Amazonis a company with a story of taking on challenges and come up out on top . It first launched in 1995 , when business on the World Wide Web was still in its infancy . It weathered the tempest of the bursting acid - com house of cards and delay afloat . What commence as a companionship that sold books is now a massive corporation offering everything from computer hardware to drogue . But even as the caller germinate , it celebrates its literary roots .
In 2007 , Amazon introduce theKindle e - reader . Like other due east - readers on the market place , the Kindle used electronic ink from a company refer eInk to display text and picture . Because the gadget only consumed power when link to a connection or when it had to display a change in Thomas Nelson Page , its battery could last for more than a week without need a recharge . computer storage space on the gadget was ample enough to let a user carry grand of books around . And Amazon ’s digital book subroutine library included an telling bit of claim .
Not content to rest on the success of the Kindle , Amazon introduced a new gadget in September 2011 called the Kindle Fire . Unlike the original Kindle blood line of merchandise , the Fire does n’t use eInk . It ’s a tablet gadget with an LCD show and the power to black market apps , graze the Web and toy video and music . Oh , and you may still use it to read electronic books too .
Amazon Kindle Fire Inside and Out
The Kindle Fire is a 7 - inch ( 17.8 - centimeter)tablet , making it small than Apple ’s iPad , the most popular pad on the market place allot to surveys [ source : Netburn ] . It ’s corresponding in size to the standard Amazon Kindle e - reader . Its design is unsubdivided – on the bottom edge of the equipment there are two port and one clitoris . The port admit a micro - USB port for charging and transmitting data over a USB cable and a 3.5 - millimetre ( 0.14 - inch ) earphone diddlyshit . The power push is the only forcible clitoris on the Kindle Fire . All other controls for the Kindle Fire are practical – you activate them through the capacitive touch - screen interface .
Checking under the hood , the Amazon Kindle Fire bundle a lot of punch in a small space . Alithium - ion batteryprovides ability . It ’s a rechargeable battery and one you ca n’t easy replace if it fails . To get to the battery , you ’d have to prise apart the front and back one-half of the Kindle Fire ’s case – a certain way to void your warrantee .
A circuit plank beneath the battery houses the brains and aflutter organization for the Kindle Fire . The processor for the Kindle Fire is a Texas instrument 1 - gigahertz , dual - core microprocessor called the OMAP 4430 . You would n’t see it at first glance – it ’s nestled under a 512 - MB tup micro chip from Hynix . Other chips on the tour plank include :
These components give the Kindle Fire the ability to get at media , process datum and accept program line . Theprocessoris like the mastermind – it crunches numbers and gets results . Thememorystores your media and data needed for apps . TheRAMacts as a stash , holding important data point so the processor can get to it quickly . Thebusis like the unquiet scheme – it routes data to the appropriate destination . Thetransmittersends data to the Kindle Fire ’s display and thetransceiverallows the gimmick to communicate with a connection . Thetouch - cover controllermonitors the Kindle Fire ’s condenser screen .
Touching Fire
Capacitancetouch - screeninterfaces have been around for a while . They swear on a frail electric field to register a sense of touch . Here ’s how they generally work :
Between the glass surface of the Amazon Kindle Fire and the background of the screen is a sandwich of dissimilar layers . The understructure of this sandwich is theLCDdisplay . The layers skinny to the screen are conductive bed of transparent fabric such as indium tin oxide ( ITO ) . These layers make a capacitance power grid . The Kindle Fire generates a weak electric field across this electrical condenser grid .
When your finger’s breadth – or any cloth capable of altering the electric field – comes into contact with the CRT screen , the field vary . Your finger’s breadth actually pull out current from the airfield . It ’s such a faint electric theater that you do n’t sense it yourself . But the Kindle Fire can sense the changes in the field and represent them to a specific billet that stand for to the display screen . The Kindle Fire ’s software maps the touch to whatever bidding you were do .
It ’s well-to-do to understand with an example . Let ’s say you want to read your written matter of " Fahrenheit 451 " by the late Ray Bradbury . You recently buy the book and so it appears on your home CRT screen . You touch the picture of the Holy Scripture ’s cover . At that full stop , the Kindle Fire detects where your fingerbreadth contacts the screen as the galvanizing field give across the screen changes . Mapping the location of your touch to the information represented in the icon , the Kindle Fire knows to retrieve and open up the transcript of the volume you ’ve requested .
The grid - similar structure of the capacitive screen allows the Kindle Fire to detect multiple touches . The power system creates a series of x and y axes that the Kindle Fire rely upon to determine where you ’re touch and how many digit you ’re using . in the beginning capacitive screen in electronics relied on capacitors locate at the four corners of a screen , which meant the screen could only shell out with a single point of contact .
