When I first heard about the Amazon Kindle Fire, as a fan of Amazon and its earlier Kindle models, I was hopeful. In fact, I put down my $199.00 as soon as the company started taking orders.

Then, it arrived and with a mixture of excitement and anticipation, I opened the box and got my first real look at the Fire. Sadly, my excitement turned to disappointment as I put the Kindle Fire through its paces. Sure, it has some nice features and makes ordering content from Amazon extremely easy, but in many other ways it came up short.

In the end, even at $199.00, I decided it wasn’t for me and sent it back to Amazon for a refund. Apparently, I am not alone as reports have been coming it hat many others have been doing the same thing.

Fortunately for those still using the Fire, Amazon is set to address some of the concerns with an upcoming software update for the Fire. “In less than two weeks, we’re rolling out an over-the-air update to Kindle Fire,” Amazon spokesperson Drew Herdener told The New York Times in a recent interview.

According to Herdener, the update will improve multitouch performance on the device and will also enable a feature that allows users to edit their usage history on the tablet. That’s all well and good but it won’t address the physical problems I had with the device such as the lack of a volume control and the placement of the on/off switch which, it seems, is designed to be in exactly the wrong place no matter how you hold it.

As a fan of Amazon and their earlier Kindle devices, I’m going to keep an eye out for the next version of the Kindle Fire. Maybe 2.0 will be the magic number.

It looks like Amazon has thrown down the tablet gauntlet to Apple (and others) in a big way today. During a press event in New York City, the company unveiled its $200 Kindle Fire tablet.

And before you get too skeptical and lump the device in with the recent offerings from Blackberry or HP, let’s check out the specs. The Kindle Fire has a 7-inch display and will give users access to all of Amazon’s services including: AmazonMP3, Amazon Prime, Amazon Kindle Bookstore, Amazon Instant Video and the Amazon AppStore.

It’s powered by a dual-core processor and weighs 14.6 ounces. Customers can pre-order the Kindle Fire today and it will ship in November. Not bad Amazon, not bad.

Also unveiled was a brand new version of the company’s eReader called the Kindle touch. It is $99.00 for the base model or $149 for the 3G one and has an infrared layer on top of the E-Ink display to help avoid with any interference while reading.

It also has Amazon’s EasyReach technology for turning pages by tapping the screen in specific areas. In addition, an X-Ray feature allows users to view where and when certain characters and more take place in a book. Pre-orders for the Kindle touch eReader begin today and will ship by November 21st.

Finally, Bezos announced a new non-touch Kindle for $79. It is available for shipping today.

Well, that’s a lot of info. It will be interesting to see how the Kindle Fire and it’s reasonable price competes with the iPad and its not so reasonable price. The Christmas season just got a lot more interesting.

Check out the full press release from Amazon after the jump.

Continue Reading →

With all the ways available to be entertained and pass the time, people still like to read. In fact Amazon is betting you’ll want at least one more way to read eBooks you’ve purchased from them and have today debuted a brand new way to do it: the web-based Kindle Cloud Reader.

This new service provides users with access to their entire Kindle library using Chrome or Safari on Mac, PC, Linux and the Chromebook. Kindle Cloud Reader is also optimized for the iPad and offers a caching feature for offline reading, which is nice.

To get started, go to http://read.amazon.com and, when prompted, install the required plug-in. That’s pretty much it. I gave the service a try late last night and liked it. It’s another great way to read your Kindle content if you don’t have your ipad or Kindle handy.

Although, I still prefer the Kindle for reading or, in a pinch, the iPad Kindle App. Still, it’s nice to see Amazon continuing to innovate in this area and also potentially find ways to get around Apple’s sometimes difficult iTunes Store rules. Can’t blame them for that.

For more details, click through for the full press release.

Continue Reading →

Late yesterday, Amazon announced that Kindle customers will soon be able to borrow eBooks from more than 11,000 U.S. libraries. Amazon’s Kindle Library Lending project will enable users to check out eBooks from local libraries and then read them on their Kindle or on any device with Amazon’s free eReader software installed.

