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Tag Archives: kindle
The Best Places to Find Free Audiobooks
The audiobook industry is in the cusp of a major change, with a new technology from Apple using AI-narrated features that promises to make audiobook production more accessible to independent and indie publishers, according to Apple’s website. This means we, as audiobook listeners, could potentially enjoy more audiobooks selections at lower prices in the future. In the meantime, though, here are several ways you can score audiobooks for free.
Net Galley
You’ve probably heard of free movie screening websites, like Gofobo, where you can get invited to watch an upcoming movie before it comes out—there’s a website that does the same thing for audiobooks. Net Galley gives you access to the latest books and audiobooks by distributing digital galleys, or advanced reader copies (ARCs), in exchange for an honest review with the intention of creating hype for the book.
You need approval from the website, but it’s easy if you use Goodreads, Amazon, or BookBub to write books reviews because you can sync those profiles when setting up your Net Galley account. Even if you’ve never used those accounts or written a review of a book, you can still apply; they want regular book advocates in addition to professional book reviewers to review as many ARCs as possible.
Libby
Libby is OverDrive’s mobile app to get free access to e-books, audiobooks, and magazines from your library—all you need is a library card from your local public library. Like a library, Libby only allows you to borrow a certain amount of audiobooks or e-books at a time, but the app allows you to listen or read your borrowed content off-line. Plus, all your devices are synced, so you can listen on your computer at home, and then pick up where you left off on your phone when you get in your car.
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Libby is only for digital content and is available for Android and iOS, browsers Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge, and the Microsoft Store if you use Windows. You can also send your borrowed content to your Kindle if you don’t want to read it on your phone or computer (if you have one of the newer Kindles that supports the feature).
According to OverDrive, over 90% of public libraries in North America have OverDrive, so odds are, your library uses it. You can check if they do here. OverDrive originally had an app named after their company, but it was discontinued in early 2022 and replaced by Libby.
Hoopla
Similarly to Libby, Hoopla is an app that allows you to borrow audiobooks and e-books from your local library for free if you have a card, but it also gives you access to movies, music, and graphic novels. The way you borrow on Hoopla is different from Libby, though; instead of working like a real-life physical library, Hoopla allows you to borrow any of their content immediately with no wait time. So you can get the latest popular audiobook regardless of how many people are checking it out at the same time. However, Hoopla limits you to 10 items you can check out each month.
Hoopla’s interface is not as user-friendly as Libby’s, but it has a larger selection of content to choose from. It also syncs across devices and picks up where you left off. They both have their pros and cons, but they are both free and can complement each other.
Public domain websites
Content that enters the public domain is any book where nobody holds the copyrights to them, and are therefore free to distribute. Most are converted to audiobooks and e-books by volunteers and distributed through many websites. Most of the content is old-time classics published before 1923, meaning you can find nuggets like Homer’s Lliad and The Odyssey, The Richest Man in Babylon, and The Great Gatsby. Here are some websites where you can get these audiobooks from.
The Most Disappointing Phones, Gadgets, and Services of 2022
Although reviews have been mixed, we actually like the Logitech G Cloud. It’s an Android-powered handheld designed to play AAA titles through game-streaming services, in addition to mobile games. You can even play retro titles through emulators like RetroArch. The controls are solid, the hardware feels great, the battery life is astounding, and the seven-inch, 1080P screen is easy on the eyes. The handheld feels a little under-powered, though, and struggles with some of the more processor intensive mobile games currently available, even if your phone would have no issue with them. At $349, it’s only $50 cheaper than Valve’s entry-level Steam Deck. If Logitech knocks the price down a bit for 2023, the G Cloud would definitely be worth considering.
– Andrew Liszewski
Amazon Kindle Scribe Review: Off to a Good Start
The latest addition to Amazon’s (AMZN) – Get Free Report Kindle lineup is its biggest yet with the $339 Kindle Scribe. The giant e-reader has a familiar design and provides a reading experience that’s sure to make its namesake proud.
But the Scribe brings a new feature to the Kindle lineup–the ability to write on the eInk display using a stylus. You can create notebooks, or import documents to use the pen on. You also get a pen–albeit a basic one–for the base price of $339.
On paper, the Scribe sounds great. But in practice, it definitely feels like a first-generation product that’s missing key features to bring it to the same level as the competition and make it a true contender.
A Really big Kindle
Jason Cipriani/TheStreet
Let’s get this out of the way first: The Kindle Scribe is just a really big Kindle at its core. It has a 10.2 inch anti-glare display with a resolution of 300 ppi that shows text that’s clear and crisp. In fact, it looks nearly identical to the Kindle Oasis, but bigger.
The Scribe connects to and syncs with Amazon’s Kindle Store, bringing your Kindle library to a larger screen. It has all of the premium features you can get from the Paperwhite, such as an auto-adjusting front light and it charges via a USB-C port.
