MG Siegler has beheld the legendary Amazon tablet. It is 7″ big and has multitouch, a full-color backlit screen, Android, and a $250 price tag. Hardware-wise, then, it’s rather like the Nook Color. Software-wise, however, Amazon is forking the OS and doing its own thing.
And this is where things get really interesting. As anticipated, Amazon has forked Android to build their own version for the Kindle. Simply put: it looks nothing like the Android you’re used to seeing.
The interface is all Amazon and Kindle. It’s black, dark blue, and a bunch of orange. The main screen is a carousel that looks like Cover Flow in iTunes which displays all the content you have on the device. This includes books, apps, movies, etc. Below the main carousel is a dock to pin your favorite items in one easy-to-access place. When you turn the device horizontally, the dock disappears below the fold.
Sounds like it will be to Android as, say, OSX is to BSD Unix. Not only is Google’s Android Market gone, but Siegler suggests that Amazon is forking it from an older version of Android to avoid working with Google at all.
Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It. [TechCrunch]