AllThingsD » Kindle Fire

Look What Happens When You Give a Teenager a Tablet

Peter Kafka — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 04:00:28 +0000

Apple? Android? Amazon?

Whatever. You folks bought a lot of tablets of last year. A new survey from Deloitte reports that 36 percent of Americans (or, at least, 36 percent of Americans who take online surveys) say they own a tablet. That’s up from 13 percent a year ago.

And once you have a tablet, you use it. Especially to watch movies. Though it turns out that if you have a tablet you’re more likely to watch movies everywhere, on every device, than a non-tablet owner.

And kids these days! Deloitte says that a fifth of “trailing millennials” — 14-to-23-year-olds — say they’re watching TV shows on their tablets. That’s up from just 2 percent a year ago. But tablets still aren’t ubiqitous among that set — they’re more likely to watch their shows via smartphones, game consoles, computers or plain old TV sets.

How Much of a Tablet Can You Get for Under $300?

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 01:03:02 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

This month marks the third anniversary of Apple’s iPad. Since it hit the market, it has sold over 120 million units, and tablets in general have taken off. But large-screen tablets like the 9.7-inch iPad have remained dear for many budgets. The latest iPad and Microsoft’s new Surface RT start at $499. Even lower-priced, full-size tablets from name-brand companies typically cost $300 to $400. To pay significantly less, you’ve had to opt for a much smaller unit, in the 7-inch range.

Now, major manufacturers are lowering prices for some larger-screen tablets to at least slightly below $300. This week I’ve been testing two of these sub-$300 models. One is the largest Kindle Fire HD, with an 8.9-inch screen and a price that was just cut to $269 from $299. The other is a new 10.1-inch tablet from Asus, the MeMo Pad Smart 10.1, which sells for $299. The Kindle’s display is smaller than the roughly 10-inch tablets, but I consider it close enough to include in the category.

Left, the Asus MeMo Pad Smart; right, the Kindle Fire HD

What kind of large tablet do you get for under $300? Pretty good ones. While neither of the two I tested is as good as the iPad, each delivers decent value for the price.

These two tablets are quite different from each other. The new, awkwardly named, Asus is a standard Android tablet, replete with built-in apps from Google, which makes Android, and a few from Asus. It has front and rear cameras, and the standard 16 gigabytes of internal memory. And it has access to the Google Play store, which features over 700,000 apps, only a fraction of which are designed to take advantage of a large tablet screen.

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9, like its popular $199, 7-inch sibling, is technically an Android tablet. But it buries Android under Amazon’s own user interface, doesn’t feature Google’s apps and uses its own tablet-oriented, highly curated app store, which currently has 50,000 choices. It is capable of managing email, browsing and social networking, and running popular third-party apps and games. However, the Kindle Fire HD is mainly a hardware front end to Amazon’s vast collection of digital books, music and video. It also comes with 16 gigabytes of internal memory.

The Asus, available at various online stores, runs the current major release of Android, called Jelly Bean, albeit a slightly older version of that software. However, the Kindle, consistent with its general demotion of Android to mere plumbing, is running a version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, that’s a whole generation behind. It’s available at Amazon.com.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two was in battery life. I ran my usual rigorous tablet battery test on each, turning the screen brightness to 75%, keeping Wi-Fi on to collect email in the background, and then playing videos until the units shut down for lack of power.

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 scored 8 hours and 16 minutes in my test, nearly two hours less than the iPad, yet better than many tablets I’ve tested. But the Asus MeMo did quite poorly, lasting only 5 hours and 27 minutes, almost 3 hours less than Amazon’s tablet.

To get the Kindle for $269, you have to put up with ads, some on the lock screen and some in the form of recommendations for buying other content on the home screen. You can turn off the latter in settings—a new feature. But to get a model without the full-screen ads, which Amazon calls “Special Offers,” you have to pay $15 more, either when purchasing the device or by going to an obscure page on Amazon.com.

Other downsides of the Kindle HD 8.9 are that it lacks a rear camera and its browser, called Silk, remains in my tests a bit slower at loading Web pages than either the iPad or standard Android browsers.

On the other hand, the bigger Kindle offers a crisp, sharp screen, and can also be purchased for just $30 more with twice the memory, and for $399 with a cellular data option in addition to Wi-Fi. It’s lighter and slightly thinner than the full-size iPad, and slightly thinner and lighter than the MeMo 10.1, though the latter is also lighter than the iPad. It has much higher screen resolution than the MeMo’s, but less than the iPad’s.

The Asus lacks a higher-memory or cellular model, though it has a memory-card slot for adding storage. It also has a nice feature that permits continuous burst shooting of up to 100 continuous photos. This photo feature worked, but some of the shots were out of focus.

With the Kindle, I never had a crash or a glitch. On the Asus, I ran into a couple of minor, but annoying, problems. An Asus app called BuddyBuzz, one of many attempts by device makers to meld your social networks in one place, crashed frequently. However, I doubt many users will rely on it. And while playing movies rented from Google, I got several messages saying the movie couldn’t be authenticated. One tap fixed this, but no one wants to be interrupted like that while watching “Inception.” Asus said it couldn’t replicate either glitch but would investigate.

Many people may prefer smaller tablets, which typically sell for around $200 or even less. But for those who want a full-size slate at a lower price, these two sub-$300 models are good choices.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Hearst's David Carey on How People Are Still Reading Magazines. Really!

Ina Fried — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:55:18 +0000

Despite what you may have read online, the print magazine business is actually pretty good.

Or so says Hearst Magazines President David Carey.

“A lot of magazines get tarred with a lot of the anxiety around the newspaper business,” Carey said, speaking at our D: Dive Into Media conference. “Magazine brands are powerful things.”

Fashion and beauty advertising hit a new record last year, Carey said, and younger women in particular remain avid magazine enthusiasts. (Younger men are still a challenge, Carey agrees.)

As for the company’s digital efforts, Carey said that mobile devices — both tablets and phones — now account for 40 percent of unique visits to its magazine websites. One of the challenges, though, is that ads on a phone tend to sell at a 25 percent discount to those on the desktop Web.

The iPad is the dominant tablet, but women’s titles are doing better on seven-inch tablets. Early on, that meant success for Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, but now Apple is there, as well.

“The (iPad) mini is the statement device in all the meetings I go to,” Carey said.

So, what of the Google Play store for Android tablets and phones?

“There is a level of volume,” Carey said, clearly being charitable.

The company has about 900,000 paid digital subscribers — about 3 percent of the company’s total. That’s close to, but short of, the company’s goal to hit a million subscribers by last year.

By 2016, Carey said, the company wants three million digital subscribers — 10 percent of its current base. Digital subscribers are also renewing at high rates, Carey said.

One of the great legacies of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Carey said, is that “he taught consumers how to buy digital content.”

While there is a free Web, and always will be, Carey said tablets are helping create a sustainable paid business.

“We are training subscribers to pay for digital content,” Carey said.

Hearst is also working to extend its magazine brands further, such as its just-announced deal with Comcast to rebrand its G4 channel as Esquire Network.

The company also dabbled with its own video efforts, using funding from Google to create two YouTube channels, Hello Style and one tied to Car & Driver.

“They helped prime the pump, which we appreciate,” Carey said.

[ See post to watch video ]

Amazon Acquires Ivona for Text-to-Speech Software

Peter Kafka — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:13:46 +0000

Amazon has bought Ivona, which makes text-to-speech software, for an undisclosed amount. Amazon says it already uses Ivona to power several features on its Kindle Fire tablets.

