back to article Amazon tablet, touchscreen Kindle on course for H2, say moles

Unnamed industry moles say Amazon will have a tablet out in the second half of the year - cheaper Kindles too - and that Asus will release a slate based on Nvidia's upcoming quad-core Tegra chip. Said sources were all cited by Taiwanese news site DigiTimes this week. Assuming Nvidia's four-core 'Kal El' system-on-a-chip - …

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  1. phuzz Silver badge
    Stop

    er

    That's great and all, but what's wrong with the current Kindle that making it into a tablet would fix?

    1. SKiNFreak
      Go

      An E-Book Reader a Tablet Does Not Make

      Well...the Kindle is an e-book reader. So it reads e-books.

      I'll be damned if it can play 1080p HD content though...hence the new tablet thingy. Pretty straight forward really...

      I'll be holding off buying a Satan Slab until there's more detail on this. The potential for an e-ink / hd cabable hybrid panel is just too good an option I reckon. If they pull it off it could lay waste to the competition espeically if they sell it as a loss leader. Which is good for us consumers...even if we sell our souls to Amazon.

    2. Martin

      well, for one thing....

      ...that 'orrible keyboard taking up all that space?

    3. Thomas 18
      Happy

      2 seperate devices

      The story is about a mole discussing Amazons device plans. He gives 2 separate points:

      1. Kindles are to gain touch screen capacity and cost reduction

      2. Amazon are to launch a fondle-pad

      That's how I read it anyway, they arn't 'turning kindle into tablet'

      1. Steve Gill

        e-ink pad?

        What would be unbelievably nice would be a colour e-ink pad - might not be any use for for games or movies but would be awesome for pretty much everything else.

    4. Anonymous John

      Eh?

      I read it as saying that Amazon is jumping on the Tablet bandwagon, while still producing eInk readers.

  2. Troy Peterson
    Joke

    Steve Jobs

    Steve Jobs:

    "Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of tablets in this country. The Apple Ipad was the tablet to own. Then the other guy came out with a two core tablet. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Ipad 2. That's two cores and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened--the bastards went to four cores. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling two cores and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to five cores."

    1. Ammaross Danan
      Boffin

      Cores

      The IPad2 actually has 3 cores if you look at it from nVidia's viewpoint. The new Tegra chip has a dual-core ARM cpu and a dual-core GPU, all in the same SoC. The iPad2 has a dual-core ARM chip and a separate single-core GPU (albeit baked into the SoC I believe). Contrast that with the current desktop GPUs which are highly-parallel single-core CPUs. The move to dual-core likely gives it an entire core of extra Ooomph it can whip out when you load up a 3D game, but it can shut entirely off when it simply needs to handle your eBook reader interface. Power savings without (much) GPU performance sacrifice. Sounds good to me.

  3. DrXym

    Kind of obvious

    Amazon's Android app store makes zero sense in any other context than their own tablet device. I doubt even 1 in 500 people would bother installing Amazon's app store unless it came preinstalled on their device, which implies Amazon are making a device. It's also clear from B&N selling 3 million Nook Colour devices that there are rich pickings to be had.

    The big question for me is what version of Android this device will run and how open it will be. Will it be a fork of 2.x or running 3.x?

    I strongly believe that all the shenanigans from Google about not releasing the Android 3.0 source code happened precisely because of Amazon. By withholding the source they're probably hoping to moderate Amazon's stance or risk running a fork and not benefit from the changes in Android 3.0. Maybe Amazon will ditch their app store for Google Marketplace or come to some other arrangement. If no arrangement is made I can see an interesting battle taking place.

    As an Android developer I would be interested in writing apps for the any Kindle tablet but Amazon aren't exactly making the prospect look sweet at the moment by charging a $100 annual developer fee for the privilege. Maybe if they're looking at a war they should be getting the devs on their side first.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ha ha ha ha

    "Assuming Nvidia's four-core 'Kal El' system-on-a-chip - which is yet to be formally announced - performs as promised,"

    I repeat, ha ha ha ha.

    It might perform (occasionally), but will melt the case it's in and will blow it battery in about 15 minutes when using all cores.

    Industry Insider

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Amazon vs Google vs Apple

    Which is the 'least' evil?

    Baring in mind that any Andriod tab that Amazon comes up with will be riddled with Google software, as are all iOS devices (by default), it is a question I am having trouble answering

  6. Justin Clements
    FAIL

    oh look

    another ipad killer.....

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perhaps this explains why the DX has been left to languish...

    This all might explain why the Kindle DX has been left to languish - running the outdated v2 software and getting no real attention, and still no international release, whilst the Kindle 3 gets fairly regular updates.

    Amazon are being too slow here; It will be disappointing if they just release another me-too cheap Android tablet with a standard LCD panel - e-ink is still the clearest screen technology for reading books by far.

    I reckon there's still a healthy market for a DX-sized reader, providing it's priced properly.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Kindle DX International

      The international version of the Kindle DX has been out for over a year.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "The international version of the Kindle DX has been out for over a year". Well...

        ...yes, but you have to order it direct from the US, it defaults to the US amazon.com Kindle store and it doesn't come with a UK plug, just a US one.

        So Amazon will ship the DX internationally, but won't sell you a country-specific version. Unlike the Kindle 3.

        Another thing: The DX still doesn't have WiFi - an irritating omission once it was added to the Kindle 3.

        It is definitely being left to wither away by Amazon.

  8. J 3
    Paris Hilton

    I wonder...

    What would that do to battery life? Which I assume is an important aspect of mobile devices, no?

  9. ThomH

    Proposed Kindle changes undesirable

    If the new Kindle screen is literally like the Sony ones then it'll be a step backwards because the Sony screens have a noticeably lower contrast, which people tend to attribute to the way the touch stuff is bonded on top. If it's a tablet-style form factor with no buttons whatsoever then it'll be a step backward in usability since you'll no longer be able to hold it in one hand and turn pages, e.g. while using the other hand to grip some part of the tube/bus/train that you're commuting on but which has no free seats.

    On the concept of a separate tablet, I see Amazon not just as the only company with a serious chance to challenge Apple at their own integrated market game, but quite possibly the only company that could displace Apple and become the dominant single player — by simultaneously having a ready-made broad retail audience, a strong content offering and, if Android based, being able to get the bloggers on board from day one.

    1. Mark2410

      Actually...

      its was just the old sony ereaders that had the coating (i have one) and yeah its not great. the new ones however dont have this and are exactly as good as the kindle ones but with touch (yeah i have both)

      in comparison the kindle is a pile of cack to use compared with the sony,

  10. Doug 3

    wouldn't this seem to be more in response to the Color Nook

    I was surprised the Color Nook wasn't even mentioned in the article since that seems to be Amazon's primary competitor and their Android based CN seems to be selling nicely. I love competition.

    1. ThomH

      Probably because...

      Barnes & Noble operate in the US only, whereas Amazon operate internationally and (finally) launched the Kindle outside of the US last year. So, while it was an oversight not to mention the Nook, it was probably understandable from an article written in a territory where the thing isn't available.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Amazon playing catch-up with Barnes & Noble?

    It sounds like Amazon is releasing a competitor to the Nook Color.

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