Bite Autumn 2012

T he Kindle Fire has been the number one best-selling product for the past twelve months on Amazon.com, and it is now available to buy in the United Kingdom. It claims to have a faster processor, longer battery life, and a greater memory space. Hand in hand with this new arrival comes the Kindle Fire HD, a seven-inch tablet with a High Definition screen, a processor and graphics engine, Dolby audio, 16GB of storage, and eleven hours of battery life. Both forms of Kindle Fire give customers instant access to the 22 million books, magazines, films, TV shows, songs, albums, apps, and games available on Amazon.co.uk, and they are also offered a free month of LoveFilm andAmazon Prime. The Kindle Fire was the most successful launch of a product on Amazon.com. Over 10,000 customer reviews of the Kindle Fire were five star reviews, and 22% of tablet sales in the US over the course of nine months, was made up of sales of the Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire HD has a touch-sensor display with a 1280 x 800 resolution that boasts 25% less glare, and Wi-Fi that promises 40% faster streaming and downloads. This is because the Kindle Fire HD uses dual-band Wi-Fi, with the ability to switch from the 2.4GHz network, which can get crowded and slow due to other devices such as baby monitors, Bluetooth, and KINDLE FIRE & KINDLE FIRE HD

A mazon.co.uk has recently introduced the “all-new” Kindle, which takes the honour of being the lightest and smallest Kindle so far, with parental controls, improved fonts and faster page turning. It has been just two years since the Kindle was first introduced to the UK market, and already there are claims that more people are buying Kindle books than hardback and paperback books combined. It has also retained the title of number one best-selling e-Reader in the world for five years in a row. The “all-new” Kindle has the usual features of a six- inch screen and a high-contrast E-Ink display that is devoid of glare even in bright sunlight, as well as the already mentioned new additions, such as the 15% increase in the speed of turning pages and a weight that comes to just 170 grams. Kindle

microwaves, using it, to the newer 5 GHz network. This enables the user to download High Definition files of films. The device also comes with Dolby Digital Plus audio on dual stereo speakers, and a front-facing HD camera, enabling you to make video calls on Skype from anywhere you want. The Kindle Fire canmodify the audio to suit the entertainment, be it a film or music, and also to suit the mode of wearing headphones, so you can be certain of always hearing audio that is balanced in volume, texture, and content. The Kindle Fire HD has a screen made from “Gorilla Glass”. The glare on screens is created by the air gap between the LCD glass at the bottom, and the touch sensor on top, the air gap creating space for light to reflect off the LCD, having come through the touch screen. With the Kindle Fire HD, the two sheets of glass are laminated together, reducing glare by up to 25% less than an iPad 3. Furthermore, the LCD panel also has an “Advanced True Wide” polarising filter, which prevents colours from appearing washed-out and faint from certain angles. Despite all of its features, the Kindle Fire HD just weighs 395 grams, and its thickness comes to only 10.3mm. The device supports Bluetooth, making the connection of Bluetooth headphones and speakers the simplest of acts, and comes in a variety of different coloured leather covers to choose from. It keeps the Kindle secure with a magnetic clasp, putting the device “ to sleep” when the cover is closed, and “ waking” it when it is opened again. With a myriad of extra features such as X-Ray for books and movies, Whispersync for games, your pictures and photographs in HD, and a new calendar and email functions, there seems to be no end to the surprises the Kindle Fire has in store for its owners. www.amazon.co.uk/kindlefir

The Kindle’s E-Ink screen achieves its total lack of glare by actually reflecting sunlight. The text that you read appears “print-like” thanks to specific ink particles. With Amazon. co.uk’s Kindle Store hosting a selection of over one million books to buy, it is probably no surprise that Kindles have been so popular. The books sold in the Kindle Store include UK best-sellers and even magazines, newspapers, and blogs. There are even 180,000 titles that are exclusive to the Kindle Store, meaning that you will not find them to purchase anywhere else. Kindle users have the freedom to read their books on android devices such as PCs, Apple Macs, iPhones, and iPads

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and Windows phones thanks to the Kindle Reading App. Through Amazon’s “Whispersync” technology, a customer will always be able to pick up on the last page they read, no matter what device they are reading from. The fonts in the all-new Kindle have not just been improved in appearance; you can also modify the fonts to completely different fonts, whichever one suits you. The Kindle even has a built-in dictionary. Once you have bought a book, the free wireless delivery enables you to start reading it just sixty seconds later. And best of all, you do not need a computer to download new content. The Kindle is able to hold up to 1400 books, so you will never have to worry about which one of your favourites you have to leave behind. Furthermore, there is never the threat of losing even just one book, as each book is backed up in the Kindle’s system, or “Cloud”. The concerns and worries almost all fade away with one new breakthrough after the other; with the wireless switched off, you can use your Kindle for up to a month without having to recharge it. For first-time customers, the Kindle is automatically pre-registered, so no set-up procedures are there to prevent you from using your Kindle immediately. And finally, parental controls ensure that access to the Web can be limited or completely restricted, as well as access to archived items and the Kindle Store. With all of these classic and welcomed new features, it is no wonder that the Kindle just keeps increasing in popularity. www.amazon.co.uk/kindlefire

Images courtesy of Amazon