Acer Targets Families, Newbies With Sub-$150 Iconia B1 Tablet

Bonnie Cha — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:00:25 +0000

Just before Christmas, rumors started to swirl that Acer would release an Android tablet priced at around $99. That could still be, but the Taiwanese company didn’t talk exact pricing today when it introduced the new Acer Iconia B1 at International CES.

Instead, Acer said the seven-inch Android Jelly Bean tablet would cost less than $150, and is designed for new tablet users or for families looking for a second device for their children.

Price will be the key differentiator between the Iconia B1 and devices like the $199 Nexus 7. Acer President Jim Wong also cited the tablet’s true Google experience as a benefit over more “sandboxed” tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook.

But there are trade-offs for the cheaper price. For example, the touchscreen only has a resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels — the same as the original Kindle Fire — and the front-facing camera is just 0.3 megapixels.

It will also only come in an eight gigabyte model, though there is a microSD expansion slot. Powering the device is a dual-core 1.2GHz processor from Mediatek.

AllThingsD’s Lauren Goode and I got a chance to check out the Iconia B1-A71 yesterday, and it definitely looks and feels like a budget tablet. Pixels were much more visible, compared to something like the Nexus 7. The plastic chassis and electric-blue edges almost made it feel like a toy — although to be fair, one of the Iconia B1’s target audiences is children.

The tablet is also aimed at first-time tablet users, particularly in emerging markets. As such, the Iconia B1 will launch first in South America, starting next month. Meanwhile, North America will be part of a “phase two” rollout that may include this device or another tablet similar to it.

With the arrival of such devices as the Nexus 7, iPad mini and Kindle Fire, Acer has struggled in the tablet market — a point that Wong doesn’t deny.

“We want to come back to tablets, and we want to do it aggressively,” said Wong in an interview with AllThingsD. “Creating a low barrier of entry to the seven-inch tablet segment is one way we can do that.”

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Despite Gains by Amazon, Samsung and Google, Vast Majority of Tablet Web Visits Still Coming From iPads

Ina Fried — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:45:18 +0000

While Kindle Fire, Galaxy Tab and Nexus tablet sales continue to rise, most tablet Web surfing is still coming from Apple devices.

Roughly 87 percent of tablet Web surfing comes from an iPad, according to the latest numbers from mobile ad company Chitika. That’s down just 1 percent from the ad network’s November survey.

A few rivals did show some impressive gains, however. Kindle Fire models accounted for 4.25 percent of all tablet Web traffic, up 20 percent from the prior survey. The Samsung Galaxy family posted a slight gain, to 2.65 percent, while Google Nexus tablets increased from 0.91 percent to 1.06 percent in December.

It will be interesting to see if the numbers change at all once all those holiday presents are unwrapped and activated.

Here’s a look at how many ad impressions were delivered by non-Apple tablets per 100 iPad impressions.

Americans Read More E-Books -- But Maybe Not on E-Readers

Lauren Goode — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:00:54 +0000

More U.S. consumers are e-reading — just not necessarily on e-readers.

That’s according to a new report from the Pew Research Center, which surveyed over 2,000 Americans age 16 and up during a month-long period just before the holidays.

The number of consumers who read e-books is up seven percent to nearly a quarter of those surveyed, compared with data from the same time period a year ago. This coincided with a decline in those who say they still read dead-tree books, from 72 percent to 67 percent over a 12-month period.

The Pew report focuses on how this impacts libraries and e-book lending. But what’s more interesting is the data surrounding the types of devices consumers are e-reading on.

A quarter of those surveyed own tablets, like the iPad or Kindle Fire, compared with 10 percent of consumers who said the same a year ago. Meanwhile, just 19 percent said they owned a Kindle or Nook, compared with 10 percent last year.

So, tablet ownership shows a slightly greater increase than e-reader ownership — more evidence that e-readers are slowly losing momentum as tablets gain share. As reported recently by the New York Times Bits blog, IHS iSuppli estimates shipments of e-book readers will suffer a 36 percent drop this year, falling to 14.9 million units.

And a report from eMarketer suggests “2011 might prove to have been the high-water mark for ereaders. IHS iSuppli predicted continued declines, with worldwide shipments falling to just 7.1 million units by 2016.”

Google's Head of Shopping Says Company Has No Plans to Become a Retailer

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:00:33 +0000

If you’ve visited Google Shopping recently, you might confuse the search giant for a retailer.

Google Google’s VP of Shopping Sameer Samat

At the top of the Shopping page, a photo shows a snowboarder floating down a mountain on a clear blue day, directing consumers to a page where they can compare the lastest ski equipment. Another link sends consumers to a Garnet Hill catalog, where they can see an electronic copy of the print version that normally clogs mailboxes.

A deeper dive into the Shopping experience reveals that some of the product pages have a blue button in the top right-hand corner that could easily be mistaken for Amazon’s “Add to Cart” yellow button.

Despite these visual cues, said Sameer Samat, Google Shopping’s VP of product management, in an interview with AllThingsD, the company has no aspirations to open a store. “We aren’t planning on being a retailer,” he said. “We don’t view being a retailer right now as the right decision.”

Behind closed doors, some have wondered if Google was building up the infrastructure before making the move into selling physical items. Along with the updates to the site, another recent announcement that got people chatting was when Google announced last month that it acquired BufferBox, a locker service where consumers can safely pick up packages.

Samat said that BufferBox had nothing to do with becoming a retailer; it was about helping other retailers to become more competitive.

“We are trying to provide a level playing field for retailers,” he said, adding that there are some companies that have managed to do both tech and retail well. “How’s the rest of the retail world going to hit that bar?”

Of course, one of those companies is Amazon. The technology powerhouse has been working for almost two decades at building out the infrastructure to store merchandise all around the world. It has also built a first-class consumer-facing business that sells and distributes nearly anything you could need, as cheaply as possible.

To compete, retailers — and especially brick-and-mortar companies — are faced with either investing heavily in technology or teaming up with a technology partner like Google. At least, that’s Google’s pitch: “I think it’s great that Amazon and others, like Rakuten, are upping the bar,” Samat said, but Google is just trying to partner with retailers to “create a level playing field.”

Over the past year, the Google Shopping team has been busy adding improvements to the site.

This summer, Google completely overhauled its shopping experience. While the move has remained fairly below the radar for consumers, it has been very controversial among merchants. In fact, Samat jokes that at some point he’ll receive “The Least Popular Dude” award.

That’s because in the new system, retailers must pay to ensure that their products show up within Google Shopping. Previously, merchants could upload their data feed for free. This is the first holiday season in which retailers have had to pay to participate, and despite the service being so new, many retailers are reporting good results.

Google has made some major technology improvements, too.

It built an imaging system that creates 360-degree photos of the products. While it’s still not like being in the store, you can get a better sense of the product when you can see an item from all angles. Look for the “3-D” swivel icon on the product image to get the 360-degree view. It’s not available for that many products at this time, but Google did put together a Holiday Toy Collection, featuring 3-D images for each of the items.

There are at least a couple of hints that the photos aren’t a completely smooth-running operation yet. Google had to purchase all of the toys in the collection in order to take the photos, and, as Samat found out, those Lego kits don’t build themselves.

Google’s goal of becoming a retailer’s best tech friend may sound noble, but it is also smart. Amazon is already a starting point for many consumers on the Web, especially when it comes to shopping. Google obviously wants to be the first destination people visit for pretty much anything.

Additionally, the Seattle company is encroaching into other territories, including consumer electronics, like the Kindle Fire, which, coincidentally, runs on Google’s Android operating system. Amazon also distributes digital content and provides back-end cloud services to enterprises.

