SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced the next generation of its best-selling kids’ tablet: the all-new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition. The Fire HD 8 Kids Edition is built from the ground-up for kids with three ideas in mind:
1. Kids want a real tablet, not a toy—Fire HD 8 Kids Edition offers a stunning 8” HD display, 32 GB of storage with up to 400 GB of expandable storage via a microSD card slot, and up to 10 hours of battery life. Fire tablets support up to two adult profiles (accessible with a PIN) and four child profiles that can be customized for each member of the family.
2. Parents don’t want to worry about the content their kids are viewing—Fire HD 8 Kids Edition includes a year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, which offers more than 20,000 premium books, videos, Audible books, educational apps, and games that have been curated for age-appropriateness, plus access to tens of thousands of hand-selected websites and web videos and award-winning parental controls—at no additional cost.
3. Despite best intentions, kids break things—Fire HD 8 Kids Edition comes with a kid-proof case available in blue, pink, or yellow, and a two-year worry-free guarantee—if they break it, return it and we’ll replace it. No questions asked.
“Fire Kids Edition tablets are built from the ground up to offer the content kids love and the award-winning parental controls parents trust. We’re thrilled that customers have chosen us to be the #1 kids tablet in the U.S.,” said Kurt Beidler, Director of Kids & Family, Amazon. “Now, we’re excited to make our best-selling kids tablet even better. The all-new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition offers all the features families love, plus adds kid-friendly Audible books and Spanish language content, and a new FreeTime design that makes it even easier for kids to discover and enjoy new content.”
Even More Content Kids Love, Now Easier to Navigate
The all-new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition introduces a new design in FreeTime with dedicated rows based on content type, making it even easier for kids to find their favorite titles. With Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, kids have access to premium, age-appropriate books, videos, educational apps, and games, including new and popular titles, such as Goodnight Moon, Hot Wheels Race Off, Olaf’s Summer Dream, Tumble Leaf, Team Umizoomi: Math Racer, and the complete Harry Potter book series, from brands like Disney, Nickelodeon, Amazon Studios, HarperCollins, and Pottermore. All of the content is kid-friendly, age-appropriate, and hand-selected by the Amazon FreeTime team with new titles added regularly.
Amazon FreeTime Unlimited is also expanding to include over 1,000 kid-friendly Audible books, including popular titles like Peter Pan, Rip Van Winkle, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow Queen. On Fire tablets, parents can also add additional Audible books to their child’s FreeTime profile via the settings on their child’s devices, or remotely via Parent Dashboard. The new Audible books in FreeTime Unlimited will be available on Fire Kids Edition tablets and compatible Fire tablets—coming soon.
FreeTime and FreeTime Unlimited—Now en Español
Also announced today is a new Spanish language experience within FreeTime and FreeTime Unlimited. Kids now have access to over 1,000 age-appropriate books, videos, educational apps, and games, plus thousands of hand-curated websites and web videos—all in Spanish and included with a FreeTime Unlimited subscription. Parents can choose to enable Spanish-only content, English-only content, or a combination of both. Settings can be customized for each individual child profile.
FreeTime and FreeTime Unlimited in Spanish will be available on Fire Kids Edition tablets, in the FreeTime app on compatible Fire tablets, and on compatible iOS devices, via a free software update that will begin rolling out to customers starting October 4, and is coming soon to compatible Android devices. For more information, read this press release.
Tools Parents Can Trust
Over 10 million kids (and their parents) have enjoyed the award-winning Amazon FreeTime service, which provides the perfect balance between giving kids the freedom of choice and unlimited access to the content they love, while providing parents peace of mind knowing that what their kids are viewing on their device is age-appropriate. FreeTime offers award-winning parental controls that encourage learning before play, and give parents the ability to manage their child’s FreeTime settings, including:
- Weekday and weekend settings—parents can set time limits by weekdays and weekends.
- Bedtime—parents can control when FreeTime shuts down for the day and turns back on the next morning.
- Learn First—parents can set daily goals for educational content, and block access to entertainment content until after educational goals are met each day.
- Screen time by category—parents can restrict certain categories, such as apps and games, while leaving unlimited time for reading.
- Total screen time—parents can choose a set amount of total screen time per day, after which the tablet will shut down for the day.
- Age filters—parents can adjust settings to tailor the FreeTime experience for each child and ensure the content their kids are viewing is age-appropriate for them.
- Add or remove content—parents can add titles from their own content library into FreeTime, or choose to remove unwanted FreeTime Unlimited content.
- Enable the web browser—parents can choose to enable or disable the kid-friendly web browser within FreeTime.
Additionally, parents can use Parent Dashboard (parents.amazon.com) to connect with their kids over digital content, and starting October 4, parents can now access a new Spanish language version of Parent Dashboard. With Parent Dashboard, parents can view daily activity reports of the digital content their kids are using in FreeTime and determine how to manage time limits and educational goals. Plus, remote parental controls in Parent Dashboard make it easy for parents to adjust their child’s FreeTime settings remotely from any web browser. Parents can control bedtime settings, set daily goals and time limits, adjust age filters, lock and unlock the device for a set amount of time, and enable the web browser—all without touching their child’s device. Parents can also remotely add new books, videos, and apps to their child’s FreeTime profile.
Availability
The all-new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition is available for pre-order today for $129.99 at http://www.amazon.com/FireHD8KidsEdition and starts shipping October 4. It is available in three fun color options: blue, pink, and yellow. As a special introductory offer, Fire HD 8 Kids Edition tablets are available in a multi-pack option so every member of the family can enjoy one. Buy two Fire HD 8 Kids Edition tablets for $194.98—that’s a savings of $65.
Fire HD 8 Kids Edition comes with a year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited. After the first year, customers can continue their subscription starting at $2.99 per month for Prime members and $4.99 per month for customers who are not yet Prime members. The FreeTime Unlimited subscription can be used on Fire tablets, including Fire Kids Edition tablets, Kindle e-readers, compatible Android phones and tablets, and compatible iOS phones and tablets.
Families can also use their FreeTime Unlimited subscription to access FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa, an all-new Alexa experience for kids and parents with over 1,000 Audible kids’ books; kid-friendly, ad-free radio stations and playlists; character alarms; and premium Alexa skills from Disney, Nickelodeon, National Geographic, and more. FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa is available on compatible Echo devices, including Echo Dot Kids Edition, Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Plus.
In addition to the Fire HD 8 Kids Edition, Amazon also introduced the all-new Fire HD 8, available for pre-order today starting at $79.99. More information can be found at www.amazon.com/FireHD8.
About Amazon
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