05/24, 6:55am
The rumored Google tablet to start shipping soon
Google’s first foray into the hotly contested tablet market is set to reach user’s hands sometime in July. According to Digitimes, the first Google co-branded Android tablet will start shipping out of ASUS’ factories from next month, with an initial volume expected to be around 600,000 units. Originally rumored for a May release, the tablet was said to have been pushed back in order to trim the entry-price by adjusting its specifications so it can tackle the Amazon Kindle Fire head-on at $199.
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05/18, 4:29pm
Amazon to take aim with Kindle Fire against Apple iPad
Amazon may delay the rumored 8.9-inch Kindle Fire and launch a 10.1-inch model instead. According to DigiTimes, sources speculate that the larger screen will help compete with the iPad, whereas the 8.9-inch variant was said to be designed to go against the Samsung Galaxy Note.
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05/18, 12:43pm
Source claims Amazon in talks with ad agencies to bring lower cost Kindle tablet
Amazon is engaged in talks with a number of advertising agencies in the hopes of getting them to sign on in backing an ad-supported version of the retailer's Kindle Fire tablet, a source familiar with the discussions has told AdAge. If implemented, the ad-supported model could push prices even lower for Amazon's already budget-priced tablet.
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05/17, 9:00pm
No color Kindle Reader yet, Reuters says
Amazon is preparing to release a front-lit version of its Kindle e-reader and a new, bigger version of its Kindle Fire tablet, a source tells Reuters. The source claims to have seen prototypes for the devices, and says they will likely be released in July. A front-lit Kindle e-reader would allow users to read in the dark without the need for an external light attachment.
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05/04, 6:26am
Kindle Fire loses its spark, fading to a 4 percent market share
After setting the tablet scene alight in Q4 last year with 4.8 million tablet sales and taking the number two position in the market with a 16.8 percent market share, Amazon’s Kindle Fire sales fizzled in Q1. For the months of January, February and March this year, Amazon saw its Kindle Fire slide to just a 4 percent market share on with less than 750,000 sales. By contrast, Apple drove home its advantage as the market leader by growing its Q4 market share of 54.7 percent to a dominant 68 percent on the back of 11.8 million iPad sales.
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05/03, 8:52pm
Pending M14x, M17x, M18x laptop orders upgraded to Ivy Bridge
Boutique gaming PC manufacturer Alienware users with outstanding laptop orders were informed by email today that the placed order is being upgraded to Ivy Bridge processors at no extra cost. No further delay in the placed order is expected. The Ivy Bridge upgrade is exclusive to Alienware orders, and will not apply to parent company Dell's orders placed before the Ivy Bridge announcement.
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05/03, 3:37pm
Kindle Fire shipments show steep drop
Although Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet achieved a quick rise in the tablet market, Android tablet shipments have continued to slide, according to a report published by research firm IDC. As expected, Apple has solidified its dominant position with 68 percent of the tablet market.
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04/26, 5:20pm
Net income down, but net sales up
Amazon on Thursday recorded a significant hit to its profit for the first quarter of 2012. Its net income dropped 35 percent from year-to-year, to $130 million. Net sales were still up 34 percent to almost $13.2 billion, setting a new high.
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04/26, 3:55pm
comScore shows Kindle Fire propping up Android
Amazon's Kindle Fire now makes up the absolute majority of the Android tablet platform in the US, comScore found in a fresh study. The e-reader and tablet crossover represented 54.4 percent of all Android tablets sold in the country. At second place, the entire Samsung Galaxy Tab lineup comprised just 15.4 percent of Android slates.
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04/24, 10:45am
Forrester sees Amazon undermining Google
A new long-term estimate by Forrester Research has painted a strong picture for Apple in the tablet space. It saw Apple keeping its lead even up to 2016, when it saw the iPad having 53 percent of the space. A total of 760 million tablets would ship that year.
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04/18, 8:10am
Intel and MS hope iPad loses majority market share
Taiwan-area contract manufacturers claimed Wednesday that Intel and Microsoft have ambitious aims of reducing the iPad's dominance of tablets. The Digitimes contacts understood the Wintel combination wanted the iPad down from 70 percent share, as it has had in the past, to under 50 percent by mid-2013. For Intel, Lenovo's strength in its native China would be a key factor.
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04/17, 12:25pm
Read It Later becomes free, now called Pocket
The cross-platform Read It Later mobile app, which allows users to save web content for offline reading, has now been renamed to Pocket. What's more, the app has become free in the process. The app is available for Android and iOS devices as well as a version optimized for the Kindle Fire's version of Android.
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04/13, 12:00am
Amazon Prime catalog actually much smaller
Amazon drew flak on Thursday after it was accused of and later confirmed inflating its Amazon Prime video catalog. The company acknowledged to Fast Company that it counts each individual TV episode as a show, leading to even just one long-running TV series representing a large part of its catalog. A roster of 17,000 titles claimed by Amazon amounted to 1,875 titles, all but 150 of which were movies.