Google is not the only technology retailers can turn to if they are feeling competitive pressure from Amazon. Just down the road is a major player in the retail services space: eBay. The San Jose-based company has spent more than a year making inroads into the space, by forming tight bonds with a number of big retailers and by acquiring a company called GSI Commerce, which provides a lot of the back-end services mentioned.

Looks like it’s not just the consumer’s pocketbook that businesses are after anymore — it’s the retailer’s purse strings, too.

iPad Mini Ad Impressions Grew 28 Percent Every Day in November

John Paczkowski — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:00:33 +0000

Apple’s new iPad mini is winning over consumers despite early criticism that it is priced too high to compete with rivals like Amazon’s Kindle Fire. In fact, it appears to be doing better at market than at least one of its lower-priced competitors did during its launch month.

Mobile advertising outfit Millennial Media says that network ad impressions from the iPad mini grew an average of 28 percent every day in November, the device’s first full month of retail availability. By comparison, ad impressions from Amazon’s Kindle Fire grew 19 percent per day during the same period last year.

So the iPad mini is showing some strong straight-out-of-the-gate performance. And that’s worth noting, because not only is it a new entrant in the mid-size tablet market carved out by Amazon and Google, it’s a new entrant with a price tag that’s over $100 more than its competition. As I wrote earlier this year, “Apple doesn’t need a $200 iPad mini.“

Google Shopping Now Includes the Amazon Kindle (and Why That's a Big Deal)

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:16:22 +0000

One of the big holdouts from Google’s new shopping experience has been Amazon, which has been refusing to pay to have its products listed in the search engine.

But there are signs that the freeze between the two companies is starting to thaw. Over the past couple of weeks, Amazon’s Kindle devices have started appearing in search results on Google Shopping. While that may not sound very significant, it means that Amazon realized it could no longer afford to ignore the search engine — even if it means it has to pay.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on the Kindle’s sudden appearance in Google Shopping, and a Google spokesperson also had nothing to say.

When Google first announced it was rolling out Google Shopping earlier this year, it promised a better shopping experience on Google. While the program has been fairly under the radar, it represents a huge shift for the search engine, which used to accept product feeds for free. For the most part, the change has gone smoothly, with many retailers reporting positive results and few complaints by consumers (the one exception is Microsoft’s Bing, which has plenty to say).

However, early on, Google came under fire for not delivering the best experience, as promised. Most notably, since Amazon was refusing to participate, it eliminated many products from results, including the Kindle. For example, SearchEngineLand reported in early November that Google’s results were less than stellar when searching for the Kindle Fire. While several online merchants and brick-and-mortar stores showed up as selling the device, shoppers could not see Amazon as an option. It would be like buying an iPad from another retailer without first checking prices on Apple.com.

But starting sometime a couple of weeks ago, that was no longer the case. Today, Amazon is showing up in the results for the Kindle on Google Shopping. Sources say that Amazon is paying to participate, rather than this being a move by Google to include the Kindle for the sake of having more complete listings. Amazon is not otherwise participating on Google Shopping, although some of its subsidiaries are, such as Zappos and Diapers.com.

For most shoppers, the Google-Amazon rivalry is easy to miss — one company is a search engine and the other is an e-commerce site. But this holiday season, it’s in full swing, with most consumers starting their online shopping experience at one of the two sites. According to Forrester, 30 percent of online shoppers went directly to Amazon, compared with 13 percent of shoppers who went to Google first. This year, Google is seeing a huge lift after revamping its shopping experience. In addition to starting to charge retailers for inclusion, it created a more visual experience, including product images. It also allows consumers to easily conduct price comparisons across numerous sites.

Google’s efforts are already paying off, according to Eric Best, the CEO of Mercent, which provides retailers with tools to help them compete on Amazon and Google. He said across Mercent’s customer base, which includes 1-800-Flowers, REI and Office Depot, transactions this holiday season are up 60 percent year over year on Google and 37 percent on Amazon.

“Google is growing so much faster in its conversion to paid than we were expecting or we would have hoped,” he said. “I think Google is working hard to recover some ground against Amazon with these moves. After all, how defensible is search if you don’t own commerce?”

Texas Instruments to Cut 1,700 Jobs, Shift Away From Phones

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 22:45:53 +0000

Time was that Texas Instruments was the manufacturer supplying chips to most of the world’s mobile phones.

Those days are over, and the business has shifted. Now it’s Qualcomm and Samsung that supply the main processing engine in most of the world’s smartphones not made by Apple. And Apple designs its own chips.

Despite having landed its chips in devices such as the Motorola Droid and Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, TI has now admitted something of defeat.

The company just announced that it will re-focus its OMAP chip business on a wider set of “embedded markets” — chip industry code for things that aren’t personal computers or in this case wireless phones. The move, it says, offers greater business potential over the long term. Design cycles for the smartphone business are pretty harsh and costly — and incredibly competitive.

As part of the move, it says it will cut nearly 1,700 jobs, amounting to about 5 percent of its work force, which it says will reduce annual costs by $450 million by the end of next year.

TI execs hinted at the change two months ago, saying they planned to shift the company’s R&D resources toward developing chips for the automotive, industrial and other non-consumer markets.

As part of the change, TI says it expects to take a $325 million charge that it will record this quarter.

Here’s TI’s original announcement:

TI to reduce costs in Wireless business; OMAP™ processors and wireless connectivity solutions will focus on embedded markets

DALLAS, Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Consistent with previously stated strategic plans, Texas Instruments (TI) (TXN) announced today it will reduce costs and focus investments in its Wireless business on embedded markets with greater potential for sustainable growth. Cost reductions include the elimination of about 1,700 jobs worldwide.

TI previously outlined intentions to focus its OMAP processors and wireless connectivity solutions on a broader set of embedded applications with long life cycles, instead of its historical focus on the mobile market where large customers are increasingly developing their own custom chips. These changes require fewer resources and less investment.

“We have a great opportunity to reshape our OMAP processor and wireless connectivity product lines to concentrate on embedded markets. Momentum is already building with new embedded applications and a broad set of customers, and we are accelerating our efforts in these areas,” said Greg Delagi, senior vice president of Embedded Processing. “These job reductions are something we do with a heavy heart because they impact people we care deeply about. We will work closely with all employees affected by these changes to provide a range of assistance related to compensation, benefits and job search.”

As a result of these actions, the company expects annualized savings of about $450 million by the end of 2013. Total charges will be about $325 million, most of which will be accounted for in the current quarter. TI’s fourth-quarter outlook, published on October 22, did not comprehend these restructuring charges.

Nook HD's Screen Dazzles, but Quirks Detract

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 01:17:11 +0000

If technology were more like the fashion world, this fall would be the “in” season for small, color tablets. The runway shows would feature Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD in September, Apple’s iPad Mini in October and Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD, available now.

[ See post to watch video ]

Among this tablet trio, the Nook HD stands out with the highest-resolution small screen, and its redesigned interface continues to prove that Barnes & Noble, no doubt still a bookseller in the minds of some consumers, is taking software quite seriously.

Plenty of people will use the Nook HD for reading e-books or digital magazines and watching videos. To truly compete as a small tablet, however, it needs more apps: Only 10,000 apps are available for the Nook HD, while Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD runs some 35,000 apps and Apple’s App Store boasts over 275,000 iPad apps. The Nook HD has apps for Twitter, Dropbox and Flipboard, but none for Facebook, Yelp or Pandora.

The device’s high-resolution screen (1,440 by 900 pixels) is a great way to watch video.

