I was on the Manage My Kindle page on Amazon.com and thought I would inspect some of the scripts and stylesheets of the page to see if there was anything related to a new Kindle. I was looking specifically for an image of a new Kindle (since a thumbnail of your current Kindle device is displayed on this page), but I was unable to find the image URL in the source. However, I did find some
references to unannounced products.
The first can be found by examining the contents of the variable "downloadableOwnedFionas". (You may remember that the codename of the Kindle is Fiona.) I assume that this variable contains a list of all of the Kindle devices you can download content to and includes their capabilities for what they can download. I have a Kindle 2 International, so you'll see in the below image that I have 1 device that fits a lot of the capabilities like active content, audio, book purchasing, and more. The Kindle 2's did not have Wi-Fi, which is why it says I have 0 Wi-Fi capable devices. But I did see that my device is capable of something that hasn't been announced -
PRIME_EBOOKS_COMPATIBLE; this is almost certainly the rumored Amazon Prime service that would let you get free books similar to how you can get streaming movies!
The second is found in one of the scripts used by the page that creates the list of your devices and the basic layout of the page. You'll notice that it's in the function "VideoFooter", which, I speculate, is a function to show some sort of banner at the bottom of the page advertising the new device. What's more interesting is that it refers to a page element called "
kindle-video-slate" -- so will this mean the new Kindle can be described as a "video slate" or tablet?!
I found both of these things on the official Amazon.com website, not like baseless rumors that don't have proof. I'm very excited for the Prime eBooks service (it'll definitely get me to subscribe!) and the new Kidnle as well. I'll let you guys know if I find anything else.
