KINDLE FIRE STOPS BLOCKING ANDROID MARKET

Some of you may have noticed, when perusing the interwebs on your Kindle Fire, that a certain Google-branded Market refused to load in the slate's Silk browser. In fact, it automatically redirected you to the Amazon App store in an unsettling bit of URL hijacking. Well, with the latest update to the tablet, that slightly befuddling restriction has been lifted and the questionable behavior rectified. Presumably this was originally intended to save customers confusion and support staff headaches when trying to install an app from the Android Market failed. But, actually intercepting and redirecting a user isn't becoming of a company that expects us to trust it with our data -- especially our browsing and financial info. Thankfully now, you can visit the Market in all its glory on your Fire, just don't expect to install apps from it any time soon

NHTSA LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO CHEVY VOLT POST-CRASH FIRES

Back in May, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) put a Volt through standard side-impact crash testing, and in doing so, "the vehicle's battery was damaged and the coolant line was ruptured." The big issue? The car went up in flames multiple weeks later, seemingly as direct result. That event prompted the NHTSA to further study the safety of the batts in the period after a crash, which culminated in more tests performed just over a week ago to find out if they would prove volatile again -- simply put, they did. The group recently explained that it's "concerned that damage to the Volt's batteries as part of three tests that are explicitly designed to replicate real-world crash scenarios have resulted in fire."

Because of this development, the NHTSA (with assistance from a bunch of other letter named government departments and GM itself) has officially launched a formal investigation into the Volt to ensure that its current battery implementation isn't a safety defect. Despite the announcement, the agency notes that of all the Volts currently zipping along the streets, there has yet to be a to be a similar incident out on the open road. The NHTSA further clarified that there's not yet any reason for current owners to worry, so long as they haven't been in an accident with their vehicle. Overall, GM describes the whole investigation as "procedural" at this point, stating that both GM has been working with the NHTSA for over six months on a "broader program designed to induce battery failure after extreme situations."

KINDLE FIRE GETS ROOTED IN ONE DAY

Android Forum contributor "death2all110" has posted instructions on how to root the just launched Kindle Fire by Amazon. The procedure seems relatively straightforward, requiring only a copy of SuperOneClick 2.2, an Android SDK, and a bit of hacktastic know-how. For the full instructions click here.

AMAZON BRINGING 400 MAGAZINES AND NEWSAPERS TO FIRE ALONG WITH "THOUSANDS" OF APPS

Last week Amazon announced they would be bringing Facebook, Hulu and "several thousand" other apps to their upcoming Kindle Fire tablet. Now, they are announcing that more than 400 "full-color" titles will be available on the Kindle Fire Newsstand, including Us Weekly, The New Yorker and Reader's Digest, among others. Users who subscriber before March 1st, meanwhile, will be able to access a full 17 Condé Nast titles for free, as part of a three-month offer.

AMAZON CHANGES KINDLE FIRE ROADMAP

Amazon’s follow up to the Kindle Fire tablet may feature an 8.9-inch touchscreen display rather than the 10-inch panel we have been expecting. According to a new report from DigiTimes, Amazon has introduced a third tablet into its roadmap and it is now scheduled to launch ahead of the 10-inch model, or even in place of the large-form slate. The site’s sources claim Chunghwa Picture Tubes and LG Display, Amazon’s display suppliers, have already begun to prepare for production of the 8.9-inch panels.

RUMOR: NOOK COLOR 2 LAUNCHING NOVEMBER 7

Three Barnes & Noble employees have all but confirmed that the company will release its new e-reader, the Nook Color 2, on November 7, reports The Digital Reader.
Its most direct competitor will be Amazon's upcoming Kindle Fire tablet, slated for release on November 15.

AMAZON ORDERS MILLIONS MORE KINDLE FIRES TO MEET UNEXPECTED DEMAND

Two weeks ago, more than a quarter million had been added to Amazon shopping carts — and during the company’s Q3 2011 earnings report, CEO Jeff Bezos made it clear that the early sales had exceeded expectations. Bezos announced that Amazon would be ramping up production to produce “millions more” of the Kindle Fire to meet the obviously strong public demand. If reports about Amazon’s initial order — which pegged the first run of the Kindle Fire at 5 million units — were accurate, the company is clearly anticipating moving the tablets at an iPad-like pace.