The Nook HD and the Kindle Fire HD, which both have 7-inch screens, start at $199. At that price, the Nook has half the storage of the Kindle Fire HD but the Kindle has preloaded ads. The 7.9-inch-screen iPad Mini starts at $329.

I’ve been using the Nook HD for the past week, and many of its new features make it a more complete, finished device. In particular, I liked how up to six people can share the device while maintaining separate accounts for privacy, though all must share the same payment source. Neither the Kindle Fire HD nor the iPad Mini has such a feature. This means Mom can keep her mystery novels from her 11-year-old, and she won’t see her 11-year-old’s games and apps. Content can also be shared among all users, and passwords are optional.

The Your Nook Today screen shows content suggestions based on user preferences — and the weather.

Barnes & Noble now offers Nook Video, where people can buy or rent content. Movie prices are comparable to Amazon Instant Video, though Amazon offers 48-hour rentals after the time the movie starts compared with Nook rentals, which are for 24 hours. Apple’s iTunes movies cost less for some HD versions, such as “Ocean’s Thirteen” and “Disclosure,” which each cost $14.99 on iTunes vs. $19.99 on Nook Video or Amazon Instant Video.

Another new feature is Nook Catalogs, which lets users download free catalogs. Fewer than 100 company catalogs are now available, though this number should reach 100 in the next month, said a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble. I downloaded Uncommon Goods, one of my favorite gift catalogs, and navigated directly from the catalog’s pages to the company’s Web site so I could buy items.

I used a new Scrapbook feature to virtually tear out and save pages from magazines and catalogs with a two-finger, downward swipe. I named one scrapbook “Gift Ideas.” This can be shared across user profiles for gift-giving coordination.

Nook HD still has its flaws.

It’s missing the front-facing camera found on rival devices, and this will disappoint Skype users. Newly designed digital newspapers, which users can subscribe to and receive automatically as editions become available, feel stripped down. The pages and sections in The Wall Street Journal on my Nook HD felt disjointed and too much like books; indeed, the Nook HD’s version of the Journal excluded all videos.

The Nook HD allows several separate accounts on one device, and content can be shared across accounts.

On the device’s browser, some videos didn’t work in the small-screen player on WSJ.com and NYTimes.com, and videos on CNN.com didn’t play without first downloading Adobe Flash Player. A Barnes & Noble spokeswoman said certain videos now only play in full-screen view on the browser. An update to fix this is planned.

In another unexpected wrinkle, I ran into an Android error message a couple of times. The Nook HD runs on a retooled version of Google’s Android operating system, but no regular user should see Android-specific messages.

On the upside, the screen of this Nook HD is stunning. Text in e-books was clear and sharp. I watched “The Bucket List,” and its scenes of snowcapped mountains looked breathtaking. At 1,440 by 900 pixels, the Nook HD’s screen is better than Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD (1,280 by 800) and especially the iPad Mini (1,024 by 768).

But as I watched the film, I noticed two things: One, the Nook HD speakers are loud enough for basic tasks — like email sound notifications — but didn’t sound sufficiently loud for this movie and another one I watched. I plugged in my headphones, and the movie sounded fine.

Two, the back of the Nook HD feels soft, like other Nooks, but its frame is made of a plastic that makes it feel less refined than the polished, solid construction of the iPad Mini and Kindle Fire HD.

There are several ways to navigate the Nook HD interface. By tapping a little silver “n” just below the device’s screen, I always returned to my home page, which showed recently opened books, newspapers, magazines, apps or daily editions of newspapers in something called the Active Shelf. Five circular icons at the bottom of the screen guided me to different sections of the device: Library, Apps, Web, Email or Shop.

A circle at the top right of the home screen called “Your Nook Today” suggests content each user might like based on preferences. Users must select at least one of these preferences during setup of the device. I think most will appreciate this feature, because it makes it easier to discover books and other content.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD makes up for its ho-hum physical build with a remarkably good screen, and it does a nice job of helping users discover more content. But to play in prime time, it needs more apps that matter and fewer quirks.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katie.boehret@wsj.com.

Google Unveils New Android Nexus Hardware

Mike Isaac — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:20:34 +0000

Google pulled back the curtain on a suite of new Android products on Monday morning, showing off a new smartphone and tablets.

Included in the suite of products are the Nexus 4, a new flagship handset developed in conjunction with hardware manufacturer LG. Biggest key features on the phone: Wireless charging and a new piece of 360-degree photo-taking software called “photo sphere.”

The smartphone will also run Android version 4.2, an updated version of Jelly Bean. Among the new features are gesture-based typing (like that you’ve seen in the “Swype” feature running on some Samsung Android tablets), streaming-media sharing between mobile devices and HDTVs, and a mode called “daydream,” which shows off content while the phone is in idle mode.

There’s also the Nexus 10, a Samsung-manufactured larger tablet aimed at the media-hungry market. Google is pushing “shareable logins” as the key feature on the Nexus 10. That means if you want to share the tablet with, say, your spouse, each of you can use separate Google IDs to log in to the tablet.

And, finally, new versions of Google’s Nexus 7, the seven-inch tablet on par with Amazon’s Kindle Fire. The tablets are now available with HSPA+ mobile data plans, including AT&T in the U.S. Also, the original Wi-Fi-only versions of the Nexus 7 now come in larger storage options: 16 gigabytes for $200 for the original version, and 32GB for $250. The 32GB HSPA+ version of the tablet will cost $300.

The new products come one day after Google was slated to hold an event in New York City announcing the devices, but the launch was postponed by the impending approach of Hurricane Sandy.

It’s also no mistake that Google is showing off its new hardware the day of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 launch, where the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant is expected to show off its new Windows Phone 8 software to go with the recently revamped Windows 8.

Not to mention Apple’s latest device launch of the iPad mini the week before.

It’s all ramping up for the holiday season, with each manufacturer hoping to push its products out to consumers in the hope of gaining a larger slice of the mobile market share.

The new Nexus devices will be available via Google’s Web store, Google Play.

Microsoft's Ballmer: Surface Is the Tablet Consumers Really Want

John Paczkowski — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:09:42 +0000

Apple has sold 100 million iPads since it launched the device two and a half years ago. And Amazon, without ever disclosing any sales numbers, perennially maintains that the Kindle Fire is its best-selling product ever. But the millions of consumers who bought those tablets did so mistakenly, because those weren’t the devices they really wanted.

The tablet consumers really want, the one they have always wanted, is Microsoft’s new Surface.

According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, anyway.

“I don’t think anybody has done a product that is the product that I see customers wanting,” Ballmer told CNBC during a recent interview. “You can go through the products from all those guys … and none of them has a product that you can really use. Not Apple. Not Google. Not Amazon. Nobody has a product that lets you work and play that can be your tablet and your PC. Not at any price point.

“This is a first-class tablet that people can enjoy and appreciate,” Ballmer continued. “It’s a PC; it’s a tablet. It’s for play; it’s for work. It’s got a great price. That product doesn’t exist today.”

And perhaps that’s so. Surface is unique in the market it’s entering. It’s the industry’s flying, floating car — though as some have recently observed, it’s not clear that it does either of those things well. But, to Ballmer, ever the irrepressible pitchman, Surface is not a compromise. It’s a reimagining of the PC, of Windows and of Microsoft itself, now a “devices and services company.”

And it’s a big risk. Which is why Microsoft is marketing Surface and Windows 8 with a campaign estimated to cost about $1.5 billion.

It’s also why Ballmer is in the media with this hard sell — a variation on the “know what your customers want before they know it themselves” adage: “Know what your customers want after they want something else for a few years.”

