Best Buy's 48-hour flash sale offers fantastic discounts on Amazon branded devices. From now through Aug.6, save up to 50% on Amazon Fire tablets with prices starting from just $39.

As part of the sale, you can get the Amazon Fire HD 10 for just $74.99. It usually costs $150, so that's $45 in savings or 50% off. This is the lowest price we've seen for this tablet since Amazon's Prime Day sale back in July. If you're looking for a cheap tablet for streaming content, now 50% off, the Fire HD 10 is a no-brainer. 

If you're looking for the cheapest Amazon tablet you can get, the Amazon Fire 7 is now just $39 ($20 off). 

Best Buy's flash sale also knocks up to $95 on Amazon Kindle e-readers. Prices start at $64 ($35) for the Kindle Paperwhite. This eReader's 6-inch matte display reads like real paper and is visible in direct sunlight. Plus, you can highlight passages, look up definitions, translate words, and adjust text size—without ever leaving the page. 

So whether you're back to school shopping or just looking to pick up a cheap tablet or reader, don't miss Best Buy's flash sale. As a reminder, these deals expire Aug. 6, so act fast!

Best Buy flash sale — Amazon Fire tablets

Best Buy flash sale — Kindle e-Readers

The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C tablet is reminiscent of the Kindle, which I’ve owned for more than five years, but the Amazon tablet has always felt limited to me. Leaving notes is cumbersome, its software is exclusively designed for Amazon customers, and reading visuals (e.g., maps and comics) isn’t as thrilling as it’s on paper. At the same time, I crave its calming, strain-free, e-ink display after hours of looking at screens every day. I often wished I could use it to browse the web or sift through Twitter. A new e-reader tablet from China-based Onyx ticks all those boxes and might just be what I’ve been looking for.  

Onyx’s latest Boox Ultra Tab C is equipped with a 10.3-inch, e-Ink screen — just like a Kindle. There are two key differences, though: its E-Ink panel supports color, so that it’s not restricted to mostly text. Plus, it runs Android, which lets you use it as any traditional tablet, giving you access to all your apps, including Google Docs, Instagram, and Twitter (or Meta’s new Threads) —  all on a paper-like screen. It even has a 16-megapixel camera on the back to take selfies or scan documents; it’s got a pair of speakers as well as mics for calls, too. 

Calling the Boox Ultra Tab C an e-reader would be an understatement. The bundled stylus replicates the pen-and-paper experience and lets you scribble on it. And if you’re not especially keen on writing longhand, you can snap an optional keyboard case to the pogo pins on the tablet’s bottom. These perks come at a price, though. At $600, the Boox Ultra Tab C costs more than double Amazon’s nicest Kindle options. I’ve spent weeks with it — is it worth it? 

Where to buy? You can get the BOOX Tab Ultra C ePaper Tablet @ Amazon for $599

The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C tablet design and build

Boox Ultra Tab C isn’t built like an e-reader. Its slate design is encased in a cold metallic frame with flat, chamfered edges. Though the stealthy look doesn’t stand out, it’s luxurious to hold and offers the understated elegance you’d expect from a premium tablet. It’s also sturdy and feels like it won’t come apart if you accidentally drop it, which I did a couple of times. That’s not always an upside, however. 

The Tab C weighs 1.05 pounds — more than the 11-inch iPad Pro — and holding it with one hand to read for prolonged periods isn’t the most comfortable. It can start to feel like an arm workout after half an hour or so, and I often end up just gripping with both hands. Unlike say, the Kindle Oasis, it’s not thicker on one end to ensure the center of gravity rests in whatever hand you’re holding it with, and therefore, it feels, unfortunately, less like a magazine or book folded back, and more like a screen. The large 10.3-inch screen and sharp corners don’t help its case here. 

That’s likely because the Tab C is meant for more, and an uneven back doesn’t fare well when you’re scribbling on it. Although I got used to it over time, I’d still prefer my plastic 7-inch Kindle to read. So if you plan to mostly consume text, you may want to consider Onyx’s smaller, 7-inch alternative. 

The Tab C does borrow one, handy design trait from the Kindle for better ergonomics. Its screen is off-centered and has an extended bezel on the left side that you can clutch without worrying about inadvertently flipping the book you’re reading. 

There are a couple of more nice touches. The power button at the top houses a fingerprint sensor that’s quick and easy to set up. The speakers, though they won’t replace your headphones, are plenty loud and clear for calls and music. 

The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C tablet display

The Boox Ultra Tab C’s 10.3-inch panel is made up of two screens to accomplish a color e-Ink experience. One is a high-res (2480 x 1860) monochrome screen, and on top of it lies a typical LCD module (1240 x 930) that springs into action to render color and motion pictures like when you want to stream videos or play a games. 

The result is a smooth and versatile E-Ink tablet. Text appears razor sharp, thanks to the 300-ppi-capable monochrome screen, and the LCD panel produces subtle and pastel-esque colors, which while not as vibrant as an iPad, feel right at home alongside the rest of the black-and-white E-Ink experience. 

Like any E-Ink tech, you’ll notice a ghosting effect on the Ultra Tab C when you turn pages and navigate between various Android apps, but the tablet wipes out the shadows fairly quickly, and I was hardly bothered by it. The transitions, similarly, will look a bit glitchy as if the device’s flicking its light switches, but these are normal on such screens, and they won’t thwart your experience. 

What’s impressive about the Ultra Tab C is that you can customize its screen’s refresh rate, and how often it wipes off the ghosting crumbs. The “Fast” mode, for instance, eliminates interaction delays at the cost of poorer text quality and is ideal for standard tablet activities like scrolling social media. When I’m about to dive into a book before bed, I switch back to the “HD” mode that offers the crispest screen quality and minimizes ghosting effects — albeit with more lag between my touches and its responses. In the “Ultrafast” setting, you can even get by watching videos with passable details, though it won’t be nearly as smooth as you’re used to. 

Because the Ultra Tab C’s monochrome screen is laminated with an LCD one, its brightness level does take a hit compared to a Kindle. That still doesn’t mean the Ultra Tab C is difficult to view outdoors, however. Even under direct sunlight, the included backlight does a decent job to keep its content readable. My only pet peeve with it is the omission of an auto-brightness sensor. 

The bottom line is the Boox Ultra Tab C’s screen is a joy to use. Over the last few weeks, I’ve consumed books, comics, lengthy Twitter threads, and more, and I have practically no complaints. Despite the LCD panel, shifting more of my online activities to an E-Ink screen has done wonders for my eye strain, and feels far less draining than a traditional tablet or a smartphone. 

The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C tablet accessories

One of the highlights of the Boox Ultra Tab C, for me, has been the bundled stylus pen. I’ve never found writing on a screen natural and have stuck to typing, but the Ultra Tab C was a different story. Jotting down notes on its distraction-free E-Ink display feels much closer to the pen-and-paper experience. The stylus’ matte surface is pleasant to hold, and whether I’m doodling over a document or sketching, its tip is precise enough to let me comfortably reproduce my handwriting. There’s little delay in the tablet’s response too, and the pen can magnetically latch onto one of its sides. 

There is room for improvement, though. The stylus works best on Onyx’s built-in note-taking and markup apps. Fire it up on Evernote and Google Notes, and you’ll face more input lags. I also wish there was a faster way to launch a new note, perhaps from the always-on lockscreen itself. 

The optional $110 keyboard folio case is another worthy companion for the Ultra Tab C and allows you to unlock new gear. The Tab C’s minor input lag adds up on the virtual keyboard, so if you plan to do any typing on it, the keyboard accessory is a must-have. Not only does its faux leather cover’s magnets protect both the tablet and the pen (especially when they’re in a backpack), Onyx’s keyboard shortcuts also let me navigate the software much faster. The 64 keys themselves are surprisingly tactile and spaced out, and I could reach my usual typing pace in no time. Part of me wishes it also had a trackpad. 

The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C tablet software

The Onyx Ultra Tab C runs on an Android 11-based custom software and comes preloaded with the Google Play Store, unlike its predecessors. Like a typical Android tablet, you can install any app like Amazon Kindle, multitask between them in a split-screen view, and add widgets to the homescreen. You don’t have to, though: Onyx won’t ask you to log into your Google account when you set it up. 

Plus, Onyx preloads a bunch of handy apps for writing and reading. An app called “BooxDrop” was my favorite. It lets you send a link or a document from any computer or phone via a simple online link. The “Notes” app works well, too. There’s a variety of templates you can choose from, including spreadsheets, and staves for musical notes. The document scanner, on the other hand, is hit-or-miss. While it’s fine for capturing documents and annotating them, its OCR function was rarely accurate. 

Another highlight of the Ultra Tab C’s software was the pair of edge gestures. You can swipe up or down on the left and right edges to instantly tweak options like the brightness and screen color temperature. For example, it’s convenient when you are reading a book, and want a brighter screen as opposed to fiddling with the quick toggles you would on a Kindle. 

The Onyx Boox Tab Ultra C tablet battery life and performance

The Onyx Boox Ultra Tab C is powered by a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 octa-core chip, which has proven more than capable of handling the tasks it’s expected to handle. Even when I multitask between numerous apps like Microsoft Office and Google Chrome (as I would on an iPad), the Ultra Tab C hardly skipped a beat. It can run entry-level games, but struggles to smoothly render resource-intensive titles like Asphalt 8. But I doubt anyone would game on this device. 

Apart from that, there’s 4GB of RAM and 128GB onboard storage with microSD card support. Its 6,300 mAh battery, though, can’t go toe-to-toe with the Kindle’s month-long endurance. On a single charge, it lasts at least two weeks if I keep the brightness to the minimum, and use it for about two hours daily. It’s not compatible with fast charging and takes nearly three hours to go from zero to 100. 

Bottom line

The Onyx Boox Ultra Tab C delivers on its promises. Its color E-Ink screen is a game-changer for the e-reading experience, and the stylus turns into a dependable digital notebook. But at $600 ($666 for the keyboard bundle), it’s not affordable, and certainly can’t replace a traditional tablet as you would still need that for watching movies or playing games. So you need to have a clear idea of what you’re buying it for and for people who are just looking for a versatile reading companion and have no use for the keyboard, the $450 Boox Tab Mini C is a better deal.  

Many of the best Amazon Prime Day deals are still available this week. So if you sat on the sidelines of the online retailer's big sale, there are tons of after Prime Day discounts to be had. Beyond Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart offer epic sitewide and in-store summer sales this month. 

So if you're looking for the best deals after Prime Day deals, you have plenty of options. See our hand-picked recommended Prime Day deals still available below.

Best Prime Day 2023 deals still available — Quick links

• Amazon Devices: up to 60% off Kindle, Fire Tablet, Fire TV Stick and more
• Laptops: up to $1,000 off Windows, macOS, Chrome OS notebook PCs
• Apple: up to $400 off MacBook, iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch
• Headphones: up to $50% off AirPods, Beats, Bose, Sony & more
• Tablets: up to $200 off iPad, Galaxy Tab, Surface and more
• Phones: up to $400 off Motorola, OnePlus, Google, Samsung, Sony
• Wearables: up to $70 off Fitbit fitness and wellness trackers
• Monitors: up to $400 off Acer, Asus, Dell HP, Samsung, and more
• Anker PC accessories: up to 50% off USB-C hubs, cables, chargers
• Smart TVs: up to $1,000 off Fire TV, Hisense, LG, TCL, Samsung, Sony 

Best Prime Day deals 2023

Top deals

• Apple 15" MacBook Air M2 (512GB): $1,499 $1,399 Amazon
• Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro: $1,449 $1,249 @ Amazon
• Microsoft Surface Laptop 5: $999 $883 @ Amazon
• Apple MacBook Air M1: $999 $749 @ Amazon
• HP Envy x360 2-in-1 Laptop: $1,119 $1,019 @ Amazon
• Apple iPad 9th Gen: $329 $249 @ Amazon (via on-page coupon)

Amazon devices

Laptops

Gaming laptops

Tablets

Monitors

Headphones

Smartwatches

Phones

Gaming

Storage

TVs

It's day 2 of Amazon Prime Day 2023 and the best deals of the summer are ripe for the picking. Today us the last day to shop epic deals on must-have tech and more at amazon.com/primeday.

Save up 60% on Amazon devices including up to 50% off Amazon Fire Tablets,t, up to 50% off Kindle eReaders and up to 46% off Echo Buds. Now is a great time to also save up to 52% off gaming and streaming.

So whether you're getting an early start on back to school shopping or have your eye on a particular product, Prime Day is the way!

I've been covering daily deals for more than four years and can hand-pick the best of the bunch. Here are my recommendations for the best Prime Day deals you should snag right now. Many of which you won't see again until Black Friday. 

25 Prime Day deals I recommend

Amazon Kindle, the most widely owned e-reader in the U.S., had critical security flaws that alarmed cybersecurity investigators at Check Point Research (CPR). If exploited, cybercriminals could gain unauthorized access to users' e-readers and wreak havoc on the popular device.

Fortunately, the CPR investigators disclosed their findings to Amazon in February of this year. Two months later, the big-box retailer rolled a firmware update to patch the Kindle's concerning vulnerabilities.

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Hackers could have used Amazon Kindle exploit to steal credentials

CPR researchers discovered a security flaw in Amazon Kindle that, if exploited, gave cybercriminals a pathway into stealing users' sensitive information. To take advantage of this vulnerability, the hacker would need to successfully bait a Kindle user into downloading a malicious e-book.

"By sending Kindle users a single malicious e-book, a threat actor could have stolen any information stored on the device, from Amazon account credentials to billing information," Yaniv Balmas, head of Cyber Research at Check Point Software, said.

All the victim would need to do is open the e-book, which could spur a series of nasty events. According to the CPR report, a hacker could delete the user's e-books, steal the Amazon device token, launch an attack on other devices within the user's local network. Hell, the cybercriminal could even transform the Kindle into a "malicious bot."

What's interesting about this particular exploit is that hackers can also use it to attack specific demographics. 

"To use a random example, if a threat actor wanted to target Romanian citizens, all they would need to do is publish some free and popular e-book in the Romanian language," Balmas said.

Security holes that allow malicious actors to employ targeted attacks are highly sought after, Balmas added, especially in the cyber-espionage world. Thankfully, as mentioned, Amazon already rolled out a fix for the exploit in April.

CPR's report reminds us that even e-readers are susceptible to cybercrime. We may focus on securing our phones and laptops, but we shouldn't forget our Kindles either.

"Kindle, like other IoT devices, are often thought of as innocuous and disregarded as security risks. But our research demonstrates that any electronic device, at the end of the day, is some form of computer. And as such, these IoT devices are vulnerable to the same attacks as computers," Balmas said.

CPR is poised to discuss its findings in Las Vegas at DEF CON 2021, one of the world's largest conventions for hackers.

The FTC and tons of parents are hopping mad at Amazon for allowing millions of dollars worth of unauthorized in-app purchases to go through. The FTC even filed a complaint in a U.S. District court to say so. The federal agency is demanding the e-tailer refund parents the 30 percent of in-app purchases that it keeps (the rest goes to the app maker). 

Amazon's policy is not to give refunds, and Apple once held a similar policy. But following an FTC degree earlier this year, customers were sent directions for how to apply for a refund. Google currently allows in-app purchases by default, but we wonder how long it will be before the FTC goes after them as well. 

In March 2012, Amazon updated its in-app charge system to require a password for charges larger than $20. But it's remarkably easy to stop your kids from making any purchases. In fact, it's a simple five-step process on the Kindle Fire HDX. 

1. Slide your finger down from the top of the screen.

2. Tap Settings.

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3. Tap Parental Controls.

4. Toggle on Parental Controls. 

5. Enter your password and tap Submit. 

6. Double check that Password Protect Purchases is toggled On. 

That's it; literally five steps. This will ensure that kids can't download new apps or make in-app purchases. Among other things you can restrict in the Kindle Parental Controls section is blocking games, social sharing, Web browsing and email. 

Disable In-App Purchases on Amazon Appstore 

If you own a non-Kindle Android device and want to disable in-app purchases, here's what you need to do.

1. Open the Amazon App Store. 

2. Tap the menu button of three lines on the top left. 

3. Tap Settings.

4. Select In-App Purchasing. 

5. Uncheck the box. You'll be asked to enter your password. Then click Continue. 

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Amazon has offered budget e-readers for years, but its newest Kindle now sports a touch screen, double the on-board storage and pretty zippy performance. Plus, with Amazon's outstanding parental controls--as well as its massive library of e-books--this $79 e-reader deserves a spot on your shopping list.

Design

Click to EnlargeLacking the soft touch feel and rounded corners of the $119 Kindle Paperwhite, the $79 Kindle definitely feels cheaper than its more expensive Amazon relatives. A sizable black plastic bezel surrounds a recessed touch screen on the front, and the sides are relatively flat and unadorned. However, the slanted edges on its back make the Kindle comfortable to hold.

The only button on this e-reader is the power button on the bottom. Gone are the page-turn buttons that used to edge the sides of the Amazon Kindle; instead, you now use the touch screen to flip back and forth.

A microUSB port, used to charge the device, is the only port. There's no audio jack--no big loss--but I would have appreciated a microSD card slot for additional storage.

The 6.7 x 4.7 x 0.4-inch rectangular Kindle felt hollow. However, at 6.7 ounces, it's just a hair heavier than the 6.5 x 5 x 0.42-inch Barnes & Noble Nook GlowLight's 6.2 ounces. The 6.7 x 4.6 x 0.4-inch Paperwhite weighs 7.3 ounces.

Display

Click to EnlargeThe Kindle sports the familiar 6-inch screen common to most e-readers, but the pixels aren't quite as dense as more expensive models. Similar to every base-model Kindle since 2010, this year's model has a pixel density of 167 ppi with 16-level gray scale. By comparison, the Kindle Paperwhite and the Nook GlowLight have densities of 212 ppi.

