Amazon adds Spanish options to its kid-friendly FreeTime Unlimited

Amazon is expanding its kid-friendly FreeTime and FreeTime Unlimited features by adding Spanish-language media. FreeTime Unlimited is a subscription service starting at $3/month that includes a range of content for kids to enjoy, while parents can co...

Amazon refunds $70 million your kids accidentally spent in apps

Last year, a federal judge ruled Amazon was on the hook for tens of millions of dollars worth of unauthorized in-app purchases made by kids in free-to-play apps. This week, the online retail giant officially started issuing over $70 million in refund...

Amazon will donate Kindles to promote digital reading

Amazon aims to promote digital reading around the world and has established a new program called Kindle Reading Fund to achieve that goal. The Fund will be in charge of donating Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and ebooks to various recipients, such as...

Engadget’s 2013 Holiday Gift Guide: E-readers

Welcome to Engadget's holiday gift guide! Head back to our hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month.

Engadget's 2013 Holiday Gift Guide Ereaders

Weighing your e-reader options isn't as difficult as, say, deciding on a new smartphone. There are fewer models to sift through, for one, and your allegiance to Amazon or B&N could further narrow things down. Still, you have a range of options in every camp -- from barebones devices meant for reading and nothing else to full-fledged tablets with the higher-end specs to match. Below, we make the case for some of our top picks.

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Amazon Prime is the first subscription video service with an offline option, on Kindle HDX

Amazon Prime is the first subscription video service with an offline option, on Kindle HDX

As a part of delivering its newest lineup of Kindle Fire HDX tablets with Fire OS 3.0, Amazon also added a new feature to its Prime Instant Video subscription plan that Netflix, Hulu and the rest don't have: downloads. The company told AllThingsD that this ability applies to "tens of thousands" of items from NBC, Viacom, Sony, Warner Bros. and CBS, with downloads ready for up to 30 days, and viewable for up to 48 hours after users start watching. Amazon hasn't announced any plans to bring the feature to its older slates or other platforms, nor has it shared other details about how it works. We'll have to wait and see if the competition negotiates / implements similar features soon -- that we can't even watch some OITNB or House of Cards stored on a tablet during a plane ride without going to some third party tech like PlayOn seems absolutely silly.

Update: As a point of clarification, Amazon's product description reveals that offline playback for Amazon Prime videos is also possible on the newly released Kindle Fire HD. [Thanks, Quinn]

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Source: Amazon

Amazon refreshes Kindle Fire HD with new body, $139 price tag

Amazon refreshes Kindle Fire HD with new body, $139 price tag

It's no surprise, of course, that the Kindle Fire HDX was the thing Amazon wanted to shout about from the Seattle mountaintops today. But Jeff Bezos had another little surprise up his impeccably tailored sleeves -- a surprise that makes the $229 HDX look downright extravagant. A warm (if decidedly overcast) Pacific Northwest welcome to the new Fire HD. Well, "new" is perhaps not entirely accurate. This Kindle shares a lot with its predecessor, though there are some notable changes. Namely, the body. See, if we're strictly talking form factor here, this guy is a dead ringer for the 7-inch HDX. Inside, however, you'll find last-gen processing power: a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and on the front, the same old 1,280 x 800 display. Still, not too shabby for $139 -- that's $60 less than the last version cost moments before this post went up.

That price also gets you access to Fire OS 3.0, aka "Mojito," Amazon's latest sugary rum of an operating system. Naturally, some of the new features just won't work on this hardware -- things like Mayday, which requires a microphone for use. Like the HDX, this slate plays nicely with those neat new Origami covers. You can pre-order one right this second, but you'll have to hang on until October 2nd before it actually starts shipping.

Philip Palermo contributed to this report.%Gallery-slideshow90901%

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Source: Amazon

Amazon brings Verizon LTE to Kindle Fire HDX

Amazon brings Verizon LTE to Kindle Fire HDX

Okay, okay, one more bit of info to share from Amazon tonight. Those snazzy new Fire HDX tablets are, as expected, getting cellular options. This time out, however, the company is adding an additional carrier. In addition to AT&T, Fire buyers will be able to go with a Verizon version. That upgrade will cost you an extra $100 on top of the base price, bringing the 7-inch version to $329 and the 8.9-inch one to $479. According to Amazon, "standard plans" will be supported for the two carriers. A breakdown of that pricing can be found after the break.

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Amazon offering up Origami covers for those fancy new Kindle Fires

Amazon offering up Origami covers for those fancy new Kindle Fires

So, imagine you just shelled out $200 or $300 for one of those new Kindle Fire HDXs, only to have it scratch in your backpack as you pull it out to gloat to one of your friends. Oh, you poor, poor soul. If only you'd had the foresight to pick up an Origami cover. Like the new tablets, the case goes up for pre-order today -- and will start shipping at the same time as their respective devices. Jeff Bezos was pretty keen to show the accessories off today, demonstrating how built-in magnets allow them to fold together in such a way that the tablets can be positioned in either landscape or portrait modes.

Neater still for the 8.9-inch version (the one with the rear-facing camera, mind), is a feature that triggers the photo app when the cover is slid down on the slate. Behold, magnetic magic that would leave the Insane Clown Posse pondering scientific inquiry for months to come. Amazon's made cases for both HDX models and the new HD. The polyurethane versions of the 7- and 8.9-inch HDX cases run $50 and $55, respectively, with the leather versions coming in at $65 and $70. The covers for the HD run $45 and $60.

Philip Palermo contributed to this report.%Gallery-slideshow90902%

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