Thousands stood outside for hours, some even for days, just to get first crack at some amazing deals.. but just how good were the deals?  Was it worth camping outside of stores like Best Buy, Target and Walmart for days?

A Black Friday Record Breaker

U.S. retailers reported a record breaking Black Friday with $52.4 billion in [...]]]>

Thousands stood outside for hours, some even for days, just to get first crack at some amazing deals.. but just how good were the deals?  Was it worth camping outside of stores like Best Buy, Target and Walmart for days?

A Black Friday Record Breaker

U.S. retailers reported a record breaking Black Friday with $52.4 billion in sales, which is a 16.4% jump over Thanksgiving sales from last year.  Among the major winners was Best Buy Co Inc., which is a major improvement from last years disappointing sales.

Last year Best Buy focused primarily on consumers wanting 3D television technology, only to find out that consumers were only mildly interested.  This year, Best Buy focuses on lower prices for big TVs and other popular technology, and with great success!

“Last year, they weren’t as responsive with their pricing as they needed to be. We are seeing a different set of behaviors from them this time around,” said Lawrence Creatura, a portfolio manager at Federated Clover Investment Advisors.

How Successful Was Black Friday 2011?

In 2010 analysts estimated 212 million shoppers hit the stores and online shopping sites.  This year a record 226 million surprised the same analysts who had predicted lower numbers due to a 9% unemployment rate, the high cost of gasoline, and fiscal uncertainty in Europe.

“One swallow does not a holiday season make. After the deepest recession in decades, the solid Black Friday weekend is welcome news, but we’re only in the second quarter of a long playoff game,” said Craig Johnson, president of consulting firm Customer Growth Partners.

Can these numbers stay up?

The National Retail Federation forecast a 2.8 percent increase in sales for the November-to-December holiday season, down from the 5.2 percent increase in the same period last year.

Many investors and interested consumers will be watching numbers closely as stores battle to keep sales numbers up.

For 2 days many hopeful customers camped out and waited for the moment to get their (cold and hungry) hands on fantastic deals and amazing door crashers!  But are these types of crowds a good thing?

It’s a tough question to answer [...]]]> Midnight hits and the moment everyone has been waiting for has arrived… the doors open!

For 2 days many hopeful customers camped out and waited for the moment to get their (cold and hungry) hands on fantastic deals and amazing door crashers!  But are these types of crowds a good thing?

It’s a tough question to answer because it depends on who you’re asking.  If you ask Best Buy, they’ll say with an astounding YES as they rake in all the millions they made in less than 12 hours.  If you ask the police, you might get a different answer though.

In LA, authorities say 20 people suffered minor injuries at a Walmart store shortly after the doors opened.  How?  A very competitive woman used pepper spray to gain a competitive edge over other customers.

In Fayetteville, N.C. gunfire erupted at Cross Creek Mall, police are still investigating and have two suspects.

In a New York Walmart a woman was injured and a man charged after a fight broke out.

Florida is no different from the rest of America.. a Kissimmee, FL man is behind bars after a fight broke out at a jewelry counter in Walmart.

Competitive shopping isn’t the only source of pain for authorities, so is shoplifting.  In Buckeye, AZ witnesses watched a police office slam a grandfather to the ground in a Walmart with a game in his waistband.  Later witnesses said his act of thievery was actually an act of love because he was only trying to free his hands so he could life this grandson out of the busy crowd.

Police presence was at an all-time high this week, and according to many newspapers and new stations, Black Friday 2011 was a massive success!

Black Friday doesn’t bring out the bad in everyone though, there were many acts of kindness displayed all around America.  Of course you won’t read about them since kindness rarely delivers the “shock value” most news stations search for.

Back to eBook Handheld Reader.

Here’s the scoop on what others are saying about the new wonder:

Editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky believes the Kindle Fire is not necessarily an [...]]]> Yahoo, The Verge, Engadget, Mashable, The New York Times, Fox News… and many more sources have given their honest feelings about the Kindle Fire.  Interested in finding out what others are thinking?

