Amazon revealed the second generation of Kindle Fire tablets, as well as its new Kindle e-readers, Thursday afternoon in Santa Monica, Ca.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, introduced the Kindle Fire HD as well as revisions to the Kindle line. He also announced a revision to the existing Kindle Fire, a backlit version of the top-selling e-reader and a cheaper base Kindle model.
The Kindle Fire HD comes in two sizes — 7-inch and 8.9-inch. The smaller model has a display resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels and will be priced at $199 for 16 gigabytes of storage. The larger model packs a 1900 by 1200 pixel display and starts at $299 with the same storage size.
Both models have front-facing cameras. Unlike the iPad, the Kindle Fire HD models have built-in stereo speakers, becoming the first tablets to have Dolby Digital Sound technology.
The devices also feature two Wi-Fi antennas to reduce interference and speed up wireless Internet.
Bezos also announced a version of the Kindle Fire HD that includes 4G cellular service and 32 gigabytes of internal storage. It will be sold for $499.
Amazon is taking preorders for all Kindle Fire HD models, which will ship on Nov. 20.
The old Kindle Fire will receive an upgrade as well. Receiving a new processor, double the RAM and longer battery life, the revised version will ship Sept. 14, with preorders beginning Thursday.
Another Kindle model available for preorder is the Kindle Paperwhite — the first Kindle to include a backlight. The new e-reader, which is 9.1 millimeters thick, tracks reading speed, telling users how much time it will take them to complete a chapter.
The unit comes with customizable font sizes and styles and free cloud storage. The Paperwhite will cost $119 for a Wi-Fi only model and $179 for a 3G-enabled version. It will ship Sept. 14.
Amazon will continue to sell its original Kindle, now for $69 instead of $79. The device received several performance boosts, including faster page turns and crisper text. Like the Paperwhite, preorders started Thursday, and the device will come to market on Sept. 14.
Reception among investors was positive: At the beginning of Amazon’s press conference at 1:30 EST on Thursday, the company’s share price was $251.18. It was up 41 cents when the conference ended one and a half hours later.
Photo courtesy of appsmanila
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