Amazon Reportedly Working on Android-based Smartphone

Amazon is now working on a smartphone, if a report from Bloomberg is to be believed.

The device is being built to directly compete with other Android-based phones and the iPhone. The phone is reportedly in production at Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturing company that builds hundreds of products. While Amazon currently produces several products, including the Kindle e-reader and Kindle Fire tablet, the company has made no indication of entering the smartphone arena.

If true, it stands to reason that Amazon’s smartphone will have deep integration with the Amazon Prime service, which gives subscribers not only free two-day shipping, but also free access to tens of thousands of TV shows and movies. Amazon will also likely offer a number of cloud services such as a music player similar to Google Play (formerly Google Music), and have its own Android-based app store and media marketplace to buy movies, TV shows, music, and games.

Amazon is certainly in a strong position to sell their own smartphone because of the company’s retail power as well as its connections to cellular carriers through Amazon Wireless, which sells hundreds of phones on all major US carriers.

Would you be interested in an Amazon smartphone? What would make it worth buying for you?

Source : ign[dot]com

Rumored 7” iPad Expected Later This Fall

According to two separate reports from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, with a screen between 7-8”. The tablet would directly compete with recently announced and expected tablets such as the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire 2. Apple currently holds 61.4% of the tablet market with the company’s 9.7” iPad models, according to Gartner.

Bloomberg expects this new iPad model to be announced in October, to release the following March (the same time Apple releases new iPads annually). This is telling, as Apple typically doesn't announce new products so far in advance of release.

• Why Apple Shouldn't Make an iPad Mini

Pricing is still unknown, but analysts expect this smaller iPad to rival competitors pricing, though it would likely be slightly more expensive than the competition. The reports also indicate that the display will have a significantly lower resolution than the Retina display on the iPad.

Some reports suggest the smaller iPad will contain a 16:9 widescreen display instead of the current 4:3 on the iPad, with a lower resolution of 720p. This configuration would make it a prime competitor against other 7” tablets, but require developers to completely re-work previous iPad apps.

These reports may still prove false. The 7-inch tablet business has seen few victors, besides Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which subsidizes the low price for exclusive content available through the company’s Amazon Prime service. The Nexus 7 will likely prove to be another hot seller.

This isn’t the first time such reports have surfaced, but it is the first time two very similar reports have been released simultaneously from two completely different sources. We will continue to report on this as more information becomes available.

What do you think about a 7” iPad? Would you buy one, or get one over the current iPad? Or is it all fake?

Source : ign[dot]com