While the tech media waits patiently for October 4th to roll around, one of our old friends decided to pay a visit. Amazon today trotted out the Kindle horse, unveiling three full new devices in the e-book dominating family for us to feast our eyes on.
First of the bunch is the Kindle Fire, which bring to fruition rumors that date back almost a year of a Kindle branded tablet from the online retailer. This little 7-inch bad boy is quite friendly too, he runs a heavily modified version of Android, likely 2.2 or 2.3 (sorry no Honeycomb here). The real kicker for this introduction is the price, coming in at just $199 this guy likely will have legs, coming in cheaper than it's direct competition, the Nook and Kobo, as well as the tablet titian iPad 2.
Alright so lets talk specs, for the price you are losing a camera, microphone and no 3G fun, just WiFi. But internally you gain a dual-core 1GHz processor (of the TI OMAP4 variety), 512MB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage. Not entirely revolutionary specs, but the Kindle Fire certainly doesn't disappoint and does pack some heat under the hood. Lastly you can expect up to 8 hours of continuous reading (7.5 of video) and a 3.5mm headphone jack and a speaker for your listening pleasure.
The Kindle launches on November 15th and Amazon is already taking pre-orders. Hit the break (the Rawr just below) to check out the Kindle Touch and the plain old (new) Kindle.
Our next friend here is the new Kindle Touch. This more old-school (compared to the Fire) Kindle flavor sports the company's "most advanced" E Ink display common to the Kindle's heritage. The device get's its 'Touch' moniker from an IR touch system which is very similar to that found in the latest Nook and Kobo. Also like those devices the Kindle Touch has no keyboard (instead using a touch based software one) which makes this Kindle much slimmer, smaller and lighter than it's old friends. The Kindle Touch comes in at comes in at a very attractive $99 with a 3G-enabled brother at $149. Yes that is the same free global 3G as the Kindle 2. The Kindle Touch ships on November 21st and can be pre-ordered at Amazon here and here for the Touch 3G.
Lastly lies the lowly Kindle. This straight forward e-reader doesn't mince words like it's prettier cousins. There is no touch screen, fancy multi-media or Android here. What is it then? Well it's a $79 e-reader that that registares right on the crazy sie of insane. A huge decrease from the $114 that was charged just yesterday for the cheapest Kindle. This ad-included Kindle is notably new because it, besides its price, drops the Kindle's original keyboard. Opting instead for a set of toggle buttons for scrolling and the usual Home, Menu, Keyboard and Back. For those interested you can snatch one up today over at Amazon or even binge on the non-ads varient for $109.
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