Reading on the Scribe is something you’ll undoubtedly have to get used to, at least if you’re accustomed to holding a Kindle in front of your face, as opposed to resting it on your lap. After a few minutes of holding the Scribe off of my lap, I found that it became heavy and I was constantly adjusting my grip. It weighs 443 gm, which is more than double the Paperwhite’s 205 gm and nearly triple the standard Kindle’s weight of 158 gm. It’s heavy… especially for an ereader.
There’s a wide section of the body that provides a spot to hold the Scribe without putting your hand on the display, and because the Scribe has auto-rotation, you can hold it in your right or left hand and the screen will change to match.
You’ll want to be cautious using the Scribe around water as it lacks any sort of waterproof rating, leaving that to the Oasis or the Paperwhite.
The USB-C port is centered along the left-edge of the Scribe, with the power button just below (or above, depending on how you’re holding the tablet) it. The placement of the port is so that you can charge the Scribe while still comfortably holding it.
This Is Just the Beginning for Digital Notebooks
Jason Cipriani/TheStreet
Of course, there’s more to the Scribe than its e-reader functionality–it doubles as a digital notebook. There’s not a whole lot of competition for devices like the Scribe. The reMarkable 2 is probably the most well-known, and even at that, I’d wager unless someone has specifically sought out a dedicated digital notebook device, it’s unlikely someone’s heard of it.
Thanks to Amazon and the Kindle Scribe, however, the concept of taking notes on a dedicated device and accessing them remotely is surely going to spur interest for this type of device.
Jason Cipriani/TheStreet
You have the option of buying the Scribe with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB storage, and with the basic pen or a premium pen. The basic pen is, as its name implies, very basic, having just one feature–the ability to write on the Scribe’s display.
The premium pen has a shortcut button you can customize to do things like change the pen’s functionality to a highlighter while pressed. It also has an eraser on one end that you can press to the Scribe’s screen and remove any digital ink.
Jason Cipriani/TheStreet
Either model of pen magnetically attaches to the right edge of the Scribe. It’s not an overly strong connection–you can knock the pen off if you brush it against your desk or as you put the tablet in your backpack–so just be mindful of that. Otherwise, the pen is always available and ready for use.
The display of the Scribe has a slightly textured finish that adds a touch of friction to the nib of the pen as it moves over it. You can’t feel it with your finger when you touch the screen, but it’s definitely noticeable with the pen. The end result is an experience that feels more like writing on paper and not a slab of glass. I actually have a screen protector on my iPad that’s designed to mimic this same experience. It’s called Paperlike, and it’s awesome. The fact that it’s built into the Scribe’s hardware is a welcome bonus.
Along the bottom of the main interface is a new tab labeled Notebooks. This tab is where you’ll find all your notebooks, which you can organize into folders.
All of your notebooks are synced with Amazon’s Kindle servers, and accessible on your iPhone or Android phone via the Kindle app. I haven’t figured out a way to access my notebooks on a computer.
Jason Cipriani/TheStreet
Inside a notebook, you can use the pen to write or sketch. There’s a small toolbar that expands and collapses to reveal a pen, highlighter or eraser tool. If you double-tap on a tool’s icon, you can customize the thickness of the digital ink or highlighter.
The basic tools are there, but I want more. I’ve used the reMarkable 2 and an iPad Mini to take notes, both of which have more advanced tools for my digital writing. For instance, I can select text and move it up or down on a page by using the select tool. The Scribe has a select tool, but only for deleting a section of your notebook.
Writing is a smooth process that offers very little latency between when the pen touches the screen and digital ink appears. I don’t have any issues with the latency, or lack thereof, on the Scribe. It’s on par with the reMarkable 2, and maybe a little slower than the iPad.
Another feature that’s missing from the Scribe at launch is the ability to convert your handwriting into text; a capability that helps with searching your notebooks for specific items.
Syncing documents to the Scribe can be done a couple of different ways, both of which are nice (but again, I’d like to see more). Right now you can use the Send to Kindle website to drag and drop documents that are then synced to your Kindle devices — or you can opt to have them sent only to your Scribe. Another method is to use the Kindle app on your iPhone or Android device.
The entire document-sharing process would be better if Amazon had support for some sort of cloud storage service, be it Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive.
Once you have a document on the Scribe, you can then write notes on it, sign it, or use the sticky note feature. When you’re finished you can then email the document to yourself or another person.
After using the Scribe for a few weeks, you can see the potential of it as a digital notebook, but it feels very much like a first-generation product. That’s not an entirely negative statement, but it does mean that the Scribe in its current form isn’t the best digital notebook device on the market. It has room to grow.
Bottom Line: Is the Kindle Scribe Worth it?
