Alert: Black Friday Amazon device deals include UNlocked GSM Fire Phone including add'l 1 yr of PRIME, for $199 total, not locked into any cellphone services provider ... plus Kindle device deals thru' wkend or Cyber Monday

In case you didn't see these yet, there are some unusual deals for the next few days.

Received an alert from Tom Semple, who drew my attention to the unusual offering of an UNLOCKED model of the Amazon Fire Phone, which includes 1 year of Prime (for new membership or additional year for Prime members).
  (List price $449 - States taxes are based on the $199 price, per Tom Semple's exploring.

  This is especially good (and economical, as unlocked phone prices go) for those who did not want to be locked into using AT&T.

  He also saw that "Amazon Amazon helpfully enumerates all of the 'compatible' GSM carriers" but that he will just use its WiFi capability with the features, which is how I use my old Samsung Galaxy 2 phone, which is older and now like a very small tablet for me that saves my cellphone battery when WiFi is available.

The 99 cent deal that goes with a specific 2-yr data plan is still a current one.


The listing from Amazon for Black Friday and extended through the weekend

Black Friday deals for Amazon devices beginning tomorrow. These deals will extend through the holiday weekend. Deals include 

·          Kindle for just $49  (11/27-11/29

·         New Bundle : 6 months of Kindle Unlimited plus a Kindle for $79;
          also available for Kindle Paperwhite for $129 (11/27-11/29)

·         $119 Kindle Paperwhite for $99 (11/27-11/29

·         $99 Fire HD 6 for $79 (11/27-11/29

·         $139 Fire HD 7 for $109 (11/27-12/1

·         Fire phone is now available unlocked with a no contract price of $199 through Cyber Monday
          (11/25-12/1

Amazon's details and wording are below:

Kindle (deal running 11/27-11/29)

All-new Kindle - featuring a touchscreen display, a 20% faster processor, and twice the storage. Kindle e-readers are lightweight and easy to hold, measure battery life in weeks, not hours, and allow for reading with no glare even in bright sunlight. 

Kindle Paperwhite (deal running 11/27-11/29)

Kindle Paperwhite is one of Amazon’s most popular Kindles, with a touchscreen that has no screen glare in bright sunlight, a battery that lasts for weeks, not hours, and a built-in light that allows you to read without eyestrain.

Kindle Unlimited/Kindle Bundle (deal running 11/27-11/29)

Better together: Get the $79 Kindle and 6-months of Kindle Unlimited for just $79 or Kindle Paperwhite and 6-months of Kindle Unlimited for just $129. Kindle Unlimited offers unlimited reading from over 700,000 books, including best sellers like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Landing page:

Fire HD (Fire HD 6 deal running 11/27-11/29; Fire HD 7 deal running 11/27-12/1)

The new Fire HD tablets are available in both 6” and 7” and five color choices - black, white, cobalt, magenta, and citron. The new Fire HD, features a quad-core processor, front and rear-facing cameras, an HD display and a world-class ecosystem of exclusive features, services, and content.

Fire phone (deal running 11/25-12/1)

The Fire phone is now available unlocked.  The unlocked Fire phone works with GSM carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, Metro PCS and Cricket and for a limited time only is only $199. Fire phone includes a full year of Amazon Prime membership for access to Amazon’s vast digital ecosystem and unlimited photo cloud storage as well as exclusive features like Mayday, Second Screen and X-Ray.

Since this is an alert, will get this off.

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-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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The Amazon Fire Phone expands to UK and Germany - shipping dates

The Fire Phone is now expanding to the UK and Germany.

  UK page       Germany page

 This should go with yesterday's Fire Phone blog entry but it's already too large.


Bloomberg gives details under the headline "Deutsche Telekom, O2 Agree to Sell Amazon’s Fire Phone in Europe":

"Amazon will begin selling the devices on Sept. 30 in the two countries in deals with Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE), Germany’s largest carrier, and Telefonica SA (TEF)’s O2 brand in the U.K. Customers can pre-order the smartphones starting yesterday."

As seen on the product pages, they're available for pre-order there already.

The eteknix site reports that the phone has been updated and improved since its initial launch and that the "battery life has been improved upon as well and said to give around 10-15% more duration now.  The Amazon OS will get an update to its speech recognition software upon launch to handle the different British accents it’ll have to deal with now."

See yesterday's Fire Phone article for details on what's included with the phone.


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.

Send to Kindle

(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!

Quick info from forums on Amazon's Fire Phone and data plans, etc.

Customers discuss Fire Phone data plans and decisions made more difficult due to current phone plans, etc.
  Thought I'd drop off a couple of tips from an Amazon forum on the coming Fire Phone, which will be shipping on July 25.  I'd not looked into the plans myself, as I have a the Nokia Lumia 1020, a Windows Phone, and just began my new data plan in December as a low-price update -- and I actually bought it for the 40-megapixel camera, which I now use more than my super expensive pocket Sony.  I'll report on my experience with a review copy of the Fire Phone though.

From the forum thread (typos corrected):

' Sue says:
I just called At&T and asked about the phone plans for the new phone and they have 2.

One is $45 a month which includes unlimited call and texting with 1g of data. The second is $60 a month and that includes unlimited calls and texting with 2g of data.   These prices go for the individual plan as well as the no contract phone.

I called because the phone is calling to me and I am weakening.

+++
Jimi says:
I am an existing AT&T customer with an old iPhone 4 and about a year and a half beyond my last contract.  Now I'm glad that I was given a new computer instead of a new phone for my last birthday.  I have been phone shopping for a while, so I quickly pre-ordered the 64gb Fire phone.

The system said I can continue on our grandfathered unlimited plan.  I may actually end up using more data with my new phone and the new Prime music feature. '

Reminder: the phone is $199 to start, with a 2-year monthly data plan, but comes with a free YEAR of $99/yr Prime (Prime members would get an additional year added to their current Prime program.)
  There's an option to get the larger-storage 64GB model for $299 with a 2-year monthly data plan with AT&T.

  Essentially then, the $199 phone with 32G is $99 after saving on $99 Prime the first year, when opting for 2 yrs of a monthly data plan.

Here's the original blog article on the phone's unusual features, as learned on Launch day.



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.

Send to Kindle

(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!