But, who knows, maybe he’s right. Maybe a portion of the tablet market does want a more chimeric device, and just hasn’t realized it yet. Maybe Microsoft will change users’ expectations for tablets. But after two and half years and 100 million iPads sold, it’s not going to be easy.

Baby iPad Arrives! (Comic)

Nitrozac and Snaggy — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:27:13 +0000

Here is the latest comic from our Joy of Tech friends at Geek Culture, Nitrozac and Snaggy. Joy of Tech appears three times a week in the Voices section of this site.

Apple Doesn't Need a $200 iPad Mini

John Paczkowski — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:45:52 +0000

With a starting price tag of $329, Apple’s new iPad mini may be too expensive to attract budget-conscious consumers drawn to Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which, at $249 and $199, are significantly cheaper. But does that even matter?

Wall Street seems to think so. Apple’s shares slipped Tuesday following the mini’s unveiling and the announcement that Apple hadn’t hit the $299 price point that many had hoped for, let alone the $249 “barn burner” that some analysts at predicted. To those folks, the iPad mini may not be cheap enough to resonate with price-sensitive users looking for tablets at the market’s lower end.

But it will almost certainly resonate with others looking for a smaller, best-in-class tablet. And, honestly, when has Apple ever played at the bottom of the pricing barrel? The company’s M.O. has always been to build premium products that command premium prices and offer great margins. As Mike McGuire, research vice president at Gartner, told AllThingsD, “Apple didn’t need to come down to $200; they’ve never done products to hit competitors’ price points.”

And they’re obviously not going to start now. Because they don’t need to. Apple has sold 100 million iPads since it first launched the device two-and-a-half years ago. How did it manage to do that? Apple CEO Tim Cook answered that very question Tuesday: “Why is iPad so successful?” he asked. “Well, there’s a simple explanation. People love their iPads.”

A pat answer, I suppose. But apt. Because that’s what Apple is counting on as it rolls out the iPad mini at a price point well above that of the smaller tablets against which it will compete. Consumers already love the iPad value proposition: Compelling design, high-quality hardware and services, and a massive apps ecosystem. “Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad, and they have failed miserably,” Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller said Tuesday. “Competitors are making compromises with their products. We don’t.”

And by offering iPad’s value proposition in a smaller form factor with a lower price, Apple is very likely dramatically expanding the iPad’s addressable market. And it may make life for low-end tablet makers like Amazon and Google a little bit more difficult in the process. There’s no question that the market opportunity Amazon and Google seized early with the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 will begin to decline in size on Nov. 2 when the iPad mini ships.

“IPad mini will likely pull sales from other 7- and 8-inch tablets for consumers looking for a cheaper iPad but not the cheapest tablet or where form factor was a key purchase factor,” Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg told AllThingsD. “Apple has never made a race to the bottom in pricing as part of their strategy, leaving the lowest price (and lowest margin) sectors for players in that space to battle each other.”

Said J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz, “Should Amazon and Google be worried? Yes, they should be worried.”

So, how will the mini sell?

Well, according to the analysts I’ve spoken with. “Though we thought a sub-$300 price would be optimal, the iPad mini’s specs and app ecosystem should be able to command a premium, while also enabling Apple to generate a higher margin,” Baird analyst Will Power told AllThingsD. “We still expect strong sales, even at $329.”

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Here Comes the iPad Mini: Apple Announces October 23 Special Event

A 30,000-Foot View of Apple's iPad Mini Event (Literally)

Ina Fried — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:52:26 +0000

Though I’m not typically one to miss an Apple event, I found myself on a New York-bound plane Tuesday as Apple unveiled its latest creations.

Thankfully, I was flying Virgin America, which has Wi-Fi on every flight. So, like many people, I was tuned into various liveblogs (including, of course, our own).

Being up here gives a little distance and perspective. So, pardon the pun, here’s my 30,000-foot take on what Apple announced, and how it fits in with some other things going on in the industry.

The iPad mini was the expected star of the show, and it arrived as the final product, though with few surprises. Apple kept the same aspect ratio and pixel count as the iPad 2, so the mini is all set to run any iPad-optimized apps.

Apple isn’t competing aggressively on price — selling the Wi-Fi-only model for $329, well above tablets such as the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 (not to mention a host of other small Android slates). Still, Apple did lower the bar slightly, with the mini selling for $70 less than the cheapest full-size iPad 2.

Apple also introduced an updated fourth-generation iPad that should upset some who thought “the new iPad” wouldn’t become “the old iPad” quite so fast. For all other buyers, they are just getting more bang for the buck — along with the new Lightning connector. That’s a good thing for the future, probably, but, as with the iPhone, it’s a pain if you have lots of existing iPeripherals.

On the desktop Mac side of things, Apple revamped its two main models — the iMac and Mac mini. However, Apple plays in only in a couple segments of the desktop market. For those looking for an all-in-one, the iMac got thinner and more powerful, employing a hybrid drive that combines flash and hard-drive storage.

Here, the iMac will find itself up against a host of touchscreen Windows 8 all-in-ones. Apple continues to make the case that touch is best served on tablets, and that when it comes to the desktop, a nice trackpad will do the trick. Acer, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo and everyone else will be making a different case, as they add touch to lots of their models — particularly tablets, all-in-ones and convertibles.

As for laptops, Apple added one new model to its lineup, introducing a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, offering those who want the high-end screen in a more compact and slightly less pricey machine. As with the 15-incher, choosing the Retina display gets you a thinner, lighter laptop, but at the expense of an optical drive and a bigger hit to the wallet.

Apple didn’t break a ton of new ground on Tuesday, but what it did was expand its reach, covering a larger part of the markets in which it already competes. Plus, Apple ensured that it will have some brand-new products in stores just as Microsoft and PC makers begin their massive Windows 8 push. Google is also expected to update its Nexus lineup, having scheduled an event for Oct. 29 in New York. (Android chief Andy Rubin will be at D: Dive Into Mobile later that day.)

Well, it’s about time to fasten seat belts and turn off electronic devices. That gives me just enough time to ponder which devices might be finding their way onto this year’s holiday shopping list.

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Here Comes the iPad Mini: Apple Announces October 23 Special Event

Apple's Mini Pitch: Just as Good as an iPad, Better Than Everything Else

Peter Kafka — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:21:08 +0000

You got this one right, too, Internet: It is indeed the iPad mini, and it’s $329.

If you’re looking for a surprise here, you won’t find it. As predicted, Apple delivered a smaller version of the tablet it first brought out in April 2010.

And, earlier this morning, Tim Cook announced that Apple had sold 100 million of the full-sized ones since then.

So why buy the new one? Apple’s messaging today comes down to two basic ideas:

The iPad mini is just as good as the regular iPads.
The iPad mini is much better than the smaller tablets you’ve seen from Amazon and Google.

Is that enough? Earlier in his presentation, Cook argued convincingly that consumers didn’t have much interest in rival tablets, boasting that 91 percent of all Web traffic on tablets comes from iPads. But, as we now know, Apple’s own executives think there’s value in a smaller tablet, even if Steve Jobs publicly disagreed.

Time to see what consumers think.

——————

We know that Apple is showing off a new iPad today. And we know it will be smaller and cheaper than its other models.

But while we obsess over the details that Tim Cook and company unveil at the California Theatre in San Jose this morning, it’s worth keeping the big picture in mind: How will Apple convince consumers to buy a smaller version of the thing they have already bought 84 million times?

There seems to be a pretty good business case for Apple here: Google and Amazon are making increasingly attractive mini tablets. And even if those gadgets don’t appear to be making much of a dent in iPad sales so far, there’s no reason to let them have the minipad market to themselves.