Jason Cipriani/TheStreet
The Kindle Scribe is a fantastic e-reader, especially if a larger-screened Kindle is your panacea. It does all of the things you’d expect an Amazon Kindle to do, with the added bonus of using a pen to take notes. But when used as a digital notebook, the experience doesn’t match the fit and finish of its e-reader counterpart.
I’m confident Amazon will continue improving the Scribe’s notebook experience through software updates, but it’s never a good idea to buy a product for what it could be. And I don’t make it a habit to recommend products based on the future.
That said, I can still recommend the Kindle Scribe to those who want a basic digital notebook that doubles as an e-reader. Or is it the other way around? Either way, go into it with proper expectations for what it can and can’t do and you’ll be alright.
If you want a Kindle experience, but don’t need something as big or pricey as the Scribe, the $140 Paperwhite is the best option for many, if not most.
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.
Amazon’s Kindle Scribe Bet that Handwriting is the Future of E-Readers
With the Kindle Scribe, Amazon is hoping that a device it launched during the George W. Bush administration can be its next big thing again.
Amazon doesn’t shy away from flashy ideas, whether it’s a delivery drone, robotic sentry or a conversation with virtual assistant Alexa. But this week, Amazon started selling its Kindle Scribe, a refreshed version of the E Ink reader first launched back before Amazon even had a mobile app.
The Kindle Scribe isn’t futuristic. It isn’t semi-sentient. It doesn’t even have color. Its big update: In addition to reading, you can write on it now too.
Read more: Amazon Kindle Scribe Review: This Note-Taking E Ink Tablet Strikes a Great Balance
But by rejuvenating the low-frills Kindle, Amazon is hoping to give you new reasons to experience the centuries-old joy of reading. The first Kindle launched the same year as the first iPhone, and in the decade and a half since, our personal devices have grown smarter, faster, flashier — and now exert a greater influence on our mental well-being. Swimming against this tide, the Kindle Scribe’s mission is unglamorous. It’s engineered to help you get deep into tasks undermined by most internet-enabled devices: attentive reading and note-taking.
“We’ve expanded the world of what customers can do but still kept this idea of a sanctuary where people can get into the content and not be distracted,” Kevin Keith, Amazon’s vice president of product management and marketing, said in an interview.
The Scribe’s real advance may simply be that Amazon, the world’s fourth biggest company by market value, is making it.
Kobo, reMarkable and Boox E Ink tablets from smaller makers already offer writing as a feature, and some have large formats with screen quality nearly as good as the Scribe’s. But none let you mark up Kindle books, and some don’t even support the Kindle app. With the Scribe, Amazon has opened up its vast and popular library to your scribbling.
Adding a new sparkle to the Kindle experience makes sense, given that Keith says Amazon’s customers buy more Kindle books than physical books. And there’s a large potential base of future Kindle users who already use Amazon’s e-reading app. The Kindle app has been downloaded more than 326 million times globally since 2012 onto Apple and Android devices instead of Kindles, according to data.ai, a market analytics company that tracks mobile apps.
The company sees the device “as a new category of Kindle that adds writing to everything customers love about Kindle today and opens us up to new and different customers,” Keith said.
Chris LaBrutto, a principal product manager at Amazon, said Kindle users were already creating a “Cliff Notes” version of their Kindle books with highlights and typed notes. Adding a stylus to write on the Scribe elevates that experience, letting readers get more actively engaged, LaBrutto said.
The question is whether, after 15 years of rising smartphone addiction, gadget buyers like you are longing to return to reading and writing in shades of gray.
E Ink’s fans like its limitations
First sold as part of e-readers in the mid-2000s, E Ink screens have earned devoted admirers from readers of all genres. The displays render text and graphics in gray scale with tiny, charged capsules that turn either black or white in response to negative or positive electric signals. They draw far less power than a traditional tablet, giving them battery lives measured in weeks instead of hours.
You can also read an E Ink display in direct sunlight and avoid shining blue light into your eyes, because it isn’t backlit. That immediately appealed to Nick Price, a security engineer in Portland, Oregon, who’s used a number of Kindles with E Ink, as well as a Boox e-reader.
“I found it was a lot easier on my eyes in the evening when I’m trying to go to bed,” Price said of his first Kindle’s screen.
For aficionados, the simplicity of the devices are the point. In addition to eliminating bright colors shining from screens, E Ink devices typically don’t offer the entirety of the internet, a massive distraction from focused reading. That was the appeal of the reMarkable 2, an E Ink tablet with a stylus that came out in 2020, said Andrew Loeb, an English professor at Trent University in Ontario, Canada, who wanted to be able to focus on his reading and note-taking.
“For the same price, you can get an iPad,” he said, but that would defeat the purpose. “If I have an iPad, then I’ll do other things with it.”
