Amazon announced its latest line of Kindles today and the much anticipated Kindle Fire. I’m so excited for this! I have owned every Kindle since their first release and this will be no exception. I love my Kindle and I feel like I’ve been cheating on it lately with my iPad because I can’t justify the weight of carrying a mobile phone, a laptop an iPad and a Kindle. But this might change things back – again. The funny thing is that I actually use the iPad to read Amazon Kindle books. I don’t buy books from Apple, so the transition between my devices will be seamless.
Why am I so excited for yet another gadget?
I love that the Kindle Fire is 7″ instead of a bulky ass iPad. The iPad is simply too big to read comfortably in bed with. I have used the Barnes and Noble Nook Color – which is also 7″ and find that the form factor is much more enjoyable and portable to read. In addition, I found that toting my laptop and my iPad on trips was kind of overkill. I only take the iPad to read, but found that it is heavy and ill suited for sitting outdoors to read. In short, it is bulky and awkward as a reading device. The Kindle Fire should be the right size.
I’m also excited that the price point of $199 opens up tablets to an entirely new audience. Let’s face it, the iPad is expensive for a vast majority of people. But $199 seems to be just about the right price. Granted, the Kindle is not that much different than the Barnes & Noble Nook, but, um, it is Barnes and Noble and that just isn’t cool.
What are some of the features of the Kindle Fire?
- Stunning Color Touchscreen – no more kludgy page turning with buttons, this was one thing that made me love reading on the iPad
- Magazines in Rich Color – Yeah, my Economist!
- Access to Amazon Prime’s huge selection of TV shows and movies
- Android Apps galore – Get your Angry Birds on
- Access to Amazon Cloud Drive – music music music
- Upgradable memory with microSD – Thank you, Amazon, for not being memory nazis like Apple.
Yeah. You get it. I’m over the moon about the Kindle Fire. It is launched at the perfect timing for everyone to get their hands on them as Christmas pressies.
The next thing that I look forward to is hacking the Kindle with my own ROM and seeing what other kind of fun we can unleash on the world.
Keep up the good work, Amazon!
[box type=”info”]You can pre-order the Kindle Fire as of today from Amazon – for delivery beginning November 15
There were other super affordable Kindle Touches released in the lineup as well – for $99 or $139 – that you can also pre-order. Great for Granny who can’t cope with all the bells and whistles of the Fire[/box]
