Amazon announce newly updated Kindle Fire 7″ and new Kindle Fire HDX 7″ and 8.9″ for the US

After launching their Kindle Fire HD devices in Australia only in May this year, Amazon has announced two new tablets in their Kindle Fire range – the Kindle Fire HDX 7″ and HDX 8.9″ – as well as announcing a spec boost and price drop for the Kindle Fire HD (7″).

The new tablets have been announced for the US market and will begin shipping in the US over the next few months – they’re not currently available for pre-order in Australia.

Content

The forked Android build that Amazon use on their Kindle Fire tablets makes accessing content easy and as with all Kindle launches, Amazon is pushing their services and content with the tablets. The Kindle Fire has access to a number of different repositories of digital content which are available in Australia such as Books and apps but they have yet to give access to their Movie, TV Show and Music libraries outside of the US.

Mayday

Tablets are tricky, at least for some users, and even with a heavily customised interface some users still run into difficulty. That’s where Amazon have introduced the ‘Mayday’ button, which will connect you with a live person who you can interact with. Kindle Fire owners will be able to see the Amazon representative, but they won’t be able to see you.

Mayday staff will be able to interact with you just by talking. They can also have access to your device after you initiate the call for help, can draw on your screen to highlight buttons and can guide you through features and settings.

The Mayday button is located in the Quick Settings menu to enable easy access. It’s free, available 24×7, 365 days a year and Amazon aims to have a reponse time of 15 seconds or less.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO describes the Mayday button:

With the Mayday button, our goal is to revolutionize tech support. With a single tap, an Amazon expert will appear on your Fire HDX and can co-pilot you through any feature by drawing on your screen, walking you through how to do something yourself, or doing it for you—whatever works best. Mayday is available 24×7, 365 days a year, and it’s free.

Enterprise

Amazon also has an eye on the enterprise market with the Fire HDX models, advising that they will come with encryption, Kerberos Intranet, secure Wi-Fi connections and VPN integration.

While some features are included in the Fire OS 3.0 “Mojito” Android fork that Amazon produce, they advise that some of the features below ‘will be delivered as part of the free, over-the-air Fire OS 3.1 update in mid-November’.

• Wi-Fi networks with WPA2 support for secure access to corporate apps, documents and resources like SharePoint.
• Email that makes it even easier for business customers to set up their accounts, group conversations by subject, sync their email and more.
• Print documents and emails directly from Kindle Fire to a wireless printer.
• Built-in OfficeSuite to read documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
• Native VPN client, for instant access to corporate networks while on the road or at home.
• Secure hardware data encryption on Kindle Fire HDX.
• Kerberos authentication for single sign-on and the ability to browse secure Intranet websites from the Silk browser on Kindle Fire.
• Native SCEP (Simple Certificate Exchange Protocol) client to retrieve digital certificates for secure resources.
• Kindle-specific device management APIs that integrate with existing mobile device management (MDM) systems to make it easy for IT departments to manage Kindle Fire. Kindle Fire supports a wide range of MDM solutions including Amazon’s Whispercast service as well as third-party vendors like AirWatch, Citrix, Fiberlink, Good Technology, and SOTI.

Hardware

The tablets have both received massive spec boosts over their previous generation, now coming with the Snapdragon 800 SOC clocked at 2.2 GHz as well as double the RAM, now coming with 2 GB. There’s also now an option for a 64 GB storage capacity on both models, as well as the 16 or 32 GB offerings of the previous models.

The 7″ Kindle Fire HD that was launched in Australia back in May has also seen a spec boost, with the 1.2 GHz CPU being updated to a 1.5 GHz processor. All other specs remain the same with the same 7″ 1280×800 resolution screen. It’s unclear whether we’ll see the new version of the Fire HD here in Australia.

Pricing

The latest updates are only available in the US and come in a variety of options, including the option to have ‘Special offers and sponsored screensavers display on the Kindle Fire lock screen’ which lowers the price of the unit – this option doesn’t exist for any Kindle Fire tablets outside the US.

Kindle Fire HDX 7″

Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″

7″ Kindle Fire HD

US Availability

The 7″ Kindle Fire HDX Wi-Fi will begin shipping October 18, while the AT&T compatible 4G version will begin shipping November 14. The 8.9″ Kindle Fire HDX will begin shipping on November 7 and the 4G version will begin shipping December 10. The newer version of the 7″ Kindle Fire HD will begin shipping October 2 in the US.

If you’re thinking of importing them, you should note that the 4G versions of the Kindle Fire HDX will NOT be compatible with Australian 4G LTE networks.

At this stage, the newer models can only be pre-ordered in the US. Ausdroid has contacted Amazon for comment on the availability of the newer models in Australia, but have yet to hear back. We’ll advise as soon as international availability is announced. Local retailers Big W and Dick Smith Electronics are also yet to announce anything regarding the new tablets.