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Sparkle (1)
This week Amazon announced a new low-price Kindle for $79, a $99 Kindle Touch and entered the table marketplace with their $199 7-inch Kindle Fire. Supported by their new browser, Amazon Silk, the Kindle Fire will allow users to read, watch movies, download apps and listen to music. It's currently available for pre-order and will start shipping November 15, just in time for holiday gift-giving.
While I am an admitted Apple fan, I have to say that the $199 Kindle Fire seems like a fabulous deal. It's got a 7-inch screen, 8 GB of internal memory and wireless backup to the Amazon Cloud. Amazon's whispersync works between devices not only for e-books but for books and movies as well.
The Consumer Reports electronics blog runs down the Kindle Fire's pros and cons and gives you peek at the device in their video. For the price point they are calling it a compelling option for those that don't want to, or cannot afford to, pay the price for the iPad.
Another feature of the Kindle Fire is Amazon's new cloud-supported browser, Amazon Silk. I will confess that I poked a little bit of fun at the name of their new browser because a browser would not be the first thing to come to mind if you asked me what kind of product I thought Amazon Silk would be. That said, if they were looking for a sexy name for a browser they've succeeded. You can get a look at how they developed Amazon Silk in this video from Kindle.
Gaming Angels thinks that the Kindle Fire and Amazon Silk sound like quite the sexy combo.
"I love my Kindle and the Kindle Fire sounds sexy. With super fast browsing and a clean interface with a great price, this may be the first tablet I purchase. The details say it’s lightweight, but it does look bulky from the pictures. There is also only 8GB of storage available which isn’t optimal. I’m really looking forward to trying one out, but I’m not even sure how you can other than finding someone that is willing to buy it first."
Author Cheryl Rainfield is hoping that they make the Amazon Fire available in Canada soon. Though this Globe and Mail article suggests that the lack of streaming services in Canada means its usability, with only Kindle book service available, will be greatly reduced.
As always, Jane at Dear Author has a post comparing the new Kindles and their features. I particularly recommend reading the comments on that post.
What you do you think of the new lower-priced Kindles? Will you be getting in (the virtual) line to purchase Amazon's Kindle Fire?
BlogHer Book Club Host Karen Ballum also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.
