Amazon Unveils New Products, Partnerships

Today at a media event in Santa Monica, Amazon announced an assortment of heavily-rumored products, including a new Kindle eReader.

The backlit 'Paperwhite' Kindle reader will surely tempt to eReading aficionados. The new eReader sports a white background that is reminiscent to paper, easier on the eyes, and is gently backlit.

The new Kindle has 25% more contrast, 212 PPI, 62% more pixels. It also has a more accurate touch capacitive screen. Light Guide took 4 years of research and development. "It's exactly like ambient light."

They're going to leave it on all the time, so they worked on 8-week battery life even with the light on.

The new Kindle is 9.1mm thin, 7.5 ounces.

The new Kindle also comes with a brand new feature, called "Time to Read." By clicking the bottom left corner, the Kindle will tell you how much time is left in the chapter, and how much time it will take you to finish the book. The Kindle tracks your average reading speed, adjusts the timers based on your individual reading speed.

The new touchscreen paperwhite Kindle will sell for $119, and will ship October 1st. The 3G version offers free 3G at $119.

The $79 Kindle has also received a minor upgrade, with faster pageturns a black body, a price drop, and a "new name: the $69 Kindle."

New Kindle Fires

Amazon updated its Kindle Fire with a faster processor, doubled the RAM, and cut the price by $40. For only $159 you can get a pretty serious 7-inch tablet.

But the Kindle Fire bump was small news when compared to the Kindle Fire HD, Amazon's new tablet, which has an 8.9" HD IPS display, at 1920 x 1200 resolution at 254 PPI.

The Fire HD has an OMAP 4470 processor, made by Texas Instruments.

Amazon has updated their display, which features 25% less glare with a laminated screen. The Fire HD also has dual stereo speakers, two antennas, and a MIMO-capability, which supposedly makes the internet 41% faster internet than the iPad, and 54% faster WiFi than the Nexus 7.

Amazon also unveiled a feature across their tablets capabilities, called Whispersync. Whispersync will save your progress in a book, even if you're listening to it as an audiobook. For Games, Whispersync saves your progress, unlocked levels, and more. If you ever have to reinstall your games you won't have to start over.

Both of the Kindle Fire HD versions will start at 16GBs.

The 7" Kindle Fire HD will cost $199, while the 8.9" HD display will cost $299.

Developing...

Nic is the Editor of IGN Tech. He loves technology almost as much as The Great Gatsby, The Idiot, and Life of Pi. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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Amazon To Announce Its New Tablets On September 6?

We reported a month ago on the "five or six" new tablets Amazon is rumored to release this year. The company has invited press to a media event in Santa Monica, CA, scheduled less than a week before Apple is expected to announce its next iPhone. A clear effort to keep us guessing, the press invitations simply state, "Please join us for an Amazon Press Conference."

Amazon announced the Kindle Fire at a similarly furtive press event last fall, so while it's not 100% certain this will be a tablet announcement, it probably is. And not a moment too soon: with Google's vastly superior Nexus 7 now on the market and the iPad's market share still basically unchallenged, Amazon has some catching up to do.

Everything's speculation for now; so what do you think? Will Amazon announce a 10" iPad killer? - just an updated seven-incher? - an out-of-left-field smartphone? Cast your bet in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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