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04/12, 6:20pm
Google CEO hints skew towards budget tablets
Google chief Larry Page hinted at a shift in his company's Android tablet strategy during his company's quarterly results call on Thursday. When asked about what Google would do to improve Android's poor showing on tablets, he believed that most success would come at the lower end of the market. Google was "quite focused" on the category, he said, without saying what that meant.
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04/11, 7:50pm
Galaxy Tab 2 to compete mainly on price
Samsung late Wednesday detailed the US launch plans for a trio of its main Android tablet devices for the year. The Galaxy Tab 2 line will come to the US in both 7.0- and 10.1-inch forms with their dual-core 1GHz processors, Android 4.0, three-megapixel rear camera and VGA front cameras intact. The two are considered lower-cost versions of original Galaxy Tab ancestors but do have unique support for infrared remote control using Peel's Smart Remote app.
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04/06, 3:30pm
Amazon snaps up Oy Modilis to get night Kindle use
The combination of a leak and discoveries has revealed that Amazon is likely developing a unique illuminated E Ink screen. A source showing a disguised prototype in person to TechCrunch had an adjustable screen that evenly lit up with a cool light. The effect was like that of a white LED, but softer and easier to read, according to the anecdote.
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04/05, 6:20pm
Google e-book resales shift back to Play store
Google gave notice Thursday that it was ending its e-book reseller program. The effort, which let physical retailers and other third parties resell from Google Play Books, had "not gained the traction" Google wanted. A current set of 16 partners would be phasing out as the service wound down by the end of January.
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04/05, 8:25am
Mini iPad one of Apple's experiments
Talk of a 7.85-inch iPad was revived again after historically accurate John Gruber mentioned in a podcast that it was supposedly still in testing. He told The Talk Show co-host Dan Benjamin that he had heard from numerous insiders that the smaller size was "one of the ideas they're noodling with." The design he understood had the same 1024x768 resolution as the iPad 2, just scaled down to the lower physical size.
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03/30, 12:20pm
Google low cost Android tablet seen this year
Rumors percolating for a Google reference Android tablet were supplemented by a brief tip late Thursday. A Google staffer claimed to the New York Times that the hardware would be available later in the year. Details were scarce in the tip, although the newspaper supported the idea that it was aimed as much at the Kindle Fire as at the iPad and other, regular tablets.
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03/29, 6:45pm
Google to open own online tablet store
Google is expecting to start selling Android tablets directly, sources claimed Thursday night. It would run an online store that would carry third-party devices from companies like ASUS and Samsung, the Wall Street Journal said. Some of these would be Google co-branded, but that was a reference to regular third-party devices that had met the terms for the branding and not part of an official Google-designed tablet.
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03/29, 12:10pm
NVIDIA CEO hints at Nexus tablet plans
NVIDIA's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang in an interview mid-week has predicted that Android tablets will hit $199 by the summer. Speaking to the New York Times, he predicted that the presumably Tegra-based hardware would shave about $150 in costs. Some of this would come from reducing flash storage, although he also implied that quality might take a drop through reductions in "build materials."
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03/29, 10:40am
Refurbished Kindle Fire drops to $139 today
Dave Zatz revealed that Amazon has added a refurbished Kindle Fire to its Gold Box offerings, which expires in about 16 hours, depending on the time you read this. The device is priced at $139, which is $30 less than regularly and $60 less than a brand-new example. Buyers are limited to five units and there is limited stock as well, though how many are on offer isn't specified.
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03/28, 7:35pm
Software updated to v6.3
Amazon has released yet another software update for its Kinde Fire tablet. Version 6.3 adds several new features, including sharing capabilities that allow users to send favorite passages and notations to other users and social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter.
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03/28, 12:15am
Amazon may have up to 4 tablets in 2012
Amazon's rumored Kindle Fire lineup expansion might get larger still based on an unusually specific rumor late Wednesday. There would be "at least two" new Kindle Fire models in 2012, Digitimes insisted, with as many as four depending on Amazon's ambitions. A 10.1-inch model was supposedly on track for July shipments and would aim at the $249 to $299 price range, with HannsTouch supposedly joining TPK and Wintek in making touch panels.
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03/27, 12:20pm
Amazon may go high and low on 7in, add 8.9in
New rumors have surfaced claiming that Amazon will have a much wider strategy for its next-generation Kindle Fire tablets than thought. Taiwan Economic News claimed that the 8.9-inch version would be joined by two seven-inch models. One would have the 1024x600 display of the original, while a high-end version would get a 1280x800 display; the 8.9-inch version would supposedly have a 1920x1200 screen and thus compete even with the new iPad for pixel density.
