Gadgetory

hey this is Josh Topolsky with The Verge and we are here in Seattle Washington talking to Amazon about its latest Kindle Fires the Fire HDX there's a 7-inch and 8.9 inch version they've got spec BOMs brand-new screens an update to the fire OS it's now on 3.0 there's also a cheaper fire a 7-inch model that starts at $139 which is kind of a groundbreaking price point for a tablet of any quality if you've seen Amazons fire tablets before these won't look completely unfamiliar to you they do have some new design language they're a bit more angular around the back and the power button and the volume buttons have moved on the HDX models the back is that nice soft touch material that Amazon likes to use Amazon says that the new 8.9 inch device is lighter than the previous version it's thirteen point two ounces thirty four percent lighter than the previous generation it feels a little bit lighter in your hand it's not a massive noticeable difference when you first pick it up the displays are pretty amazing on both devices the seven-inch screen is a 1920 by 1200 display and it looks absolutely beautiful has a PPI of 323 while the 8.9 inch display is a massive 2560 by 1600 339 ppi screen and it is really impressive when you see it up close both devices use the new quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU clocked at 2.2 gigahertz which is apparently three times faster than the previous generation and the devices have two gigs of RAM doubling the RAM from the last version fire OS 3.0 has some noticeable changes cosmetically it's very similar though it has been cleaned up in a lot of areas it now has multi tasking built in and it also supports a grid view for apps and content the grid view is essentially the same thing as the app drawer on most Android devices the mail app have been greatly updated it now includes label support for Gmail and threaded conversations which is a big improvement over previous versions of the mail app there is a new feature that allows you to put stickers on top of images or create mean-like images with text above and below Amazon is updating its a future for video when you're watching TV now you can see what music is playing in the background of a scene and jump to that particular spot in an episode or you can jump into the Amazon store to buy an mp3 they've also updated x-ray for music it now includes an option to read lyrics and even jump to a particular spot in a song based on the lyrics the to high-end versions have a very interesting new software feature called Mayday which lets an Amazon tech support rep remote into your tablet and give you real time on screen device support and they can actually take control of the device completely okay so drag down there all right okay yep okay can you can you do it for me I don't my fingers are busy right now can you just select that for me overall the picture here looks pretty good for Amazon the hardware and software updates are welcome improvements to the fireline the previous tablets were good these new ones seemed considerably better to my eyes some of the features such as Mayday are truly innovative and I think a lot of people are gonna find tremendous utility in it however it does raise some concerns given the recent focus that's been put on our personal privacy on the internet and on our devices though Amazon seems to feel pretty confident they've got a secure and sensible piece of software yeah now are you gonna be able to see this password okay yep okay so I got my new password in and it is set okay great all three new Kindles are available for pre-order on Amazon right now and we will of course have a bunch more info in the near future on the verge comm until then I suggest refreshing your browser every 10 to 20 seconds