Here’s the scoop on what others are saying about the new wonder:

The Verge

Editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky believes the Kindle Fire is not necessarily an iPad killer, but a more feasible option for anyone on a budget. For its affordability and overall usability, The Verge gives Fire a thumbs up.

Pros

• Great Amazon content ecosystem
• Seamless integration on Whispersync
• User friendly and consistent
• Affordable

Cons

• Software can be buggy
• Amazon Appstore has limited selection
• Uninspired hardware

Bottom Line

“There’s no question that the Fire is a really terrific tablet for its price. The amount of content you have access to — and the ease of getting to that content — is notable to say the least.”

engadget

Although he finds the price remarkable, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens doesn’t think Fire stands a chance when compared to other tablets, giving it a thumbs down.

Pros

• Simple, minimalistic exterior design
• Stock keyboard more comfortable to use than Android’s

Cons

• Performance is a occasionally sluggish
• Interface often clunky
• Not enough storage
• Restricted functionality

Bottom Line

“If you were hoping to convert all your paper magazine subscriptions into the digital ones, other, bigger tablets do it better — usually at two or three times the cost.”

Mashable

There are just a few quirks that editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff found in the Kindle Fire, but for $199 he gives it a thumbs up.

Cons

• Wi-Fi often slow to return after sleep
• Minicrashes do not shut down the device, but drop you out of what you were doing
• Interface does not always feel like it was designed for a 7-inch tablet
• Odd placement of power button

Pros

• Tied to previous Kindle accounts
• Pages look great, and accessing features such as highlighting and definitions is easy
• Frictionless environment for app purchase and content consumption
• Excellent and easy to use

Bottom Line “It is the closest tablet I’ve seen yet to an Apple iPad: a consistent, well-thought out marriage of hardware and services that offer an almost frictionless environment for app purchase and content consumption.”

The New York Times

Tech columnist David Pogue notes the potential of Kindle’s tablet in the future, but for now he gives Fire a thumbs down.

Pros

• Videos play well
• Attractive, colorful home screen

Cons

• Not nearly as versatile as a real tablet
• Animations are sluggish and jerky
• Text shrunken down too small to read, and zooming is limited
• Glare on the superglossy screen is a problem, too

Bottom Line

“The Fire deserves to be a disruptive, gigantic force — it’s a cross between a Kindle and an iPad, a more compact Internet and video viewer at a great price. But at the moment, it needs a lot more polish; if you’re used to an iPad or ‘real’ Android tablet, its software gremlins will drive you nuts.”

Fox News

It’s clear that Fox News SciTech is a fan of the Kindle Fire’s design, but there are a few things in the review that make us not sure whether the blog’s thumbs are up or down

Pros

• Kindle’s design is even starker than the iPad’s
• Smaller size makes the Fire more portable

Cons

• 8 gigabytes of storage is too small
• Amazon online storage only works when you have Wi-Fi
• Can’t buy copy-protected books from anyone but Amazon

Bottom Line

When compared against other tablets, “it becomes apparent just how spare Amazon had to keep the device to limbo under that $200 price level.”

Gizmodo

Reporter Sam Biddle warned Apple: “Be afraid,” and gives a thumbs up for Kindle Fire.

Pros

• Silk is as real a browser as mobile Safari
• Device is puzzlingly simple
• Membership yields you unlimited streaming flicks and TV episodes

Cons

• No dedicated home button
• Lagging on page turns

Bottom Line

“Simply, the Fire is a wonderful IRL compliment to Amazon’s digital abundance. It’s a terrific, compact little friend, and—is this even saying anything?—the best Android tablet to date.”

Wired

There’s no doubt senior editor Jon Phillips is not a fan of Kindle Fire — giving it two thumbs down.

Pros

• Elegantly repackages and streamlines the Amazon purchasing experience
• The overall home screen conceit is a design win
• Great platform for casual video playback

Cons

• Screen is too small for many key tablet activities, including reading magazine content
• Small amount of storage
• Long-form content is not enjoyable to read on LCD
• Crap browser performance

Bottom Line

“The Fire isn’t a dud, but its real-world performance and utility match neither the benchmarks of public expectation, nor the standards set by the world’s best tablets.”

MSNBC

Wilson Rothman, editor of MSNBC’s Technolog, also thinks “Apple should be scared,” and gives Kindle Fire a thumbs up.

Pros

• Reading is easier than on an iPad
• Appstore is a huge asset
• Nice and quick Silk browser — gets faster as it recognizes your browsing patterns

Cons

• Prime video only works when you’re connected to the Internet
• Sometimes you have to click a few times to even see the home button
• Battery life isn’t as long

Bottom Line

“For Apple, this still spells trouble. The Kindle Fire can handle about 80 percent of what I want to do on an iPad, for 40 percent of the price.”

PCMag

Lead mobile analyst Sascha Segan finds the device overall satisfactory, giving a thumbs up.

Pros

• Incredible value for the price
• Sharp, bright, hi-res screen
• Extremely easy to use
• Free cloud storage for Amazon content

Cons

• Sometimes sluggish
• Screen can be very reflective
• Limited on-device storage

Bottom Line

“While the user interface occasionally gets sluggish, we’re willing to have a bit of patience to get a first-rate tablet for half of what most competitors charge, thus the Kindle Fire is our first Editors’ Choice for small tablets.”

Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports also found the price to be incredible, and the device overall gets a thumbs up.

Pros

• Quick and smooth touch response
• Display looked very good, with a crisp picture
• Easy to stream Prime videos, and they quickly loaded and ran smoothly

Cons

• Sometimes the screen was overly responsive
• Display is only fair in sunlight because of glare, a little more so than other tablets tested

Bottom Line

“In our first look, the Amazon Kindle Fire was a fine performer, especially if your priority is to get Amazon content including movies, TV shows, music, and books. The display is smaller than the iPad’s, and the app market is more limited, but for $200 you’re getting a full-featured tablet that performs well.”

This should give you a bit more idea of the good, the bad and the ugly of the Kindle Fire.

This story was originally published on Mashable and Yahoo.

The Kindle Fire comes with a free month of Amazon Prime!  You can stream movies and TV show, play games, browse the internet.. it’s tons of fun!

Get yours today!

While the Apple iPad is all people have been talking about for the past few years, there’s a new elephant in the room that needs discussing.. and that elephant is the Kindle Fire.

The much anticipated Amazon Kindle Fire has come to show Apple who’s boss. For years now Apple has held the [...]]]> Today is the day!

While the Apple iPad is all people have been talking about for the past few years, there’s a new elephant in the room that needs discussing.. and that elephant is the Kindle Fire.

The much anticipated Amazon Kindle Fire has come to show Apple who’s boss. For years now Apple has held the title as Undesputed Tablet Champion of the World.. well, maybe not, but they are. Apple quickly became the leader in mobile devices, this includes laptops as well. With the most amazing advances in technology, there’s no wonder why Apple hasn’t had anything even remotely close to being competitve to their products.. until now.

While every competitor rushed to create their own version of the iPad (Motorola, Samsung, HTC, etc), Amazon took their time. What has Amazon been doing while all these other companies have been spitting out tablet PCs? It’s simple. Thinking, rethinking, considering what consumers really need, and playing on the iPad’s weaknesses.

So what is the end result? What does Amazon have that the until-now “untouchable” iPad doesn’t? Read on..

Better Price. While Apple priced the iPad at a very reasonable, but for some unreachable $499, Amazon has blown everyone away with an astoundingly low price of $199. That’s half the price of an iPad!
Smaller Screen. Who says bigger is better? We’ve come to love and accept the 10″ screen in the iPad, but is it too big? Amazon thinks so. With the Kindle Fire, apparently 7″ is the perfect size. This size helps to keep the size and weight down, which Amazon believes most consumers will appreciate. It’s also easier to hold in one hand.
The Amazon and Kindle name. Aside from the Apple iPad, how many other ebook handheld readers can you name? I bet it’s not more than a couple. The truth is, there are dozens of other tablets out there. In the game of sales.. a good name will take you far, and it doesn’t get much better than Amazon and Kindle.

Can Amazon break everyone’s mindset on the iPad being the best and only ebook handheld reader worth buying? We’ll soon find out.

Back to eBook Handheld Reader.
Other Amazon Kindle articles.