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When viewed side by side with the Kindle Paperwhite, the same passage from Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn looked bolded on the Kindle. The Paperwhite was distinctly sharper and looked more like a paperback book than either the Kindle or the Nook GlowLight

.

The Kindle's touch screen was responsive and sensitive. In fact, in side-by-side testing with the Paperwhite and Nook GlowLight, the Kindle was faster at turning pages by a fraction of a second.

Unlike the Paperwhite and the Nook Glowlight, the Kindle lacks backlighting. In a dimly lit restaurant, the Kindle's screen was harder to read than a menu. 

Inside a book, Amazon offers the same eight font sizes and seven fonts that are available on its other e-readers. You can pick between three margins and line-spacing options, too.

User Interface

Click to EnlargeFor previous Amazon e-reader owners, the Kindle's interface will look pretty familiar, and is as easy to navigate as always. Once you swipe past the ad-based lock screen (the $99 Kindle is ad-free), the home screen displays thumbnail images of the covers of books you've recently read. The top bar has icons for home, back, shopping, search, Goodreads and settings. This navigation bar follows you into books and periodicals.

Just below, you can toggle between your Amazon library of content in the cloud or what's on the device. You can sort this content by type, title, author and most recently received. The second row of thumbnail images shows book recommendations. You can swipe across either row to advance the lists' content.

The menu button reveals options to shop, view ads, change to List View, create a content collection, check for new items, tweak the settings and open the browser. Within a book, the same menu also allows you to read book or author descriptions, switch to landscape mode, sync to the furthest page read, bookmark and open notes. Within a periodical, this bar allows you to "Clip This Article" for reading later.

The menu button also houses a couple new additions. FreeTime is Amazon's parental controls, extended even to e-readers. You can create profiles for up to four children, which allows you to block access to the Kindle store, Web browser, Wikipedia and social sharing.

Reading Experience

Click to EnlargeThere are no physical page turn buttons on the Kindle, but you can turn the pages on the device with a touch or a swipe of the screen. As with previous Amazon e-readers, however, you have to tap the correct part of the screen to get the appropriate response. The majority of a page is dedicated to paging forward; a narrow bar along the left edge flips back. Another narrow strip at the top opens the navigation window. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy enough to remember.

Vocabulary Builder not only lets you look up words, but saves them in a list for later reference.

Press and hold over a word, and a pop-up window appears with options for Dictionary, X-Ray and Wikipedia. At any point you can tap Vocabulary Builder from the menu and test yourself (or your child) with flashcards.

X-Ray, which offers a CliffsNotes-like experience of a book, is still a unique feature to Amazon. We can see how those writing college papers would appreciate knowing at a glance how often and where in a book a specific character or term might appear. For example, using X-Ray when reading Winter of the World by Ken Follett, I could easily see that mentions of Nazis dominate much of the book that covers the World War II era. 

Upcoming Features

Amazon plans to roll out an update later this fall that will add even more functionality. Word Wise is targeted at those who are learning to read, such as children and non-native English speakers. When turned on, this feature will automatically display very short and simple definitions above difficult words. You can adjust how the device determines difficulty by moving a slider.

Family Library solves one of my biggest gripes since the beginning of e-readers; how to share content across a family. Coming soon, you'll be able to link to adults' accounts. That means you'll have access to your e-books as well as your partner's.

Keyboard

As with previous generations, the on-screen keyboard of the Kindle features small square keys; tapping one causes it to blink black for a moment. The predictive typing helped compensate for errors created by my fat fingers, but the typing lag is still noticeable, so don't expect to leave detailed messages or notes. 

Kindle Content

Click to EnlargeNot only does Amazon offer millions of books, newspapers and magazines, but it's also home to a huge library of exclusive titles (600,000). Amazon has doubled the storage space on the Kindle to 4GB, which is the same as on all its other e-readers, as well as the Nook GlowLight. Of course, Amazon also offers unlimited online storage for your library.

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Among the most recent top 10 e-book fiction bestsellers, as listed by the New York Times, Amazon offers the best prices, with an average of $10. Barnes & Noble charges $10.47 and Kobo e-books will cost an average of $12.19.

Amazon also offers more than 1 million titles for $4.99 or less and millions of out-of-copyright books for free. Anyone can download and read the first chapters of a book for free via Amazon's Sample feature. But if you subscribe to the Amazon Prime membership service (a one-month free trial followed by $99 per year), you can borrow from among hundreds of thousands of e-books. You get access to only one book at a time, but there are no due dates.

With the Kindle Matchbook feature, you can purchase Kindle editions of Amazon print books you purchased as far back as 2007, for $2.99 or less. Also, Amazon now offers a Kindle First program where you can access one e-book a month ahead of its official release date. For Prime members this is free; otherwise, it costs $1.99 per month.

Amazon, like Barnes & Noble, lets users lend some Kindle books to other Kindle or Kindle app users. Eligible books -- those marked as Lending Enabled -- can be lent for up to 14 days. Recipients have seven days to accept, or the book is returned to your archives. 

Non-Kindle Content

Outside the Amazon world, the Kindle supports TXT, PDF, DOC, DOCX, MOBI, PRC and HTML formats. That means you can download any of millions of free, out-of-copyright books from such sources as archive.org. The Kindle can also read JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP image files.

Public libraries are also accessible from the new Kindle. E-books from more than 10,000 local institutions retain Kindle features such as notes and highlights. And when your e-book checkout expires, you can check it out again or buy it from the Kindle store.

Web Surfing

Click to EnlargeDespite it having been around for years, the Amazon browser on its e-readers is still considered "experimental." It requires a Wi-Fi connection and is very bare-bones. From the home page Menu button, you're presented with a page of bookmarks that includes Amazon, Google.com, Yahoo and NYTimes.com. It look 7 seconds to load Laptopmag.com, 16 seconds to load NYTimes.com and 10 seconds to load ESPN.com. We wouldn't recommend using this browser for real searches, as it was buggy, crashing twice. But, it will do if you're in a pinch and very patient.

Battery Life

According to Amazon, the Kindle should last for up to four weeks on a single charge. That's based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off. That's half the time promised by the Amazon Paperwhite and the Nook GlowLight.

Verdict

At $79, the Kindle is the least expensive of Amazon's handheld devices, but it still offers the enormous selection of content and impressive features that you'll find on any of its other e-readers. While the Kindle lacks backlighting--which will make reading in the dark practically impossible--this e-reader boasts a touch screen and speedy page turns. I wish its battery lasted longer, but overall the Kindle is a great pick for any bookworm on a budget.

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While all its other e-readers cost less than $150, Amazon is going upscale with the Kindle Voyage. This $200 device has a sleek new design, a brighter, crisper e-Ink display, and a fancy new page-turning method. Plus, it's got access to Amazon's huge library of inexpensive content. But, at $80 more than other e-readers, such as the Amazon Paperwhite, is the Voyage worth the trip?

Design

Click to EnlargeThe Amazon Kindle Voyage looks downright sexy; it's sleek, thin and lightweight. While it's a basic black rectangle with rounded corners--the same shape as the Paperwhite--a reinforced glass screen covers the front of the device, with a black bezel surrounding the E Ink screen.

Along the right and left bezels is a dot with a line beneath. These ingeniously serve as Amazon's new "physical" buttons, called PagePress, which are pressure-sensitive and also provide haptic feedback. Pressing the line will flip a book to the next page, and pressing the dot will take you back.

The rear of the Voyage is made of a single piece of magnesium for a durable and classy look. Each edge is angled up and out, reminiscent of the Amazon Fire tablet's design. The only actual button you'll see is the power button on the top right.

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The Voyage weighs just 6.3 ounces (Wi-Fi only), and measures 6.4 x 4.5 x 0.3 inches. The $119 Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (6.7 x 4.6 x 0.4 inches; 7.3 ounces) and the Nook GlowLight (6.5 x 5 x 0.42 inches; 6.2 ounces) are both bigger and heavier.

Display

Click to Enlarge Side by side, text was crisp and clear on the Voyage, and easier on the eyes than the Paperwhite or GlowLight.

But Amazon's enhancements don't stop there. The flush front glass that covers the Voyage's front is micro-etched to reduce glare and feel more like a printed page. In bright light we didn't notice many reflections.

Like the Paperwhite, the Voyage also uses Amazon's front-light technology, which lets you read in the dark. Using our lightmeter, the Voyage measured a bright 496 lux, nearly identical to the GlowLight's 490 lux, and far brighter than the Paperwhite's 333 lux. Not only was it the brightest, but of the three, the Voyage also offered the most even lighting.

The light on the Voyage isn't just bright, it's smart. In the light's controls you can set the light to auto adjust based on the ambient light around you. In my well-lit living room, it auto adjusted to 9, but when I stepped outside on a bright day, the display auto-adjusted to 16. Plus, when it's time to read in bed, the light will gradually dim itself over an hour or so, as your eyes adjust to the light and you prepare to sleep.

User Interface

Click to EnlargeThe Kindle's interface is as easy to navigate as always. The home screen lists recently viewed or downloaded titles as thumbnail images of the book covers. The top bar houses a series of icons for home, back, light, shopping, search, Goodreads and settings. This navigation bar can follow you into the content as you read it, but only as a drop-down menu when you tap the top of the page.

Just below the menu bar on the home page, you can toggle between your Amazon library of content in the cloud or what's on the device. Content can be sorted by type, title, author and most recently received. The second row of thumbnail images shows book recommendations. You can swipe across either row to advance the lists of books and magazines.

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The menu button reveals options to shop, view ads, change to List View, create a content collection, check for new items, tweak the settings and open the browser. Interestingly, you can also set to read in landscape mode, instead of portrait.

Within a book, the menu options include displaying book or author descriptions. You can sync to the furthest page read, bookmark and open notes. Within a periodical, this bar allows you to "Clip This Article" for reading later.

The menu button also houses a couple new additions. FreeTime is Amazon's parental controls, extended even to e-readers. You can create profiles for up to four children in your family, which allows you to block access to the Kindle store, Web browser, Wikipedia and social sharing.

Reading Experience

Click to EnlargeWhen viewing Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, the Voyage offered sharper text and crisper images than either the Paperwhite or the GlowLight. Page turns were instantaneous and pretty much identical to the Kindle Paperwhite.

Although I've always preferred buttons to tapping or swiping, I found PagePress easy to use. In the settings, you can manually adjust both the amount of pressure required to turn a page and the amount of haptic feedback you get from pressing. You can also turn the page by tapping or swiping on the display. It also made the e-reader comfortable to hold with one hand. Simply holding my finger over the button didn't advance the pages on accident.

Amazon also adds some unique features to enhance the reading experience on all its e-readers.

As you're reading, if you press and hold on a word, a pop-up window will appear with options for the Dictionary, X-Ray and Wikipedia. Amazon's Vocabulary Builder will remember what words you pressed, and at any point, you can look up the words and test yourself (or your child) with flashcards.

X-Ray offers a CliffsNotes-like experience of a book, letting you know at a glance how often and where in a book a specific character or term appears. For example, using X-Ray when reading  The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, I could easily see that Bilbo Baggins Esquire dominates the book, but Gollum only appears in two sections.

Upcoming Features

Amazon plans to roll out an update this fall that will add more features to this already impressive e-reader. Word Wise, designed for those who are learning to read, automatically displays very short and simple definitions above difficult words. You can adjust how the device determines the difficulty level of the words by moving a slider.

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Family Library solves one of my biggest gripes since the beginning of e-readers: the inability to easily share content across a family. Coming soon, you'll be able to link two adults' accounts. That means you'll have access to your e-books as well as your partner's.

Keyboard

Click to EnlargeThe Voyage's on-screen keyboard features small square keys. Tapping one causes it to blink black for a moment, which is a bit distracting. The predictive typing feature helped compensate for errors, but I wish the keys offered haptic feedback. The lag in keeping up with my typing is noticeable, so don't expect to compose long messages or notes.

Kindle Content

Click to EnlargeAmazon's e-book library is best-in-class. The e-tailer offers millions of books, newspapers and magazines, as well as a huge library of exclusive titles (600,000). It also offers the best prices around. Among the most recent top 10 e-book fiction bestsellers, as listed by The New York Times, Amazon charged an average of $10, compared with $10.47 for Barnes & Noble and $12.19 for Kobo e-books.

Amazon also boasts more than 1 million titles for $4.99 or less and millions of out-of-copyright books for free. Anyone can download and read the first chapters of a book for free via Amazon's Sample feature. But if you subscribe to the Amazon Prime membership service (a one-month free trial followed by $99 per year), you can borrow from among hundreds of thousands of e-books. You get access to only one book at a time, but there are no due dates.

As an avid reader, I love the Kindle Matchbook feature. Through Matchbook you can purchase Kindle editions of Amazon print books you purchased as far back as 2007, for $2.99 or less. Also, Amazon now offers a Kindle First program where you can access one e-book a month ahead of its official release date. For Prime members this is free, otherwise it costs $1.99 per month.

Like Barnes & Noble and Kobo, Amazon lets users lend some Kindle books to other Kindle or Kindle app users. Eligible books -- those marked as Lending Enabled -- can be lent for up to 14 days. Recipients have seven days to accept, or the book is returned to your archives.

Non-Kindle Content

Outside the Amazon world, the Kindle supports TXT, PDF, DOC, DOCX, MOBI, PRC and HTML formats. That means you can download millions of free, out-of-copyright books from such sources as archive.org. The Kindle can also read JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP image files.

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Public libraries are also accessible from the new Kindle. E-books from more than 10,000 local institutions retain Kindle features such as notes and highlights. And when your e-book checkout expires, you can check it out again or buy it from the Kindle store.

Browser

Click to EnlargeAmazon's experimental browser on its e-readers is still as bare-bones as ever. From the home page Menu button, you're presented with a page of bookmarks that includes Amazon, Google.com, Yahoo and NYTimes.com. It look 11 seconds to load Laptopmag.com over a Wi-Fi connection, 14 seconds to load NYTimes.com and 12 seconds to load ESPN.com. We wouldn't recommend using this browser for Web searches, as it was buggy and there were a lot of flashes on the screen.

Battery Life

The Voyage should last up to six weeks, according to Amazon. That claim is based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at a low 10. That's two weeks less than what is promised by the Amazon Paperwhite and the Nook GlowLight.

Configurations

Click to EnlargeOur review unit of the Kindle Voyage, which came with 3G built in and without ads on the lock screen, costs $269. If you can do without the ads and are happy with Wi-Fi only, you'll pay $199. That's still a pretty far cry from the Kindle Paperwhite, which costs just $119 and has many of the same features.

Bottom Line

Real bookworms know E Ink is the way to go when it comes to e-readers. And in the world of e-readers, the $199 Kindle Voyage is the best device yet. I love the glare-free, glass display, smart lighting and the PagePress page-turning buttons. For $80 less, you can pick up the Kindle Paperwhite, offers the same parental control features, and a front light for nighttime reading. But if you demand the very best reading experience and are willing to pay for it, the Voyage is simply fantastic.

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NEW YORK - Contrary to rumors to the contrary, the e reader isn't dead. Amazon heralded the arrival of the Kindle Voyage today, marking the seventh generation for the company's E Ink devices. It's thin, sports pressure-sensitive buttons and will cost you $199, which is $99 more than the company's new budget tablet. But you will be able to share a family library of books and read them in direct sunlight without issue.

During my hands-on time with the Kindle Voyage, I was struck by the sleek look of the flush glass front. The chemically treated glass front is micro-etched to offer a slightly textured surface, adding to the real-book-feel while also resisting scratches and diffusing light. The Paperwhite display offers a resolution of 300 pixels per inch, which looked very sharp. Even a graphic novel looked clear and well shaded. 

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The Voyage was effortless to read even in bright direct light, but should you take it to bed the new, brighter front light is smart enough to help you go to sleep. The adaptive light can automatically adjust the brightness based on surrounding light. And if it senses you're in the dark, it knows that the human eye adjusts to darkness over time. So the Kindle Voyage can lower its brightness over time. 

Instead of push buttons, both sides house a long line and a dot, which function as pressure-sensitive page turn buttons. These worked well, and offered a tiny pop of haptic feedback when pushed. But, while I held my hand on the button it didn't automatically jump pages by accident. The display is a touchscreen as well, so you can still tap to turn the page. 

The back of Voyage is made of a single piece of molded magnesium for a strong, but thin look. The whole device weighs just 6.4 ounces and measures 7.6mm thin, making it the thinnest and lightest Kindle yet. 

If $199 for an E Ink e reader is too rich for your blood, Amazon also took the wraps off a new $79 base model Kindle which features a touchscreen, unlike previous models. What you don't get for that price are the PagePress buttons or a Paperwhite front light. 

The base Kindle, like its more expensive cousin, will include 4GB of onboard storage and unlimited storage of books in the cloud. Amazon also announced that it will continue to offer the existing Kindle Paperwhite for $119, while also upping the amount of storage to 4GB. The inexpensive Kindle felt very similar to existing models, with a slightly indented screen and soft rubbery plastic feel. 

Battery life numbers weren't immediately available, but there's no reason to think it won't be close to the eight weeks claimed by existing Kindles. Pre-orders for all three e readers start now, and will ship in October. 

The Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Voyage will all come with the latest updates to the Amazon operating system, and existing models will get an over-the-air update. The newest features include deeper integration with Goodreads social network and a new Word Wise vocabulary tool for young readers. When you turn it on, challenging words get in-line, short definitions automatically. You can adjust this, thankfully. But, I can see how students might find them helpful, particularly when used in conjunction with the Kindle FreeTime Unlimited service that offers all-you-can-eat content including various Newberry Medal award-winning kids books. 

I was particularly excited to see the Family Library on the Kindle line. That means up to two adults and four children can share books with a simple tap. Plus, you don't have to be reading those books on a Kindle e reader; you could be reading them on an iPad through the Kindle app. 

