The Skinny: Kindle Touch & Kindle Fire

Today Amazon announced not just 1 but 2 new versions of the Kindle. Both are due to be released in November, just in time for the holiday season and you can already pre-order these items from Amazon's website. 

Kindle Touch

Kindle touch is pretty much the Kindle we already know and love, simply without the keyboard! To turn pages, simply tap the screen. A new feature Amazon has added to this device is the X-Ray.

"Amazon invented X-Ray, a new feature that lets customers explore the “bones of the book.” With a single tap, readers can see all the passages across a book that mention ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics that interest them, as well as more detailed descriptions from Wikipedia and Shelfari, Amazon’s community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers. " -Amazon.com

Prices:
Kindle Touch Wi-Fi with Ads $99.00. Without Ads $139.00.
Touch with Wi-Fi/ 3G with Ads $149.00.  Without Ads $189.00.

Kindle Fire

Now THIS is something completely new. Amazon is officially taking on the Nook Color with this colored Android powered reading tablet. Here you have can read, browse the web, watch movies, listen to music or play Angry Birds. Not only can you read books, but you can now have childrens books with beautifully colored pictures and magazines with print and photos. I have to be honest, I am super excited for this.

The screen is gorilla glass and the device itself is an inch bigger than the Kindle 3 or Kindle Touch. It has 8 GB of internal memory, or enough for 80 apps plus 10 movies, 800 songs or 6,000 books. The Kindle Fire runs off of Android 2.1 and a duel-core processor. Amazon has its own App market where you find and purchase Apps. They also use their own web browsing service called Amazon Silk that's supposed to not only be super fast, but have a pretty good memory of where you usually go when you're on the web to get you where you want to go faster. Battery life lasts for about 8 active hours, give or take depending on what you're using it for.

The Kindle Fire has no 3G. Only Wi-Fi that you can use from any hotspot area with the exception of peer to peer hotspots (like creating it from your cell phone).

Price: $199.00 and comes with 1 month free of Amazon Prime.

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So has Amazon just made your Christmas list for you? I'm thinking they may have created mine. There's just a couple little things I want to throw out there. With the research I've done, I'm hearing buzz that there may be something even better in the works than the Amazon Fire sometime after Christmas. And even cooler than Amazon Fire? I'm wondering what the heck that could be.

Also, maybe you or a family member don't like touch screens and you'd rather stick with the Kindle 3. Those prices have gone down to.
Amazon Kindle 3 with Wi-Fi and Ads $99.00. Without Ads $139.
Kindle 3 with Wi-Fi and 3G with Ads  $139.00. Without Ads $189.00.
(Prices seem off to me, I'll check back later to make sure that Amazon hasn't changed them...)

What do you think about these developments?
Talk to me!