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03/27, 11:15am
Google IO 2012 ready for developers
Google as anticipated started taking registrations for Google I/O 2012. The tickets to the developer event, which cost $900 for regular developers and $300 for education, sold out in less than one hour. In an unusual step meant to drive adoption, anyone who signed up had to do so both as a Google+ member and by using Google Wallet, neither of which was a deterrent.
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03/22, 4:45pm
ASUS global VP said company wants to top tablets
ASUS' global vice president Xu Youjia, while speaking at conference in China earlier this week, revealed the company aims to be the top tablet maker, behind only Apple and its iPad. In order to do so, Youjia indicated the company will innovate rather than follow others, though any specifics, technical or otherwise, weren't shared by the China Times. The company's current flagship tablet is the quad-core Transformer Prime, which uses NVIDIA's Tegra 3 processor.
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03/22, 7:10am
Amazon rumored to be prepping next Kindle Fire
Amazon may have already started placing orders for parts for its next-generation Kindle Fire. According to Digitimes, Taiwan-based chassis maker Catcher Technology has recently received parts orders from the online retail giant. The leak comes from upstream sources, although when approached about the potential deal Catcher declined to offer any comment about its partners.
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03/19, 4:50pm
iPad 2012 sales smash records
Apple quickly followed up on brief teases by confirming record-setting new iPad sales. The company has sold three million of the tablet since it launched over the weekend. While a record was expected, Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller characterized it as a breakthrough.
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03/19, 1:35am
iPad 2012 gets our thorough look
Once having the tablet arena almost entirely to itself, Apple is now in the middle of a full-scale battle: everyone who could have a tablet does, and even Amazon's Kindle Fire is in the fray at a very low price. The new iPad, then, faces the challenge of not just being the best but of giving buyers a reason to spend more than $199. A record-setting display, new graphics and 4G go a long way, but we'll learn in our review of the new 2012 iPad to see if it's enough to keep the crown.
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03/16, 12:35pm
Google Nexus slate may have toned down for price
(Update: extra rumors) Google's repeatedly rumored reference Android tablet, informally thought of as a Nexus tablet, may be focused on cost even more than thought. A senior staffer at an American supply chain firm claimed to Android and Me that the price window had been dropped by $50 to $149 to $199. However, any chance at a quad-core Tegra 3 might be dashed, as it would use an unnamed chip to save money.
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03/15, 4:15pm
Amazon celebrates Appstore's first birthday
The Amazon Appstore is having its first birthday party and, to celebrate, Amazon has put many of the software titles it offers on sale. The weeklong sale applies to the Android apps for devices such as the Kindle Fire, other tablets, and smartphones that can access the service. The service has grown from just 4,000 apps to more than 31,000 over the course of the year.
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03/15, 9:25am
Conde Nast explains reader data for iPad mags
Conde Nast took an important step towards giving tablet magazines a foothold by outlining regular readership data for its rapidly growing tablet apps. Advertisers and others who need it will now get both the usual subscription and one-time sales as well as metrics that can't be tracked with paper. The stats will show how often a reader opened an issue and how much total time they spent with it, showing the real engagement and whether an issue was effective.
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03/14, 1:55pm
Amazon adds Discovery shows to Prime offerings
Amazon has just revealed a deal with Discovery Communications that will let Amazon Prime members stream content from the media company. This includes episodes from non-current seasons from Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science and Military Channel, and other content that dates back 25 years. Some of the available shows will include Dirty Jobs, Say Yes To The Dress, and Whale Wars.
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03/14, 8:05am
NPD shows tablet demand not reflecting buying
Many tablet buyers want a keyboard even if they're not acting on it, the NPD Group found from a study. About 40 percent of those who were planning to buy a tablet reportedly wanted a hardware keyboard. "Most" of that subset wanted the keyboard fully integrated, the NPD said, favoring devices like the slow-selling ASUS Eee Pad Slider but ruling out detachable or docking keyboards like the same company's Transformer Prime.
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03/13, 2:35pm
IDC optimistic on tablets, Android's chances
IDC on Tuesday gave its own breakdown of world tablet share from this fall and painted an optimistic look at Android's position in the market. Going higher than others' estimates, the research team believed that Amazon shipped 4.7 million Kindle Fires, or enough to stake out 16.8 percent of tablets worldwide. Along with a slight gain from Samsung to 5.8 percent, the prediction would have knocked Apple down from 61.5 percent last summer to 54.7 percent in the last few months of 2011.
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03/13, 9:55am
ChangeWave shows iPad consolidating in work world
A follow-up study through ChangeWave has shown that corporate uptake of iPads was only climbing higher in February despite more concerted attempts from Android makers. Of those hoping to buy tablets in the spring, he number of companies looking to buy the iPad shot from 77 percent in November to a new high of 84 percent just last month. Without exception, every Android tablet designer's share of tablet interest declined, with none crossing into double digits.
