Limitations of kindle fire

Today Amazon released 3 new versions for its kindle device. A new kindle without keypad which is similar to the old one, a kindle with touch capability, and a kindle with color display and browser etc.  The kindle with the color display is called "kindle fire". These 3 devices are very competitively priced. $109, $139, $199 respectively.

Out of the kindles, 'kindle fire' is the one of particular importance. People are comparing the kindle fire to an ipad and other tables. While it is true to some extent, I would not place it parallel to the ipad or other tablets because it is little short of a tablets. I do not think that it is an ipad killer. I would say it is large and more functional ipod. You cannot make any calls, not even skype calls over internet from it as it does not have a mic. I think that this is a serious disadvantage. It does not support 3G for conent delivery but this could be expected in the near future. It is mainly a device where amazon content could be delivered (like the normal kindle).

To go a little more technical...The OS is android based. But, it is forked from the main android development tree and customized to look different from the regular android. So, we may not get all the new developments of android's new features. And coming to the worst part, you cannot download content from the android app store. You have to download from the amazon app store only. Saving grace is that amazon app store has a lot of popular apps which are in android market. You may miss some of your favorite apps.

So, one should know what they are getting for the price that they are paying. The following are the limitations of the kindle fire.

• Cannot make phone calls
• No camera
• No microphone
• No 3G
• No GPS
• Cannot download apps from android store.
• Only 8G memory without expansion slot
• Not so bad, but only 7-inch display

Hacking amazon kindle

"Kindle" is Amazon's e-book reader. Its making lot of news these days. Amazon recently slashed the price of the device to $259. e-books can be downloaded over GPRS/3G/wi-fi networks and cost of each e-books is fairly valued. Users need not pay for the wireless charges, they only pay for the downloaded books. The latest version of kindle is supported in many countries. The features supported in countries other than US are a bit limited. It seems that there are some charges for wireless connectivity in other countries. Wireless transfer of e-books is not mandatory as they can be transfered from USB also.

The content in the kindle is believed to have strong DRM protection. In other words, its belived that the content downloaded by paying the price once, cannot be shared with other people. Amazon distributes the e-books in its proprietry format wth .azw extention. It has DRM protection which is tied to security key of the kindle hardware.

But this is not deterring the hackers. Two independent hackers are able to crack the code. So, one can convert the content of the e-book into a PDF file and can share it. Please be warned that its illegal and will be considered piracy. Converting to a PDF and keeping it for your own use should be OK, but I am not 100% sure. These two hackers go with the screen names "Labba" and "I [heart] cabbages".

"Unswindle" is a program developed by "I [heart] cabbages" which can convert the contents of the ebook into different movable format. Here is the link to his blog wich talks about this tool.

Sources:
http://www.crn.com/security/222100097;jsessionid=KC1EOI3I43IM1QE1GHOSKHWATMY32JVN
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62060167,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw