrunch says that the $79/yr Prime program (with free 2-day shipping and more than 5000 free {older} videos on demand) will be included as an enticement, and everything will be centered around getting video/music streams from Amazon very easily.
Prime IS an effective free-shipping program and the 5000 videos often include things that Netflix doesn't have, if you like things from BBC, and Netflix has just lost Starz. No comparison, as I love me my Netflix Instant Queue, but very good as a supplmentary instant video, as I keep seeing videos I do want to stream and it's nice not to have to pay more for them.
No word on whether it'll support Flash (which the Nook Color does and I love seeing youtube on it's small 7" screen) but I certainly hope so!
Gizmodo's summary of
TechCrunch's description of its hands-on look:
' Hardware
• Full-colour 7-inch touchscreen.
• Unlike the iPad, it will probably only support two finger multitouch, not 10 fingers.
• It apparently has one single-core processor.
• Maybe only 6GB of storage — possibly more cloud oriented
• No physical buttons on the front
• No camera
• Rubberised back, like the BlackBerry PlayBook.
Software
• It’s built on a forked version of Android (apparently older than 2.2), but there are no visible Google apps of any kind — you’ll be able to get Android apps through Amazon’s appstore
• It has Apple Cover Flow-ish user interface, with all the content—books, movies and music—showing in a carousel. The UI is “very responsive”, unlike the Nook Color.
• In portrait mode, it has a dock where users can add their favorites. It hides in landscape mode.
• The book reader app is much like the iOS and Android Kindle app.
• The music app connects to Amazon Cloud.
• Logically, the Amazon Kindle will provide a storefront for the whole of Amazon (I imagine this looks a lot like the Amazon Window Shopping application on the iPad). '
Diaz goes on to be very positive about it, so
read why he is, at Gizmodo.
TechCrunch follow-up
I was out all day and just got back and received a news alert from
Edward Boyhan -- and Twitter would have been abuzz about this for some hours now.
In fact, TechCrunch has done its own mockup since then in a
follow-up article by Greg Kumparak who based it on what Siegler shared with him.
Kumparak thinks that a launch of the 10" model earlier would have indicated Amazon wanted the Kindle tablet to be the iPad when, from what he sees, "They want it to be everything the iPad is not."
Small, and comfortable to read in bed (for those who want a backlit reader at night).
Cheap, at $250, but then, I say, the NookColor is already there, for a year. What will be the price of the NookColor2? I imagine that's where Prime comes in.
Apple's Non-Cloud streaming
I'll go find the article later, but I had read this week that Apple, while talking of letting people stream their own music from the Cloud (as Amazon has done smoothly earlier, to everyone's surprise), doesn't really do that.
With Amazon, you can stream your music from your locker-space at Amazon from anywhere and the music files don't plop themselves on the small storage space that tablets (or even some computers) have available. The first 5 gigs are basic and free for all Amazon users, though International ones can't stream the music.
Apple doesn't really stream your music to you. They actually DOWNLOAD it to your device and you can play it while the full music file is on its way to your tablet's storage area. There's no real playing "from the cloud" with Apple. Reporters have wondered why. I really like being able to play my music for friends, on their computers, without worrying about downloading a permanent copy of any of my own files to their drives or installing an application on their computer.
Kumparak's summing up
As Kumparak puts it, Amazon's 7" tablet won't be a "be-all, do-all machine" but a "Kindle Tablet," kept focused for its target non-computer-focused consumer audience, who won't need to learn as much about Android use itself, when the "cover Flow-esque arrangement" makes the "entire experience all about your books, movies, and other media." (It would also lessen the chances for android-targeted viruses that have been fairly prevalent lately.)
Being more positive than
Gizmodo usually is about things Amazon, he ends his follow-up take with "Genius."
The Hands-On by TechCrunch's MG Siegler
He was able to play with a prototype. Although he says it has a capacitive touch screen, he doesn't mention what the resolution is. (The NookColor has a 1024x600" screen and that's been what has delighted me.)
Siegler says:
'Well, not only have I heard about the device, I’ve seen it and used it. And I’m happy to report that it’s going to be a big deal. Huge, potentially. '
He adds that from what he saw, the earlier reports that the screen is "two-finger multi-touch," instead of 10-finger as with the iPad, are correct.
While acknowledging that the most current earlier reports suggested an October release for the 7-inch, he says that Amazon is now targeting "the end of November" for it.
Siegler adds that the Kindle Tablet:
'... looks "nothing like the Android you're used to seeing.
The interface is all Amazon and Kindle. It’s black, dark blue, and a bunch of orange. The main screen is a carousel that looks like Cover Flow in iTunes which displays all the content you have on the device. This includes books, apps, movies, etc. Below the main carousel is a dock to pin your favorite items in one easy-to-access place. When you turn the device horizontally, the dock disappears below the fold '
See
the article for all the details of course.
