Amazon’s Move To Release A $50 Tablet

Amazon is preparing to hit tablet market this holiday season with a $50 device that has a 6 inch screen. That's half the price of the company's current 6-inch Fire HD tablet, and even less expensive than the company's Kindle reader, which starts at $79.

The current 6 inch Fire HD tablet is one of the cheapest tablets worth buying, and while the idea of an even cheaper tablet sounds wild. There are no specs yet but WSJ suggests the new $50 device will test the limits of cost savings.

Amazon could also be exploring other ways to make the $50 target price possible. The company's current Fire HD tablets may be as cheap as they are because of lock screen ads, and Amazon could expand ads like those to reach the $50 mark.

We'll be sure to keep you posted as more detail become available. What's your thoughts? Comment below...

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Amazon Buys Speech Recognition Firm Ivona

Amazon on Thursday announced it is buying Ivona, a firm specializing in text-to-speech technology.

The Poland-based Ivona's technology verbalizes written text messages. Amazon has been using Ivona's technology for its Kindle e-readers since 2009. Ivona also supplies "Explore By Touch" and "Voice Guide" navigation for Kindle Fire models. Explore By Touch gives readers an auditory cue when they swipe their fingers across the Kindle Fire's menu (for instance, the title of a book would be read aloud if it was swiped.) In Voice Guide, any action the customer performs on the device is read aloud. In Amazon's example, when you open a new book, it would say "The Hunger Games. Book opened." Both features are aimed at vision-impaired customers.

While the technology appears to be the exact opposite of Apple's Siri, Amazon's purchase might signal increased hands-free features that could be employed on a rumored Amazon phone.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Source: Mashables

Kindle Fires Can Be Ad-Free For $15

The Internet has been in a tizzy since we heard that Amazon would not be allowing the removal of the "special offers" package from the new Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD units. If you weren't aware how all this works, previous Kindle readers were available at a little bit lower price, but included ads to help support them. For a small fee, you could have these removed.

We first heard that Amazon would be including this on all the new Kindle Fire devices, and apparently that they would not be offering an ad-free experience. Ars Technica has received word from Amazon that they will be allowing users to go ad-free for a one-time payment of $15.00 This hasn't yet been updated on the Amazon special offers website, but we're inclined to believe the fine folks at Ars Technica. 

Short version -- if you were worried about having non-removable ads on your new Kindle Fire or Kindle Fire HD, there's nothing to fear. They can be removed if you pay Amazon a $15 fee. 

Amazon Debuts 4G LTE Kindle Fire HD To Lineup

Amazon announced its first tablet with 4G LTE connectivity, the Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE. The 8.9-inch tablet will be offered for $499 and includes 250MB of data per month, 20GB of cloud storage and a $10 Amazon credit for just $49.99 a year. Amazon’s latest tablet will operate on AT&T’s 4G LTE network and includes an upgraded 32GB of internal storage. The Kindle Fire HD with 4G LTE will be available for preorder today and begin shipping on November 20th. Amazon also announced a new front-lit Kindle Paperwhite eReader and three other Kindle Fire tablets during its press conference on Thursday.