Writing on an e-book is a logical next step when trying to capture the experience of reading from paper. Loeb uses his reMarkable 2 to mark up student’s papers, solving a problem he faced at the beginning of the pandemic when his classes went remote. He also likes to use it to read articles and take notes at meetings and conferences. The tactile sensation of writing on the tablet adds to the experience, he said.
Read more: Best E Ink Tablets for 2022: Amazon’s Kindle Scribe and More
E Ink that engages the senses
With devices like the reMarkable to compete with, Amazon aimed to make the Kindle Scribe a high-end writing experience.
The Scribe’s distinction is its combination of upscale features. Its realistic writing experience coupled with a 10.2-inch screen with sharp, 300 ppi image quality bring together aspects of a variety of well-liked e-readers.
Amazon sent me a test unit so I could get a feel for it myself. I found the stylus captures the papery pleasure of writing, rendering a sharp line immediately. The screen has just enough texture to elicit a satisfying scritching sound as you write.
That experience was the result of intense effort, according to LaBrutto and Tim Wall, a principal industrial designer at Amazon. It involved fine-tuning the texture of the screen, the sharpness of the images and the immediacy of the writing experience.
With an E Ink display, “you’re not actually writing on the surface that you’re writing on,” said Wall. “Everything below that lens, that surface, is additive.”
The team focused on microns of distance between the top layer of the display and all the components that needed to be sandwiched under it along with the E Ink. They also focused on microseconds of latency, or how long it takes the line to appear after the stylus makes contact with the screen.
Amazon says the Kindle Scribe is geared in particular to reading nonfiction. The large display sharply renders charts and graphs in gray scale and fits more text on each page. In addition to sticking notes in Kindle books, you can mark up PDFs and Microsoft Word documents. Adding handwriting also makes sense for nonfiction, as research has shown it improves learning compared with typing notes.
The Scribe’s notebooks let you draw, take notes and make lists with the stylus.
David Carnoy/CNET
Highlighting and marking directly on a PDF helped me absorb information from a dense legal brief, for example. Reading a nonfiction book in the Kindle App, I went right into highlighting important names and dates, as well as creating a running commentary with both handwritten and text-based sticky notes.
(I’ll be returning the Kindle Scribe test unit after this story is published, at which point I’ll go back to the Kindle app on my phone — where I won’t be able to access my handwritten notes. I can download them separately as a PDF. But my highlighting and text-based notes created on the Scribe will remain for me to see in my Kindle phone app.)
Writing on the Kindle book involved more steps than writing directly on the PDF did, something CNET’s reviewers found unfortunate and cumbersome. The Kindle team made this design choice to leave pages uncluttered, Keith said. It also means readers can adjust their font without disrupting the location of their notations on the page, he added.
“One of the things customers love about Kindles is it being distraction-free,” he said.
If the Scribe succeeds, this simplicity will keep you inside Amazon’s universe, without the gadget needing a dash of color, let alone the ability to fly like a camera drone or roll and dance like a home robot.
Amazon Kindle Scribe review: Better for reading than writing
But Amazon is a little late to the party. In the years since it last developed a big-screen Kindle, companies like reMarkable and Onyx have dabbled in digital notebooks — and some of them have gotten so good that Amazon’s work can sometimes feel a little lacking by comparison.
I’ve spent the last few weeks testing the Kindle Scribe and trying it out against some of its most interesting competition. Here’s what you should know.
(Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, but at the Help Desk, we reviews all products and services with the same critical eye.)
At $339 (or more, if you opt for a nicer pen and add a case), the Scribe is Amazon’s biggest, most expensive Kindle in years. In testing it alongside rival devices like the $299 reMarkable 2 and the $599 Onyx Boox Tab Ultra, it didn’t take long to discover that the Scribe isn’t equally good for reading and writing.
The Scribe has perhaps the most polished software of the three, and thanks to barely there weight and great screen lighting, it’s the one that I’d most like to power through a novel on. But if you’re interested in doing some serious writing on a device like this, you may want to consider something like the reMarkable instead.
I’m not saying taking notes or crossing items off a to-do list was at all unpleasant. Writing on the Scribe with the included stylus screen felt smooth and satisfying, and it comes with a handful of notebook templates for people who need to jump between wide-ruled, grid and even sheet music “paper.”
What really gets me is that the Scribe’s writing features feel a little basic compared with some of its rivals.
There’s no way to, for example, select a bunch of text you’ve written and move it around. If you realized you’ve put some notes in the wrong spot, oh, well — you’ll just have to erase and rewrite it. (iPads, the reMarkable and Onyx’s digital notebooks can handle this just fine.) Also missing is any kind of handwriting recognition, which means there’s no way to search for specific things you’ve written or convert your writing into text to make it more legible.
Occasional writers might not notice these features are absent. Ditto for folks who mainly want a Scribe for books — this is definitely still a reading-first device. In an email, an Amazon spokesperson said the Scribe was “inspired” by the people who have been highlighting and leaving notes in their Kindle books for years. Fine, but when you consider the last time Amazon debuted a new big-screen Kindle reader was more than a decade ago, I’m a little surprised it didn’t flesh out its writing tools a little more.
