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Amazon Announces All-New Fire HD 8 Tablets for the Entire Family

SEATTLE — Amazon today announced the next generation of its Fire HD 8 tablet lineup, designed with the entire family in mind: the all-new Fire HD 8, Fire HD 8 Plus, and Fire HD 8 Kids Edition.

All-New Fire HD 8 Kids Edition: Built from the Ground-Up for Kids

The all-new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition includes the Fire HD 8 tablet with an 8” HD display, 32GB of storage with up to 1TB of expandable storage via microSD, up to 12 hours of mixed-use battery life, and USB-C for reversible charging. It also comes bundled with a kid-proof case with a new adjustable stand in blue, pink, or purple, a two-year worry-free guarantee, and a year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited—all for $139.99.

With Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, kids can enjoy over 20,000 premium, age-appropriate books, Audible books, educational apps, games, and videos on their Fire HD 8 Kids Edition, including new and popular titles such as Pinkfong Baby Shark, Sonic Dash, Descendants Junior Novel, and Barbie Dreamtopia from brands like Smartstudy, PBS KIDS, SEGA, and Mattel. Kids can also enjoy over 2,000 Spanish language titles, like Pinkfong! Car Songs, Plaza Sesamo, National Geographic Readers: Los Tiburones (Sharks), and Los Sentidos de Los Insectos.

Within FreeTime, kids can easily discover over 1,500 educational titles organized by core curriculum and extracurricular topics, such as math, science, exercise, art, and virtual field trips. In addition, for a limited time, families will also have access to additional premium content from HOMER and PBS Kids within FreeTime Unlimited. All of the FreeTime Unlimited content is kid-friendly and hand-selected by the Amazon FreeTime team with new titles added regularly.

“Over 20 million kids (and their parents) have enjoyed the award-winning Amazon FreeTime service and we’re excited to make it even better with new educational content that helps to keep kids learning and entertained,” said Kurt Beidler, Director of Kids and Family, Amazon. “The all-new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition is built from the ground up to offer the FreeTime Unlimited content kids love and the parental controls parents trust—all wrapped in a colorful kid-proof case with a two-year worry-free guarantee.”

Fire HD 8 Kids Edition comes with access to award-winning parental controls that encourage learning before play. With FreeTime, parents can manage their child’s FreeTime settings, such as the ability to set daily goals, age filters, and time limits for both weekdays and weekends. Parents can also use parental controls to choose what content kids can access and to add more content. These settings can be managed on the device or parents can visit Amazon’s Parent Dashboard to view daily activity reports and easily adjust their child’s FreeTime settings from any web browser, whether they’re on a mobile device or computer.

Availability

The all-new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition is available for pre-order now, starting at $139.99 at and will begin shipping next month on June 3. As an introductory offer, BDPA Members and Amazon customers who purchase two Fire HD 8 Kids Edition tablets together will receive a 25% discount. Free subscriptions end after the first year; however, they can be used on any compatible device, including Fire tablets, Fire TV, Kindle, Echo, iOS, Chrome OS, and Android devices.

Tablets For Teens

To help local communities in advance of our next school year, discover more by partnering with local BDPA Chapters or visiting tabletsforteens.org.

“I.T.’s” happening!

— Sources: Amazon and BDPA

Samsung Opens World-Class Showcase for Government Solutions

WASHINGTON— Last quarter, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. announced that the company will be relocating its Washington, D.C. offices into a new multi-use, operational and interactive facility in the District’s iconic Eastern Market neighborhood. On Tuesday, October 30, 2018, Samsung’s U.S. Public Affairs team and the Solutions Center relocated to 700 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, occupying 28,512 square-feet at the former Hine Junior High School location and new redevelopment site.

“At Samsung we leverage our deep understanding of and experience with the Federal Government customer to develop mission-ready solutions ,” said Terry Halvorsen, Chief Information Officer & Executive Vice President of IT and Mobile Communications at Samsung. “Samsung’s unique breadth of expertise across 5G, tailored mobile solutions, end-to-end security and workforce transformation allow us to drive towards improved government end-user experience and productivity.

This new space at 700 Penn will be a center of innovation and provide opportunities to engage, support and educate government customers, policymakers and technology leaders.”

“For 40 years, Samsung has invested in U.S. employees, partners and facilities, because engaging customers and innovators is what pushes us forward and drives American technology leadership,” said David Steel, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Samsung Electronics America.

“This investment in the nation’s capital further solidifies Samsung’s commitment in Washington and in the U.S. We will continue to be a convener on all things technology as we look ahead toward the next 40 years of innovation.”