Amazon also improved upon its X-Ray feature for books. In addition to the ability to search a book for characters or key terms seen throughout, you can now flip through a book's images in order. For those like me who pick up a book only to put it down half-read, you'll love the timeline view in X-Ray. It lets you browse through the most notable passages in the book to get you caught up. But it only shows you up to the point you've read: no spoilers. 

While the Kindle Voyage looks great, I'm hard pressed to know why I'd recommend a $199 e reader over a tablet, no matter now much I love to read. However, I am excited to see some of the features coming to the software, which makes that $79 Kindle look pretty attractive. 

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Before you donate, sell or trade-in an old Kindle Fire HDX, you'll want to make sure you've not left any personal information lurking in the tablet's memory. The best way to do that is to factory reset. However, if your tablet freezes and doesn’t respond to any screen inputs, or maybe it just seems to be running slower than normal, you may not need the nuclear option. For that a hardware reset is an often easy fix. Luckily there are just a few simple steps to accomplish either of these do-overs, without using Mayday.

How to do a hardware reset.

1. Find the power button on the back of your HDX.

2. Press and hold down the power button for 20 seconds. Ignore any onscreen prompts and after 20 seconds your screen will go black.

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3. Press the power button and power it back on, good as new.

How to reset to factory settings.

1. Swipe down from the top of the home screen to bring out the quick settings tab and tap Settings. 

2. Tap Device.

3. Tap “Reset to factory defaults”. You may want to plug in your tablet to a power source or make sure that you have a full battery to ensure it has power to complete the process. 

4. A window will appear warning you that resetting your device will erase all apps, settings and personal information. If you’re sure it’s what you want tap Reset. The HDX will shut off and turn on again on while it erases all content . The Kindle Fire logo will show while it completes the process, this may take a few minutes. When it’s finished the lock screen will appear and you’ll be ready to start fresh.

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Because we all know we can't go for long without checking our email, one of the first steps in setting up a new tablet is adding your email accounts. The high quality screen the Kindle Fire HDX can be a helpful productivity tool once you accomplish this step. Luckily setting up your email on an HDX is simple, if you know the steps to follow. 

1. Locate and tap on the email app on your Kindle Fire HDX home screen.

2. Type in your email address.

3. Type your account's password. 

 4. If your email provider requires two-step authentication, add whatever secondary password your email requires. If you don’t have two step authentication then skip this step.

Once you have completed these steps you will see your email inbox where you will be able to read, delete, archive and compose emails from your own email account.

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Setting up a second account is just as simple.

1. From your email inbox tab the three horizontal lines in the upper left hand corner to bring up the main menu.

2. Scroll down to settings and tap it.

3. Tap Add Account and begin the email setup process from above. Once this is complete you will be able to manage and send emails from multiple accounts.

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For those whose first language is not English, reading on an American Kindle Paperwhite isn't always ideal. That is, unless you know the trick to changing the default language. Amazon offers 11 options including Italian, German and even French Canadian. Here are the step-by-step instructions for how to make the switch. 

1. Tap the menu button the top right of the screen, which looks like three horizontal lines. Tap Settings. 

2. Tap the arrow next to Device Options. 

3. Tap the arrow next to Personalize Your Kindle. 

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4. Tap the arrow next to Language. 

5. Select the language you wish to change to and tap Ok. 

6. Tap OK on the next pop-up. This will cause your Kindle Paperwhite to restart. 

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Have you forgotten the password for your Amazon Kindle Paperwhite? Worried you'll never be able to access anything again? Never fear, you can reset your ereader to factory settings. But this process will delete all content you may have downloaded. You can redownload that content from Amazon's cloud, but you'll have to go through the set-up process again. Here's how to reset your Paperwhite. 

1. Tap the menu button, which looks like three horizontal lines. Then tap Settings.

2. Tap the arrow next to Registration. 

3. Tap Deregister. 

Bonus tip: You can't reset a Kindle Paperwhite if the parental controls are set up. However, you can reset your Kindle by using "111222777" as the Parental Controls password.

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The number of Goodreads users reached 20 million this year. That's huge, but the fact that the social network for readers is now integrated with the Kindle Paperwhite is even bigger. Now you can share your love of reading from the platform that's  most convenient, if you know how. Here's how to set up and use Goodreads on your Amazon Kindle Paperwhite to rate, wish for, and comment on books your reading and that your friends are reading. 

1. Tap the G in the top nav bar. 

2. Either log into your Goodreads account via Facebook, or enter your username and password. From here you're presented with your existing Goodreads account. 

3. Tap your profile picture on the top right to see your list of books. Tap the Add Amazon Books on the right to automatically add all the books you've ever bought through Amazon to your Goodreads profile. 

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4. Rate those books that were on your Amazon shelves by taping the stars on the right. This helps educate the suggestion engine on Goodreads to your tastes. 

5. Tap the word Friends from the nav bar on the top. Here you can see people you currently follow as well as see a list of suggested people to follow. 

6. Taping on a book on your shelf, or that of someone you follow pop up a separate window that allows you to rate the book or mark it as something you want to read. 

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The Kindle tablet line is already among the best options for kids, and Amazon has just upped the ante by improving its FreeTime feature. The latest update adds more educational and goal-oriented bells and whistles. Now parents will be able to set goals for their children, manage screen time even more specifically and even set a bedtime for tablet use. The update will roll out to Fire HDX and older Fire tablets over the next few weeks. 

Through FreeTime, parents will be able to set educational goals for their child before they will be able to access cartoons or games on the slate. To set it up, tap Learn First and all non-education related content will be removed from the Fire HDX's library. The educational content that is left comes from thousands of age-specific materials from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Starwalk Kids Media, The Child's World, Sleeping Bear Press, Lerner Publishing and Cherry Lake Publishing. 

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Amazon is also adding thousands of new e-books, apps, games and videos to the FreeTime Unlimited subscription service. With an Amazon Prime membership, parents can get the Unlimited content service for $2.99 per month for one child, or $6.99 for up to four children. You can also opt for a Prime-free plan that will run you $4.99 per month for one or $9.99 per month for four children.

FreeTime already let parents set up an environment on the Fire HD by setting up a list of preapproved apps, and set time limits for activities such as games, videos, reading and apps. Parents can also set up multiple profiles. For $183 (current sale price, $229 off sale) the 7-inch model is a must-buy for parents this holiday season. 

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Amazon's much-touted Goodreads integration has finally rolled out on the Kindle Fire HDX 7- and 8.9-inch tablets. Amazon bought the reader's social network earlier this year, and now the more-than-10,000-strong group can now directly connect to your Amazon library of books (both electronic and physical). Using the app, you'll be able to rate books you're reading, see what your friends are reading and share quotes and thoughts directly with your Goodreads buddies. Here's how to use Goodreads on your Kindle Fire HDX. 

1. Tap Books from the top bar of the home screen, and then tap on the tiny G on the top of the page. 

2. Tap Connect Existing Account if you're already a Goodreads user. Otherwise, tap Create New Account. 

3. Tap Log in with Facebook or manually enter your Goodreads username and password and tap Sign In. If you go through Facebook, enter your password and tap OK. 

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4. Tap Continue on the pop-up that informs you you're nearly done with the set-up process. 

5. Tap Follow next to those authors and readers that you think will fit your tastes. 

6. Browse through your news feed to see what your friends are reading and what they think of those books. 

7. Tap the menu button, indicated by three horizontal lines. Then tap "Add your Amazon books." 

7. Add your previous Amazon e-book and physical book purchases to your Goodreads bookshelves. You're options are to rate a book as read, add it to the books you want to read, or currently reading.

8. Tap OK on the pop-up that appears alerting you to the fact that you're making your books publicly visible on your Goodreads profile. Then tap Done at the bottom of the screen. 

9. Share clips from what you're reading with your Goodreads buddies from within any e-book you're reading on the Kindle Fire HDX. Simply highlight the passage you wish to share and tap the three dotted triangle symbol for Share from the pop-up bar. 

10. Write whatever pithy statement you want to share with your friends and check boxes for Facebook and Twitter if you want to send the same message simultaneously. Then tap Share. 

This should get you started with Goodreads. However, it's worth noting that you cannot download the full Goodreads app to the Kindle Fire HDX through the Amazon App Store. So, if you want to manually enter a book onto your "Want to Read" shelf you'll have to log in through the Web. 

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Sure you could get a prefab case for your Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Fire HD or Kindle Fire HDX. But the range of cases available may not truly depict your sense of style. Amazon will now let you personalize a cover for free with your own photos or by choosing from a library of images, designs or patterns. 

“With this new service, we’re making it possible for customers to dream up virtually any design and seamlessly turn it into a Kindle cover — at no additional cost,” said Peter Larsen, Vice President, Amazon Kindle in a statement.  “We’re excited to bring this all-new technology to Kindle accessories and we can’t wait to see what customers come up with.”

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While personalizing won't cost you, the case will. To get your own, visit www.amazon.com/kindlecreateyourown and then pick your device and case. Prices range from $16.99 for a Kindle Paperwhite Decal Girl skin to $49.99 for an Origami case by Amazon. The Origami cases are available for all of Amazon's devices, and feature a magnetic, folding stand for use in portrait and landscape positions. Plus, the Kindle Fire HDX magnetically attaches to the polyurethane folio. 

If you don't upload your own photo, you can select from the library that includes popular comics, movie and TV shows, Peanuts, National Geographic and Breaking Bad.

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Amazon has made a name for itself by making things easy for the consumer. The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch tablet continues that tradition by offering on-demand tech support, helpful parental controls and tons of great content. This Android-powered tablet also adds a dazzling 2560 x 1600 display that rivals the iPad Air's while costing $120 less. Find out just how much value this slate delivers overall.

Design

The shape of the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch definitely is more interesting than your average black rectangular tablet. Every edge of the HDX is angled, offering an aerodynamic look.

The only adornment on the front is the HD camera, which supports 720p recording. The thin edges are home to the microUSB port on the left and the headphone port on the right. Along the slanted, soft-touch back sides, in landscape mode, you'll find an indented power button on the left and volume buttons on the right that were easy to find by touch alone. The top edge houses Dolby speakers on each side, as well as an 8-MP camera in the middle.

At 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.31 inches, the HDX 8.9-inch is more compact than the competition, including the Apple iPad Air (9.4 x 6.6 x 0.29 inches), the Microsoft Surface 2 (10.8 x 6.8 x 0.35 inches) and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (9.57 x 6.75 x 0.31 inches). However, all of these tablets have bigger displays. Weighing just 13.3 ounces, the HDX 8.9-inch is lighter than other tablets in its class, including the 1.05-pound iPad Air. The 8-inch Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 weighs 11 ounces.

Like the iPad Air, the HDX lacks a microSD card slot, something the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 offers. However, Amazon does make a 16GB, 32GB or 64GB version of the HDX 8.9-inch.

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Display

Click to EnlargeAmazon packs the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch with a sharp 2560 x 1600-pixel, 8.9-inch display with a density of 339 pixels per inch. That beats the iPad Air's Retina Display (2048 x 1536-pixels with 264 ppi). The Galaxy Note 10.1 does match the pixels of the HDX of 2560 x 1600, but the pixel density of 300 dpi is less on Samsung's full-size tablet. The HDX display also blows away the Surface 2's 1920 x 1080.

When watching an HD trailer for "Charlie Countrymen," viewing angles on the Fire HDX 8.9-inch were excellent. The purple rims around Shia LaBeouf's drug-addled eyes were completely believable. In side-by-side viewing, Amazon's screen looked brighter than the iPad Air while watching an HD trailer for "The Avengers." However, the iPad Air's display offered warmer colors. Oddly, when watching an HD copy of "Batman: The Dark Knight" downloaded from Amazon, it looked a bit choppy.

The 440 lux and 408 nits of brightness on the Fire HDX 8.9-inch beats its competition, including the iPad Air (411 lux), the Surface 2 (357 lux) and the Note 10.1 (427 lux).

Audio

Dual speakers combined with Dolby Digital Plus technology made for some impressive audio on the HDX 8.9-inch. Due to the speakers' placement along the top slanted edge, the audio was actually amplified when we put the tablet on a table. We picked up some bass from Daft Punk's "Get Lucky," and the cowbells in One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" rang out crisp and clear, even at full volume.

On our LAPTOP Audio Test, the Fire HDX speakers pumped out audio at a loud 74 decibels. That's lower than the 83-db category average, but we had no problem filling a small room with quality sound.

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Interface

Click to EnlargeWhile Android powers the Kindle Fire HDX, Amazon has fully skinned the tablet with its own overlay, called Fire 3.0 "Mojito." The outward appearance looks very similar to last year's Kindle Fire HD, but Amazon has gone hog wild with new features.

Familiar to previous Fire owners is the carousel view of recently opened content or apps that sit at the top of the screen, just above a more traditional grid view. Yet this year Amazon has added the Quick Switch feature from within apps; with a side swipe, you can reveal a tray of open apps without going back to the home screen. The carousel view still seems a bit My First Tablet to us.

The top bar of the screen shows some basic info, such as wireless setting and battery status. Below that is a row that separates your content by type -- games, apps, books, music, videos, newsstand, audiobooks, Web, photos and docs. Naturally, you can access the Amazon store from this bar. It's an obvious and clear system of navigation that we found helpful.

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Pulling down from the top reveals some quick access settings such as brightness, auto-rotate, wireless and settings. Under Settings you can open another window to tweak everything from sounds and security to parental controls. For dedicated readers, there's a Quiet Time switch that allows you to prevent notifications from interrupting your reading time.

Click to EnlargeScreen Reader, Explore by Touch and Screen Magnifier are new accessibility features for the visually impaired. Screen Reader features Ivona's natural language text-to-speech voice. Explore by Touch describes items when you tap the screen. Screen Magnifier allows you to zoom in quickly.

Amazon isn't stopping with these enhancements. A Fire OS 3.1 update is planned for mid-November 2013, which will add Cloud Collections, Goodreads and some enterprise-level enhancements. Cloud Collections allows you to group content into like groups and then store them on Amazon's server instead of your tablet's memory. Goodreads is a social network for bookworms, which will allow members to see what friends are reading, share highlights and rate books.

Among other enterprise enhancements (such as VPN support and IT department management tools), later this year Fire HDX owners will be able to print to a wireless printer. The newer version of the Fire OS will come via a free over-the-air update.

Second Screen and Mirroring

Another part of the upcoming OS 3.1 update is Second Screen, which will enable users to share their tablet's content with select Samsung TVs, as well as the PlayStation 3 and PS4. If you don't own one of these devices, you can stream whatever is on your HDX's screen right now directly to Miracast-capable devices, such as the Netgear Push2TV Wireless Display adapter ($59).

Mayday

Click to EnlargeHere' something you won't see on other tablets: In the quick access drop-down settings menu of the Fire HDX 8.9-inch, you'll find a Mayday button for instantly getting 24/7 tech support. After hitting the button, another screen opened, offering us access to the user guide or our wireless settings. The screen also suggested we could use text chat by visiting www.amazon.com/kindlechat.

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But the big news on this screen is the prominent yellow Connect button. After tapping that, the head of Sabrina appeared nearly instantly in a small box on our screen. The live Amazon expert could access and control our tablet, which we found helpful but also somewhat intrusive. We could also manually move her head around the screen to keep her from covering important answers.

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We asked for help setting up a Kindle FreeTime, which allows you to put limits on the time your children play with the HDX. Sabrina was friendly and easy to understand. We liked that she could draw on our screen, just like a telestrator during a football game, to show us where to press on the screen. She quickly walked us through the difference between parental controls and FreeTime, as well as how to set it up.

X-Ray

Click to EnlargeAmazon has extended its X-Ray feature, previously available for books and movies, to its music store. The idea behind X-Ray is that you can obtain extra information on the media you're enjoying. For books this means getting a CliffsNotes-like look at the appearance of various characters or themes within a story, which we could see being helpful while writing a paper.

The music version of this feature is a little different. While listening to "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons, the lyrics streamed along the right side of the screen. We could navigate through the song by tapping a specific lyric. Any fan of karaoke will appreciate this addition.

Click to EnlargeX-Ray for video, which was added earlier this year, is more in-depth, as it syncs with IMDb's database. By tapping the screen while watching "Batman: The Dark Knight" we could pull up bios on the actors in any given scene. You can also get general trivia. We loved finding out who the actors are in the opening scenes of the masked men who were breaking into the bank. You can also navigate through a movie by skipping to specific songs as they play, or, of course, you can buy the music from Amazon.

FreeTime

With a nod to the fact that tablets are a family device, Amazon also has enhanced its free Kindle FreeTime feature. Parents can create profiles for different children, and hand-select what books, apps, games and videos their kids access. We especially appreciate that parents can set daily limits for tablet use, or restrict specific categories of content, such as games and movies. Children can also add their own personalization, such as changing the background color from black to blue or pink.

In FreeTime mode, children are blocked from buying new content, accessing the Web browser, sharing via Facebook or Twitter, or using any location-based services. FreeTime also requires your child to enter a password before gaining access to Wi-Fi or in-app purchases.

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Amazon also is now offering a subscription to kid-friendly content called Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. For $2.99 per month, parents can automatically provide their children safe access to age-appropriate (ages 3 to 8) books, games, apps, movies and TV shows on their own profiles. The content comes from such well-known sources as Disney, Nickelodeon, PBS and "Sesame Street."

Keyboard

Click to EnlargeThe HDX 8.9-inch sports the same gray keyboard as on the HDX 7-inch. The white letters proved responsive in our tests. The keyboard supports swipe-to-type, and we appreciated the dedicated .com button. We also liked that we could hold down the / key to separate the keyboard into a thumb-friendly format; however, you cannot swipe-to-type in this mode.