The Kindle Fire OS and Amazon’s Cloud
The Kindle Fire’soperating systemdoes some authoritative workplace . It ’s a stratum of software that map commands to the Kindle Fire ’s ironware . It bridge over the gap between computer software and the physical layer of electronics that produces results . It also pretend as the user user interface for the Kindle Fire . It needs to be robust and user friendly .
Amazon chose the Androidoperating systemto be the basis for the Kindle Fire . But the edition of Android you ’ll see on Amazon ’s lozenge is n’t the same as the one in other Android devices . It ’s a highly customized variation of Android 2.3 , also known as Gingerbread . Amazon used Gingerbread as the foundation for its tab and developed from there . The Kindle Fire look and behaves differently compare to other Gingerbread tablet .
For those with a little experience in taking administrative control over twist , also known as take root , the Kindle Fire creates the opportunity to own a relatively inexpensive Android pad of paper . It ’s possible to root the twist and load a different variation of Android on the tablet . This will effectively pass over out the Amazon functionality of the Kindle Fire and interchange it with the Google suite of apps and features .
Amazon has its own app store from which you’re able to buy and instal apps to your Kindle Fire . It ’s basically a curated version of the Android app store . Not all Android apps are available , and you ca n’t voyage to the official Google Android app store .
One specialised tool on the Kindle Fire is the Web internet browser . It ’s a specialized web browser Amazon built called Silk . Silk takes advantage of Amazon ’s massive computer behind the picture . It ’s telephone Amazon Web Services and the idea is that these computing equipment do the fleshy lifting of loading and caching Web Sir Frederick Handley Page so that the Kindle Fire does n’t need to do too much employment . In possibility , this speeds up page - loading sentence .
Amazon also supports the Kindle Fire through the employment ofcloud memory board . Although the Kindle Fire has 8 GB of remembering – a modest amount compared to some other lozenge – Amazon offers complimentary on-line storage of mass medium purchased from Amazon . Your book , pic and music wo n’t live on the Kindle Fire – they ’ll be in the cloud . you could put in thing temporarily on your lozenge and put back them whenever you like , knowing that a edition of the deleted material will still be alive and well in the cloud .
Amazon Prime members get some bonus feature with the Kindle Fire . One is approach to thelending library , a religious service that let you take up a option of leger from Amazon ’s massive electronic program library . Another perk is the power to watch well out television set display and motion-picture show through Prime Video . purchase a Kindle Fire grant you one month ’s free access to the Prime armed service . After that , you ’ll need to pony up a annual fee of $ 79 to stay a extremity .
Content is King
Perhaps the Kindle Fire ’s big selling power point is the fact that you may buy so much content at once from Amazon . The company offers up K of music files , movies , television shows , magazines and book . And with Amazon as both content and ironware supplier , the integration of purchase services makes it easy to buy lots of message right away .
party likeGoogleandApplealso have their own mass medium - store solutions . But Amazon has one of the largest library of medium content online and campaigns hard to keep prices low-pitched for customers . This position puts Amazon at betting odds against the publishing industriousness . It ’s an ongoing battle between protect the rights of a major business sector and meeting the needs of customer .
Another big vantage of the Kindle Fire over other gadget is its relatively low price . It ’s importantly less expensive than the base model of Apple ’s iPad . Amazon may even be taking a loss on the sale of the gadget . Research firm IHS estimated that it cost $ 201.70 US to manufacture a unmarried Amazon Kindle Fire tablet . The merchandising price for the Kindle Fire as of this writing is $ 199 [ source : Svensson ] .
Why would Amazon sell its computer hardware at a deprivation ? Part of the cause is that it ’s tough to compete against the iPad , a equipment that succeeded where other tablets failed . By pricing the Kindle Fire significantly below the iPad , Amazon create an attractive choice for people who may not have a lot of money to pass on electronics . But the main ground come back to content . The Amazon Kindle Fire is essentially a conduit for Amazon content . Amazon could make up the loss in sales by sell movies , leger and more to Kindle Fire proprietor .
Today , the Kindle Fire is in an increasingly free-enterprise grocery . Apple still predominate the roost with the iPad . But other Android tablets have realise some success as well . Google ’s Nexus 7 lozenge launched at the same price point as the Kindle Fire , but with beefier hardware and a higher - declaration screen . And Microsoft ’s announcement of its Surface Tablet introduce another competitor in the infinite . Has the Kindle Fire lose its spark , or will an update to the hardware keep the embers burning for Amazon ? One affair is likely – the company will make certain it does n’t evaporate in a puff of smoke .
The Kindle Fire proved that the 7 - in ( 17.8 - centimeter ) word form constituent for pill is a practicable alternative . It also show that there is a ready audience for lower - priced tablets as long as they have the right-hand feature article . In many shipway , the Kindle Fire is n’t a lineal competitor with the iPad . But with new tablet in the market now and on the apparent horizon , the Kindle Fire in reality faces some tough opposer . I ’m excited to see what Amazon has in store for us next .