Plus, there’s the fact that Apple executives who aren’t Steve Jobs seem to think a small tablet is a good thing.

But that’s all behind-the-scenes stuff. For the past two years, Apple has been telling consumers that the tablet it makes is perfect for use at home, at work and on the road. So, what does a smaller version of the same thing have to offer?

We’ll get to hear Apple make its case very soon. Tune in below for live coverage. You can also watch the event stream in real time, as long as you have an Apple computer, Apple TV or iOS device.

Greetings! Typing at you live from San Jose. In theory, Apple event should kick off in 10 minutes.

9:53 am: Time to play “name that song.” Currently in rotation: Something that sounds like El DeBarge. Though pretty sure it isn’t.

9:54 am: Also have time to introduce my fellow ATD writers, who are also on hand to contribute live reports. Say hello to John “The Brow” Paczkowski, Bonnie “Boom Boom” Cha, and Adam Tow, who is so cool he doesn’t need a nickname.

(FYI, Adam is the guy who takes all the great photos you’re seeing. He’s also the guy who keeps the site running. Good guy to suck up to.)

9:56 am: Interesting. SoundHound works even with the din in here. So I can tell you we’re now listening to something called “It’s Time” by something called Imagine Dragons. (Sounds like Simple Minds, for you oldsters.)

10:00 am: And we’re on. Here’s Tim Cook. Loud applause.

10:01 am: Cook intro-ing. “Really exciting things to show you.”

Update time, beginning with iPhone.

Superlatives for iPhone 5 opening-weekend sales, which we’ve heard about.

Now a video of people buying phones at Apple stores.

Buying an iPhone 5 was very, very exciting. Even more so if you had a thumping, soaring soundtrack behind you as you made your purchase.

No ugly people bought iPhone 5s opening weekend.

10:04 am: Cook is back onstage.

Now recapping intro of iPod touch, nano. Shoutout to The Verge, which is apparently off the Apple shitlist.

Sold three million new iPod touches, nanos.

iOS 6 now on 200 million devices.

“Phenomenal!”

“Fastest upgrade rate” of any device “we’re aware of.”

More feature recaps.

125 million documents “in the Cloud.” Wonder if that includes music files.

300 billion iMessages in last year. [Applause] 28,000 per second.

160 million Game Center accounts. (I have one. Have never used it.)

70 million photos shared.

App store: Last month, 700,000 iOS apps. Now 275,000 iPad apps. Both numbers “growing,” Cook says.

New milestone: 35 billion apps downloaded.

“This is jaw-dropping.”

$6.5 billion paid out to developers. Someone back that math out, and you can figure out total app sales.

iBooks: 1.5 million titles available.

Cook is uptempo, selling hard this morning. Bezos-like.

New version of iBooks out today. “Really cool new reading option”: Continuous scrolling. A few “ahs” from the crowd.

New sharing feature with Facebook, Twitter.

Now supports Japanese, Chinese text.

“You’re going to love it.”

On to the Mac. Apple outgrew the PC market, 15 percent to 2 percent, in the last year. Been doing that for six years.

Because everyone everywhere says Mac is the best.

10:14 am: Going to continue innovating with Mac. So here’s Phil Schiller to talk about it. [Loud applause]

MacBook: 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display was perhaps the best we’ve made. Engadget, The Verge, Wired all praised us.

But No. 1-selling notebook, and Mac, is 13-inch MacBook Pro. “Just perfect for so many uses.”

So we’re going to “introduce something so much better.”

Here’s the 13-inch MacBook Pro. [Loud applause]

.75-inch thin. Look, it’s 20 percent thinner than the last model. At 3.5 pounds, it’s “almost a pound lighter” than the last one.

“Look how thin it is.”

Bye-bye, optical drive.

Retina display, like all of you said it would have.

2,560 by 1,660 pixels.

“Second-highest-resolution notebook display.” 15-inch Macbook is highest.

Schiller is trying to tell us that you’ll get a better image on your notebook than on your HDTV.

“Surfing the Web could be like a fine print magazine.”

Great for photographers. Lots of Retina-optimized apps.

“But there’s a lot more”: Better speakers, HD camera, etc.

On to the innards: “Everything about the new MacBook Pro has been reengineered from scratch.”

Chips: Intel Ivy Bridge, Intel HD Graphics.

“It is a fantastic computer.”

10:22 am: Meanwhile! Eagle-eyed John Paczkowski points out that on the right side of the stage, there appears to be something draped in black cloth on a black stand. If you squint and hope, you could imagine something like a big monitor under there …

10:23 am: Now an ad.

Starting pricing: MacBook Air, $999; MacBook Pro, $1,199; MacBook Pro w/Retina, $1,699.

“It is the best lineup of portables we have ever offered.”

10:25 am: New: Mac mini. “You knew there’d be something called ‘mini’ in this presentation.” [Applause]

Haven’t heard anyone talk about Mac mini in a very long time. New innards. Better chips, more storage, RAM. Entry-level is $599.

10:27 am: iMac. It’s “the best all-in-one computer in the industry.”

Remember the original iMac from 1998?

Schiller shows off something that looks like those “evolution of man” posters, showing iMacs over the years.

Ooohs and ahs for new super-thin iMac. Followed by loudest applause of morning.

Sustained applause.

Still clapping.

Schiller: “Stunning from every side.”

10:29 am: So there’s that mystery solved. It was a monitor under wraps over there. It just happens to have a computer built into it.

5mm-thin edge. Extends down to “the chin” of the device.

They used something called “friction stir welding” to put the device together.

It brings back the image of the old iMac, which now looks like a sad fatty hanging out with Louis C.K. at the Cinnabon.

10:32 am: Many more specs, explanations of how they made it so thin. For instance: “Plasma deposition process.”

Eight pounds lighter than old tubby iMac.

“There is a serious computer inside this thin design.”

New iMac cannot fly, nor can it turn water into wine.

New “Apple Fusion Drive” is available for both mini and iMac. 128GB flash. 1 terabyte or 3TB HDD. “Fused into a single volume.”

Basic idea: Fusion Drive figures out, on the fly, what stuff should go over to flash drive, which should be relegated to HDD. “You just use it, it works.”

Fusion Drive gets round of applause.

Entry level for new iMac: $1,299. More applause.

Shipping next month.

Next level up: $1,799. Those won’t ship till December.

Uses 50 percent less energy. “Perhaps the boldest new iMac designs we’ve ever created.”

10:38 am: Schiller off, Cook back.

“These products are really cool.”

Next up: iPad.

New stat: Two weeks ago, sold our 100-millionth iPad. Applause.

That’s in 2.5 years, remember. “Unprecedented for a new product in a new category.”

“This has attracted a fair amount of attention.” But no one is using rival tablets, Cook says: iPads account for 91 percent of tablet Web traffic.

Why are iPads killing it? “Turns out there is a simple reason for it. People love their iPads.”

Cook sings praises of existing iPad line.

So …

Wait for it …

Not there yet: Some education talk.

Students, teachers love the iPad. Here’s a testimonial from a school superintendent in Texas.

Refers to iBooks Author, introduced earlier this year. (Haven’t heard much about this since.)

New iPad textbooks so great they make you want to be a kid again. Now in 2,500 classrooms in the U.S.

Not just Big Three publishers, but little ones, too.

New version of iBooks Author. (Note that yesterday McGraw-Hill was offering executive for interview, post-event.)

Easier to update books, etc. Available today.

10:45 am: Time to talk up iPad in the office.