Apps

Click to EnlargeFire HDX owners will not be able to access the Google Play store, but Amazon does offer its own curated Android app store with more than 100,000 apps and games. While the selection isn't huge, we were pleased to see many solid staples such as "Angry Birds Star Wars II," Evernote, Facebook, HBO Go, Netflix and many others. However, the lack of access to Google services and apps such as Chrome and Drive was a disappointment.

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From among the top 25 free apps in the Google Play store, you'll find 17 in the Amazon app store, but among the top 25 paid apps you'll find only 13 on the Fire HDX. What you won't find on the HDX includes Snapchat, "Candy Crush Saga," Instagram and Beautiful Widgets (understandable due to the HDX's more closed interface).

Content

Click to EnlargeAmazon -- true to its bookseller roots -- offers a catalog of millions of e-book titles. The company even boasts that more than 1,700,000 titles cost less than $9.99. Of the New York Times' fiction e-books list, Amazon carried all 10, seven of which were less expensive than on the Google Play store. Amazon offers more than 20 million songs from thousands of artists, as well as a large selection of newspapers and magazines.

Click to EnlargeA huge perk for Kindle Fire HDX owners is Amazon Prime. By being a member, which costs $79 annually, you can borrow books from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for free once a month, with no due date. Plus, Prime members can stream unlimited commercial-free movies and TV shows. And for physical goods, members get free two-day shipping. Amazon is now offering a 30-day free trial to this service.

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With Amazon's new Immersion Reading, you can get even more engrossed in your next e-book. The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch can synchronize Kindle text with companion Audible audiobooks, which highlights the text as it is being read by a professional narrator. While we could see this feature being helpful for children, we're not sure what adult would want to have a book read to them as they read.

When it comes to movies and TV, Prime members get access to thousands of popular movies and TV shows such as "The Hunger Games," "Under the Dome" and "SpongeBob SquarePants." Prime Instant Video movies and shows now can even be downloaded for offline viewing.

Web Browsing

Click to EnlargeAmazon Silk is a cloud-optimized Web browser that can only be found on the Kindle Fire HDX. It also happens to be the only browser that will work on the HDX, unfortunately. Still, we found the tabbed browsing of Silk very responsive and quick. We loaded Laptopmag.com, NYTimes.com and ESPN.com in 2 to 3 seconds each over our office Wi-Fi connection. That's in part thanks to the predictive loading feature that's built into Silk, which taps into Amazon Cloud to load pages faster.

We also like the browser's features, such as Reading View, which removes images and pop-ups for a faster read. A pop-out left menu offers easy access to content types such as Most Visited, Bookmarks and Trending Now. Trending Now is neat for discovering what people across the Web are reading now. The Silk browser also lets you share pages via email, Facebook, Twitter. As you

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add apps such as Pocket, Evernote and ES File Explorer you get more options for sharing.

Performance

Click to EnlargeGenerally speaking, we found the Kindle HDX 8.9-inch very responsive. Amazon packed its new tablet with a 2.2 quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM and a 400-MHz Adreno 320 graphics chip, three times more powerful than its previous Fire HD. By comparison, the Apple iPad Air sports the A7 chip, while the Note 10.1 is powered by 1.9-GHz Samsung Exynos 5420 processor.

In our real-world testing, apps opened quickly and the slate transitioned from one app to another smoothly. "Minion Rush," a normally slow-to-open game, was ready to play in 15 seconds. "Riptide GP2" opened in just 3 seconds, while the Silk browser took only 2 seconds. Not only was gameplay smooth, but we were impressed with the realistic water effects created as the water splashed on the screen in "Riptide GP2."

With a score of 8,003 on An3DBench, the Kindle HDX 8.9-inch blows away the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014)'s score of 5,885. It also beats the 7,384 category average. However, on Quadrant, the Fire HDX's 19,047 doesn't quite catch the 19,523 from the Note 10.1.

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On Geekbench 3, the HDX 8.9-inch scored 2,609 on the multicore test. That couldn't beat the Air's 2,694, but it does beat the Note 10.1's score of 2,516 and the category average of 1,489.

On 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, which measures graphics performance, the HDX 8.9-inch showed a score of 12,786. But the iPad Air's 14,850 score, the Note 10.1's 13,539 and the Surface 2's 13,777 all beat the HDX. Amazon's tablet is still above the 5,139 average, though.

Camera

Click to EnlargeThe rear-facing 8-MP camera on the HDX took sharp and vibrant photos both indoors and out. All the cracks and crevices of a building across the street were easily visible. And each piece of our cat's fur was easily distinguished.

Click to EnlargeWhen held in landscape mode, the 720p front-facing camera sits above the HDX 8.9-inch's screen. Selfies taken in our New York City offices looked grainy and lacked definition. However, colors were fairly accurate.

We appreciate that Amazon can combine all your disparate image files into one Amazon Cloud file. By downloading the Amazon Cloud app to our PC and our Samsung Galaxy Note II, we easily synced all our pictures for seamless safe-keeping. Plus, we connected to our Facebook account to upload those pics for safe keeping.

Battery Life

Amazon claims the Kindle Fire HDX will get 12 hours of battery life. The retailer also says that when the HDX is just used for reading, it is smart enough to power down unused system components, which could extend the endurance to 18 hours. On the LAPTOP Battery Test -- continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi on 40 percent brightness-- the HDX 8.9-inch lasted an epic 13 hours and 42 minutes.

By comparison, the iPad Air lasted 11 hours and 51 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test (Web surfing via Wi-Fi). The Note 10.1 lasted 7:44; both beating the category average of 7:16.

Configurations

The low-end of the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX will cost you $379 for 16GB of storage and a Wi-Fi-only antenna. At the top end, it could cost you as much as $594 for 64GB and Wi-Fi plus LTE coverage through AT&T or Verizon. That version, of course, would require a monthly data plan as well.

Verdict

Click to EnlargeEpic battery life combined with a stunning display, helpful parental controls and instant tech support make the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch an excellent tablet for families or new tablet owners. Amazon Prime members will especially love being able to access tons of content for free. The iPad Air offers a much broader selection of tablet apps and a faster A7 chip, but for the price the $379 HDX has a lot to offer.

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With its sixth-generation Kindle e-reader, Amazon knows if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The new Kindle Paperwhite, still just $119, offers a nearly identical design and user interface as last year's model. But it has improved the backlight, lightened the device overall, and added a bunch of new reading-related features. This E Ink e-reader continues to offer a best-in-class experience that's both easy to use and easy on the eyes.

Design

The Kindle Paperwhite 2013 looks identical to the 2012 model by the same name; a black rectangle with an E Ink screen. Both offer the same dimensions of 6.7 x 4.6 x 0.4 inches, but the new model shaves off 0.5 ounces for a weight of 7.3 ounces. That's still heavier than the 6.2-ounce new Nook GlowLight.

We still like the softened edges and easy-to-hold design of the Paperwhite. The only adornment on the matte black front is a small silvery logo. The bezel and the rubbery-feeling backside remained fingerprint free.

The only button on this e-reader is the power button, inconveniently placed on the bottom. And the microUSB charging port is the only port. There is no audio jack on the Paperwhite, which is no big loss. We would have appreciated a microSD card slot for additional storage, though.

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Paperwhite Display

Click to EnlargeThe new Kindle Paperwhite features a 6-inch (1024 x 768-pixel resolution) screen with 212 ppi that displays 16 levels of grayscale. That's identical to the previous generation Paperwhite and the new Nook GlowLight.

Amazon boasts that the new Paperwhite sports a "new display technology with higher contrast and better reflectivity." The e-tailer also claims the touch screen offers 19 percent better responsiveness than the previous model.

Amazon claims that the new Paperwhite's faster processor should improve page turn speeds by 25 percent, but we didn't find that sort of delta in our testing. While opening and turning pages, the new model opened a book about a second faster than the old model, but page turns were nearly identical.

The Paperwhite also has a next-generation built-in light, according to Amazon. When viewing "The Casual Vacancy" on the new Kindle Paperwhite, old Paperwhite and new Nook GlowLight with all backlights at 100 percent, we preferred the uniform light of the new Kindle, but the Nook's type appeared slightly sharper. When viewing a picture of Kate Hudson on the Paperwhite, her skin tone looked much more natural and better defined than on the Nook GlowLight.

With an average display brightness of 333 lux, the Paperwhite's display is much dimmer than the Nook GlowLight's score of 490 lux. However, the measurements that we take -- from the middle and all four corners -- were much more uniform on the Paperwhite.

We found a medium brightness setting between 10 and 14, out of 24, seemed to work just fine in any situation. For daytime reading, we preferred the light turned off.

User Interface

Click to EnlargeAmazon's Kindle Paperwhite interface hasn't changed since last year. Once you swipe past the ad-based lock screen, the home screen still lists recent titles as thumbnail images of the book covers. The same top bar hosts a series of icons for home, back, backlight control, shopping, search and settings. This navigation bar follows you into books and periodicals, where only the drop-down menu that pops out of the three horizontal lines may change.

Just below, you can toggle between your Amazon library of content in the cloud or on the device. You can sort this content by type, title, author and most recently received. The second row of thumbnail images shows best-selling book recommendations. You can swipe across either row to advance your way through your content.

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The menu button reveals options to shop, view ads, change to List View, create a content collection, check for new items, tweak the settings and open the browser. Within a book, the same menu also allows you to read book or author descriptions, switch to landscape mode, sync to the furthest page read, bookmark and open notes. Within a periodical, this bar allows you to "Clip This Article" for reading later.

Reading Experience

Click to EnlargeWhile there are no physical page turn buttons on the Kindle Paperwhite (a feature we would have appreciated), you can turn the pages on the device with a touch or a swipe. But for simple touches, you'll have to tap the correct part of the screen to get the appropriate response. The majority of a page is dedicated to flipping forward. A narrow bar along the left edge is for flipping back, and a similarly narrow strip at the top brings up the navigation window. Once we got the hang of it, it was easy enough to remember. Page turns were nearly instantaneous, but when opening a book or magazine for the first time, we noticed a delay of a second or two.

Instead of futzing with the design or user interface, Amazon's main innovations in this year's Paperwhite are in the reading experience itself. With Kindle Page Flip, for instance, you can read page-by-page, scan by chapter, or even just skip to the end of the book without losing your place. This is particularly helpful for books with maps or genealogy trees that you want to repeatedly reference while reading. The map of Beyond the Wall in "A Dance with Dragons" is one such instance where this is helpful.

Just as with the previous generation of Kindle, once inside a book you can access a row of settings that include font options, a menu for jumping to a specific spot in a book, the Amazon X-Ray feature and a button to Share. There are still eight font sizes and six font choices. We appreciated the ability to customize three line spacings and three margins.

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Click to EnlargeX-Ray, which offers a CliffsNotes-like experience of a book, is still a unique feature to Amazon. We can see how those writing college papers would appreciate knowing at a glance how often and where in a book a specific character or term might appear. From within X-Ray of "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn, we could easily see that Amy Elliott Dunne is the main character and that New York would be a recurring term within the book.

Taking the academic angle even further, Amazon has added a vocabulary builder that lets you create a list of flashcards for yourself based on words you look up. Plus, In-Line Footnotes instantly brings up footnotes without losing your place in an e-book.

Keyboard

The on-screen keyboard of the Kindle Paperwhite features small square keys. Tapping one causes it to blink black for a moment. There is now predictive typing, which helped compensate for errors created when our fat fingers mistakenly pressed adjacent keys. The device is just a smidgen too large for one-handed typing. The typing lag is significantly reduced compared to the previous generation Paperwhite, but is still noticeable.

Kindle Books, Newspapers and Magazines

Click to EnlargeNot only does Amazon offer millions of books, newspapers and magazines, it has been rolling out more and more exclusive titles, which now number about 400,000, up from 180,000 last year. With 2GB of storage space, you should be able to hold about 1,100 e-books at any given time. By comparison, the Nook GlowLight offers 4GB of storage.

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Amazon also offers great deals on content, boasting of more than 1.7 million titles for $9.99 or less and millions of out-of-copyright books for free. Anyone can download and read the first chapters of a book for free via Amazon's Sample feature. But if you subscribe to the Amazon Prime membership service (a one-month free trial followed by $79 per year), you can borrow from among 180,000 e-books. You get access to only one book at a time, but there are no due dates. Some big-name options include the "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins and the James Bond series by Ian Fleming. Plus, with the new Kindle Matchbook feature, customers can purchase Kindle editions of print books they purchased recently or as far back as 2007, for $2.99 or less.

Click to EnlargeAmazon, like Barnes & Noble, lets users lend some Kindle books to other Kindle or Kindle app users. Eligible books -- those marked as Lending Enabled -- can be lent for up to 14 days. Recipients have seven days to accept, or the book is returned to your archives.

Kindle Paperwhite owners can subscribe to 172 newspapers worldwide, including USA Today and the The Boston Globe, starting around $5.99 per month. Magazine subscriptions for 172 titles, such as Shape and The Smithsonian, start around $1. Barnes & Noble offers 2,082 magazines and 515 newspapers.

Non-Kindle Content

Outside the Amazon ecosystem, the Kindle supports PDF, unprotected MOBI and PRC eBook formats. That means you can download any of millions of free, out-of-copyright books from such sources as archive.org. You can add DOC/DOCX, PDF, TXT, HTML, JPEG, GIF and PNG files to your Kindle as well.

Public libraries are also accessible from the new Kindle Paperwhite. E-books from more than 10,000 local institutions retain Kindle features such as notes and highlights. And when your e-book checkout expires, you can check it out again or buy it from the Kindle store.

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While Amazon's "Active Content" (the company's euphemism for e-reader-friendly apps) is still discoverable in search, it is not immediately played up in the store. You can keep to-do lists, check the weather or play Sudoku on your Paperwhite. While it is diverting for a few moments, we'd much rather play "Candy Crush Saga" on our phone.

Notes and Sharing

Click to EnlargeCreating notes on the Kindle Paperwhite is as easy as pressing and holding your finger on a word in the text of a book. A pop-up menu appears with options to Share, Add Note, Highlight and More. Tapping More opens another pop-up, which will take you to Wikipedia, translate a passage into one of 16 languages, or let you report a content error to Amazon (typos, formatting, images, etc.).

Click to EnlargeUsing the Share feature automatically generates a text box where you can add a message about what you're reading. Amazon will attach a link to the book you're reading and post the message to Facebook and/or Twitter. On the final page of an e-book, the Kindle will prompt you to rate a book and to share your thoughts via social networking. However, if someone responds, you won't be able to see it in the book.

But possibly our favorite innovation to the Kindle hasn't yet been deployed to the new Paperwhite. Goodreads, the world's largest e-reading community, will come to Kindles everywhere via an over-the-air-rollout in the next couple of months. That means avid readers can connect with more than 20 million other readers to see what they are reading, sharing and highlighting.

Web Surfing

Click to EnlargeWe were unsurprised to find that Amazon still labels its Paperwhite browser as "experimental." It requires a Wi-Fi connection and is as bare bones as it gets, but we did notice it seemed to load pages faster than in previous models. When you open it from the home page Menu button, you're presented with a page of bookmarks that includes Amazon, Google.com, Gmail and NYTimes.com. It took us 5 seconds to load Laptopmag.com and ESPN loaded in 8 seconds. Thankfully, we could pinch to zoom in on the page, otherwise all links were far too small to tap. Unfortunately , videos would not load. Images, however, appeared crisp and detailed.

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Parental Controls

Another feature that Amazon plans to add via an over-the-air rollout is Kindle FreeTime. Currently found on Kindle Fire tablets, FreeTime will give Paperwhite parents the ability to hand-select books that are appropriate for their children's age range. Parents will also be able to hand out achievement badges, thanks to a built-in progress report that keeps parents updated on total time spent reading, number of words looked up, and books finished.

The Kindle Paperwhite already has a few parental controls, which include access to the browser, the store and your Amazon content stored in the Cloud. When the Kindle Store is locked you can still buy books on Amazon.com and have them delivered to your device.

Options and Accessories

Click to EnlargeUnique among its e-reader competition, Amazon offers free 3G connectivity with the Kindle Paperwhite. However, without this feature, the Paperwhite costs $119, so you could argue that $60 is the price of 3G worldwide for life via HSDPA with fallback support for EDGE/GPRS . Both Paperwhite versions offer 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi access.

Amazon sells a host of cases for the Kindle Paperwhite, including the $39.99 leather cover with magnetic closure that activates the device's automatic wake-from-sleep feature. No wall-socket power adapter comes with the Kindle Paperwhite, but you can pick one up at Amazon.com for $19.99.

Battery Life

According to Amazon, the Kindle Paperwhite should last for up to 8 weeks on a single charge. That's based on a half-hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light set to 10. That's pretty much identical to the promises made by Barnes & Noble about the Nook GlowLight.

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During a day of regular use, with the light at 14 and Wi-Fi on, we saw about a 15 percent dip in the battery life.

Verdict

Click to EnlargeThe revamped Kindle Paperwhite E Ink e-reader maintains its compact and lightweight design while adding some useful features such as parental controls and a vocabulary builder. We're also excited by the social features that will come with the Goodreads roll-out. Plus, if you're an Amazon Prime member, you'll be hard pressed to find a better deal on e-books. While the Barnes & Noble Nook GlowLight weighs less and offers a brighter backlight, for our money the Paperwhite 2013 is still the king of e-readers.

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Frequent fliers aren’t the only ones excited about the FAA’s new ruling. Amazon has just announced new discounts on its Kindle Fire HDX, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle devices in honor of the FAA’s recent ruling concerning in-flight electronics.

Valid Nov. 4 only, the e-reader giant is selling the new Kindle Fire HDX 7 for $195 marked down from $229. The Kindle Fire HD 7 is also getting a 15 percent discount, bringing its cost down to $118 from $199. The basic $69 Kindle e-reader now costs $59 as opposed to $69.

