At an event in Santa Monica, CA. today, Amazon announced its
next version of its number
one seller, the Kindle Fire tablet. Shipping on September 14 the new Fire tablet will be introduced at $159. Just like its predecessor the new Kindle Fire will
be 7 inches but will have a bigger screen. The new Fire will have also have a better processor
with double the RAM. The New Kindle's battery life is also longer and its
performance is said to be 44% faster. Amazon users can pre-order the new Fire
now.
The new Kindle
Fire has a front facing camera and comes in different sizes: a large one at
8.8 mm, 20 ounces, 8.9 inch display as well as the aforementioned 7-incher. It
offers less glare and Dolby Digital Plus; first tablet to offer this technology.
The improved tablet has not one but two antennas for cutting edge WiFi and its
software decides which antenna to use depending on which has less fading. WiFi
on this tablet will be 41% faster than the iPad 3 according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. The
7-inch 16 GB New Kindle Fire will be $199 and the 8.9-in 16GB will be $299. The
‘big-daddy' New Kindle Fire with 4G LTE integration and 32 GB is set at $499;
you also get 250MB a month, 20GB of cloud storage and a $10 credit to the appstore for just $50 a month (NOT BAD!). There is also a cheaper Kindle for $69.
Jeff Bezos dubbed the new Amazon e-reader as the Kindle
Paperwhite. It's said to be brighter, and have finer resolution. The Kindle
Paperwhite will come in different sizes as well: small and large. The
Paperwhite also offers a 3G and non-3G version; the non-3G version is $119
while the 3G version is $179. The Paperwhite's battery life is said to go for 8
weeks with the light on. This new e-reader will allow you to change between 7
fonts and will have this really cool function called Time to Read. Time to Read
monitors your reading time and estimates how long until you are finished with a
book.
Personally, I love my Kindle Fire
and am excited for the newer version. I had hoped the new version would have a
frontal camera. What tablet are you using and what do you think of these new
Amazon products?