All posts tagged ‘Kindle Fire’

Nexus 7 vs. Kindle Fire: What a Difference $19 Makes

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is $19 cheaper to build than Google and Asus’ Nexus 7, according to an estimate by the research firm IHS iSuppli. Photo: Peter McCollough/Wired

The Google-designed, Asus-built Nexus 7 is currently the best 7-inch tablet money can buy, but it isn’t the most profitable. Its biggest rival, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, is about $19 cheaper to produce.

While $19 might not seem like much, it adds up quickly when tablets are sold in the millions, as Amazon has done with the Fire and as Asus and Google hope to do with the Nexus 7.

The 8GB versions of both tablets sell for $200. But while the 8GB Nexus 7 has a manufacturing cost of $159.25 to build, the 8GB Kindle’s is just $139.80, according to a production cost estimate of the two slates based on product teardowns by the research firm IHS iSuppli. (The 16GB version of the Nexus 7 is far more profitable — it sells for $250 but costs just $166.75 to manufacture.)

But for less than $20, you get a lot more tablet in the Nexus 7. The major cost differences between the two devices are tied to the Nexus 7′s most distinctive hardware advantages over the Fire — its display, its CPU, a front-facing camera and a near field communications chip, said Andrew Rassweiler, a senior principal analyst at iSuppli.
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Report: Next Kindle Fire Will Look Better, Weigh Less

Say goodbye to the current Kindle Fire display and hello to more pixels. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired

Another day passes, and a new bit of information concerning Amazon’s next-gen Kindle Fire leaks onto the internet. The yet-to-be-announced tablet is becoming the worst-kept secret in technology — assuming, of course, that all these information leaks are true.

On Sunday, AllThingsD reported that Amazon was working on a higher-resolution Kindle Fire that would be lighter than the current tablet. The easier-to-look-at-and-hold Fire is expected to launch late in the third quarter, ATD reports, according to “sources familiar with Amazon’s plans.”

The display of the summer-bound tablet will reportedly leap from 1024×600 to 1280×800. This resolution increase would put the Fire on par with the display of the Nexus 7, which we’ve lauded as the best 7-inch tablet available. The new display would deliver a crisp 216 pixels per inch, representing a 67 percent increase in total pixel density. It’s not a Retina display, but it’s a significant upgrade.

The upgraded display, however, wouldn’t be without its issues: The tablet’s aspect ratio would change from 10:6 to 16:10, but Amazon has reportedly reached out to developers to get them ready for the update.

While developers figure out the native resolution of their apps, customers will be happy to learn that Amazon is reportedly working on reducing the weight of the Kindle Fire, making it thinner. Recent rumors also have the Kindle Fire dropping its plastic external chassis for a metal case.

With the Nexus 7 shipping from Google in July, and a rumored 7-inch iPad on the way this fall, it’s in Amazon’s best interest to step up its Kindle Fire offering.

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Kindle Fire 2 Will Arrive Within Two Months, Report Says

The Kindle Fire, shown here, could be updated with a snazzier metal case. Photo: Victor J. Blue/Wired

With Google’s Nexus 7 tablet set for a July release, Amazon is fast-tracking the production of its next-generation Kindle Fire. This is the message from China Times, which reports Amazon has already ordered 2 million Kindle Fire 2s from Quanta, and the tablets could arrive sometime in July or August. This information lines up with a recent report from BGR concerning a quad-core Kindle Fire arriving in July.

Both BGR and China Times point to a higher-quality metal casing replacing the plastic enclosure of the current Kindle Fire. BGR expects a 10-inch Kindle Fire while the China Times article points to three possible screen sizes: 7 inches, 8.9 inches and 10 inches. China Times reports that components for the 7-inch version began shipping in June. If this is true, it would put the Kindle Fire 2 development and release time at under a year.

The first Kindle Fire was announced in late September 2011, with tablets shipping to consumers in November 2011. The Kindle Fire went on to dominate the Android tablet market, but lately sales of the device have fallen as Samsung has taken over second place to Apple in the tablet market.

With the impressive Nexus 7 reaching consumers in July, Amazon needs to step up its 7-inch tablet game — and quickly.

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Nexus 7 Teardown: Harder to Repair Than Kindle Fire, Easier Than iPad

The Nexus 7′s components sprawled out. Photo: iFixit

The expert hardware hackers at iFixit are at it again, this time with Google’s and Asus’ new Nexus 7 tablet in hand. Less than a week after Google announced its flagship 7-inch tablet at Google I/O, the iFixit team disassembled the device. And what they found is a tablet that’s a breeze to open up and repair, but not quite as easy as Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

With the help of retaining clips along the edge of the tablet, the Nexus 7 pops open with ease. It is much more repair-friendly than Apple’s iPad, which is a glued-together device. And according to the iFixit folk, it only took the Nexus 7 one extra millimeter of thickness to make it significantly easier to repair.

“That’s the negligible difference between extending the life of your device through repair, as opposed to tossing it in a landfill,” iFixit wrote in its teardown. “And most of all, nobody will complain about that one millimeter difference in day-to-day use, but the user-serviceability it brings will make all the difference when the device breaks.”

Inside, the tablet features a large 4,326 mAh, 16 Wh battery held in place by a small amount of adhesive. And again, unlike the iPad, the battery is easy to take out and replace, when needed. You won’t need to solder or screw anything in when your battery gets fried and you need put in new one.
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Amazon Acquires 3-D Mapping Startup UpNext, Report Says

Is Amazon about to follow a new direction? Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

Everyone’s getting into the mobile mapping game. While Google has been mapping the world for years, Apple has only recently jumped into the cartography pool. And now it seems that Amazon wants in on the 3-D mapping action as well.

Ferdinand Magellan would be thrilled.

According to a GigaOM, Amazon closed a deal to acquire UpNext on Monday. The 3-D mapping startup currently has apps for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire. The app uses vector-based 3-D images to recreate virtual buildings — this as opposed to the photo-based technology used by Google and Apple’s map offerings.

The UpNext 3-D maps are available for more than 50 cities, with 23 cities sporting textured 3-D with roadways. The vector-based textured maps resemble those you might see in a videogame, like Grand Theft Auto. GTA might not be the image Amazon is going for with its acquisition, but the maps look impressive nonetheless.

Amazon’s UpNext acquisition is curious considering that the Kindle Fire doesn’t have GPS capabilities. The purchase could therefore point to interesting developments in Amazon’s hardware line-up. Perhaps the next Kindle Fire will sport GPS. Or maybe Amazon is working on a smartphone.

If we’ve learned anything in the past few weeks, it’s that if you’re going to make a phone, it better have a nice map app.

Queries to Amazon and UpNext yeilded no replies as of press time.

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