New Amazon Kindle Fire and E-readers

A trio of new devices from Amazon are scheduled to hit stores and be available online November 15^th.  Pre-ordering may be a good idea if you are looking to get a Kindle Fire as the excitement for this 7 inch tablet has been building for some time, and only escalated when they announced that it was going to be available for $199.  The Fire will compete directly with Barnes and Noble’s Nook Tablet (upgraded version of 2010’s Nook Color) and for many people, may be a cheaper alternative to Apple’s iPad.  It will run a very customized version of Android and have access to ebooks, magazines, and video on demand services as well as the Amazon app store.

The other two additions are both new e-ink readers.  Both will sport 6” Pearl e-ink displays and faster page turns than previous version Kindles.  The Kindle Touch will have an infrared touchscreen and 4GB of storage (enough for 3,000 books), and will come in wifi only and wifi + 3G versions for $99 and $149 respectively.  The new basic Kindle will offer a 5-way button for navigation and keyboard input and no 3G option and be priced at $79.

All of Amazon’s e-readers now come with “special offers” – ads that appear as your screen saver, but do not appear when you are actually reading.  You can opt for the ad-free model for an additional $30-$40 depending on the model.