Amazon’s New Kindles: What You Need to Know [PICS & VIDEO]

Amazon unveiled three new products at a press event in New York on Wednesday, including its much-anticipated first tablet computer, the Kindle Fire.

The new Kindles — and their unusually low price points — will likely have an impact on both the ereader and tablet markets. Here’s a concise guide to the new products and what makes them different from their predecessors.

1. Like similar products from Kobo and Nook, the Kindle Touch allows readers to flip pages, search, shop and take notes by swiping and tapping the screen. It costs $139 with 3G, and $99 for the Wi-Fi-only version. Because it needs no extra room for buttons, the device itself is smaller than previous models of the Kindle. Here’s a gallery of the Kindle Touch:
   
2. The $79 Kindle.
   
   
   
   
   

   The $79 Kindle.
   

   
   
   
   
   The $79 Kindle.
   
   
3. The $79 Kindle.
   
   
   The Kindle Touch comes in two versions: $139 with 3G, and $99 without.
   
   
   
   The Kindle Touch comes in two versions: $139 with 3G, and $99 without.
   
   
   
   The Kindle Touch comes in two versions: $139 with 3G, and $99 without.
   
   
   
   
   

   The Kindle Touch comes in two versions: $139 with 3G, and $99 without.

   
   
   
   
   
4. The latest version of the original Kindle costs just $79. It does not have a touchscreen, but it’s 30% lighter than its predecessors, 18% smaller, and turns pages 10% faster. Much of the size reduction is due to the absence of a keyboard. Here’s a video of the original Kindle from Amazon:
   






5. 
   

   Amazon’s new tablet, Kindle Fire, is an affordable tablet that focuses on content. While it runs the Android operating system and some apps including email, its interface looks nothing like the collection of apps that line the home screens of other Android tablets and the iPad. Rather, it looks like a bookshelf. Users can line its shelves with books, periodicals, movies and music they purchase from Amazon. New owners will also have free access to the Amazon Prime unlimited movie and TV streaming service for 30 days after purchase.

   The tablet has no camera, microphone or 3G capabilities, but at $199, it’s the most affordable tablet from a major player.
   
6. Amazon designed a new browser for Kindle Fire. The “smart” browser is called Amazon Silk, and cuts down on load times by splitting the workload between the tablet and the Amazon Web Services Cloud. It also speeds things up by predicting what the user will do next. In a demonstration at its press event in New York, Amazon loaded 53 static file images, 39 dynamic files, 30 Javascript files and three Flash files within seconds. Here’s a video of Silk in action:
   






7. Every Kindle is a sponsored Kindle by default. In April, Amazon launched a clever deal for its Kindle 3G: If users opt to receive ads on their Kindle screensavers when they aren’t reading, they can buy the Kindle at a discounted rate. Earlier this month, it announced that some of those ads would be offers from its daily deals site AmazonLocal — giving the service a distinct advantage over those that advertise deals mostly through emails.
   

   Now Amazon has made Special Offers a default option for its new compact Kindle, Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire. To get a new generation Kindle or Kindle Touch that won’t display ads when idle costs an extra $30. A Kindle Fire without Special Offers costs an extra $40.
   

   
   
8. The Kindle Fire will be released on Nov. 15. The Kindle Touch will be available on Nov. 21. The $79 Kindle is already available.

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