People who want to see more. The Scribe has a 10.2-inch display, the largest Amazon has ever squeezed into a Kindle. That means you can now view more of a book at a glance, or — if your eyes aren’t what they used to be — really crank up the font size.
People who hate charging gadgets. Gadgets with e-paper displays have a reputation for long battery life, and so far, the Scribe is no exception. Unless you’re reading 24/7, expect it to last a few weeks on a single charge.
People who write notes in book margins. As a digital notebook, the Scribe is basic at best. But scribbling observations in books you’re reading — plus exporting and reviewing them later — works well enough.
People who work with complex documents. You can import and write on top of Word documents and PDFs, but Amazon says you can’t mark up files that include large tables. And if you work with lots of long PDF papers, you may see the Scribe hesitate when you try to swipe into a new page. (It doesn’t always happen, but it can really slow you down if you’re looking for something specific.)
Folks who keep files in the cloud. The Scribe can’t connect to services like Dropbox or Google Drive, which means getting to work on the documents you have stored there takes some work. And if you want to get things you’ve written off the Scribe, you have two options: email them to yourself, or view (but not save) them in the Kindle app on your phone or tablet.
Those who like to read in the tub. Many of Amazon’s other recent Kindles can survive the occasional spill or splash. Not so for the company’s most expensive Kindle — you may want to think twice before packing it for a beach day.
What the marketing doesn’t mention
Other devices can make reading a little easier. iPads and Android tablets can run Amazon’s Kindle app, which includes one helpful feature that the Scribe lacks: a two-column view when you hold your gadget horizontally. It feels ever-so-slightly more like reading an actual book, and its absence here will be a real bummer for some.
You can just drag and drop files onto the Scribe. Using Amazon’s Send to Kindle website to send files to the Scribe is easy enough, and it hasn’t taken more than a couple of minutes to arrive. But if you’re somewhere you can’t get online — or if you don’t want Amazon as a middle man — you can transfer files with the included USB cable.
You can fill it with books you didn’t buy from Amazon. Okay, fine, the Scribe’s product page does technically mention this. But it’s worth repeating that you can move digital books in the EPUB format you didn’t buy from Amazon onto the Scribe. So far, the books I’ve tested this with look the way they’re supposed to, but your mileage may vary.
What are the alternatives?
If the Scribe is an e-book reader first, digital notebook second, the reMarkable 2 is the exact opposite. You can’t buy books on one, though loading it up with files to read is trivial. And the lack of any built-in lighting means reading in bed may require turning on a lamp.
What really shines, though, is how it approaches writing and organization. The features I mentioned the Scribe lacking — like moving around snippets of writing and handwriting-to-text conversion — work wonderfully here. The reMarkable also includes more options to customize your pen strokes, plus support for cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox for easier access to your files.
The catch: The reMarkable doesn’t come with a free stylus — that’ll cost you at least an extra $79. The full package costs more than the Scribe, but people eager to be productive may get more out of reMarkable’s features.
Meanwhile, the $599 Onyx Boox Tab Ultra is the most ambitious digital notebook I’ve ever seen. It has a processor fast enough to play HD video, a camera for scanning documents, and runs on a custom version of Android. That means you can install Amazon’s Kindle app — or the Kobo Store, or Libby — and read books from almost anywhere.
The catch: The software is, quite frankly, a mess. You don’t need to poke around for long before running into confusing menu options, and app crashes aren’t uncommon.
Amazon’s Black Friday Deals Came Early: Save Big on Echo, Kindle Readers, Fire Tablets and More
Amazon doesn’t want you to wait until Black Friday to start your holiday shopping. Starting now, you can save big on a variety of Amazon hardware, including its Echo devices, Fire Tablets, Blink and Eero devices and more. Savings are over 50% in some cases, and they’re set to stay on sale through the Black Friday and Cyber Monday madness.
Amazon also recently announced it would kick off 48 hours of deals on Thanksgiving, Nov. 24, so there are more price cuts to come — see everything that will be discounted for Amazon’s Black Friday sales here. But in the meantime, if you’ve had your eye on an Alexa-enabled device, a Fire tablet or any of Amazon’s other discounted hardware, now’s a great time to take the plunge. If previous years are any indication, you can expect various colors and configurations of each model to sell out even before the big event kicks off.
New for Sunday, Nov. 20: Added Kindle deals, which includes the Kindle Paperwhite now $5 less than the stepdown entry-level Kindle — a great deal.