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03/12, 7:20am
Mini iPad may take thin bezel to maximize design
A rumor starting the week has the often claimed 7.85-inch small iPad using relatively new technology to make the most of its screen. Part suppliers told Digitimes they anticipated Apple using thin bezel technology to make sure as much of the screen was available as possible. Indirectly supporting this, they expected that Shuriken panel designer LG Display would make the IPS or FFS (in-plane or field fringe switching) LCD.
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03/11, 12:10pm
Apple says 2012 iPad demand exceptional
Apple backed unofficial checks this weekend with remarks confirming that it had sold out of its launch day iPad stock. The company briefed USA Today that demand had been "off the charts" and the initial pre-order batch had been cleared out. Specific sales numbers weren't available ahead of the official March 16 launch.
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03/09, 9:35pm
Readability for Android near ready to go
Readability planned to go cross-platform quickly with word that its Android app would arrive March 12 at 11AM Eastern. The app, which will have strong parallels to the iOS version we tried, will have a one-week exclusive in the Amazon Appstore before it goes to Android Market. The deal is partly a nod to the Kindle reading heritage and to optimization of the app for the Kindle Fire.
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03/08, 11:20pm
Google 7in tablet once more linked to ASUS
Google's rumored Nexus-like Android tablet has once more been attached to ASUS by a leak late Thursday. The seven-inch tablet was now thought by Digitimes' contacts to be coming as soon as May for between $199 to $249. ASUS had been picked because it could manufacture the devices itself and had "good product quality."
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03/07, 11:00pm
Amazon Kindle Fire may get quick 7in sequel
Amazon may have reshuffled its Kindle Fire sequel plans again to drop an 8.9-inch model. A rumor Wednesday night spread to Digitimes had Amazon instead planning a straightforward seven-inch sequel to the current model as well as the alluded-to 10-inch version. Success with the tablet was leading Amazon to drift from e-readers to tablets, prompting the larger model, the sources claimed.
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03/06, 8:25pm
Patents fuel speculation of large Fire tablet
The USPTO has granted several Amazon patents that relate to a digital stylus input system that can be used to add annotations to documents. One patent focuses on the wireless input device itself—a large pen that tracks handwriting movements—while a second patent describes the necessary software components that make use of the input.
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03/06, 7:05pm
App checks app compatibility, adds action notices
Amazon has released a new update for browsing and purchasing software from its mobile shop. Amazon Appstore 2.2 offers several improvements to notifications and app compatibility verification. It's available now directly from the online retail giant (free, Amazon).
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03/05, 8:15pm
Apple still uncontested in mobile HTML5 benchmarks
Apple still has an unambiguous lead over Google in HTML5 performance on the mobile web, app development tool maker Spaceport.io found in a head-on benchmark test. iOS devices were typically about three times faster than their Android equivalents. Even Android 4.0's flagship, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, was still about 42 percent slower than the iPhone 4S despite newly optimized HTML5 code and a theoretically faster 1.2GHz clock speed.
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03/05, 7:20pm
Apple said to have settled on iPad HD
An uncommon instance of two dovetailing rumors may have divulged the final name of the next iPad. Both CNET and VentureBeat understood from sources that it would be called the iPad HD to emphasize the high-resolution 2048x1536 screen. While still going mostly on word, it came just after accessories had turned up making an association with the name.
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03/02, 11:50pm
PlayBook gets rare lead over any tablet in stores
RIM posted word that Best Buy Canada and its sister chain Future Shop had seen the BlackBerry PlayBook become the top-selling tablet at their stores this week. Neither store was reporting by how much, but they implied that the tablet had outsold even the iPad. No mention was made of overall performance in the country.
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03/02, 11:05am
InMobi sees pent-up demand fr iPad 3
An InMobi study posted Friday suggested that the next-generation iPad had a large, pent-up demand. About 29 percent of those who use the mobile web, based on the ad firm's viewers, planned to get the new Apple tablet sometime after it's unveiled next week. Half were willing to pay over $500, suggesting that questionable rumors of higher prices still wouldn't deter them from buying.
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03/01, 2:10pm
Archos Child Pad tablet made official
Archos set a new floor for mainstream tablets Thursday by previewing the Child Pad. The seven-inch tablet is expected to cost just $129, $70 less than even the Kindle Fire, but would still promise Android 4.0. Its child focus comes through an OS design that's meant to safeguard younger users through a filter, provide an easy-to-follow visual theme, and child-oriented apps both for games and for education.
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02/29, 11:15pm
Mini iPad gets late 2012 arrival date
Apple's long rumored smaller iPad was given a tentative production timeline in a rumor late Wednesday. Sample units were supposed by Digitimes' part supplier sources to be going out for testing, but production was still some distance away. It wouldn't start production until summer "at the earliest," according to the tip.
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