94 percent of Fortune 500 “testing or deploying iPad.”

“Just getting started …”

Still winding up: Newest iPad is awesome. “But we’re not taking our foot off the gas.”

10:47 am: Cook off, Schiller back.

Schiller: Fourth-generation iPad. “Amazing … it is a powerhouse.”

New A6X chip.

2x faster than last chip for CPU, for graphics. New “image signal processor,” etc.

Ten-hour battery life. Upgraded camera. LTE with “greatly expanded coverage.” Working with many new carriers, including Sprint.

New cables, connectors.

Retina display, of course. Comes in “both black and white.”

Starts at $499 for 16GB. $629 with cellular.

“So, what else can we do to help customers find even more uses for iPad …”

10:50 am: And here we go: iPad mini (or whatever they’re calling it). Loudest applause yet.

Yup, “iPad mini.”

“What can you do with iPad mini that you can’t do” with regular iPad? “This” — you can hold it in one hand.

Again, crucial here for Schiller, et al, to explain why you want one of these, not just to talk specs.

Then again, crowd already pumped.

Thin as a pencil, light as a pad of paper.

Screen size: It had to be smaller, but not too small, etc. iPad 2: 9.7-inch diagnoal, iPad mini, 7.9-inch. Both have same pixel count. So all software created for iPad already works on mini.

“Great for reading your email, responding to your email, surfing the Web.”

Great for magazines, books, HD phone calls. Great for all of your iWork apps. “It is so much fun” to play GarageBand on this.

Facebook shout-out.

Games: Real Racing 2.

No one else can say their apps work great on shrunken tablets.

Compares iPad mini side by side with Google’s Nexus 7, without calling it out by name.

Apple’s display is bigger — 7.9-inch to 7-inch. That’s 29.6 square inches, compared to 21.9. 35 percent larger. “That’s a huge difference.”

Shows off Web page for Guggenheim site, argues that, in practicality, it’s 49 percent bigger, once you strip out the Android “noise” around it. Flip it over, and it’s 67 percent.

Two messages so far: iPad mini is like iPad, but smaller. iPad mini is like Google’s Nexus, but better.

Shout-out to TripAdvisor. Did I also hear him name-check Pandora?

iPad mini’s innards better than iPad 2’s.

Better chip, 5MP iSight camera, LTE wireless, faster Wi-Fi.

Ten-hour battery life.

“Every inch an iPad.”

11:00 am: Here’s a video.

Jony Ive, of course.

This sounds like The Jam in the background. Wonder if that’s right.

This isn’t just a shrunken iPad, says Jony Ive. If we just shrunk it, you’d notice “loss.” This is not just a “reduction of the original.”

More spec talk.

(Apple isn’t arguing that there’s anything you can do with this — short of holding it one-handed — that you can’t already do with the devices it is already selling. And that alone may be enough for some people. But I assume that the price will be the real kicker here.)

11:05 am: Schiller back.

Comes with its own line of covers (optional).

Starts at 16GB. $329 for Wi-Fi only.

Still selling iPad 2 at $399.

Preorder starts Friday. W-Fi ships next week. Two weeks later, shipping Wi-Fi + cellular.

And here comes a TV ad.

Not a word. Very smart.

11:09 am: Schiller off, Cook on.

2012 wrap-up. “We told you earlier this year you would see some incredible innovation this year … we think we kept our promise.”

Sparing you recap of things we’re already heard about today. My hunch: No one more thing today. Hope I’m wrong!

“Yes, it has been an incredible year.”

“A truly prolific year of innovation for Apple.”

Shout-outs to Apple employees. “They dedicate a huge part of their lives to making the best products on Earth.”

Applause. Cook beams.

“These are the most talented and innovative people I know, and it is a privilege to work with them”

11:12 am: And that’s a wrap.
Closing music from Jack Black, via his new “Blunderbuss” album, which is excellent. [Correction: That's Jack White, of course. Thanks to reader RichardL for noting.]

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On Tap This Week: Apple and Microsoft Events, Earnings Galore

Tricia Duryee — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:28:43 +0000

Flickr: Paqman

The staff at AllThingsD is generally a very busy bunch. But the next five days promise to be particularly jam-packed with news from some of the biggest names in tech.

(For the record, these are only some of the events that are scheduled to occur. There are also contingencies in place for unplanned events — like, say, Google accidentally publishing its earnings release hours before it was supposed to.)

From Apple’s iPad Mini event to Yahoo, Facebook and Amazon’s earnings, here’s a breakdown of the week to come:

Monday, Oct. 22: Yahoo’s third-quarter report is on deck for after hours. As you may recall, CEO Marissa Mayer’s first day on the job was July 17, the same day Yahoo reported second-quarter earnings. So, technically, this will be the first time investors will have a chance to hear from the new boss — that is, if she makes an appearance on the call.

Tuesday, Oct. 23: First thing Tuesday morning, we’ll be live at the highly anticipated Apple event in San Jose. Invitations were sent out last week, simply saying, “We’ve got a little more to show you.” Hint, hint. In addition to the more compact iPad that everyone has been anticipating, we we might also see a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display and perhaps a new Mac Mini. In the afternoon, it’s Facebook’s turn to report third-quarter earnings. Last month, Mark Zuckerberg made his first appearance since going public to explain what had gone wrong over the past year. But given that the company’s stock has done nothing but fall since (minus one small bump), it seems the company will have some more explaining to do.

Wednesday, Oct. 24: Zynga’s third-quarter earnings call hits after the bell, and thanks to its preliminary report we already know what we’re going to get: Bad things. The company warned it was missing both third-quarter and full-year guidance. Expect CEO Mark Pincus to provide a cost-cutting plan to help the company return to profitability.

Thursday, Oct. 25: The two A’s report quarterly results today — Amazon and Apple. Pretty routine stuff here. Look for Apple to discuss iPhone 5 sales figures and for Amazon to say zilch about how many Kindle Fires it is selling. In addition, Microsoft will be hosting a press event in New York City to “celebrate Windows 8,” including a Microsoft Surface Reception. The next day it starts making the software – and computers running it — available to the public. It’s also when Microsoft plans to start selling its own tablet, known as Surface.

Correction: In the original version of this post, it incorrectly stated that the Microsoft event was set for Friday, Oct. 26. The post has been updated to reflect that the event is actually on Thursday, Oct. 25.

Amazon Introduces Whispercast to Manage Large Fleets of Kindles

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:00:15 +0000

Amazon has started offering a service for schools and enterprises that are looking for a way to easily send out e-books to a large number of Kindles.

Photo Credit: Worldreader & Jon McCormack / The Kilgoris Project Worldleader provides Amazon Kindles to kids in classrooms in Africa

The free service is being called “Whispercast for Kindle,” which is in line with the branding that Amazon has already introduced for other services that sync data across multiple devices.

Whispercast will allow teachers to manage Kindles from a central online location to set up policies, including things like blocking Facebook or Web browsing, and to prevent purchasing anything in the store. Teachers will also be able to push content down from the store. For enterprises, they can push down settings that require employees to have a password, or add personal devices owned by employees to the network.

Jay Marine, VP of Kindle at Amazon, said in an interview that lots of schools have been testing Kindle devices in the classroom, and while teachers generally liked them, there were also a lot of challenges when it came to administering and managing the devices across multiple classrooms and grades. ”We worked with them on this, and got a lot of feedback. It’s been overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

Whispercast will work on everything from the company’s lowest-end e-reader to its most expensive color-screen tablet. It will also work across any device running the company’s free Kindle application, including iOS and Android devices. In the coming months, Amazon hopes to expand the service to support the distribution of Kindle Fire applications. Of course, if Amazon can create tools that make it easy for large organizations to buy Kindles, it may result in more sales of the devices and content — so all this good work will eventually pay off.

