Amazon's Tablet Will Feature Kal-El, Two Sizes

[exfileme]

An unnamed tipster has indicated that Amazon's mystery tablet will sport Nvidia's Tegra "Kal-El" SoC, the Android OS and an LCD-based touchscreen in two sizes.

Amazon's Tablet Will Feature Kal-El, Two Sizes : Read more

 

[alextheblue]

Barnes & Noble's current NOOK Color is by far more superior, offering color for starters, but also games and other Android-based apps via NOOK Apps. There's also a fully-featured e-mail client, an enhanced Internet experience backed by Adobe's Flash Player and Android 2.2, a built-in music player and more.

Superior how? That's a rather broad statement. It is an e-reader first and foremost, and strictly as an e-reader it is inferior to the Kindle. I can sit and read a Kindle for hours on end (and barely use any battery life while doing so). With a Nook Color, it's just like any other inexpensive tablet LCD. It isn't as gentle on the eyes at night as I'd like. It's also terrible in bright light. Also, technically the Kindle can play MP3s, if you so desire.

That's why Amazon isn't selling their new (LCD display) tablet as a Kindle replacement. The Kindle is still the best dedicated e-reader, with its e-ink pearl screen, and extremely long battery life. Not to mention free 3G downloads, if you opt for that model. Plus, if you don't need the 3G (I went WiFi only) you don't have to get the $139 model. There's the $114 "ad-supported" model now. The ads are completely unobtrusive. All they do is put a tiny banner on the bottom of the Home page, and put ads (instead of random pictures) on the lock screen. It locks and unlocks just like a normal Kindle. There are no ads to "wait through", and no ads when you're reading or browsing. I've shown it to users of the $139 Kindles, and they agree that it's like $25 free.

That's not to say that the Nook Color doesn't have its place too. As a matter of fact, one of the best things about it is that it's easy to slap a full-blown Gingerbread install on it. Better still, you can boot Android from a memory card. This means you can restore it to factory just by powering it off, removing the card, and booting it back up (off the internal ROM). So it makes for a really inexpensive but halfway decent Android tablets. This is the price range Android tablets should be in, not trying to compete with the iPad 2!

 

[ProDigit10]

the unnamed source in Taipei could be from Pixel Qi?

 

[tntom]

Amazon isn't afraid to offer products at minimal profit or maybe even a loss to gain market share. (They will more than recoup this with app and song purchases) Just look at their strategy with free app of the day and the $0.99 albums.

 

[dustykotatko]

If anyone's looking for a Google Music Beta invite, I found a blog giving them out for free. I figured that the waiting list would be too long, so I tried the blog out, and got my invite about an hour later. Nice.

I don't know if they have any remaining invites, but if you want to try your luck here's the site:

http/freemusicbetainvites.com.nu

 

[jimsocks]

put some usb ports on it, and i'll buy one

 

[DSpider]

[citation][nom]ProDigit10[/nom]the unnamed source in Taipei could be from Pixel Qi?[/citation]
Yeah, whatever happened to Pixel Qi ? There were all the rave last year or so.

 

[fir_ser]

It will also come packed with a 12-core Nvidia GPU supporting stereoscopic 3D video playback and a 2560 x 1600 resolution.

Wow 12 core GPU, this should be a good gaming tablet.

 

[Guest]

Amazon better hurry up with their color Kindle. Consumer Reports just rated the new touch screen Nook as superior to the Kindle. In my opinion, it isn't just a little better than the Kindle it is a LOT better. With a touch screen it is vastly easier to use and it doesn't have all those little buttons. And the ePub ebook format is a plus when compared to the Kindle proprietary format.