The hottest tech news on the Web this week has centred around a new tablet computer soon to be on the market, revealed on Wednesday by online retail giant Amazon. Called "Fire," the device will sell for only $199. Analysts are suggesting that this may be the first real competition for Apple's famous iPad.
After a few attempts at tablet computers from companies like HP and RIM have notably produced unsuccessful results compared to the iPad, the Kindle Fire is capturing the attention of tech geeks everywhere.
While it doesn't quite stack up to the iPad in terms of functionality (no camera or external microphone, etc), it's the price point that's catching the eyes of consumers: $199. (That's $300 below Apple's cheapest tablet).
What Amazon's Fire does have is a 7-inch colour touch screen, Google's Android operating system, WiFi connectivity, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, and instant access to Amazon's massive selection of digital content including:
-18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines and books
-Amazon App Store - thousands of popular games and apps
-Ultra-fast web browsing with Amazon's new browser called Silk
Take a look at this video from Amazon explaining the features of the Silk browser:
While the selection of Apps for the Kindle Fire is no match for Apple's App Store, and 3G connectivity is not available on this model, this little tablet still seems to pack a lot of punch. Weighing only 14.6 ounces, it has up to 8 hours of battery life for continuous reading and 8GB internal storage. (That translates into 80 apps plus either 10 movies, or 800 songs, or 6,000 books). Unlimited Amazon-based content from users is hosted for free in the Amazon Cloud. Over 100,000 movies and TV shows can be streamed, downloaded, purchased or rented. The Kindle store offers over one million books for sale, as well as over 2 million out-of-copyright books for free.
Check out Amazon's website here for more details (there's an informative 'Quick Tour' video on the left hand side).
The tablet will be released onto the market on November 15 in the US. International availability to Canada and other countries has not yet been discussed.