SOME of the details that interested me
There are no physical buttons on the surface of this tablet. The "key" for Amazon, he says, is the
deep integration of all of their services. The e-book reader is the familiar Kindle app we see on so many other devices now, the music player is the already-familiar and effective Amazon Cloud Player and the movie player is their Instant Video player. And then there's the Amazon Android Appstore.
Amazon isn't working with Google, maker of Android, on this. They appear, he says, to be building this on top of an older version of Android. Really?? And "will keep building on top of that over time." I wonder about this one.
The
web browser appears to be the expected modified Android Webkit browser and it
does have Tabs. There's been a focus on the browser, he adds, but notes that the page-turning touch mechanics still needed "a bit of work" in the version he used.
He is
uncertain about the chips involved, and I hope he is wrong in details he does give, as other reports with details from Taiwan, have been consistent. Despite references to an
SD card expansion capability, he
couldn't find a slot on the hardware. The NookColor has one, and I personally think it's important. But the news writers keep mentioning the "Cloud" content being the focus.
It'll be
WiFi-only although Amazon is "supposedly working with carriers to possibly produce 3G-enabled versions" but not at launch.
I think his
battery life estimate is very optimistic, but then there is no USB port mentioned.
No camera, but the
rumors have always said there'd be no camera.
He specifically says, from obviously good sources, that "the
plan right now is to give buyers a
free subscription to Amazon Prime."
The
touchscreen Kindle expectations
If "one" of his sources was right, it
doesn't seem likely, he writes, that they'll release
a touch-screen e-Ink Kindle -- but at Amazon one department does not seem to talk to another one, so I really doubt that this is true.
I do remember that WSJ's earlier report from Amazon sources was that Amazon's Touchco was dealing with the usual problem of the reported and verified lighter screen contrast with touch screens like the NookColor, Kobo, and iRiver.
However, from what I've seen, people do not really care about the screen contrast as much as they want a "simple touch" to result in an action these days, although my experience on the NookColor means to me that a touch can produce an action other than what I wanted, on a smaller screen, and I don't really have fat fingers but it can seem I do when I try to select something.
This no-Kindle-touchscreen rumor by him is more likely based on a focus of his sources on the 7" Tablet.
Back to the 7" tablet
He goes on to say the tablet he tried is "solid" despite his description of the current page-turning when describing the browser. The "holiday wish-list this year" is a bigger delay than anyone had expected. They'll be working against those expectations in a world where tablets are streaming in (and the new, smaller Galaxy is gaining interest), so it will have to be solid and then some.
UPDATE - Siegler added, at the end, "
Amazon has been working on a multi-touch screen/e-ink hybrid tablet device.
But that’s nowhere near completion, I’m told. So for now, this new Kindle [tablet] will have to do."
I added "[tablet]" to his quote because the "hybrid tablet" means
e-ink/LCD tablet, and his wording could otherwise lead some to think he's talking about an e-Ink Kindle touchscreen reader, which he has already said that "ONE" source told him might not be coming, but I think that his one source is wrong, since David Carnoy of CNet has written at least 3 times about his own Amazon sources who mention the touchscreen Kindle being almost ready.
Amazon Tablet sources are not the same as Amazon Kindle E-Reader Team sources.
But, of more interest, that seemingly unlikely hybrid-tablet rumor IS apparently true, according to his Amazon tablet sources.
UPDATE2 - My prediction, in the first update, above, has already proved true, with CNet, AppleInsider and others already treating as Gospel that this 7" color tablet-reader is "the next and current Kindle" due to his unfortunate wording. They carry on about Amazon "abandoning" e-Ink and that this small tablet is the 'new Amazon Kindle'... No.
Outside of all that
You can match what Siegler describes, and his current speculation, against my log of the stronger rumors to date in a
timeline-based series of articles here based on Taiwan-industry rumors, based on orders for parts.
A closing thought: I'd also read last week that Amazon sources were bent on making the 7" the best "reading-tablet" available, in keeping with their long emphasis on the Kindle and reading. I still hope it's earlier than November.
Kindle 3's (UK:
Kindle 3's)
K3 Special ($114)
K3-3G Special ($139)
DX Graphite
Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
Guide to
finding Free Kindle books and Sources.
Top 100 free bestsellers.
Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published non-classics,
bestsellers, or
£5 Max ones
Also, UK customers should see the
UK store's
Top 100 free bestsellers
Below are ways to
Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The
Send to Kindle button works well
only on Firefox currently.
(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at
Facebook and
Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!
Boy Genius Reports says Amazon IS readying the launch of its 10-inch tablet also.
Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it. 
Send to Kindle
DIGITIMES'S LATEST ON ANDROID TABLET RUMORS FROM PARTS MAKERS
most wanted
Mighty Bright
You can access your books, periodicals, or the full Web* with Amazon's light 6" 
![[Valid RSS]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vYm807s6c56g8OO-oTlO5e8RxAf7k_SAoqFM6LDGxcNrkNIzFwUF6cHtkNeln4lL-V514e1O7bfVl_jL9_0NI-pFr5MEcEECQD=s0-d "Validate my RSS feed")
