Kindle Fire Gets Second Screen Upgrade

In a long-anticipated move, Amazon’s Kindle Fire now has second screen integration to play your downloaded shows on other screens around your house or apartment. The updates, which will be rolling out over the air in the near future, will also include support for PS3 and 4, which means that the Fire devices will be able to “fling” shows to those platforms as well. It’s another move in the ever-growing world of second screen and user control over how and where they view their purchased data. 

Amazon Announces Fire HD

It wasn’t much if a surprise that Amazon announced the Kindle Fire HDX, but the Kindle Fire HD, at $229, is indeed unexpected. It’s got a similar construction to the 7-inch HDX, but inside it packs a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and a brand new OS, nicknamed “Mojito.” It ships out on October 2nd, and represents Amazon’s best bet for reviving the Kindle line. Whether or not it’s enough to save the Kindle – whose sales haven’t exactly been stellar – remains to be seen, but it’s clear that many companies are trying to get their cheaper tablets out ahead of Apple’s early-October blitz of new hardware and software. 

Amazon Expected To Overhaul Kindle Fire

Based on insider reports, Amazon is expected to overhaul the Kindle Fire for this year. Though Kindle desirability is second to Apple’s iPad lineup, Samsung’s tablets overtook the Kindle as far as sales are concerned. In an attempt to capitalize on Samsung’s tablet stumbles, Amazon may be looking to launch new Fire models for the holiday shopping season this year. The first will be a replacement for the base model 7-inch Fire, with a new panel that boasts the same resolution as the Fire HD. There will also likely be an upgrade to the Fire HD, improving the panel to 1,920 x 1,200-pixel resolution. Finally, the 8.9-inch model is also expected to undergo an overhaul, upgrading its pixel count to 2,560 x 1,600 – which is more pixels than Apple’s 9.7-inch Retina display. What’s more, expect some design changes along with these new models – a more angular, chiseled approach – that results in some weight loss and the relocation of the power button. Expect to hear more about these major additions to the tablet market come early fall.