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The promotion is in celebration of the FAA’s decision to greenlight portable electronics during takeoff and landing on flights. Individual airlines will still have to approve the use of mobile devices gate-to-gate, but the FAA expects this to happen before the end of 2013. JetBlue and Delta are among the first airlines to begin easing up on restrictions concerning electronics on airlines.

“We’ve been fighting for our customers on this issue for years, and we are thrilled by the FAA’s recent decision-- this is a big win for customers,” Drew Herdener, vice president of Amazon, said in a statement.

The Kindle Fire HDX 7, announced in September, is Amazon’s newest tablet to hit the market. An upgrade from the Kindle Fire HD 7 predecessor, the new slate features a roaring Snapdragon 800 processor, a 7-inch 1920 x 1200 display, and comes with Amazons new Mayday feature for around-the-clock tech support. It’s equipped to give 7-inch tablets such as Google’s Nexus 7 and Apple’s new iPad Mini with Retina display some stiff competition.

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Starting today, customers who have bought new physical books from Amazon have the option to get the Kindle e-book version of that same book for $2.99, $1.99, $0.99 or for free. Called Kindle MatchBook, the service spans more than 70,000 titles, with more being added every day. Titles such as "Life of Pi", "Johnny Carson," The Alchemist" and the all-new "X-Men Vol. 1" are already enrolled in the service.

Kindle MatchBook users can get digital copies of their hard copy books all the way back to 1995, when Amazon first opened its online bookstore. Users just have to look up titles on Kindle MatchBook to see if it's available for download. You can view your complete print book purchase history from Amazon.com to see which of those books are ready to download. Publishers can enroll their existing books via Amazon, but aspiring authors can also create books for MatchBook via CreateSpace.com for free. 

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These electronic books can be read on Kindle e-readers or tablets, or via iOS and Android devices that have the Kindle reading app loaded. Matchbook versions will come with the standard Kindle book features, including Whispersync, Popular Highlights and X-Ray. Whispersync saves your progress in a book across all your devices while Popular Highlights identify the passages that have been highlighted the most by Kindle users. X-Ray gives you a Cliff-Notes like look at a book separated by such filters as Page, Chapter, Book or a name or specific term so you can see how often and where that word appears in the book.

Anecdotally speaking, of 56 hard back book purchases we've made through Amazon.com since 1999, only three are available for the Matchbook program.

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There are lots of 7-inch Android tablets, but two stand above the rest: Google's Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. Both devices start at $229, and both feature sharp, full-1080p displays. Plus, both tablets earned Editors' Choice awards. So how is one to choose? 

To crown a 7-inch slate champ, we put the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HDX head-to-head — comparing design, display, audio quality, parental controls, interface, apps, content, camera, performance and secret weapons — to help you make the right choice.

Design

At 7.9 x 4.5 x 0.34 inches and 10.24 ounces, the new Nexus 7 is narrow and slim. Its simple, rectangular shape makes it very easy to hold one-handed in portrait mode. Measuring 7.3 x 5 x 0.35 inches and weighing 10.7 ounces, the HDX is heavier and thicker, but its angular design is fairly comfortable to hold in landscape mode.

Both devices sport soft-touch backsides with physical power and volume buttons, but Amazon places its buttons on the back, which makes them harder to access.

Winner: Nexus 7. The Nexus 7 is lighter and thinner, and its physical buttons are on the edge instead of on the back.

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Display

Both the Kindle Fire HDX and the Nexus 7 sport 1920 x 1200-pixel, 7-inch displays. The Nexus 7 offers a little more protection against the occasional drop, thanks to its Gorilla Glass treatment. When we measured the brightness of the two tablets, the Nexus 7's score of 531 lux beat the Fire HDX's 480 lux. However, the Fire HDX's screen looked better in our side-by-side comparison.

When we watched a 1080p trailer for "Thor," everything looked richer on the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. The gold on Loki's jacket glinted in the sun with near perfect clarity, and Natalie Portman's skin looked flawless on Amazon's tablet. The Nexus 7's panel looked blue, muddy and darker by comparison. We noticed the same quality difference when viewing photos and websites.

Winner: Kindle Fire HDX. While the Nexus 7's screen shines brighter, we prefer the color and image quality offered by Amazon's tablet.

Audio

Both the Kindle Fire HDX and Nexus 7 offer stereo speakers. The two speakers on Google's slate line the left and right edges when held in landscape mode. This placement can lead your hands to either muffle the sound or amplify it, if your hand is cupped. On the other hand, the Kindle Fire HDX offers two Dolby-boosted speakers lining both sides of the top. When laid flat, the slant on the top edge of the Fire HDX actually served to amplify the sound.

Sinead O'Connor's voice on "Daddy I'm Fine" sounded fuller and deeper on the Dolby Plus-powered Fire HDX. The drums even sounded crisp. On the Nexus 7, the same song sounded flat and distant. Similarly, Sacha Baron Cohen's voice of King Julian XIII on "I Like to Move It" sounded as if it were coming to us from underwater.

On our LAPTOP Audio Test, the Fire HDX speakers pumped out audio at a loud 77 decibels. We had no problem filling a small room with quality sound. The Nexus 7 registered just 73 decibels.

Winner: Kindle Fire HDX. Amazon's tablet consistently delivered louder and crisper sound.

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Interface

Android users will feel right at home with the Nexus 7, as it runs a pure version of Google's operating system. It's also the first device to run Android 4.3. You're still presented with the same lock screen as that offered by Jelly Bean 4.2, which means you can unlock the Nexus 7 to the home screen or directly to Google Now, but not to the camera or app of your choice. We love that the look and feel of Android can be customized. Everything from widgets to wallpapers can add personalization to your tablet.

On the other hand, the Kindle Fire HDX is the first device to run Fire OS 3.0 Mojito. The look and feel of the interface are very similar to those on the previous generation of Kindle Fires. While the OS is based on Android, the Amazon skin is very different. We're not big fans of the carousel of recently opened apps that sits at the top, nor the overly large icons. The aesthetic screams "newbie," but first-time tablet owners may appreciate it.

However, we are fans of the new app tray that pops out of the right side of any open app. This makes it easier to go from app to app without returning to the home screen.

Winner: Nexus 7. The customization options and pure form of Android are easier to use and navigate, especially for Android phone owners.

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Parental Controls

While multiuser support was available on Android 4.2, on the Android 4.3-powered Nexus 7, this feature now includes the ability to set specific limitations for each profile. For example, when we created a restricted profile for little Bobby, we could specify which apps he could access. By default, all are turned off. Some apps, such as Email and Gmail, are not supported in this mode. And a few apps, such as Google Movies & TV, allow you to set more restrictions on app access. In that specific example, you can allow all movies that are not rated NC-17 or TV shows that are not rated MA. Or, you can disallow access to the app altogether.

Amazon's parental controls are much more robust. The Kindle FreeTime feature lets parents create profiles for different children and hand select what books, apps, games and videos their kids can access. We especially appreciate that parents can set daily limits for tablet use, or restrict specific categories of content, such as games and movies. Children can also add their own personalization by customizing things like the background color.

In FreeTime mode, children are blocked from buying new content, accessing the Web browser, sharing via Facebook or Twitter, or using any location-based services. FreeTime also requires that your child enter a password before gaining access to Wi-Fi or in-app purchases.

Amazon is now offering a subscription to kid-friendly content called Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. For $2.99 per month, parents can automatically provide their children safe access to age-appropriate (ages 3 to 8) books, games, apps, movies and TV shows on their own profiles. The content comes from such well-known sources as Disney, Nickelodeon and PBS.

Winner: Kindle Fire HDX. Amazon simply offers parents more control over what their children are allowed to use and for how long.

Apps

Kindle Fire HDX owners will not be able to access the Google Play store, but Amazon does offer its own curated Android app store with more than 100,000 apps and games. While the selection isn't huge, there are some solid staples, such as "Angry Birds Star Wars II," Evernote, Facebook, HBO Go, Netflix and many others. However, the lack of access to Google services and apps — such as Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Drive — is a big drawback.

The Nexus 7 accesses all 900,000-plus Google Play store apps. But it's worth noting that a small portion of these choices are optimized for tablet use. All Kindle Fire apps are intended for use on a tablet.

Of the top 25 free apps in the Google Play store, you'll find 17 in the Amazon app store. Of the top 25 paid apps, you'll find only 13 for the Fire HDX. Apps you won't find for the HDX include Snapchat, "Candy Crush Saga," Instagram and Beautiful Widgets.

Winner: Nexus 7. The tablet not only taps into Google's plethora of services but many more third-party apps.

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Content

Both the Google Play store and the Amazon store offer their own catalogs of books, movies, TV shows and music. However, not all stores are created equal.

As you'd expect from a bookseller, Amazon's e-book titles number in the millions, but Google claims to have the largest library in the world. We suspect this is due to the number of free, public-domain books available to Google. We checked both stores against The New York Times' fiction e-books list. Amazon carried all 10, seven of which were less expensive than in the Google Play store. The Play store only carried nine of the 10, and a couple cost more than $2 more than they did in the Amazon store.

Both stores offer millions of songs, and when we looked for Billboard's top 10, we found all 10 in both stores for $1.29 each.

Based on the top 10 best-selling DVDs of the year, we found Amazon had an edge. We couldn't find "Rise of the Guardians" for rent or purchase on Amazon, but we couldn't find "Les Misérables" on Google Play. What we did find was that in several instances, Amazon offered both high- and low-resolution versions of movies for purchase or for rent. The only rentable option for the Nexus 7 among those top 10 movies was "Twilight: Breaking Dawn," but there was no option to buy that movie via Google. Amazon offered both a rent and buy option for that film.

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A huge perk for Kindle Fire HDX owners is Amazon Prime. By being a member, which costs $79 annually, you can borrow books from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for free once a month, with no due date. Plus, Prime members can stream unlimited commercial-free movies and TV shows. And for physical goods, members get free two-day shipping. Amazon is now offering a 30-day free trial of this service.

When it comes to movies and TV, Prime members get access to thousands of popular movies and TV shows, such as "The Hunger Games," "Under the Dome" and "SpongeBob SquarePants." Prime Instant Video movies and shows now can even be downloaded for offline viewing.

Winner: Kindle Fire HDX. The Kindle offers a better content selection and better prices for media, plus gobs of free content for Prime members.

Performance

Packing a 1.5-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2GB of RAM and a 400-MHz Adreno 320 GPU, the new Nexus 7 offers impressive performance. But the Fire HDX has even more horsepower, thanks to its 2.2-GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 with 2GB of RAM and the same GPU. 

On Quadrant, which measures overall performance, the new Nexus 7's score of 4,949 was a far cry from the Fire HDX's 19,924.

Similarly, the Fire HDX obliterated the AnTuTu average of 7,491 by scoring a mind-boggling 32,835. AnTuTu measures memory, CPU, graphics, SD Card read/write and database I/O performance. In comparison, the Nexus 7 scored 19,572.

In the same vein, the Fire HDX scored 16,201 on 3DMark Unlimited, which measures graphics performance, while the Nexus 7 scored just 10,624. The category average is 5,804.

In real-world performance, we opened "Despicable Me: Minion Rush" in 28 seconds on the Fire HDX, and the Nexus 7 took 30 seconds. The Fire HDX also switches orientation a hair faster than Google's 7-inch tablet. Both tablets instantly close and return to the home screen and flip through screens smoothly.

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We played "Riptide GP2" on both tablets, and they each offered enhanced water effects. "Minion Rush" gameplay was equally smooth on both tablets.

We also measured how long it took the two tablets to convert a 204MB 1080p .MOV file to 480p using VidTrim. The Kindle Fire HDX required only 4 minutes and 42 seconds. The Nexus 7, on the other hand, took a relatively lengthy 6:42. They both still beat the 10:58 category average.

Winner: Kindle Fire HDX. Amazon has the edge because of the HDX's higher-octane CPU.

Camera

The new Nexus 7 has a rear 5-MP camera to go along with the front 1.2-MP shooter. A picture of a cat captured indoors with the back camera offered a fair amount of clarity, but its orange fur looked almost yellow in places. However, a 1080p video shot outside a passing car looked colorful, crisp and smooth. A still taken with the front camera looked washed-out and lacked detail.

The camera app on the Nexus 7 offers minimal settings, but we love the Photo Sphere feature, which takes Panorama mode to a new level. You can take a hemispherical image in a few easy steps. We were very impressed with how quickly the Nexus 7 stitched the shots together — usually no more than 15 to 20 seconds. From the tablet, you can also add filters or frames, crop, or correct for contrast, sharpness or saturation.

The Kindle Fire HDX lacks a back camera, and the front camera shoots 720p. Selfies taken in our New York City offices looked grainy and lacked definition. A shot of our cat was equally awful.

The Photo app lets you do all sorts of fun things after you shoot. There are filters and exposure-correction options, and you can also create a meme, add text to pictures, add stickers, and even correct red eye. We can see how storing Facebook pics or other photos in Amazon's Cloud Drive would be useful, because you can edit your pics on the Fire HDX. 

Winner: Nexus 7. It is neat that you can so extensively edit photos on the Kindle Fire HDX, but only the Nexus 7 has a back camera.

Battery Life

Amazon claims that the Kindle Fire HDX will get 11 hours of battery life during mixed use. The company also says that when the HDX is just used for reading, it is smart enough to power down unused system components, which could extend its endurance to 17 hours. 

On the LAPTOP Battery Test (Web surfing via Wi-Fi), the HDX lasted 8 hours and 32 minutes. That’s nearly identical to the Nexus 7 (8:31) and about 1 hour and 20 minutes longer than the category average (7:07).

Winner: Tie. With scores that close, it's impossible to call a winner in this round.

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Special Features

Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX offers quite a few features that you won't find elsewhere. In the drop-down settings menu of the Fire HDX, a Mayday button provides instant access to 24/7 live tech support. After pressing a prominent Connect button, a support specialist named Jace appeared nearly instantly in a small box on our screen. He could access and control our tablet, which we found helpful. We could also manually move Jace's head around the screen to keep him from covering important answers.

Jace was friendly and helped us set up a user profile in FreeTime. The whole call took less than 4 minutes. Some people may find this feature intrusive, but it's comforting to know the tech support agent can't see you.

Within its media section, Amazon offers another secret weapon: the X-Ray feature. X-Ray was previously available for books and movies, but with Fire OS 3.0, Amazon extended the functionality to its music store. The idea behind X-Ray is that you can get extra information on the media you're enjoying. For books, this means getting a CliffNotes-like look at the appearance of various characters or themes within a story — a tool that could be helpful for writing a paper.

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The music version of this feature is different. When we listened to "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons, the lyrics streamed along the right side of the screen. Any fan of karaoke will appreciate this addition. X-Ray for video, on the other hand, syncs with IMDb's database. By tapping the screen while watching "Django Unchained," we pulled up bios on the actors in any given scene. Other fun features include general trivia and the ability to navigate flicks by skipping to various songs played during the movie. (Yes, you can buy the tracks through Amazon.)

Amazon has added another reader-friendly feature: Immersion Reading. The Kindle Fire HDX can synchronize Kindle text with companion Audible audiobooks, highlighting the text as it is read by a professional narrator. While we could see this feature being helpful for children, we're not sure who would want to have a book read to them as they read.

The Nexus 7 also has some cool tricks up its sleeve. Google Now is a powerful tool that Amazon doesn't offer on its tablet. Among other things, Google Now can tell you sports scores and the weather forecast, offer directions, set reminders, show your calendar, translate words and help with currency conversion. 

You access Google Now by dragging your finger up through the Home button toward the bottom of the screen. Simply say "Google," or touch the microphone icon, to activate the voice recognition. We found the voice-recognition flawless and smart. For example, when we asked, "How did the Giants do?" followed by "How about the Jets?", we got the most recent score for the latter team.

Google Now can also anticipate what you need to do and present relevant information. For example, it can show you how long it will take to get the next meeting in your calendar. Google Now can also provide your flight status, remind you of dinner reservations and give you the scoop on local attractions.

Built into the hardware of the Nexus 7 is another hidden feature: an NFC radio. That means you can use Android Beam to wirelessly beam a Web page, a video or other content from your screen to another device by bringing the devices together (typically back-to-back).

Winner: Draw. The Fire HDX's Mayday is a killer feature for anyone who needs tech support. That, coupled with X-Ray and Immersion Reading, makes this an excellent content-consumption device. However, Google Now is a handy tool we see Nexus 7 owners using more often.

Overall Winner: Amazon Kindle Fire HDX

In a very close battle, the Kindle Fire HDX wins this face-off 7 rounds to 6. The HDX is the ultimate content-consumption tablet, offering a better HD display, crisper audio, and a more robust selection of video, music and books. HDX buyers will also appreciate the excellent parental controls and Mayday feature for quick access to tech support right on the device. Amazon's tablet has the speed advantage, too, thanks to its Snapdragon 800 processor. 

However, Google's tablet benefits from a thinner and lighter design, an interface that's more familiar to Android phone owners, and a back camera. Plus, Google Now puts tons of useful information at your fingertips. The Nexus 7's biggest advantage is its wider array of apps in the Google Play store and access to Google apps such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, YouTube and others the Kindle HDX lacks.

It all comes down to what you're looking for in a 7-inch slate. If you want the most apps, the Nexus 7 is the device to get. But the HDX is the better pick for parents, tablet newbies and (if you're an Amazon Prime member) those who want to enjoy a wealth of free content.

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Meme's are all the rage, particularly when it comes to social media. Entire websites have been based on funny pictures matched up with clever text. And now the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX makes it easy to get in on the craze, that is, if you know how. Follow these step-by-step instructions to make your own. 

1. Open the Camera app or go to your Photos from the top right bar menu. 

2. Select the photo you want to start with. These images can come from the device's camera, Amazon's Cloud Drive or you can side load a pic from your home PC or phone. 