LEAKED SALES DATA SHOWS AMAZON HAS SOLD OVER 250,000 FIRES IN FIVE DAYS

According to some leaked internal sales data Amazon has sold over 250,000 Kindle Fires in just five days. When put in comparison with iPad sales per day, the Fire is still lagging behind, 80,000 for the iPad and ~50,000 for the Fire. That's not bad, but when you look at sales for non-iPad tablets the Fire is uh...on fire!

On the e-reader front however things are not as rosy. The Kindle Touch has only sold about 32,000 units in the same five day period as the Fire. There could be a few reasons for this. The Fire could be cannabalizing the Touch's sales and/or the Kobe and Nook Color have already locked up the advanced feature e-reader market.

IS AMAZON SELLING THE KINDLE FIRE AT A LOSS?

A preliminary virtual estimate conducted by the IHS iSuppli Teardown Analysis Service places Kindle Fire’s bill of materials (BOM) cost at $191.65. With the addition of manufacturing expenses, the total cost to produce the Kindle Fire rises to $209.63. Could Amazon be trying to keep the retail price down to move more units and ultimately more merchandise?

IHS goes on to say the real benefit of the Kindle Fire to Amazon will not be in selling hardware or digital content. Rather, the Kindle Fire, and the content demand it stimulates, will serve to promote sales of the kinds of physical goods that comprise the majority of Amazon’s business. Amazon doesn’t make a substantial profit on sales of Kindle hardware and content such as e-books and music. Instead, the Seattle-based online-retail giant generates its profits on sales of shoes, diapers, and every other kind of physical product imaginable. Similar to Walmart and other large brick-and-motor retailers, Amazon’s content business is designed to lure in consumers to buy such everyday goods as well as other money-making items.

AMAZON UNVEILS NEW TABLET AND TOUCHSCREEN E-READERS

Amazon this morning launched new touchscreen e-readers as well as the much talked about Kindle Fire tablet. The readers will use infrared touch, which puts an infrared touch screen over e-ink. The screens appear to be roughly the same size as the current crop of Kindle e-readers. The e-readers will come in three flavors, two having touchscreens. The 3G will be $149, the WiFi only will be $99 and the non-touch version will be $79. According to an Amazon rep these prices are for the ad supported versions and the Wifi only and non-touch version without ads will be $149 and $109 respectively.

In addition to the new e-readers, a software update was also announced. Some of the new features include X-ray, which allows users to quickly look up words, get character synopsis and location information directly from the ebook. WhisperSync was also beefed to make it quicker.

Finally, Jeff Bezos unveiled the Kindle Fire. The Fire is Amazon's new 7" IPS touchscreen tablet that runs a customized version of the Android OS. It has a dual core processor, weighs 14.6 ounces and comes with free Amazon cloud storage. The browser for the Fire will be the Amazon Silk which is a new hybrid browser with part residing on the tablet and the other part on the cloud server. The Fire will retail for $199.

No mention was made on the rumored 10" tablet Amazon is expected to unveil sometime in the first quarter of 2012.

JUDGE RULES FOR EMPLOYEES FIRED OVER FACEBOOK POSTS

The National Labor Relations Board has weighed in on the role of social networking at the office, determining that employees can't be fired for what they post on Facebook -- as long as they use the platform to talk about improving their workplace. The NLRB's ruling, announced on Wednesday, stems from an incident last year, when an employee at the Hispanics United of Buffalo non-profit organization went on Facebook to complain about a co-worker who accused her of slacking off at the office. Other colleagues soon chimed in on the woman's wall post with a slew of profanity-laced comments, before the targeted employee noticed the thread and reported it to a supervisor. Citing the agency's zero-tolerance policy on cyber harassment, the boss fired the five employees who participated in the online discussion -- including one who went on to file a complaint with the NLRB. Last week, administrative law Judge Arthur Amchan finally issued a verdict in the case, determining that the employees retained the right to talk about "their terms and conditions of employment," as stipulated under the National Labor Relations Act. Because this particular Facebook thread involved discussion of "job performance and staffing levels," Amchan ordered Hispanics United to reinstate the employees.

The decision marks the first time that an administrative judge has ruled on a Facebook-related workplace case, though the NLRB says it's received "an increasing number of charges related to social media in the past year" -- so it likely won't be the last.