Amazon's Kindle Fire lets kids charge up a storm

St. Louis area software engineer Lance Durham says he decided to get a couple of Kindle Fires to give as presents to his children. He was loading some games before wrapping them and realized he couldn’t turn off the single-click ordering, which charges his credit card.

“There was no password or pin, nor any kind of confirmation - the purchase immediately went through,” he says.

So Durham called Amazon and says he was told the ordering from Amazon could not be disabled, and the company suggested he “deregister” the device after every purchase. That, he says, caused the downloaded apps to stop working.

He returned the tablets.

If you ever thought there was no downside to Amazon’s 1-click ordering, well, this is it. In fact, it’s severely hurting customer happiness.

It’s appalling that the company’s only recommendation would be to de-register the device. Essentially, Amazon is acknowledging that they have yet to identify and implement a quick solution to appease these disgruntled parents.

In the long run, this problem could really hurt Amazon. Tablets, though mostly used by adults, are provided to children at times for educational purposes and as gaming devices. The sheer idea that a kid can click through several 1-click buttons and make an indefinite amount of purchases — well, that has to be frightening for any parent.

Amazon must put out this fire (no pun intended) as soon as possible, or they are going to lose many customers to tablet competitors. And with the iPad 3 on the horizon, they better get this feature fixed post-haste.

iPad 3 Expected to Launch in Around March-April

Apple fans will wake up to some exciting news this morning. Digitimes is reporting that the iPad 3 will launch in three to four months. Apple will phase out the iPad 2 gradually, declining iPad 2 production in Q1.

According to 9to5Mac, features include “a Retina Display, a faster A6 processor, possible Quad Core and be slightly thicker than the current model.”

I’ve been holding out for the iPad 3 myself, waiting on the iPad 2 after many failed visits to the Apple Store around release time. The hype is only going to grow as we go into the new year and more details are released about the new version.

Considering how well the iPad 2 initially sold, there’s no reason to expect a drop in product demand, even considering the initial success of the Kindle Fire. Simply put, the iPad 3 will be huge.

Best Buy cancels BlackBerry PlayBook orders, pulls listings

Well this is interesting. Best Buy has been canceling Blackberry PlayBook orders with little explanation. Perhaps the biggest head scratcher: the PlayBook was part of a larger RIM promotion that was supposed to go at a minimum, through the start of December.

Electronista Staff:

RIM has had a difficult time persuading some to adopt the BlackBerry PlayBook regardless of discounts. It already slashed the price temporarily to $300, and it has been giving free units as bonuses under certain conditions. Most often, the hesitation has been pinned on the lack of native e-mail and other basics, which make it hard to pick over either a higher-end but complete tablet like the iPad or else the simpler, PlayBook-based Amazon Kindle Fire.

Bottom line, the PlayBook is a massively underwhelming tablet in an increasingly crowded market. Why would anyone pick one of these up instead of the Kindle Fire?

If Best Buy can’t get these off their hands, even with a massively depressed price, it says a lot. Even though there’s a chance they already have, they likely don’t want to take the risk of taking more units on and not being able to move future shipments.

American Airlines Will Now Offer Samsung Galaxy Tabs To Passengers

Here’s an exciting idea: Add tablets to enhance the in-flight experience. It appears American Airlines will do just this, announcing today that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be integrated into select flights later on this year. According to the press release, “American is the first North American airline to offer a branded tablet onboard its aircraft”.

To all airline competitors: Want to win? Offer an Apple iPad on all of your flights.

Don't Compare The Motorola Xoom With The iPad 2 Just Yet

Four handicaps that make iPad 2 comparisons unrealistic, according to Joe Wilcox.

1. For most of its sales life, XOOM has been attached to Verizon — first sold unsubsidized for $800. XOOM costs more than the comparable iPad 2.

2. Lower Verizon pricing came later, $600, but with 2-year data commitment. Apple doesn’t require AT&T or Verizon data contracts for iPad.

3. Still later, March 27, the $600 WiFi-only went on sale. So for most of the two-month sales period, the most affordable and comparably attractive to iPad 2 XOOM model wasn’t available.

4. Early adopters will have to send their tablets back to Motorola to be retrofitted with 4G radios. That’s a huge sales deterrent.

Microsoft's Craig Mundie Doesn't Believe In Tablets

“I don’t know whether the big screen tablet pad category is going to remain with us or not,” he said.

Mundie’s views diverge from that of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who believes tablets form an integral part of the “post-PC” era.

Although Mundie and Jobs agree to an extent in that they both believe smartphones are becoming our main computing device, Microsoft has consistently criticised tablets for lacking traditional PC features like keyboards. Ballmer has previously said the iPad was just a new type of PC form factor.

The Apple iPad 2 is currently dominating and a slew of new Android tablets are about to hit the market.

Mundie isn’t sure about the long-term viability of tablets, but you have to wonder: the article notes that Bill Gates was the one to “kick-off” the tablet idea with swiveling laptop screens. So there had to have been some belief in the tablet concept at Microsoft at some point.

Will Microsoft eventually dive in head-first and attempt their own major tablet launch, like the iPad? Unless Gates comes out and says otherwise, they’ll probably continue to ignore the tablet market.

Why Do We Use Tablets, Anyway?

Perhaps the best gadget to compare with the iPad is the microwave oven, says tech writer Matthew Guay. Succeeding the conventional oven, the microwave oven could heat food faster and use less energy. Even though it wasn’t as good at cooking as an oven, and it wasn’t obvious why anyone would want a microwave, the microwave became a staple in practically every home, because people kept finding new ways to use this technological wonder.

Who ever thought a “tweener” device would sell so well? More than 15 million customers have purchased a tablet.

Are there people out there that NEED tablets? Probably not, but it’s an interesting thought to consider. Will techies carve out specific niches or jobs where a tablet is the go-to piece of technology?

As for today, though, most people are likely still in awe about how well tablets sell. They are likely to continue selling at a high rate with the sheer number of Apple refreshes in the years to come.