Why the Kindle Fire HD is so cheap?

(CNN) -- If you take Jeff Bezos' word for it, Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD is "the best tablet at any price."

Bold claim.

And it's an obvious reaction to the reviews of last year's first-generation Kindle Fire, which praised the $199 price but made it clear you're getting the substandard tablet experience you just paid next to nothing for.

This year, Amazon has a new Kindle Fire called the Kindle Fire HD that's a noticeable improvement over the original. But is it the "best tablet at any price"? Nope. If you read the reviews, including mine, you'll quickly learn Bezos seems to have adopted the "reality distortion field" that Steve Jobs was famous for.

Does that mean the Kindle Fire HD is horrible? No. Not at all. In fact, it's still a decent option if you don't want to shell out $500 or more on an iPad. But how is Amazon able to make a good tablet at such a cheap price?

Simple. Like Amazon.com, the Kindle Fire HD is built to find ways to sell you more stuff.

First, and most annoyingly of all, the Kindle Fire HD displays full-color ads on its lock screen. That means every time you switch the device on, you see an ad for stuff like a Kindle e-book, a movie download, music from Amazon's MP3 store and the like. Amazon told me you'll also see a lot of third-party ads for products outside Amazon's ecosystem.

The good news is, if the ads really bother you, you can pay $15 to Amazon after you purchase the device to remove them for good.

But Amazon didn't stop with the ads. When you're using the tablet, you're constantly inundated with suggestions to check out more Amazon products. The most blatant example of this is on the Kindle Fire HD's home screen.

Whenever you hover over an app, movie, song or book, there's a section at the bottom of the screen that suggests other apps, movies, songs or books that you might want to buy. Do you like playing Angry Birds? Buy Cut the Rope! Do you like listening to Nicki Minaj? Check out Katy Perry's latest album!

You get the idea.

It's nearly identical to the way Amazon's website suggests items to you when you're shopping around.

These ads and suggested items are a clever way for Amazon to continue to drive value out of you months and months after you buy the Kindle Fire HD. And it's completely antithetical to your typical tablet experience. Tablets are supposed to be computing devices, helping you browse the Web, check e-mail, manage your calendar and the like. Yes, they make it easy to buy new content, but on devices like the iPad and Google's Nexus 7, you're not constantly pushed to do so.

But Amazon doesn't see it that way. It's just another portal to get you to buy. When you buy a Kindle Fire HD, it doesn't feel like your tablet. It feels like Amazon's.

Is this a dealbreaker? No way.

In fact, I imagine there are plenty of people out there who won't mind looking at ads and suggestions for stuff to buy if it means getting a decent tablet for less than $200. But if I had a choice between a $199 tablet with ads and offers (like the Kindle Fire) and a $199 without ads and offers (like the Nexus 7), I'd go with the latter every time.

How to purchase books from Amazon and read them on other devices

There is no doubt that Amazon is one of the biggest books providers in the world. Books bought from Amazon are usually with pretty good quality and favored price. So the majority of readers tend to look for books from it. This is the reason why Amazon is so popular among this industry.

But there is one point that almost the Amazon books are prepared for kindle series e-readers. As we all know that Amazon is also the main seller for kindles, so this is just the commercial means for Amazon provides such a great number of wonderful books for kindle that they can attract much more readers to buy kindle products to promote its sales volume and earn more profits in its own business.

Thus if you are kindle owner, then it seems it is quite easy for you to get free books or buy books in Amazon, just need your account you can achieve your desire. All the process may cost you less than several minutes.

The second situation is that you are not a kindle owner, for example you have only a sony, nook, kobo or iPad then how can we buy books from Amazon?

The first step is the same as what kindle owners do, just a registration of an account, then use your account to buy books in Amazon with your credit card.

But after you put these books on your devices, you will find that is a disaster. Because these books for kindle can’t be read on other devices. The Amazon books are protected by its digital right management (drm), and they are the unique format .azw that can only be read on kindles, so we need to remove this so-called drm protection and convert the ebooks format then we can enjoy Amazon books.

To let all things reach the desirable position with one pace (removing this drm restriction and converting format), you need to make use of a powerful software--Epubsoft Ebook Converter.

Epubsoft Ebook Converter is the newest and greatest tools among ebook fans. You can easily convert EPUB, PDF, AZW, MOBI ebooks to other formats through it! Then you can enjoy reading your ebooks on any device. It supports the current mainstream ebook e-reader formats, for example: EPUB, MOBI, AZW, PDF and so on. By using this software, you can sync the converted books to other e-readers, such as iPad, Kobo, Sony Reader, Android, etc.

1. Download and install Epubsoft Ebook Converter.

2. Click the "Add ebooks" button to add the ebook files which you would like to convert. You can also drag the files into the main window, then the files will be added automatically.

3. Click the Button on the left panel to choose the output format you want.

4. Click the "Convert Now" button to start converting.

5. Just wait a moment, and click the "Open" button to view the converted files.

You will find a more flexible and convenient reading world in front of you. Now you can enjoy books bought from Amazon on any application you like!

Kindle Fire 2 Release Date: New Amazon Kindle Tablet Coming Out This Month?

In the latest Kindle Fire 2 release date rumors, new speculation has arrived that the brand new edition of the Amazon tablet PC could be arriving sooner than expected. In fact, some believe the company may unveil its newest gadget in the remaining days of August.

Several previous Kindle Fire rumors have been hitting the internet, with one of the latest mentioning that Amazon might eventually offer its tablets for free, with Amazon Prime subscriptions. Now a bigger rumor has hit that the company has in fact initiated the process to bring out their new device, a bit earlier than anticipated. The speculation arrives as Amazon has performed some FCC filings under a front company name.

According to PopHerald, there was a new FCC filing from Harpers LLC uncovered earlier this week. The "Harpers" name is a front Amazon has used in the past to protect itself from potential product leaks or rumors developing. The company used a similar move last year, right before unveiling its new Kindle Touch and first-ever Kindle Fire tablet to the world. Could it be a sign that new items are coming soon?

The original Fire tablet came out in September of 2011, so that would make an August 2012 release, one month earlier than before. However, Amazon is looking to jumpstart its way into the increasingly competitive tablet market. The new Google Nexus 7 has been enjoying success with its Android Jelly Bean operating system, meaning Amazon wants to get its product into the mix as soon as it can.

Not to mention, there are new tablets on the way from Apple, Microsoft, and Barnes & Noble. Also, with Apple's expected announcements coming in mid September, and an iPhone and/or iPad mini coming around late September, it just makes sense for Amazon to do their best to avoid getting overshadowed by all of that. So don't be surprised if there are new products unveiled on Amazon's homepage very soon.

Do you think the Kindle Fire 2 release date will happen this month, or next?

Amazon Instant Video comes to iPad with offline viewing option

Amazon has released Instant Video, a new video streaming app for the iPad. The app mirrors much of the functionality found on the Kindle Fire, including access to stream 'thousands of titles' available to Amazon Prime subscribers. It appears as though you won't be able to discover a great deal of content from within the app — Amazon says only a 'selection of top Prime Instant Video titles' is included. Instead, users will need to visit the Amazon website to add items to their Watchlist.
For movies and shows purchased or rented through Amazon, you can choose to either stream or download the content for offline viewing. Again, to purchase video that's not already in your library, you'll be kicked out to amazon.com to go shopping. There's AirPlay compatibility, but it's audio-only — video stays on the iPad, and there's no compatibility with Apple TV. Other features include Amazon staples such as auto-updating season subscriptions and Whispersync, which saves your position in a movie ready for you to pick up viewing on another device. Amazon Instant Video is available as a free download from the App Store.

Update: After initial testing, we've found that the app's streaming video option is accessible only over Wi-Fi, even when used on the 4G LTE-enabled iPad.