“It’s called simply the ‘Amazon Kindle,'” MG Siegler reports for TechCrunch. “Fist [sic] of all, before every commenter asks, no, sadly, I don’t have any pictures to share. That was the one condition of me getting this information. So instead you’ll have to rely on my prose to draw a picture of the device in your head. Or you can just look at a BlackBerry PlayBook — because it looks very similar in terms of form-factor.”
“The device is a 7-inch tablet with a capacitive touch screen. It is multi-touch, but from what I saw, I believe the reports that it relies on a two-finger multi-touch (instead of 10-finger, like the iPad uses) are accurate. This will be the first Kindle with a full-color screen. And yes, it is back-lit. There is no e-ink to be found anywhere on this device,” Siegler reports. “Earlier this week, reports suggested that a 7-inch Amazon tablet could be released in October, with a larger, 10-inch version to follow next year. That’s somewhat accurate. As of right now, Amazon’s only definitive plan is to release this 7-inch Kindle tablet and they’re targeting the end of November to do that.”
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“So how much will the 7-inch Kindle cost? $250,” Siegler reports. “I believe it is running on a single-core chip (though I’m not 100 percent sure)… I also believe the device only has 6 GB of internal storage. The idea is that this will be more of a ‘cloud device’ for things like music and movies… This initial version of the device will be WiFi-only. Amazon is supposedly working with carriers to possibly product [sic] 3G-enabled versions (as they have with their other Kindles), but that won’t be the case at launch… There is no camera… 10 hours or so [battery life].”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A 7-inch screen is only 45% of iPad’s screen. Smart shoppers will get iPads and all that they offer (massive app selection, vibrant third-party ecosystem, bigger and better screen, full Multi-Touch™, etc.) and just download the Kindle app if that’s one of the many things they want to do with their iPad.