Echo Dot Black Friday deals
Amazon/CNET
At 50% off, this 2022 update to the Echo Dot has a lot to offer. The popular compact smart speaker with Alexa integration has improved audio over the previous gen that provides clearer vocals and deeper bass. It also has a new temperature sensor that helps control other smart devices to keep your home comfortable. And with Eero built-in, this new generation can add up to 1,000 square feet of Wi-Fi coverage to a compatible Eero network. Read our Echo Dot 5th-gen review.
You’re receiving price alerts for All-New Echo Dot (5th Gen, 2022 release) | Smart speaker with Alexa | Charcoal
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Echo Show Black Friday deals
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This second-gen Echo Show 5 smart display has a 5.5-inch screen, a 2-megapixel camera with a physical shutter and has Alexa integration. The Echo Show 5 makes a great alarm clock, smart speaker or digital picture frame, making it a perfect smart display for a bedside table or workstation. If you’re going to be using your smart display for displaying recipes or streaming content, you might want to go with a larger model, like the 8 or the 10. Read our Echo Show 5 (2nd-gen) review.
You’re receiving price alerts for Echo Show 5 (2nd Gen, 2021 release) | Smart display with Alexa and 2 MP camera | Deep Sea Blue
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Amazon Kindle Black Friday deals
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The Kindle Paperwhite is our best all-around ebook reader for a reason. It features warm light settings, a longer battery life and is completely waterproof. For a better viewing experience, this edition of the Kindle Paperwhite sports a 6.8-inch display, perfect for a virtual book club. Normally $140, it’s down to $95 for Black Friday. That’s not its best price ever, but it’s a healthy 32% discount.
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Fire Tablet Black Friday deals
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The Fire 7 tablet features a 7-inch display, 16GB of storage and up to 10 hours of battery life per charge. You can easily stream movies and shows, read e-books, surf the web, video call friends and family and much more. Plus, if you need more storage, you can add up to 1TB with a microSD card (sold separately).
You’re receiving price alerts for Fire 7 Tablet: $40
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Fire TV Black Friday deals
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The 75-inch model from the Omni Series of Fire TVs features a built-in far-field mic array, which gives you the ability to control this TV through voice commands using Alexa and ditch the remote entirely. Alexa also provides tailored recommendations for what to watch. Plus, this TV offers 4K support, as well as HDR 10, Dolby Vision and Dolby Digital Plus, giving you an at-home cinematic experience.
You’re receiving price alerts for 75-inch Fire TV Omni: $750
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Blink Black Friday deals
Blink
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly video doorbell, Blink has a great option available. These gadgets are useful because you’ll get alerts when someone approaches so you know when company or a package arrives. This particular video doorbell can be wired in or used with the included battery, giving you optimum flexibility (and an easy install compared to some of the competition).
Read our Blink Video Doorbell preview.
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Eero Black Friday deals
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The Eero Pro 6E delivers excellent performance and speeds to all generations of Wi-Fi devices. It has full support for Wi-Fi 6E, which means it can send signals in the ultrawide 6GHz band, plus a WAN port that can receive incoming wired speeds at as high as 2.5 gigabits per second. This three-pack can provide coverage for up to 6,000 square feet, essentially eliminating dead zones. It also has built-in Zigbee and Thread/Matter support. If you have a large home and need fast, reliable signal throughout, this is a solid deal.
You’re receiving price alerts for Amazon eero Pro 6E mesh Wi-Fi System | Fast and reliable gigabit + speeds | connect 100+ devices | Coverage up to 6,000 sq. ft. | 3-pack, 2022 release
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Amazon’s Kindle Scribe is a $339 e-reader you can write on
Nearly 15 years after introducing the first Kindle, Amazon is finally adding a stylus to one of its e-readers. At its fall hardware event, the company introduced the Kindle Scribe. The device features a 10.2-inch, 300ppi display with an adjustable front light and a stylus that magnetically attaches to it. According to Amazon, you don’t need to charge or sync the Scribe’s stylus, and you can use it for jotting down notes, journaling and making annotations in books you’re reading. Starting next year, it will also be possible to send Microsoft Word documents to Kindle Scribe.
Kindle Scribe will start at $340 when it arrives November 30th, but pre-orders are open now. In addition to different storage options, Amazon will let you choose between a “basic” and “premium” pen. The latter includes a customizable shortcut button and a dedicated eraser on the top. In the US, the e-reader will come with a complimentary four-month trial to Kindle Unlimited.
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Kindle Scribe, Halo Rise, new Echos, Fire TV
Amazon unveils new smart TV, the Fire TV Omni QLED Series starting at $799.99
Amazon Fire TV Omni Series in QLED
Amazon
Amazon just announced a new TV: The Amazon Fire TV Omni Series in QLED.
Aside from its QLED display, the TV has Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive for the first time. Support for those formats should help improve the picture quality, particularly in dark scenes where it might otherwise be hard to see everything on the screen. And the adaptive brightness features mean the picture adjusts if the room is overly brightened by the sun, or in a dark room. It also works as an Echo, with built-in Alexa, and includes Alexa Widgets. It can turn on and off when someone enters or exits a room. The TV can also act as a piece of wall art when it’s not in use, thanks to a gallery of famous landscape paintings.