In a release, Amazon says that Clearwater High School started off using 2,000 Kindles two and a half years ago, and now is using them in 122 schools in the district. Separately, a nonprofit organization called Worldreader was one of the first to try out the technology, and is now using Whispercast to wirelessly deliver more than 200,000 e-books to children in sub-Saharan Africa, as part of the literacy program.

Marine said that hundreds of schools are beta-testing Whispercast, and that they are trying to reach out to other schools that are using Kindles without their knowledge. “They happened without us, to be honest,” he said, in regards to the rollouts in some schools. “And, after the fact, we tried to help them through it and learn from them.”

Amazon's Jeff Bezos Confirms Kindles Are Sold at Cost

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:13:15 +0000

Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.com

Like others, I’ve asked Amazon how it manages to keep Kindle prices low while still offering some of the latest hardware, and, like others, I’ve never managed to coax out a straight answer. Just last month, I posed the question to CEO Jeff Bezos, and he dodged again, acknowledging only that “we don’t want to lose a lot of money on the device.”

But apparently Bezos has tired of dancing around the subject, because when the BBC asked on Thursday, he answered: “We sell the hardware at our cost, so it is break-even on the hardware.”

The comments came a week after the company started shipping the Kindle Paperwhite, the well-reviewed new e-reader that comes with a glowing screen. The new Kindle Fire HD with an 8.9-inch display will start shipping Nov. 20.

It should not be a surprise that Amazon doesn’t make money off the sale of these devices. Many teardowns have suggested that the hardware components alone cost close to the sale price. Additionally, Bezos has made it clear that he wants the devices’ success to be measured by the amount of books and other content people buy on them — not on the sale of the hardware alone. That’s probably why Amazon declines to disclose how many devices it sells each quarter despite pleas from Wall Street.

Amazon’s model is familiar to other retail business, where margins are low and made up on tremendous volume. But that’s in contrast with most consumer electronics companies, like Apple, which sells hardware at generous margins. Bezos declined to say which approach was better. In my interview with him, he explained: “Our approach is our approach, and we don’t even claim it’s the right approach. It’s not something that’s new, but it’s something we’ve done since the founding of the company.”

iPad Mini Design "Could Outshine the New iPad"

John Paczkowski — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 10:03:48 +0000

Martin Hajek

More grist for the rumor mill ahead of the so-called iPad mini’s expected debut later this month.

Chatter from Apple’s overseas supply chain indicates that the company has not been cutting corners in its efforts to keep the iPad’s diminutive sibling price-competitive with what will surely be its two greatest rivals in the seven-inch tablet space, Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Apple’s “we just want to make great products” ethos will be as evident in the iPad mini as it is in all the company’s hardware.

Topeka analyst Brian White, who’s been travelling around Taipei talking to component suppliers, says the mini — or whatever Apple chooses to call it — may even be slicker than the new iPad.

“Apple did not skimp on the aesthetics of the much anticipated ‘iPad Mini,’” White says. “In fact, we believe the ‘iPad Mini’ could outshine the new iPad in terms of how the device feels in a consumer’s hands.”

Not much to go on, I realize. But White’s supply chain sources have been solid in the past, and here at AllThingsD we too have been hearing promising things about the iPad mini’s design, which sources say demands a lot of the companies manufacturing it. This is something White has been hearing, as well, and he thinks it could make the device hard to come by initially. “The new ‘iPad Mini’ is more challenging to produce than prior iPad iterations,” he says. “We believe supply will initially be constrained.”

And in another dispatch from the supply chain, The Wall Street Journal reports that some of Apple’s Asian component partners say they have received orders to make more than 10 million units of the smaller tablets in the fourth quarter, roughly double the number of Kindle Fire’s ordered for the quarter.

(Image courtesy of Martin Hajek)

Is a Tablet the Only TV You Need?

By Kevin Sintumuang — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 17:45:22 +0000

It started out of laziness: Put on sweatpants, plop on couch, search for remote. It’s not on the coffee table—but, hey, here’s an iPad! I check some emails, detour to Facebook and Twitter, click a link to a video of a baby chewing the bars of his crib. Why am I here again? Oh right: the TV. Where’s that remote? I should really look under this cushion. Or maybe press the TV’s “On” button? Nah. That would require walking 10. Whole. Feet. (Yes, I realize the irony of not wanting to move in sweatpants.) So it’s back to the easiest pipeline to entertainment at the moment: this tablet.

I bounce from video app to video app. A season of “Sherlock” here, some “The X-Files” there, and at some point while watching “Battle Royale” (totally better than “The Hunger Games,” by the way) I look at a clock. I’ve just spent hours staring at a 10-inch screen when there was a 40-inch one directly in front of me.

While planting your face in front of a tiny screen is perfectly acceptable on trans-Atlantic flights, it can be a little odd at home. But if you give yourself over to the tablet, it’s actually a pretty awesome experience. I’m not claiming an iPad beats the big screen, but I will say this: Watching shows and movies on a tablet feels closer to what television viewing should be like in the 21st century than what 21st-century TVs actually deliver.

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Walmart Fires the Kindle

Peter Kafka — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:02:11 +0000

Amazon says it has been selling a lot of Kindles and Kindle Fires, but it’s not going to be selling any more with the help of the world’s biggest retailer.

Walmart has stopped selling all of Amazon’s hardware, a move it chalks up to its “merchandising strategy.”

Reuters first reported the news. Here’s the statement from Walmart PR (no comment from Amazon):

Recently, Walmart Stores, Inc. made a business decision to not carry current Amazon products beyond our purchase commitments and existing inventory.

Our customers trust us to provide a broad assortment of products at everyday low prices, and we approach every merchandising decision through this lens.

We will continue to offer our customers a broad assortment of tablets, eReaders and accessories at a variety of great price points. This decision is consistent with our overall merchandising strategy.

So what does that really mean?

Here are two potential theories, which aren’t mutually exclusive:

This is about price: Walmart can’t get the margins it wants from Amazon.

This is about more than price: Walmart sells a lot of books, music and video from its stores, and that may lead to a conflict with Amazon, which has made no bones about the fact that it views its hardware as retail outlets for everything else it sells, like books, music and video.

The only problem with both of those theories is that you could apply some or all of them to all of Walmart’s other hardware suppliers. The retailer continues to sell tablets from Apple, Google and Barnes & Noble, all of which drive hard bargains themselves, and all of which compete with Walmart for media sales, too.

Pinterest Gets an Engineering Leader: Jon Jenkins Joins From Amazon

Liz Gannes — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:00:01 +0000

One of the reasons Pinterest has been an atypical Silicon Valley start-up is that its founders — Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp — were not engineers. The company clearly has been able to hire coders to build and extend its visual inspiration-board products, but its technical team developed in an unusual way from the start.

Image credit: O’Reilly Conferences

In that context, the company today is announcing that it has hired Jon Jenkins from Amazon to be its head of engineering.

A longtime Amazon guy, Jenkins had most recently led the team that developed the Kindle Fire’s Silk browser. He had also directed platform and developer tools. Prior to that, he had been at Net Perceptions.

A spokesman for Pinterest said that Jenkins “will be responsible for leading the engineering team in its continued development of the Web site, managing and scaling the infrastructure that supports the service, and growing the overall technical team behind Pinterest.”

Jenkins will report to Silbermann, who is now Pinterest’s CEO, and all other tech leads and engineering managers report to him.