Amazon is firing up the tablet market with Kindle Paperwhite and a new Kindle Fire HD.
Jeff Bezos revealed the information during a press conference on Sept. 6 in Santa Monica, Cali.
Kindle Fire HD
The new Kindle Fire HD is $159.
According to Gizmodo, it's a little sleeker and a little rounder. It has an 8.9-inch screen, which has 25 percent less glare, two antennas for Wi-Fi, which gives a stronger signal. The Kindle HD will also have MIMO, which adds up to Wi-Fi that should be way faster than the competition, 41 percent faster than the iPad and 54 percent faster than the Nexus 7, according to Amazon.
The HD starts at 16GB of local storage, up from the 8GB of the original. It weighs 20 ounces and has 1920 x 1200 resolution with 254 ppi. It has longer battery life.
It also has two speakers, one at the top and bottom of the device in portrait mode. It has an OMAP4470 processor, which "outperforms the Tegra 3."
It also features Whispersync for Voice, which Amazon syncs all your books across all your gadgets, that syncs your words-book with your audiobook. You can also sync up your progression in games. Another feature will be Immersion Reading. You can listen to the narration of your book while you read it.
There is also X-Ray for movies and a camera.
This will rival with Apple's iPad. Shipping will start next Friday.
Kindle Paperwhite
Amazon also revealed that new Kindle Paperwhite. It has a new, front-lit display which lets you read in the dark, and has a capacitive touchscreen. Bezos revealed that it has 25 percent more contrast than the Pearl screens in the current Kindles and, with 212ppi, it has a 62 percent higher resolution. It relies on a fiber optic like system to direct light down onto the display, according to Engadget.
It's 9.1mm thick. Battery life is said to last for eight weeks and there is no physical buttons for control. The pages also turn 15 percent faster.
The fonts are more detailed. "The software will calculate your reading speed and estimate how long it will take you to finish a given chapter or book and there are now author bios."
According to Gizmodo, the frontlit is based on E-Ink's XGA display, which bumps its PPI to 212, up from 169.
The kindle will also be thinner because of capitative touch. It also features "Time to Read."
"It displays in the bottom left corner of your page, and tells you how long it will take yo to finish a chapter, or your book as a whole. It actually learns how fast you read a page, throwing out fast flips to go back or forward a bunch of pages, and calculates it for you, as a reader," Gizmodo reported.
The Kindle Paperwhite costs $119 for the WiFi version and shipping starts Oct. 1. It costs $179 with 3G connectivity.
The old Kindle e-reader is $69 and has some upgrades. It stars shipping Sept. 14.
No doubt, the new Kindle Paperwhite was made to compete with Barnes & Noble's Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight, which has the older Pearl display.
Amazon has yet to announce the Kindle Fire 2, which many reports speculate that this will happen at this event. The Kindle Fire HD may be the second version of the Kindle Fire, and the first version is reportedly the new 7-inch one yet to be announced.
The Kindle Fire 2 is expected to have a new processor, new display touch screen technology and new build, as well as a new mobile operating system with Amazon's custom build that will not support Google's Play Store and other Google products and services.
The new Kindle will have a 1280 x 800 resolution, different than the current 1024 x 600 display. This will make it sharper and more vibrant. It will be thinner and lighter than the original.