The TV will be available in 65″ and 75″ starting at $799.99. Preorders start today.
–Sofia Pitt
Amazon upgrades remote to Alexa Voice Remote Pro for $34.99
Amazon’s new Fire TV remote
Amazon
Amazon just unveiled a new remote called the Alexa Voice Remote Pro. Preorders for the $34.99 Alexa Voice Remote Pro start today and it will begin shipping in November. You can ask Alexa device to help you find your remote and it will start playing a noise for location assistance. It also comes with two customizable buttons to create shortcuts to your favorite streaming apps or channels.
–Sofia Pitt
Amazon announces new Fire TV Cube for $139.99
Amazon Fire TV Cube 2022
Amazon
Amazon just unveiled its third generation Fire TV Cube, a device that’s a cross between a streaming media player and an Echo speaker. It’s the first big refresh since 2019. Amazon says the newest version of the Cube is 20% faster than its predecessor.
The Cube can be controlled by Alexa and includes support for 4K Ultra HD, Dolby Vision, HDR and Dolby Atmos audio. It now includes an HDMI input port, which means users who are cable subscribers can plug their cable box into the Cube to consolidate their TV’s UI. The Cube also has WiFi 6E support, and Super Resolution Upscaling, meaning it helps upgrade older quality content into a clearer, sharper picture.
Preorders for the $139.99 device start today and orders will start shipping October 25.
–Sofia Pitt
Fire TV coming to Amazon’s Echo Show 15 later this year for free
Echo Show with Fire TV
Amazon
If you have an Echo Show 15, which is a big smart screen you can hang on the wall, a free software update will allow you to add Fire TV to your device. An update later this year will add the Fire TV software so that you can quickly access all the streaming apps just like you would on any other Fire TV device.
–Sofia Pitt
Amazon-owned Ring unveils new Spotlight Cam Pro
Ring Spotlight Cam Pro
Amazon
Amazon just announced the Ring Spotlight Cam Pro, the Spotlight Cam Pro Solar and the Spotlight Cam Plus.
The Spotlight Cam Pro is a new pro-tier security camera that has 3D motion detection, which can send motion alerts to your phone.
The Spotlight Cam Plus now has multiple power options including solar, battery, wired and plug in.
The new Ring Spotlight Cam Pro battery and plug in cost $229.99. The Spotlight Cam Pro Solar is priced at $249.99. The Spotlight Cam Plus starts at $199.99.
–Sofia Pitt
Amazon’s Astro robot adds new features including pet detection
Amazon Astro home robot
Todd Haselton | CNBC
Amazon’s Astro robot can now check on doors to see if they’re open. It also allows for pet detection so owners can monitor their pets from home.
There’s a new integration between Ring and Astro called Virtual Guard + Astro for small businesses. Astro’s cameras can alert virtual security agents.
–Sofia Pitt
Amazon adds enhanced shopping features to Echo Show
Amazon shop the look
Amazon
Amazon announced a new feature for Echo Show devices, called “Shop the look.”
For example, users can say “show me that shirt,” when they see an image on their screen, and the device will serve up similar products, drawing in part from Amazon’s product catalog.
The feature shows that Amazon remains intent on making voice shopping more pervasive.
— Annie Palmer
Amazon introduces four new Echo devices
Amazon Echo Dot 2022
Amazon
Amazon just announced four new Echo products: the Echo Dot, the Echo Dot with Clock, the Echo Dot Kids, the Echo Studio and the Echo Auto.
The Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock deliver up to two times the bass of the previous generation, according to Amazon. It also has a new temperature sensor, so it can do things like automatically turning on your smart fan when it gets too warm inside. Both devices also have new gesture controls and a new display. The coolest new feature is probably a built-in Eero, which turns your device into a WiFi extender to improve network coverage in your home. Eero built-in will also roll out to older 4th generation Echo Dots and Echo Dots with Clock in the next few months.
The new Echo Dot Kids now comes in owl and dragon designs. The device comes with a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+, offering kid content including books, games, videos, songs and more.
The company also rolled out a new high-end Echo Studio. Sound quality is even better with new spatial audio processing technology and frequency range extension, according to Amazon.
Last, but not least is the new Echo Auto, which has a new design and flexible mounting options. You can use Alexa to listen to music, make calls and get hands-free roadside assistance.
The Dot is priced at $49.99, the Dot with Clock and Echo Dot Kids are both $59.99, the Echo Studio costs $199.99 and the Echo Auto is priced at $54.99. Preorders start today and devices will begin shipping next month.
