After widespread criticism, Amazon has changed its mind about those home and lock screen ads on the new Kindle Fires. Yesterday, Amazon insisted that all Kindle Fires will come with "special offers" on the home screens and lock screens, and that unlike with Kindle e-readers, the Fire won’t provide any option to remove the ads with an extra payment.
But just now, we received confirmation from Amazon that it has decided to let customers pay $15 to opt out of the ads. "With Kindle Fire HD there will be a special offers opt-out option for $15," an Amazon spokesperson told Ars. "We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out. We're happy to offer customers the choice."
The Kindle Fire product pages haven’t been updated to reflect the $15 offer. With Kindle e-readers, customers unsubscribe from special offers through a Web browser, rather than from the device itself.
The Amazon statement specifies "Kindle Fire HD," but there is one new Fire that is not advertised as HD, a $159 entry-level option. Amazon told us the $15 opt-out will be available for the non-HD Fire as well.