3. Tap the three vertical dots on the top right of the picture. 

4. Tap Edit in the drop down menu. 

5. Select the cat icon that says Meme beneath it. 

6. Tap the box immediately below the picture that says Edit Top Text. 

7. Use the keyboard to type your message and tap Done. 

8. Use the keyboard to type the text you want on the bottom line and tap Done. 

9. Review your work and tap Apply on the top right corner. 

10. Tap Done in the top right corner. 

11. Tap the Share button on the top right corner of the screen, which looks like three circles. You'll want to do this because Meme-style pictures are intended to be shared.

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12. Select the type of social network you want to share it on. In this case, we used Twitter. 

13. Type in your message that goes with your newly made picture and press post. 

Now to whole world can share your funny. 

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Amazon's Kindle Fire line has always been about putting gobs of great content at your fingertips, and now you can add tech help to that list. For the first time on any tablet, the Kindle Fire HDX provides guidance from a live adviser with the tap of a button. This 7-inch Android slate has a lot more going for it, including a sleeker new design, superfast Snapdragon 800 processor and superior full-HD display. After spending some quality time with the HDX, it's easy to see why Amazon has done enough to make this one of the very best 7-inch tablets.

Design

The shape of the Kindle Fire HDX definitely is more interesting than your average black rectangular tablet. Unlike the Kindle Fire HD -- which has soft, rounded corners -- every edge of the HDX is angled, offering an aerodynamic aesthetic look.

The only adornment on the front is the HD camera, which supports 720p recording. The thin edges are home to the microUSB port on the left and the headphone port on the right. Along the slanted, soft-touch back sides, in landscape mode, you'll find an indented power button on the left, and volume buttons on the right, that are easy to find by touch alone. The top edge houses Dolby speakers on each side.

At 7.3 x 5 x 0.35 inches, the HDX is shorter than the competition, including the Nexus 7 (7.9 x 4.5 x 0.34 inches), the Hisense Sero 7 Pro (7.9 x 5 x 0.4 inches) and the ASUS Memo Pad HD 7 (7.7 x 4.7 x 0.4 inches). Weighing just 10.7 ounces, the HDX is lighter than the 12.7-ounce Hisense and 11-ounce ASUS. But Amazon's tablet is a tad heavier than the 10.34-ounce Nexus 7.

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Like the Nexus 7, the HDX lacks a microSD card slot, something both the Sero 7 Pro and Memo Pad HD 7 offer. However, Amazon does make 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions of the HDX. In our 16GB review unit, 10.71GB was available for use.

Display

Click to EnlargeAmazon packs the Kindle Fire HDX with a 1920 x 1200-pixel, 7-inch display with a density of 323 pixels per inch. That matches the Nexus 7's screen, but blows away the Memo Pad HD 7's and Sero 8 Pro's 1280 x 800p panels.

When we watched a trailer for "Thor," viewing angles on the Fire HDX were excellent. Colors popped, as the hammer-wielding god's cape flapped and Loki's wicked smile shined with pure malice. In side-by-side viewing, Amazon's tablet beat Google's and Hisense's in clarity, color and contrast.

The Nexus 7 offers the brightest screen among its competition, with a lux rating of 531. But the 480 lux on the Fire HDX is still significantly brighter than the category average of 368 lux, as well as the Memo Pad HD 7 (358) and Sero 7 Pro (369).

Audio

Dual speakers, combined with Dolby Digital Plus technology, made for some impressive audio on the HDX. Due to the speakers' placement along the top slanted edge, the audio was actually amplified when we put the tablet on a table. We picked up some bass from Daft Punk's "Get Lucky," and the cowbells in One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" rang out crisp and clear, even at full volume. Plus, Loki's voice in the trailer for "Thor" gave us goose bumps.

On our LAPTOP Audio Test, the Fire HDX speakers pumped out audio at a loud 77 decibels. That's lower than the 83-db category average, but we had no problem filling a small room with quality sound. The Nexus 7, by comparison, offered up just 73 decibels.

Interface

Click to EnlargeWhile Android powers the Kindle Fire HDX, Amazon has fully skinned the tablet with its own overlay, called Fire 3.0 "Mojito." The outward appearance looks very similar to last year's Kindle Fire HD, but Amazon has gone hog wild with features.

Familiar to previous Fire owners is the carousel view of recently opened content or apps that sits at the top of the screen, just above a more traditional grid view. But this year, Amazon has added the Quick Switch feature from within apps; with a side swipe, you can reveal a tray of open apps without going back to the home screen. The carousel view still seems a bit My First Tablet to us.

The top bar of the screen shows some basic info, such as wireless setting and battery status. Below that is a row that separates your content by type -- games, apps, books, music, videos, newsstand, audiobooks, Web, photos and docs. Naturally, you can access the Amazon store from this bar. It's an obvious and clear system of navigation that we found helpful.

Click to EnlargePulling down from the top reveals some quick access settings, such as brightness, auto-rotate, wireless and settings. Under settings, you can open another window to tweak everything from sounds and security to parental controls. For dedicated readers, there's a Quiet Time switch that allows you to prevent notifications from interrupting your reading time.

Screen Reader, Explore by Touch and Screen Magnifier are new accessibility features for the visually impaired. Screen Reader features Ivona's natural language text-to-speech voice. Explore by Touch describes items when you tap the screen. Screen Magnifier allows you to zoom in quickly.

Amazon isn't stopping with these enhancements. A Fire OS 3.1 update is planned for mid-November, and will add Cloud Collections, Goodreads and some enterprise-level enhancements. Cloud Collections allows you to group similar content and then store it on Amazon's server instead of your tablet's memory. Goodreads is a social network for bookworms that will allow members to see what their friends are reading, share highlights and rate books.

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Among other enterprise enhancements (such as VPN support and IT-department management tools), later this year, Fire HDX owners will be able to print to a wireless printer. The newer version of the Fire OS will come via a free over-the-air update.

Second Screen and Mirroring

Another part of the upcoming OS 3.1 update is Second Screen, which will enable users to share their tablet's content with select Samsung TVs, as well as the PlayStation 3 and PS4. If you don't own one of these devices, you can stream whatever is on your HDX's screen right now directly to Miracast-capable devices, such as the Netgear Push2TV Wireless Display adapter ($59).

Mayday

Click to EnlargeHere's something you won't find on other tablets. In the quick-access drop-down settings menu of the Fire HDX, you'll find a Mayday button for instantly getting 24/7 tech support. After we hit the button, another screen opened, offering us access to the user guide or our wireless settings. The screen also told us we could use text chat by visiting www.amazon.com/kindlechat.

Click to EnlargeBut the big news on this screen is the prominent yellow Connect button. After tapping that button, the head of tech support specialist Jace appeared nearly instantly in a small box on our screen. He could access and control our tablet, which we found helpful but also somewhat intrusive. We could also manually move his head around the screen to keep him from covering important answers.

We asked for Jace's help in setting up a user profile in FreeTime. He quickly circled the FreeTime app icon on our screen (think football Telestrator translated for the tech world) and walked us step-by-step through the process. We liked that when it came time to ask for our password, he paused his screen's access so he couldn't see what we typed. The whole call took less than 4 minutes.

X-Ray

Click to EnlargeAmazon has extended its X-Ray feature, previously available for books and movies, to its music store. The idea behind X-Ray is that you can get extra information on the media you're enjoying. For books, this means getting a CliffNotes-like look at the appearance of various characters or themes within a story -- a tool that could be helpful for writing a paper.

The music version of this feature is a little different. When we listened to "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons, the lyrics streamed along the right side of the screen. We could navigate through the song by tapping a specific lyric. Any fan of karaoke will appreciate this addition.

X-Ray for video, which was added earlier this year, is more in-depth, as it syncs with IMDb's database. By tapping the screen while watching "Django Unchained," we could pull up bios on the actors in any given scene. You can also get general trivia. For instance, we had no idea that Kevin Costner was originally cast as Ace Speck but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. You can also navigate through the movie by skipping to specific songs as they play or, of course, buy the music from Amazon.

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FreeTime

Click to EnlargeWith a nod to tablets' family-oriented qualities, Amazon also has enhanced its free Kindle FreeTime feature. Parents can create profiles for different children, and hand select what books, apps, games and videos their kids can access. We especially appreciate that parents can set daily limits for tablet use, or restrict specific categories of content, such as games and movies. Children can also add their own personalization by customizing things like the background color.

Click to EnlargeIn FreeTime mode, children are blocked from buying new content, accessing the Web browser, sharing via Facebook or Twitter, or using any location-based services. FreeTime also requires that your child enter a password before gaining access to Wi-Fi or in-app purchases.

Amazon also is now offering a subscription to kid-friendly content called Kindle FreeTime Unlimited. For $2.99 per month, parents can automatically provide their children safe access to age-appropriate (ages 3 to 8) books, games, apps, movies and TV shows on their own profiles. The content comes from such well-known sources as Disney, Nickelodeon and PBS.

Keyboard

Click to EnlargeThe HDX sports a gray keyboard with white letters, which proved responsive in our tests. The keyboard supports swipe to type, and we appreciated the dedicated .com button. We also liked that we could hold down the forward-slash (/) key to separate the keyboard into a thumb-friendly format; however, you cannot swipe to type in this mode.

Apps

Click to EnlargeFire HDX owners will not be able to access the Google Play store, but Amazon does offer its own curated Android app store with more than 100,000 apps and games. While the selection isn't huge, we were pleased to see many solid staples such as "Angry Birds Star Wars II," Evernote, Facebook, HBO Go, Netflix and many others. However, the lack of access to Google services and apps, such as Chrome and Drive, was a disappointment. From among the top 25 free apps in the Google Play store, you'll find 17 in the Amazon app store, but among the top 25 paid apps, you'll only find 13 for the Fire HDX. Apps you won't find for the HDX include Snapchat, "Candy Crush Saga," Instagram and Beautiful Widgets.

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Content

Click to EnlargeAmazon -- true to its bookseller roots -- offers a catalog of millions of e-book titles. The company even boasts that more than 1.7 million titles cost less than $9.99. Of the New York Times' fiction e-books list, Amazon carried all 10, seven of which were less expensive than in the Google Play store. Amazon offers more than 20 million songs from thousands of artists, as well as a large selection of newspapers and magazines.

A huge perk for Kindle Fire HDX owners is Amazon Prime. By being a member, which costs $79 annually, you can borrow books from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for free once a month, with no due date. Plus, Prime members can stream unlimited commercial-free movies and TV shows. And for physical goods, members get free two-day shipping. Amazon is now offering a 30-day free trial of this service.

Click to EnlargeWith Amazon's new Immersion Reading, you can get even more engrossed in your next e-book. The Kindle Fire HDX can synchronize Kindle text with companion Audible audiobooks, highlighting the text as it is read by a professional narrator. While we could see this feature being helpful for children, we're not sure who would want to have a book read to them as they read.

When it comes to movies and TV, Prime members get access to thousands of popular movies and TV shows, such as "The Hunger Games," "Under the Dome" and "SpongeBob SquarePants." Prime Instant Video movies and shows now can even be downloaded for offline viewing.

Web Browsing

Click to EnlargeAmazon Silk is a cloud-optimized Web browser that can only be found on the Kindle Fire HDX. Unfortunately, it also happens to be the only browser that will work on the HDX. Still, we found Silk's tabbed browsing very responsive and quick. We loaded Laptopmag.com, NYTimes.com and ESPN.com in 3 seconds each over our office Wi-Fi connection. That's, in part, thanks to the predictive loading feature that's built into Silk, which taps into Amazon Cloud to load pages faster.

We also like a few of the unique features, such as Reading View, which removes images and pop-ups for a faster read. A pop-out left menu offers easy access to content types, such as Most Visited, Bookmarks and Trending Now. Trending Now is neat for discovering what people across the Web are reading now. The Silk browser also lets you share pages via email, Facebook and Twitter. As you add apps like Pocket, Evernote and ES File Explorer, you get more options for sharing.

Performance

Click to EnlargeGenerally speaking, we found the Kindle HDX very responsive, and the benchmarks proved that. Amazon packed its new tablet with a 2.2 quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM and a 400-MHz Adreno 320 graphics chip, which is three times more powerful than the one in its predecessor, the Fire HD. In comparison, the Nexus 7 has the same graphics chip and RAM, but it's paired with a slower 1.5-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro. The Memo Pad HD 7 is powered by a 1.2-GHz quad-core MediaTek MT8125 CPU, and the Sero 7 Pro has a 1.3-GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 T30.

On Quadrant, which measures overall performance, the Fire HDX went nuclear, with a score of 19,924. The Nexus 7, which still scored about 1,500 points above average, scored just 4,949. The Memo Pad HD 7 came in with 3,414, while the Sero 7 HD Pro registered 4,109.

Similarly, the Fire HDX obliterated the AnTuTu average of 7,491 by scoring a mind-boggling 32,835. In comparison, the Nexus 7 scored 19,572. The Sero 7 Pro scored just 12,092, while the Memo Pad HD 7 saw a similar 12,750.

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When we ran An3DBench, a test that measures graphics prowess, the Fire HDX scored 7,999, about 600 points above average. The ASUS MeMO Pad HD 7 scored 7,139, the Google Nexus 7 scored 7,165 and the HiSense Sero 7 Pro 7 notched 636. In the same vein, the Fire HDX scored 16,201 on 3DMark Unlimited, while the Nexus 7 scored just 10,624. The category average is 5,804.

While playing "Riptide GP," we were impressed with the graphics and special water effects, which were on a par with those on the Nexus 7.

The only lag we ran into with the Fire HDX was when opening FreeTime. It took a few seconds to load a child's user profile. It took even longer -- 28 seconds -- to open the "Minion Rush" app, but the wait on the Nexus 7 was an even longer 37 seconds.

Camera

Click to EnlargeWhen held in landscape mode, a 720p front-facing camera sits above the HDX's screen. Selfies taken in our New York City offices looked grainy and lacked definition. However, colors were fairly accurate. The HDX lacks a back camera, while the Nexus 7 offers a 5-MP rear shooter.

We appreciate the fact that Amazon can combine all of your disparate image files into one Amazon Cloud file. By downloading the Amazon Cloud app to our PC and our Samsung Galaxy Note II, we easily synced all of our pictures for seamless safekeeping. Plus, we connected to our Facebook account to upload those pics for safekeeping.

Battery Life

Amazon claims the Kindle Fire HDX will get 11 hours of battery life. The retailer also says that when the HDX is just used for reading, it is smart enough to power down unused system components, which could extend the endurance to 17 hours. On the LAPTOP Battery Test (Web surfing via Wi-Fi), the HDX lasted 8 hours and 39 minutes. That's slightly longer than the Nexus 7 (8:26) and about 1 hour and 20 minutes longer than the category average (7:07).

Configurations

At the low end, the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX will cost you $229 for 16GB of storage and a Wi-Fi-only antenna. At the top end, it could cost you as much as $424 for 64GB and Wi-Fi plus LTE coverage through AT&T or Verizon. That version, of course, would require a monthly data plan as well.

Verdict

Click to EnlargeThe increasing number of very good sub-$200 tablets is making it harder to justify the premium for more expensive devices such as the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. Nevertheless, this $229 (for base model) device is a fantastic value. You get a superior HD display for enjoying movies and games, along with best-in-class performance in a sleeker design. Plus, only the HDX gives you one-touch access to personalized tech support.

Those looking for a purer Android experience will prefer the Nexus 7. Google's device offers a wider range of apps and some features the Fire HDX lacks, such as the useful Google Now and a rear camera. However, while the Nexus 7 offers user profiles, Amazon has absolutely nailed its family target audience with its more robust parental controls and huge library of content. Overall, the Kindle Fire HDX is easily one of the best tablets of the year.

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With faster quad-core CPUs, sharper screens and built-in tech support, Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet lineup just got a major upgrade, giving the online retailer a formidable one-two punch against the Nexus 7 and upcoming iPads.  The Kindle Fire HDX line is now available for pre-order on Amazon, starting  at $229 for the 7-inch model and $379 for the 8.9-inch version. 

Both slates have been bolstered with sharper displays and better processors. The 7-inch HDX has a 1920 x 1200 screen, a 2.2-GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 8-MP rear-facing camera. As previously rumored,  the 8.9-inch model boasts a 2560 x 1600 screen and is boosted by an Adreno 330 GPU. The 8.9-inch HDX has slimmed down to 13.2 ounces, which is 34 percent lighter than the previous iteration.

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New to both models is the "Mayday" feature, which is a built-in help button that connects users to Amazon's 24/7 customer support center. The Mayday button allows you to see your customer service rep, who can walk you through any of the tablet's features by annotating and interacting with your HDX's screen. Though they appear on the display, customer service agents won't be able to see the user. On the official product page, Amazon claims that users shouldn't have to wait more than 15 seconds for live help when using Mayday.

Amazon has also updated its standard Kindle Fire HD 7-inch, which packs a 1280 x 800 display and 1.5-GHz CPU for a wallet-friendly starting price of $139.

With the affordable Nexus 7 attracting a lot of attention and a new iPad line on the horizon, Amazon's new Kindle HDX should still resonate with shoppers looking for easy access to gobs of content. Stay tuned for our full review of both slates.

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If the ever-churning Internet rumor mill is to be believed, Amazon will be hosting an event in the coming weeks to debut its new line of Kindle Fire slates. Now, images claiming be the second-generation Kindle Fire HD 7 have reportedly hit the Web.

Courtesy of BGR.com, the images show a Kindle Fire HD that offers a far more modern look than the previous generation slate. The beveled strip that ran down the back of last year's 7-inch Fire HD has been replaced with what appears to be a simple Amazon logo. The slate's volume rocker and power buttons also seem to have gotten a much needed size increase over last year's model. Overall, the device appears to sport a more angular design than the previous Kindle Fire HD.