–Sofia Pitt
Amazon just unveiled the Halo Rise, a $139.99 bedside sleep tracker
Amazon just unveiled a $139.99 no-contact sleep tracker called the Halo Rise.
Amazon Halo rise sleep tracker
Amazon
The company says the device has environmental sensing with a smart alarm and wake up light as well as machine learning and sensor tech to accurately detect sleep patterns.
The device comes with six months of Halo membership and will ship later this year.
The Halo Rise works with Alexa. It doesn’t require users to press a button or charge a battery and it helps determine all of your sleep phases, from REM, to light and deep sleep and provides users with a sleep score.
–Sofia Pitt
Amazon announces new Kindle Scribe that you can write on
Amazon just announced a new Kindle Scribe, the first Kindle that you can write on.
Amazon Kindle Scribe
Amazon
It has a 10.2-inch display with a pen that allows you to take notes, make to-do lists, and write directly on the pages of the book you’re reading.
You can use Scribe to mark up PDFs and other documents. It can last weeks and weeks without a charge.
Preorders start today and will ship in time for the holidays. Scribe is priced at $339.99.
David Limp kicks off Amazon’s hardware event with Kindle presentation
David Limp, senior vice president of devices at Amazon, starts the presentation with Kindle.
–Sofia Pitt
The robot elephant in the room
One question that’s likely to be on many people’s minds during the event: Will Amazon mention Roomba-maker iRobot?
Amazon made the surprising announcement in August that it plans to acquire iRobot for roughly $1.7 billion, delivering a shot in the arm to its hardware and robotics businesses. iRobot is best known for its robotic vacuum Roomba, and robot mops.
Amazon’s Astro home robot
Amazon
Amazon launched its own consumer robot, Astro, at last year’s hardware event. Astro is equipped with Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant and can follow users around the home. But it’s only available by invitation, and it will have a steep $1,450 price when released.
iRobot’s Roomba.
Source: iRobot
Amazon’s hardware business isn’t a big moneymaker
A group of Amazon Echo smart speakers, including Echo Studio, Echo and Echo Dot models, taken on September 24, 2020.
Neil Godwin/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Unlike Apple, which makes money off of sales of its flagship iPhone and other products, Amazon’s hardware business doesn’t generate much profit, and it doesn’t account for a significant portion of the company’s revenue.
Instead, Amazon launches devices at extremely cheap prices with the goal of promoting its other products and services. It hopes that for every $99 Fire tablet it sells, for example, users will purchase movies, audiobook subscriptions and other items, which tend to have higher margins.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has previously admitted that the retail giant doesn’t expect to make a profit on its devices.
Even if it’s not a lucrative business, Amazon’s growing array of Echo smart speakers, Ring doorbells and Fire TV sticks help extend the company’s reach in the smart home. And they help serve its other, fast-growing businesses, like advertising.
— Annie Palmer
There may be surprises
You can usually expect new Echos, Fire TV software and the like at these events, but sometimes Amazon has a few surprises. One year it announced Echo Frames glasses, for example. Last year it launched a smart frame that hangs on the wall. And it’s also used its fall event to announce a security drone that flies around your house. But that hasn’t launched yet.
Also of note: Amazon just updated its Fire tablets, so we probably won’t see anything new there today.
— Todd Haselton
Amazon’s launching new gadgets just in time for Prime Day 2.0
Amazon’s hardware event is well timed. The company is planning to host another Prime Day-like discount bonanza next month, the first time it’s held two deal events in the same year.
Amazon typically discounts its own gadgets during these events. In years past, Amazon-branded devices like Echos, Fire TVs and Kindles also tend to be among the top sellers on Prime Day (which is typically held in the summer), and busy holiday shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
— Annie Palmer
Amazon Kindle 2022 announced for $99 with USB-C, better screen
Amazon on Tuesday announced a new entry-level $99 Kindle e-reader with several improvements over the prior model.
The biggest change is the display, which is a lot sharper than the earlier $89 Kindle. That means text will look clearer when you’re reading, instead of slightly blurry. The sharpness is now on a par with Amazon’s more expensive $140 Kindle Paperwhite. The new Kindle also comes with twice the storage, 16GB instead of 8GB, which should be more than enough for most digital book libraries. You’ll be able to store thousands of books.
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The new Kindle also has a backlight, but it doesn’t have some of the more advanced backlight features in the Kindel Paperwhite, like the option to change the white balance to an orange hue for reading comfort. It also isn’t water-resistant, so you’ll still want to consider the more expensive model if you’re worried about getting splashed by the pool.
And, lastly, as with other updates to the Kindle line like the Paperwhite, Amazon has added a newer USB-C charger, which is the more common port used by Android phones, Apple tablets and more. It replaces the aging microUSB port that gadgets have mostly ditched in recent years.
Amazon also introduced a new Kindle Kids model with similar upgrades. Both devices are available for pre-order beginning Tuesday.
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