But wait, that’s not the only cool thing about this service. Unlike traditional libraries, which don’t allow borrowers to write in books, with this new service readers can make notes and highlight as much as they want. “We’re doing a little something extra here,” said Jay Marine, director of Amazon Kindle.

“Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we’re extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library. Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced.”

Sounds pretty cool, right? I wonder if this will in any way help save libraries? Or, will this cause them to be obsolete faster? Either way, its a nice feature for Kindle owners. It would be nice if this could aslo help keep libraries around longer. We’ll see.

Also, what will this mean for the Amazon tablet rumored to be launching later this year? My guess is they will probably hit around the same time.

Amazon is working with OverDrive on its Kindle Library Lending program, which it says will launch later this year. Click through for the full press release from Amazon.

Continue Reading →

Indeed it is the time of year when inevitability the lists appear and people pick their favorites of 2010. Some have already done their lists and some, like me, like to wait a bit. That said and since I don’t want to be accused of not following trends, I will also be making a list (or two) of my picks of the best of 2010. However, in the interest of clarity and brevity (or neither), I’m going to pick my top 5 (or so) things in the main categories we cover here at The Flickcast.

Although, as our own John Carle covered the best of 2010 in games so well already, I won’t make much (if any) a list of those and will just mention my two favorites. In case you’re not familiar with those main categories we cover, they are as follows: Movies, TV, Comics, Games, Tech and all things Geek.

So, to that end, here’s my list (or lists really) of my picks of the top stuff of 2010.

Movies

Inception – I love smart movies and this one is pretty damn smart. Featuring great performances, a mind-bending plot and twists galore, director Christopher Nolan delivers with one entertaining ride I was talking about for weeks (and months) afterward. And with all the ways I can get distracted by other things, to still be taking about this movie now is a testament to just how great it is.

True Grit – I love Westerns and this one will go down as truly one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and the rest of the cast are superb and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld owns the screen. She is definitely one to watch. Plus, the Coen brothers have a genuine love and reverence for the classic Western conventions, even when they twist and turn them into new and even more compelling shapes.

The Social Network – When I first heard of this movie I was skeptical, as probably most were, about how interesting a movie about Facebook really could be. I had nothing to worry about. This brilliant film, directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, delivers on all levels and tells a compelling story of one of the most impressive success stories in history. Along the way it also shows us a little something about the nature of greed, friendship and the real cost of success.

Winter’s Bone - This tale of a real heroes journey to find out what happened to her father before the bank forecloses on her home resonated with me for quite some time after watching this film. Jennifer Lawrence as the young mother and John Hawkes as her meth-snorting uncle really deliver top performances. Part crime movie, part thriller and part coming-of-age-story this film’s stark realism takes you into a world you didn’t know existed and holds you there until the lights come up.

Continue Reading →

Watch out iPad, the Amazon Kindle is gunning for you and is trying to take away your shiny luster. How? By being a big success that’s how.

To that point Amazon announced yesterday that its third-generation Kindle eBook reader is now the best-selling product of all time on the Amazon.com website. It replaces Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the previous Amazon.com sales record-holder.

The online giant Amazon has not revealed official sales figures for any of its Kindle devices, though recent estimates suggest Amazon is going to sell 8 million Kindles in 2010. Which, in case you don’t know, is a lot of eBook readers.

The company currently offers two versions of its popular Kindle eReader — a Wi-Fi-only version for $139 and a 3G-equipped model for $189. Click through to check out the full press release from Amazon.

Continue Reading →

Popular book-seller Barnes & Noble has announced a new successor to their color-screen e-reader dubbed the ‘NOOKcolor.’ Retailing for $249 and expected to begin shipping on November 19, the newest version sports some interesting improvements over the first model.

Unlike Amazon’s Kindle, which is a pure e-reader fitted with a dedicated high-contrast E Ink Screen, the NOOKcolor has eschewed the excellent legibility and glare-resistance of such a display, instead opting for a 7-inch color touchscreen. And the differences don’t end there. The latest Nook device is truly more of an Android Tablet than e-reader, which from a product-positioning standpoint seems a little odd. It’s almost as if Barnes and Noble decided to position their product somewhere between the Kindle and the iPad, but in the process are losing the primary advantages of a dedicated e-reader: low-cost and extreme legibility even in direct sunlight.