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In addition to its new look, the Kindle Fire HD 7 will  reportedly sport an upgraded 7-inch, 1920 x 1200 display and quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM. The slate's operating system is expected to be a forked version of Google's Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, and the tablet will reportedly launch in 16GB, 32GB or 64GB configurations. 

The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD isn't the only Fire getting an update, though. Both the standard Kindle Fire and the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 are expected to get improved displays and processors. The Kindle Fire will reportedly come with an 1280 x 800 display and rather than the 1024 x 600 display found on the current model. The next-gen Kindle Fire HD 8.9, meanwhile, looks like it will get an impressive 2560 x 1600-pixel display. The tablet will also sport the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor as the next-gen Kindle Fire HD 7.

So far, there isn't much to go on regarding launch times for Amazon's next-generation tablets, though we expect them to make their debut later this month.

via: BGR

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Taiwanese electronic display maker E Ink today released Carta, a new generation of greyscale display that will offers 50 percent higher contrast. E Ink also claims their new technology will prevent reflections 22 percent better than the existing Pearl displays. The recently released Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is the first e-reader to utilize Carta E Ink, which is also expected to offer smoother page turns.

According to E Ink, the improved contrast ratio on Carta gives e-reader screens contrast levels close to that on a paperback book and sets a new standard as the highest contrast ratio display in the industry. The screen maker also says that Carta will require the least power consumption yet because it uses no power to keep an image or text on the screen. Its new E Ink Regal waveform technology will reduce the need for full page refreshes after six page turns so, hopefully, no more flickering.

The E Ink Carta modules also allow for production designers to build touch into their displays and is suitable for devices with display sizes between 1.44 inches and 13.3 inches. With such high contrast values, the Carta module should provide a great outdoor reading experience, making it perfect for use on wearable devices or smartphones. 

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Who says print is dead? With its new Kindle MatchBook service, Amazon is looking to offer a carrot to customers who purchase physical books by letting them purchase the Kindle version for free or at a discounted price. 

When the Kindle MatchBook service launches in October, more than 10,000 titles will be available, according to Amazon. MatchBook prices will range from $2.99, $1.99, $0.99 or free, and include such authors as Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton, Blake Crouch, James Rollins, Jodi Picoult, Neil Gaiman, Marcus Sakey, Wally Lamb, Jo Nesbo, Neal Stephenson, and J.A. Jance.

According to Amazon, bundling print and digital purchases has been a much-requested feature from consumers, who will be able to look up their past purchases to see which books are part of the MatchBook service. It's a clever idea, and one that could enable users to, say, purchase a physical book as a gift, then get the digital copy for themselves. 

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You likely shop on Amazon and might own a Kindle Fire HD, but could you imagine the e-commerce giant becoming your internet service provider? According to a some recent findings, Amazon might someday power the wireless internet that you use to browse its website.

Bloomberg is reporting that Amazon has recently tested a new wireless network in Cupertino, Calif. The network is powered by satellite communications firm Globalstar,  and was tested in Amazon's Lab126, the same place where the Kindle was created. ZDNet notes that Globalstar is waiting for the FCC's permission to convert around 80 percent of its spectrum to Wi-Fi services, after which the firm may lease its internet resources to Amazon and other companies.

MORE: Amazon Kindle Fire HD (7 inch): Full Review

Considering Amazon's ever-expanding reach across physical and digital products, the possibility of the company selling internet access isn't too far off. Amazon wouldn't be the first of its kind to move in this direction, as Google has been slowly rolling out their Google Fiber service in a select few markets. 

Amazon surely has everything it needs to present a cohesive package if the company decides to become an ISP. With a full line of tablets and digital streaming services, the company would have no shortage of incentives to convince consumers to connect to the web with their own form of branded internet.

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Amazon has big plans for its Kindle Fire tablets, according to a new report from BGR. The  site claims Amazon will release three new, higher-resolution Kindle Fire tablets in time for the holiday season. 

Replacing the 7-inch $159 Kindle Fire base model will be a new display with a 1280 x 800-pixel screen, up from 1024 x 600. The upgrade to the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD will also get a new panel, f
eaturing 1920 x 1200-pixels, up from 1280 x 800. That would be the highest resolution we've seen in that size.

MORE: Top 10 Tablets to Buy (or Avoid) Now

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD will reportedly get a mind-boggling 2560 x 1600-pixel display, according the BGR's unnamed source. That's a big boost from the current 1920 x 1200. The 8.9-inch display will now dwarf the 9.7-inch Apple iPad Retina display of 2048 x 1536-pixels. 

The screen isn't the only thing rumored to be getting an upgrade. The new, lighter-weight design may feature a new angular design with a flat slope with no more rounded corners. Amazon is apparently moving the power and volume buttons  out of accidental touch areas onto the back, but we hope they're not too far out of reach.

We're anxious to get our hands on these tablets, which have no finalized prices yet. The company is likely trying to keep the prices the same as the current pricing structure of $159, $199 and $399. The official launch may be as soon as September. Stay tuned for more details as they arrive. 

Via BGR

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Talk about getting bang for your buck. Amazon is reportedly working on a new version of its 7-inch Kindle Fire HD that will sell for just $99. The new tablet, TechCrunch reports, will still sport the same TI OMAP processor found in the current 7-inch Fire HD and will come with a similar 1280 x 800 resolution display.

The current-generation Kindle Fire HD, which is priced at $149, already undercuts $199 Google's Nexus 7 and Barnes & Noble's $199 Nook HD by $50. Dropping the price of the Fire HD would easily put it in the neighborhood of tablets from the likes of Coby and Velocity Micro, not to mention Amazon's own $199 Kindle Paperwhite.

Update: Amazon has confirmed that it is not working on a $99 Kindle Fire HD 7-inch, as the company says it already offers the lowest price possible for the hardware.

How could Amazon offer such a low-cost tablet? Easy, Amazon doesn't sell tablets with the purpose of making cash off of the hardware. Instead, the company makes its money through purchases consumers make using their tablets.

It wouldn't be completely out of the ordinary for Amazon to sell a $99 7-inch Fire HD. The company has already dropped the price of its original 7-inch HD from $199 to $159. More recently, Amazon has cut the price of its decidedly less popular Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch from $299 to $269.

via: TechCrunch 

Amazon Q3 revenues have fallen short of analyst predictions, posting a net loss of $274 million on sales of $13.81 billion. Shares for Amazon stock fell from around 9 percent during after-hours trading following the announcement, and have since settled at a loss of around 2.5 percent. The mega-retailer is feeling the heat in other ways, because Amazon thought it necessary to point out the advantages its tablet has over the iPad mini.

Earlier this week, Apple announced the fourth generation iPad and the iPad mini, direct competition with the 7-inch and 8.9-inch Amazon's Kindle Fire HD lineup. During the third-quarter earnings report, Amazon spent some stressing how its products outshine Apple's, pointing to pixel density, audio quality and cost.

Here are some of the bullet points Amazon supplied:

• Compared to the iPad mini, Kindle Fire HD 8.9” has:

• 193% more pixels (2,304,000 pixels vs. 786,432 pixels)
• 56% more pixels-per-inch (254 vs. 163)
• Watch HD movies and TV – cannot on iPad mini (iPad mini is an SD device)
• Better audio with dual stereo speakers and Dolby Digital Plus
• Wi-Fi with dual band, dual antennas + MIMO
• Costs $30 less

• Compared to the iPad mini, Kindle Fire HD 7” has:

• 30% more pixels (1,024,000 vs. 786,432 pixels)
• 33% more pixels per inch (216 vs. 163)
• Watch HD movies and TV – cannot on iPad mini (iPad mini is an SD device)
• Better audio with dual stereo speakers and Dolby Digital Plus
• Wi-Fi with dual band, dual antennas + MIMO
• Costs $130 less

Despite falling short of analyst's predictions, Amazon hit its own estimates, forecasting sales between $12.9 billion and $14.3 billion and an operating loss of between $350 million and $50 million. Shareholders were, however, were not impressed, resulting in the stock drop during after-hours trading. Amazon's new tablets could help it get back on track, but the company has admitted that it's content and the other things you buy with its slates--not the hardware--that make Amazon money.

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Yesterday's race between the Microsoft Surface and Barnes and Noble's Nook HD+ came down to the wire, but in the end it was the  Windows 8-powered Surface that pulled out the win.

Today, we turn our attention to a race between one of Amazon's latest, the Kindle Fire HD 7-inch, and Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1. Will the smaller tablet carry the day, or will the Note's unique capabilities give it the win? Read our breakdown of both tablets and cast your vote below.

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7-inch

The original Kindle Fire set the tablet market on fire, no pun intended, by giving users instant access to all of the digital content they purchased through their Amazon accounts. The HD 7-inch builds on its predecessor's success, adding a top-notch display, improved speakers and improved interface. Amazon also managed to set the Fire HD 7-inch at a competitive price point, charging $199 for a 16GB version and $249 for a 32GB version. That's far better than the $199 an 8GB Barnes and Noble Nook HD or Google Nexus 7 will cost you.

Still, the Kindle Fire HD 7-inch isn't a flawless tablet. It's controversial lock screen adds, which will cost you $15 to get rid of, were a big issue for many users, while its custom operating system means you won't be able to access the Google Play store.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

The big brother to the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note II, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is a productivity machine. Its strong audio and long battery life are positive attributes for any tablet, but it's the Note's S Pen stylus and stylus-friendly apps that set it apart from the tablet competition. Of course, it doesn't hurt to offer dual -window multitasking, either. 

But like the Fire HD 7-inch, the Galaxy Note 10.1 has a few issues of its own, chiefly its occasional lag, relatively low-resolution display and confusing S Note app.

So which of these competitors is the better tablet? Cast your vote below and check back tomorrow for the final results.

[polldaddy poll=6635249]

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Amazon's offer to store your downloaded Kindle e-books in the cloud seems outstanding, especially given the eReader's scant 2GB of onboard storage. A tale making the rounds today highlights the dangers of leaving your data completely in third-party hands, however, after a Norwegian woman had her Amazon.co.uk account erased and all her Kindle e-books wiped without warning -- or explanation.

Media commentator and business IT manager Martin Bekkelund recounts the plight on his blog. The woman -- identified as Linn -- contacted Amazon customer service when she noticed her account was erased, only to be told that her "Amazon.co.uk account has been closed and any open orders have been cancelled" because is it "directly related to another which has been previously closed for abuse of our policies."

When Linn asked for details, claiming that she'd only ever used the single Amazon account, the company refused to tell her how her account was linked to the blocked account, the name of the blocked account, or even what the blocked account was blocked for.

The Amazon representative stonewalled Linn when she expressed her incredulity at the turn of events, saying simply that closing an account is permanent. "We wish you luck in locating a retailer better able to meet your needs and will not be able to offer any additional insight or action on these matters," she was told in conclusion.

BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow suggests that the account may have been closed because Linn was using a British email address to purchase eBooks from Norway.

No matter what the reason, the ordeal serves as reminder of one of the major issues with DRM-protected software: you're often not buying the software itself, but instead a license to use it, and many companies maintain the right to yank your privileges at any time -- even if they refuse to tell you why.  If you want to limit the hold Amazon and others have on you, stick to DRM-free downloads as often as possible and just in case, don't forget to back up whatever data you can.

Via The Guardian

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Answering the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, Amazon's new Kindle Paperwhite features a backlit display that lets you read in the dark without disturbing those around you. Priced at $119 ($179 for the 3G version we tested), this E Ink e-reader also offers a best-in-class experience that's easy to use and easy on the eyes.

Design

Click to EnlargeMeasuring 6.7 x 4.6 x 0.4 inches, the Kindle Paperwhite is a smidge longer than the 6.5 x 5.0 x 0.5-inch Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight. And weighing 7.8 ounces, Amazon's e-reader is a bit heavier than its 7-ounce Nook competitor as well. Still, the softened edges and relatively light weight of the Paperwhite made it easy to hold one-handed for extended periods of time.

Click to EnlargeIf it weren't for the E Ink display, the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3G could be mistaken for a tablet. The only adornment on the matte black front is a small silvery logo. The bezel and the rubbery-feeling backside remained fingerprint free, despite our oily paws.

Gone is the home button from the previous Kindle. The only button on the new device is the power button, inconveniently placed on the bottom. And the microUSB charging port is the only port. Like the Simple Touch with Glowlight, Amazon removed audio from the Paperwhite, no big loss. We would have appreciated a microSD card slot for additional storage, though.

Paperwhite Display

Click to EnlargeThe new touch-friendly Kindle Paperwhite 3G features a 6-inch (1024 x 768-pixel resolution) screen with 212 ppi that displays 16 levels of grayscale. That's a 62 percent increase over the 6-inch (800 x 600) screens with 167 ppi found on the previous-generation Kindle as well as the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight.

When we opened a "Time Magazine" cover on both the Kindle Paperwhite 3G and Nook Simple Touch, an image of Bill Clinton appeared less fuzzy on the Kindle, but there was ghosting of a previous page in the background. Text appeared blacker on the Kindle, but the Nook's E Ink background was whiter.

Competing directly with the Barnes & Noble GlowLight technology, which is found on the Nook Simple Touch, Amazon's Paperwhite technology makes it easier to read an E Ink display in the dark. Paperwhite uses four LED lights that are diffused through an anti-glare screen layer, so that the light doesn't add strain on the eyes by shining at them.

We measured an average display brightness of 213 lux on the Paperwhite display, much higher than the 135 lux average on the Simple Touch GlowLight. In a side-by-side comparison, the Kindle Paperwhite was noticeably brighter and whiter than the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight's blue haze.

However, the Simple Touch was more evenly lit, with very little variation between the middle and sides. On the Paperwhite, we noted four bright spots along the bottom edge of the screen that were distracting; we measured a difference of more than 40 lux between the middle and the bottom of the screen. While the top edge of the Nook pops a bit more than the rest of the screen at full brightness, we found it less distracting that the four bright spots along the bottom of the Kindle.

We found a medium setting between 10 and 14 that seemed to work just fine in any situation. For daytime reading, we preferred the light turned off.

Leaving behind the IR-based touch interface of the previous Kindle Touch, the Paperwhite sports a capacitive touch screen with two-finger multitouch support. The display proved fairly responsive: When we pinched-to-zoom (which enlarges the font size), there was a second delay between the pop-up window of font sizes appearing and the font actually changing. It then took another second for the pop-up to disappear.

User Interface

Click to EnlargeAmazon's new Kindle home screen is a vast improvement over the previous list view of titles. While that is still an option in settings, we much prefer the new graphically appealing Cover View, which also seems more natural to navigate. Once you swipe past the ad-based lock screen, you're greeted with two rows of book cover thumbnail images, with an ad at the bottom.

The top bar has a series of icons for home, back, backlight control, shopping, search and settings. This navigation bar follows you into books and periodicals, where only the drop-down menu that pops out of the three horizontal lines may change.

Just below, you can toggle between your Amazon library of content in the cloud or what's on the device. Also, you can sort this content by type, title, author and most recently received. The second row of thumbnail images shows best-selling book recommendations. You can swipe across either row to advance your way through your content.

The menu button reveals options to shop, view ads, change to List View, create a content collection, check for new items, tweak the settings and open the browser. Within a book, the same menu also allows you to read book or author descriptions, switch to landscape mode, sync to the furthest page read, bookmark and open notes. Within a periodical, this bar allows you to "Clip This Article" for reading later.

Reading Experience

Click to EnlargeInside a book, just below the navigational bar, sits a row of settings that include font options, a menu for jumping to a specific spot in a book, the Amazon X-Ray feature and a button to Share. At the bottom are five different ways to see how far into a story you are, including how many minutes left in a chapter, pages left in a book and percentage of the story already read.

Amazon offers eight font sizes and six font choices. We particularly appreciated the ability to customize three line spacings and three margins.

While there are no physical page turn buttons (a feature we would have appreciated) you can turn the pages on the Kindle Paperwhite with a touch or a swipe. But for simple touches, you'll have to tap the correct part of the screen to get the appropriate response. The majority of a page is dedicated to flipping forward. A narrow bar along the left edge is for flipping back, and a similarly narrow strip at the top brings up the navigation window. Once we got the hang of it, it was easy enough to remember. Page turns were nearly instantaneous, but when opening a book or magazine for the first time, we noticed a delay of a second or two.

X-Ray

Click to EnlargeAmazon's X-Ray feature offers information you might find in Cliffs Notes, such as how often and where in a book a specific character or term might appear. From within X-Ray of "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn, we could easily see that Amy Elliott Dunne is the main character and that New York would be a recurring term within the book. When we clicked deeper we found a Wikipedia entry offering more history and context on either topic. While this feature is interesting, it could potentially spoil the story.

Keyboard

The on-screen keyboard Kindle Paperwhite features small square keys. Tapping one causes it to blink black for a moment. There is now predictive typing, which helped compensate for errors created when our fat fingers mistakenly pressed adjacent keys. Because the device is just a smidgen too large for one-handed typing, we used both hands. We noticed some lag when we went too fast for the device, but otherwise found the experience positive.

Wireless and Whispernet

Uniquely among its e-reader competition, Amazon offers free 3G connectivity with the Kindle Paperwhite. However, without this feature, the Paperwhite costs $119, so you could argue that $60 is the price of 3G worldwide for life via HSDPA with fallback support for EDGE/GPRS. Both Paperwhite versions offer 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi access.

Via a 3G connection in downtown Manhattan, the Kindle Paperwhite downloaded the 1743 KB file of "Winter of the World" by Ken Follett in approximately 5 seconds. That same file took 7 seconds over Wi-Fi in our midtown offices.

Kindle Books, Newspapers and Magazines

Click to EnlargeAmazon has halved the amount of on-board storage to 2GB on the Kindle Paperwhite 3G, down from 4GB on the Kindle Touch 3G. Of that, 1.25GB is available for user content, which should hold up to 1,100 e-books, according to Amazon. That's on a par with the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight. And like Barnes & Noble, Amazon will store your entire library in the cloud.

