The Verge - Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD, Paperwhite e-reader, and 2012 Kindle lineup: the full story

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 review

2012-11-21T16:07:25Z

In September, inside an airplane hangar in Los Angeles, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made a series of bold statements about the company's two brand-new Kindle Fire HD tablets. The Kindle Fire HD 7, he said, was the best tablet at a certain price. But with the larger Kindle Fire HD 8.9, "we made the best tablet at any price," Bezos said, in a not-so-subtle jab at the iPad.

When we reviewed the smaller of the two Kindle Fire HD siblings, we found it to be a mixed bag. As a platform, a service, an appliance — a window into everything Amazon is and offers — it's a phenomenal success. But as a tablet overall, compared to the iPad and Nexus 7, it faltered thanks to some performance issues, lacking app selection, and a few absent features.

The...

Amazon Kindle Fire HD review (7-inch)

2012-09-12T01:00:34Z

To put a review of the Kindle Fire HD in perspective, you have to peer just a tiny bit into the past. It was barely a week ago that the world watched Amazon begin a magical transformation from that of a humble multinational that retails every product ever made in the world, to that of a consumer electronics powerhouse that wants to bring the fight to Apple on the tablet front. During its event last Wednesday, CEO Jeff Bezos was focused on not just the new products, but about what they mean to Amazon and its customers. These aren't just tablets — they are portals to all the company is, whether it's the cloud services on the backend, retail tie-ins up front, or that new part of Amazon: the one that makes high-end consumer hardware.

The...

Jennifer Aniston, your sweater is here: Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and the future of shopping

2012-09-12T00:05:32Z

Last week, Amazon unveiled the Kindle Fire HD, a shopping portal cleverly disguised as an Android tablet, and one partially subsidized by advertising. You'll find ads on the lockscreen you have to bypass in order to start using the machine, and "recommendations" to accompany the multimedia you watch, hear, and read. In fact, there are ads almost everywhere — and Amazon might be well on its way to building the ultimate ad. An ad that was only a dream in the late 90s. A dream about Jennifer Aniston's sweater.

The key is Amazon's new X-Ray for Movies feature, which does something pretty neat: It consults the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) to give you a list of actors in any scene, and can show you other movies they've appeared in, which...

Amazon: Kindle Fire HD users can opt-out of ads after all

2012-09-09T02:06:52Z

Just a day after confirming that consumers would be unable to opt-out of the Kindle Fire HD's integrated lockscreen ads, Amazon has reversed its decision. Confirmed in a statement issued to The Verge, users will now have the ability to disable "Special Offers" by paying a $15 fee. In an effort to keep retail costs down, Amazon has implemented advertising space into the software of each model in its Kindle range. According to the statement, Amazon believes few users will opt to pay the extra fee, but that they should be allowed to have the option. In any case, those concerned about the potentially intrusive ads can rest easy.

Amazon confirms there's no way to opt out of Kindle Fire ads

2012-09-07T19:51:02Z

Since Amazon announced its new line of Kindle Fire tablets, there's been confusion over whether the company would allow users to avoid seeing "Special Offer" promotions on their lock screens. According to CNET, an Amazon spokesperson has now confirmed that there is no system for disabling ads on new models of the Kindle Fire. That means that unlike the cheaper Kindle e-reader, users can't spend more up front for an ad-free version or pay to disable the ads after purchase. The statement also refutes a previous Engadget report, including an email apparently from Amazon's support team saying that users would be given options for "unsubscribing" from Special Offers.

At present, it appears that everything in the Kindle Fire family —...

Amazon's Kindle Fire HD has Bing set as default search engine

2012-09-07T19:27:06Z

Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD comes with a pretty massive software update — and one of the new features that Ubergizmo noticed in its hands-on is that Microsoft Bing is set as the default search engine in the Fire HD's Silk browser. This comes despite the fact that Google's Android 4.0 software provides the underpinnings for the Fire HD, though of course it's heavily skinned. This represents a change from last year, when Google served as the default search engine. Unfortunately, it's not clear yet if you can switch the default search engine, but as nearly every other browser in the world contains that option, we'd expect it'll be present on the Kindle Fire HD.

Silk browser on Kindle Fire HD adds faster page loads, Trending Now list

2012-09-07T18:55:03Z

Amid all the excitement about its new Kindle Fire HD devices yesterday, one thing Amazon failed to mention is the new version of its Silk browser installed on the tablets. There are a number of meaningful improvements in the update, like better support for HTML5 web standards and an improved UI, but the biggest difference is speed — "at least a 30 percent reduction in page load latency," according to the company.

Silk is a so-called "split" browser, using Amazon’s servers to compress and simplify websites before they’re served to the user. While it speeds up the browsing experience, it also means Amazon can see anonymized data about the pages its users are accessing. As pointed out by TechCrunch, the updated version of Silk adds a...

Even without audiobooks, the Kindle Paperwhite can still beat the competition

2012-09-07T18:30:10Z

Hidden by all of the improvements that Jeff Bezos extolled on stage yesterday about the new Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon has silently taken some features to the chopping block. The Kindle Paperwhite replaces the Kindle Touch before it, but it has lost the 3.5mm headphone jack and speakers of its predecessor. Clearly, without that hardware, the new Kindle e-reader is devoid of audio features — Amazon's once-highlighted "Read to Me" text-to-speech feature is gone, as is access to Audible's massive collection of audiobooks and the sometimes-useful MP3 playback option on the old Kindle. The Kindle Paperwhite solely consumes text, and its 2GB of onboard storage compared to its predecessor's 4GB makes that abundantly clear.

The Paperwhite is a...