kindle

Kindle Fire line builds its voice and touch accessibility skills

Amazon is making strides to make its entire Kindle Fire tablet series more accessible to all consumers via expanded support for two very important features.

The two features in question are the Voice Guide and Explore by Touch navigation tools. With these features, the goal is to both help vision-impaired Kindle owners read books more easily and aid those with learning disabilities to improve their reading skills.

Leveraging technology from text-to-speech software provider Ivona, the Voice Guide can read aloud menus and actions happening on the device, such as when a particular title has been opened or closed.

Explore by … Read more

Always On Torture Test Giveaway Extravaganza! iPod Touch, ThinkPad Carbon X1, and Kindle Fire HD

It's been a while since we had a good gadget giveaway here at Always On, so in honor of the holiday season, we're having a giveaway extravaganza! Enter in the comments for a chance to win one of three devices we've recently put through the wringer.

First up, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop. This one boasted rugged construction, but had trouble with our torture gantlet: mainly the heat test and the part where I spilled a cup of hot coffee on its otherwise outstanding keyboard. It comes on, but the keyboard and touch pad are unresponsive. … Read more

Amazon swims into Brazil with Kindle Store in tow

Amazon has finally launched in Brazil, tapping a burgeoning population of emerging-market users.

The retail giant's new Web site launched overnight. In a separate statement, Amazon said it has launched the Kindle Store in the country, allowing users in the region to tap into the company's 1.4 million books, including 13,000 Portuguese language books. 

The company confirmed that its Kindle e-reader will soon go on sale in the country for BRL$299 (around US$149).

Amazon is reported to have finally resolved a dispute with an IT firm based in the country, named Amazon … Read more

Instagram-Twitter feud fudges photos

Wednesday's CNET Update won't cut you off:

Instagram and Twitter aren't playing nice, and it's annoying users. As the two services compete in the photo-sharing space, Instagram stopped supporting a key Twitter feature that helps display media inside a tweet. The casual user won't notice anything different on the Twitter website. But on Twitter's mobile app, you will notice that Instagram photos are no longer properly formatted to fit.

Why would Instagram spoil the appearance of photos shared on Twitter? Because Facebook-owned Instagram is growing its website and wants you to stay on its … Read more

Amazon makes kid play with new Kindle subscription service

In a bold experiment to differentiate its tablets from the competition, Amazon has launched a new service called Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, which is geared toward kids between 3 and 8 years old, allowing them to access a wide assortment of books, games, apps, and video content after parents ante up a monthly fee.

Amazon is initially offering FreeTime Unlimited, which costs Prime members $2.99 per month per child -- or $6.99 per family -- on the Kindle Fire (2012), Kindle Fire HD, and Kindle Fire Fire HD 8.9. If you're not a Prime member, the monthly … Read more

Get a Nook Simple Touch e-reader for $49.99

A quick note to my fellow Michiganders: The Cheapskate will be appearing tomorrow, Dec. 5, at the Ypsilanti Public Library, at 7 p.m. I'll be there to share the secrets of saving money on all things tech, naturally. Hope you can make it!

So, hey, remember Black Friday, when one of the big doorbuster deals at Target was a Nook Simple Touch e-reader for 50 bucks? Well, it's back, and you don't have to go anywhere near a door -- or a store, for that matter.

While supplies last, Walmart has the refurbished Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch e-reader for $49.99 shipped, … Read more

Election, iPhone 5 top Yahoo's list of 2012's popular searches

The iPhone 5 couldn't quite edge out the election to be No. 1 on Yahoo's list of most-searched terms for 2012. But it came pretty close.

Yahoo today released its data for the most-searched terms in 2012. The lists include information on "obsessions" (viral sensations), memes, gadgets, Olympians, sports teams, songs/music lyrics, TV comedies, "what is" searches, how-to searches, recipes, and several others.

At the top of the list of terms most searched overall, unsurprisingly, was "election," followed by iPhone 5. Rounding out the top five were Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton, … Read more

Copyright scare spreads on Facebook

Tuesday's CNET Update has a cyber-shopping hangover:

Today's tech news roundup looks at the Cyber Monday shopping surge and how Amazon's Kindle Fire was a hot seller.

Also, don't be fooled by the status updates spreading on Facebook about copyright. It's a hoax. Nothing that you put in your status message will change the policies you agree to when you sign up for an online service.

In Apple news, iPhone owners can use Siri in some Chevy cars next year, with Chevy MyLink. And the new iMac all-in-one desktops will be on sale Friday.

And … Read more

Amazon: Kindle's Cyber Monday sales beat last year

Amazon's Black Friday through Cyber Monday weekend proved to be a shopping feast for its Kindle lineup.

The retail giant said today that it sold more than double the number of Kindle devices this past weekend than it did during the same period last year. Amazon also called Cyber Monday the "biggest day ever for Kindle sales worldwide."

As usual, however, the company would not reveal any specific sales figures, which makes it all but impossible to verify the claim or make comparisons with competitors.

Yesterday's sales surge was apparently given a big push by a … Read more