I will leave it to consumers to decide if they need yet another Android-powered tablet device and instead focus on what the NOOKcolor brings to the table. Sporting a 7″ full-color touchscreen, the NOOKcolor comes standard with a full browser, the LendMe™ feature which allows owners of the devices to lend each other books, some social networking hooks to easily recommend books to your friends on Twitter or Facebook, and of course, access to over two million titles.

Continue Reading →

It looks like Amazon isn’t going to simply wait around while Apple’s iPad and iPhone kill their eBook market. Instead, they are expanding beyond Apple and RIM and into the Android market by bringing their Kindle reader to the platform.

They already have an application for the iPhone, iPad and Blackberry and now they are planning to release one for Android powered smartphones. The Android app will look like its iPhone counterpart and include the the ability to read, preview, and purchase books from Amazon’s Kindle bookstore. You will also be able to navigate with a finger flick and sync reading progress across all supported platforms — which is a nice feature if, like me, you have several platforms.

The app is reportedly also compatible with popular Android handsets including the Moto DROID, Nexus One, HTC Droid Eris and HTC Incredible. Look for it in the Android Market soon. You can also sign up at Amazon to be notified when it becomes available.

The iPad has shipped, the box has arrived and I’ve opened it and looked inside. Yes, the iPad is here. By way of refrence, I ordered a 64GB iPad with WiFi only. My rationale for this was I usually use most of my devices where there’s Wifi so the idea of having 3G capability on this iPad wasn’t really a factor.

Not only that, I don’t like the idea of giving AT&T any more money than I already do for my iPhone 3GS and I didn’t really want to wait another month to try out the iPad. So, Wifi version it is.

Although, after using it I may discover that having 3G is more important than I think it is. We’ll have to see about that one. I’ll do a more in-depth review a bit later after using the device for a few days but until then, here’s what I think so far.

Design and Build Quality

Apple designs nice looking productuct and nobody can deny that. They also tend to build them pretty well. The iPad is no exception. On first use it was a bit heavier than I expected but stil, as I usually carry a much heavier 13″ MacBook Pro around most of the time, the weight really won’t be a factor.

Also, once you see and use the iPad, the black bezel around the edges makes perfect sense. That’s where you hold it with one had while you use it with the other. In other ways, build quality is excellent with all the parts fitting together very nicely in a tight package.

Oh, and did I mention the screen is absolutely beautiful. Pictures and video look amazing and book text, either from iBooks or with the Kindle for iPad Application, is very readable. However, I would say that reading a book on the iPad is not quite as easy on the eyes as it is on the Kindle. I think the Kindle, at least for me, is a slightly better reading experience. But fortunately, the iPad does so much more and for shorter durations, or after I get more used to it, will probably end up being fine for reading books.

Continue Reading →

Late yesterday and without so much as a well timed press release, mega-giant seller of all things on the Internet (aka Amazon.com) released the first Kindle application for the Mac. The free application works on Intel Macs running Mac OS X 10.5 and above, and is version number of 1.0.0 beta 1.

The app allows you to download Kindle books you already own and read them on your Mac. In addition, and this is a nice feature, your progress through a particular book is kept synchronized between the application, your iPhone and your Kindle. This is especially great for people like myself who often take their Kindle somewhere but not a Mac. Although, in truth, I usually take both.

The application is defiantly of the simple variety and doesn’t really offer much in the way of bells and whistles. Although, what do you really need? It allows you to read your books on your Mac, adjust the size of the fonts and it keeps track of where you stopped so you can pick the book up later on another device. Plus, did I mention it costs nothing?

This is a great step in the right direction for Amazon. It is a shame that non-Intel Mac users and those not running Leopard or better can’t enjoy the app. But given the way things are moving, maybe those people are going to go ahead and upgrade themselves with a shiny new iPad instead? Hey, with over 150K pre-orders so far, it’s a real possibility.

Speaking of the iPad. I ordered one and will have a full review once its in my hands. Until then, try out this new app from Amazon right here.