Above, Keith Scott, Cyber Programs for BDPA Washington (right) discusses 5G technologies and new applications with Samsung executives during Grand Opening events. BDPA-DC photo © 2018 bdpatoday

“We are excited to welcome Samsung’s Solutions Center to 700 Penn,” said Anthony Lanier, president and founder of EastBanc Development. “This innovative concept is an important anchor to one of D.C.’s most historic neighborhoods and aligns with our goal of marrying the new and old during the redevelopment of this area while providing Samsung’s employees with vibrant live-work-play amenities.”

Designed by architects Weinstein Studio, Esocoff & Associates and landscape architect Oehme, van Sweden & Associates, the Hine School Redevelopment Project is a new mixed-use development, which includes a 156,000-square foot office building, apartment residences, and 60,000-square feet of specialty shops, boutiques and restaurants. It has a full range of office amenities including multiple conference centers (at street level and rooftop — right photo), rooftop terrace with unobstructed 360-degree and Capitol views, fitness center, enclosed loading areas, underground parking and more.

Samsung also has a Galaxy Studio located on the Metro Level in the District’s historic Union Station, a major transportation hub and retail destination within Washington, D.C. Guests visit the Galaxy Studio to purchase the new Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, get one-on-one onboarding to new devices, use Smart Switch to transfer files and access exclusive promotions onsite. Guests can also experience Samsung’s innovative technology via several engaging product experiences.

The Washington Post reports in the past 20 years consumer tech companies like Samsung and Apple have led consumer tech revolutions that have put smartphones and tablets in the hands of more than 2 billion consumers, including working adults, children, first-responders, and now the military.

*** Samsung Electronics USA and BDPA-DC reach 40-year milestones in 2018. On Saturday, December 8, 2018, National BDPA’s Washington D.C. Chapter (BDPADC) is co-hosting a special community and holiday event in Samsung’s new facility commemorating Samsung and BDPA-DC 40-year milestones. Contact your Host BDPA Chapter for special invitations. ***

— Sources and images: Samsung Electronics USA and BDPA-DC

Apple’s free Schoolwork app now available for teachers

New Apple App Makes It Easy to Create Assignments, View Student Progress and More

CUPERTINO, CA — Apple’s Schoolwork App works alongside the Classroom app, which turns iPads — and now Macs — into a versatile teaching assistant, putting teachers in charge of the technology used in the classroom. Classroom on iPad helps teachers keep students focused on a specific app or website and lets them view student screens during class, share documents with students, assign shared iPads and even reset a student passwords.

The all-new Schoolwork app empowers teachers to take full advantage of the power and creativity of iPad to create new learning experiences for their students. Schoolwork makes it easy to create and send announcements and assignments with almost any type of content, from web links to PDFs and documents, and even specific activities in apps. Students can use Schoolwork to stay organized and keep track of the work they need to complete and when they need to hand it in.

Today, teachers may now use their new Schoolwork apps to easily assign specific activity rights within an app to guide students or study groups directly to a related challenge or new lessons. Popular education apps including Explain Everything, Tynker, GeoGebra and Kahoot! work directly with Schoolwork to bring useful educational content with new tools to teachers using iPads.

— Source/photos: Apple Inc.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

McDonald’s new growth plan includes mobile app enhancements and kiosks

CHICAGO, IL—To bring customers into the restaurants, McDonald’s must matter to people and be relevant in their daily lives. To do so, McDonald’s is accelerating digital capabilities and enhancing its use of technology in restaurants, in the drive-thru, and on the go.

Inside the restaurants, McDonald’s is bringing greater control, convenience and personalization to our customers through the use of kiosks to place orders, staffed with guest experience leaders to assist in the process. Customers can place their order and skip the front counter entirely, with their food brought right to their table. Additionally, customers will be able to place orders directly on the mobile app for pickup or have a kiosk recognize their app profile, which holds customized favorites and preferred payment methods. The result is a more stress-free, personalized experience, enhanced by technology and world-class hospitality that puts customers in control.

The same enhanced experience will be available outside the restaurant too. In the 1970s, McDonald’s revolutionized convenience in the drive-thru to make getting high-quality food easy. Now, that experience is being transformed once again. By enabling mobile order and pay through the McDonald’s app, customers can personalize their order while skipping the drive-thru line and instead choosing curbside delivery. If customers choose the drive-thru, they will simply read the already placed order code to the crew and their mobile order will be ready for pickup at the window. These more efficient enhancements will speed up the process and allow more customers to pass through our drive-thrus.

Mobile order and pay will be launched in 20,000 restaurants in some of our largest markets, including the U.S., by the end of 2017.