The Amazon e-book store offers more than 1.5 million titles, including 180,000 e-books exclusive to Amazon. More than 1.2 million of the total catalog is available for $9.99 or less. Amazon also makes available millions of out-of-copyright books for free for the Kindle Paperwhite.

Anyone can download and read the first chapters of a book for free via Amazon's Sample feature. But if you subscribe to the Amazon Prime membership service (one-month free trial followed by $79 per year), you can borrow from among 180,000 e-books. You get access to only one book at a time, but there are no due dates. Some big-name options include the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and "Pines" by Blake Crouch.

The relatively new Kindle Serials content is also available on the Paperwhite 3G. Through this service, you buy a book and then receive new "episodes" automatically as they are published. Some of these titles are still works in progress, others -- such as "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens -- is being released in pieces, just as the author originally intended. In the case of "Oliver Twist," there will be 24 total episodes, with a new section delivered every week.

Amazon, like Barnes & Noble, lets users lend some Kindle books to other Kindle or Kindle app users. Eligible books -- those marked as Lending Enabled -- can be lent for up to 14 days. Recipients have seven days to accept, or the book is returned to your archives.

Kindle Paperwhite 3G owners can subscribe to 194 newspapers worldwide, including "USA Today" and the "San Francisco Chronicle", starting at around $5.99 per month. Magazine subscriptions for 163 titles, such as "Shape and Time", start around $1.29. Barnes & Noble offers 780 magazines and 43 newspapers.

Non-Kindle Content

Click to EnlargeOutside the Amazon ecosystem, the Kindle supports PDF, unprotected MOBI, and PRC eBook formats. That means you can download any of millions of free, out-of-copyright books from such sources as archive.org. You can add Doc/DocX, PDF, TXT, HTML, JPEG, GIF and PNG files to your Kindle as well.

The public library also is accessible from the Kindle Paperwhite 3G. E-books from more than 10,000 local institutions retain Kindle features such as notes and highlights. And when your eBook checkout expires, you can check it out again or buy it from the Kindle store.

Amazon has done away with audio support on the Kindle Paperwhite 3G, so there's no more text-to-speech feature, MP3 file support or access to your Audible.com account.

Games & Active Content

Click to Enlarge"Active Content" is Amazon's euphemism for e-reader-friendly apps. My Checklist, for instance, is a free to-do list app. For 99 cents, you can get a Kindle Paperwhite app for daily AccuWeather forecasts.

While not a gaming device, the Kindle Paperwhite 3G is compatible with some games, both free and paid. Sudoku Works offers a puzzle of the day for 99 cents, plus you can access the apps library of puzzles at varying difficulty levels. We found it diverting for a short while, but we'd much rather play "Oregon Trail" on our smartphone.

Notes and Sharing

Click to EnlargeCreating notes on the Kindle Paperwhite is as easy as pressing and holding your finger over a word in the text of a book. A pop-up menu appears with options to Share, Add Note, Highlight and More. Tapping More opens another pop-up, which will take you to Wikipedia, translate a passage into one of 16 languages, or let you report a content error to Amazon (typos, formatting, images, etc.).

Click to EnlargeUsing the Share feature automatically generates a text box where you can add a message about what you're reading. Amazon will attach a link to the book you're reading and post the message to Facebook and/or Twitter. On the final page of an e-book, the Kindle will prompt you to rate a book and to share your thoughts via social networking. However, if someone responds, you won't be able to see it in the book.

Web Surfing

Click to EnlargePerhaps it's no surprise that Amazon still labels the browser on the Kindle as "experimental." The browser, which requires a Wi-Fi connection, is as bare bones as it gets. When you open it from the home page Menu button, you're presented with a page of bookmarks that includes Amazon, Google.com, Gmail and NYTimes.com. It took us 18 seconds to load NYTimes.com. Laptopmag.com loaded in 12 seconds and ESPN loaded in 16 seconds. Thankfully, we could pinch to zoom in on the page, otherwise all links were far too small to tap. Videos would not load, but images appeared crisp.

Parental Controls

Click to EnlargeWhile not as robust as FreeTime on the Kindle Fire HD, the Kindle Paperwhite 3G now has a few parental control features. To find the controls from the home page, click the menu button in the top right. From here, tap Device Options > Parental Controls to turn on or off access to the browser, the store and your Amazon content stored in the Cloud.

When we toggled off access to the Kindle Store, a tiny lock icon appeared next to the wireless status at the top of the screen. The shopping icon also became grayed out. Similarly, when we toggled off the browser and the cloud, those options grayed out and wouldn't open. Deregistration and reset device are disabled as well.

When the Kindle Store is locked you can still buy books on Amazon.com and have them delivered to your device. While we think the settings could be easier to find, we were happy to see this feature.

Options and Accessories

Click to EnlargeOur review unit of the Paperwhite cost $179; for that, you get 3G and advertisements. If the few ads found on the Paperwhite annoy you, there is a $199 ad-free option.

We recommend the $119 non-3G version, particularly since you can't use the browser via 3G. Or for budget shoppers, we'd recommend the $69 non-touch, base Kindle without the Paperwhite backlighting.

Amazon sells a host of cases for the Kindle Paperwhite, including the $39.99 leather cover with magnetic closure that activates the device's automatic wake-from-sleep feature. No wall-socket power adapter comes with the Kindle Paperwhite, but you can pick one up at Amazon.com for $19.99.

Battery Life

According to Amazon, the Kindle Paperwhite 3G should last for up to eight weeks on a single charge. That's based on a half-hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light set to 10. That's considerably longer than Barnes & Noble's claim of three weeks with Wi-Fi and GlowLight off on the Nook Simple Touch.

During a day of regular use, with the light at 11 and 3G on, we saw about a 15 percent dip in the battery life.

Amazon claims you should be able to fully charge the Paperwhite in 4 hours using a computer's USB port.

Verdict

Click to EnlargeWith soft but bright backlighting, a higher-res display, an improved user interface, and, of course, Amazon's capacious library, the Kindle Paperwhite 3G is a highly evolved e-reader. We're not fans of the $179 price tag just for 3G access. After all, you can get a full-fledged Kindle Fire HD tablet for just $20 more. But the $119 non-3G version of this device is a great deal. Our biggest issue with the Paperwhite is that the uneven backlighting is distracting at higher brightness levels.

Now that you can get the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight for the same $119, it's a tough call to pick between these backlit options. Amazon's screen looks better in daylight and has a more paper-like look when the backlight is on. And if you're an Amazon Prime member, you get access to the free lending library. Ultimately, though, we give a slight edge to Barnes & Noble's device for its lighter weight, dedicated home button and more even backlighting.

The Amazon Kindle Fire has gone from one device to a family of value-priced tablets designed to make it easy to get your app and content fix. What's the big deal? Other than the low prices, the $199 7-inch and $299 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD both boast high-def displays with ultra-wide viewing angles, exclusive Dolby audio stereo speakers and dual-band Wi-Fi for 40 percent faster downloads.

There's also a 4G LTE version of the bigger 8.9-inch model that comes with a dirt-cheap $50 yearly data plan and a souped-up version of the original Kindle Fire that's just $159. Plus, all four of the new Fires sport handy new features like Kindle FreeTime for robust parental controls and X-Ray for Movies and Books for learning more about characters and other background info. While the new Fires display ads on the lock screen (bummer) you can disable them by paying an extra $15.

Which of these tablets is right for you? Here's your quick guide to all of the new Fires.

Kindle Fire (New)

Amazon has improved the Kindle Fire with a newer, faster processor and 1GB of RAM - twice the amount of the original. At $159, this 7-inch tablet looks like an absolute steal. Amazon also promises longer battery life, giving you more time to enjoy Amazon’s massive library of 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, apps and more. Just keep in mind that the display has the same 1024 x 600 resolution from last year, and that the design still doesn’t include physical volume controls or a front-facing camera.

Kindle Fire HD 7-inch

The Kindle Fire HD boasts an impressive 1280 x 800 HD screen (just like the Google Nexus 7) and 11 hours of battery life , 3 hours more than the regular Fire. This 13.9-ounce slate also sports a faster 1.2-GHz OMAP 4470 processor, Dolby Audio that powers the

stereo speakers and dual-antenna Wi-Fi. Plus, unlike the regular Fire, you can make Skype calls using the front-facing HD camera. Although the $199 Kindle Fire HD with 16GB of storage probably will not satisfy those who love storing all their media on their portable device, there is a 32GB option available for $249.

MORE: Kindle Fire HD Hands-on: Amazon's Great $199 Tablet Gets Better

Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch

A bigger tablet that’s great for watching HD movies (or seeing more of webpages at once), the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD packs a dazzling 1920 x 1200 display with anti-glare technology. This device also see a step up in processing power from the 7-inch model, from 1.2 GHz to 1.5 GHz, while including Imagination SGX544 3D graphics for smooth gameplay. Other features include a front-facing HD camera and dual-band Wi-Fi with MIMO technology. At 1.25 pounds, the Fire HD is heavier than the .86-pound 7-inch model, but it’s still lighter than the 1.4-pound third-generation iPad.

MORE: Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch First Impressions 

Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch 4G LTE Wireless

This $499 Kindle Fire gives you 4G LTE speeds for $130 less than what you would pay AT&T or Verizon for the iPad with LTE. If surfing the web and keeping up with the news cycle is your obsession, you will get the most out of your money with this Kindle.  However, the very cheap starting data plan doesn’t cover much data. For $50 a year, you get just 250MB of 4G data per month. While that’s cheaper than the $15 AT&T charges iPad owners for the same amount of MBs, you’ll probably be better off with the $30 3GB plan or $50 5 GB plan.

MORE: Amazon's Kindle Fire HD with LTE Bargain or Rip-Off?

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Of all the devices Amazon announced, none made as big a spash as the 8.9-inch Fire HD. This supersized enhanced e-Reader now rivals competitors such as the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, the Acer Iconia Tab A700, and the iPad in terms of size, and, with a resolution of 1920 x 1200, pixel count, too.

While there are few--if any--Android apps that can take advantage of this higher screen resolution, the one area where Amazon's tablet will have an advantage is multimedia content, such as high-def movies and TV shows. Adding to that are its stereo speakers, which positively boomed, even in the cavernous hangar where the event was held.

Although the Fire HD looks pretty much like any other tablet--large display on the front, black bezel--we liked the gently curved back, which was coated in a soft-touch rubber. For its size, the 1.25-pound weight brings it just under that of the iPad.

One thing's for sure: The Fire HD is fast. As you can see in the video below, during a walkthrough of the device, Peter Larsen, Amazon's vice president for Kindle, was able to effortlessly flip through different windows and apps. The screen itself was quite bright and crisp. "The Hunger Games" looked great, and we like the X-Ray feature, which shows information about actors, etc. in a small window while watching a movie. This feature is certain to save people from popping over to IMDB. 

Considering all the content you can download--which is the way Amazon intends to make money on this $299 tablet--it was a little disappointing that there was no SD card slot to complement its 16GB of onboard storage. However, consumers will get 20GB of cloud storage for free, which (somewhat) alleviates this concern. 

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We just couldn't wait for November 20th, so we preordered the new Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch tablet to replace our now outdated Kindle Fire original. As a Prime Member we'd hoped we'd receive it before our Thanksgiving vacation, since the company announced it will be released on November 20th. Sadly, our estimated ship date is November 28th.

On the upside, we still get free shipping.  And we're looking forward to viewing all that Amazon Prime video content via Dolby Digital Plus audio. 

The Fire HD will also have a 2.4 and 5GHz 802.11 Wi-Fi with dual antennas and MIMO technology, meaning that it should be able to stream high-def content much better than other tablets. All this means that the Fire HD will have 41 percent faster Wi-Fi than the iPad. And we expect this Wi-Fi technology to greatly improve on the spotty coverage from the original model. 

Now we just have to decide if we need to preorder a Kindle Paperwhite as well. 

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The No. 1 item sold on Amazon.com is getting a refresh from the company. Jeff Bezos took the wraps off the company's new and improved Kindle Fire today. The new$159 model contains a faster processor, longer battery life and double the RAM of last year's model. Amazon promises 40 percent faster performance from the new model. At this price, Amazon undercuts the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet ($179) and the $199 Nexus 7. 

"In less than a year, Kindle Fire is 22 percent of tablet sales in the US," Bezos said during the announcement. Units will begin shipping next Friday, September 14th. With the new model, users will continue to enjoy access to Amazon Prime video and e-book content, as well as 50,000 apps in the Amazon Android app store. 

Stay tuned for our hands-on and full review. 

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• Amazon Launches Kindle Paperwhite
• Amazon Kindle Fire Review

Amazon will be upgrading their E Ink display technology with their new line of Kindles, according to The Verge. The new version of E Ink will be called "paperwhite" and promises higher contrast and higher resolution, inching ever closer to a real paper-like reading experience.

The Kindle's current E Ink technology is dubbed "pearl," and was first released in the 2010 Kindle models. While a new generation of Kindles was released in 2011, including the Kindle Touch and the $79 4-generation Kindle, the E Ink technology stayed the same as in previous versions.

These upcoming Kindles will also include a back light, while maintaining their eight-week long battery life. Amazon seems happy with their prior e-reader design; the shape and style will remain largely unchanged from the previous year's design, but the new displays will be a welcome upgrade.

Along with these new E Ink Kindles, Amazon is expected to announce the next generation Kindle Fire, which should be released in time for the holidays, going head to head with Google's 7-inch Nexus 7 and the highly anticipated iPad mini (or iPad Air?). This is shaping up to be an eventful year for e-reader fans.

• Amazon Phone Rumor Roundup: 6 Things To Expect
• Face-Off: Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch vs. Amazon Kindle Touch
• 10 Tips to Make the Most of Your Kindle Fire

Rumors of an impending release of a second-generation Kindle Fire have been lighting up the lips of tech bloggers for weeks now. Most of the whispers mention plans for a larger version of the low-cost slate. But today Bloomberg reported that Amazon is actually working on shrinking screens even further and launching an Android-powered smartphone of its own.

Sound familiar? That's because LAPTOP editor-in-chief Mark Spoonauer predicted that we'd hear more about an Amazon smartphone mid-year all the way back in September -- just two days after the Kindle Fire was announced.

Bloomberg's two insiders say that Foxconn would handle the manufacturing of the smartphone. Other sources tell the publication that Amazon's preparing for the leap into the smartphone arena by gobbling up patents related to wireless communications with the hopes of warding off claims of infringement and costly associated lawsuits -- a sad statement on the current state of technology patents.

Amazon certainly has the infrastructure to get into the smartphone game; it already sells handsets for the four major U.S. carriers through its website and the Amazon Appstore has had smartphone-only offerings for nearly a year now. If the report turns out to be true, we'd expect the flavor of Android run on the Amazon smartphone to be just as heavily skinned and content-friendly as the Kindle Fire's, and as Mark said last year, the Silk browser technology would theoretically bring a big boost to mobile Web surfing's download speeds.

• Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet Review
• Top 10 Smartphones
• Top 10 iPad Alternatives

Kindle for iPad, Kindle Cloud Reader and Kindle for Android got updated today to support more than 1,000 children's books, comics and graphic novels. These titles, including "Green Lantern Rebirth" and "Art & Max" by David Wisner, appear in full color, just as has been found on the Kindle Fire previously.

So now kids of all ages get an amplified reading experienced with awesome images, fixed layouts and Kindle Text Pop-Up (on supported titles) so they can make text bigger. Comics and graphic novels appear in Kindle Panel View (on supported titles), so you can swipe through, panel by panel. During our hands-on time with "Green Lantern Rebirth" on Kindle for iOS, we found the graphic novel navigated very much like ComiXology where you double tap to open text areas. Single taps on the edges moves the story forward or back. Oddly, for the graphic novel there is no landscape mode.

In the children's book "Art & Max" the navigation progressed you through the story in the same way with double tapping the screen creating pop-ups of zoomed in text for easier reading. However, there is no portrait mode in either of the two kid's books we read. In all of the graphically-compelling books we flipped through, we were initially surprised by  the several pages of introduction and title pages. It was a bit tedious to go through, but is not unlike entering a traditional paper book.

Rounding out the feature list for the new Kindle for iOS updates is an integrated a library search by title and author, and margins have been minimized to amplify the reading experience. Kindle for Android and Kindle Cloud Reader has integrated two-page view for widescreen viewing.

In March, e-book competitor Barnes & Noble made their Nook Comics available via their Android app for tablets.

• Top 10 Kindle Fire Apps
• Marvel's New 'Infinite Comics' Format Makes Digital Superhero Books More Cinematic

An Apple iPad or an Android tablet  is literally a blank slate: chock-full of potential. All either device needs is the right apps to make it a Swiss Army knife of productivity and entertainment. But how do you find the right apps?  That’s where we come in. The 44 apps that follow are the most useful and versatile choices for your Android, iPad or Kindle Fire tablet.

• Top 15 Productivity Apps for Your Tablet
• 10 Best Entertainment Tablet Apps
• 6 News and Weather Tablet Apps
• 9 Must-Have Tablet Games
• 4 Great Photo Apps for Your Tablet

Last July, Apple demanded that Amazon retract some features from its Kindle for iPad app -- namely, that users couldn't purchase books from within the app -- but now the online superstore is fighting back. Amazon cleverly found a way to dodge Apple's App Store's restrictions with the launch of its new touch-optimized Kindle Store for iPad on Tuesday. Readers can now enjoy Amazon's Kindle store, purchases and all, on their Apple tablet without ever even visiting the App Store.

Readers simply enter the Kindle for iPad site (www.amazon.com/ipadkindlestore) through Safari on their iPad and can immediately start searching for titles and reading samples and full purchased eBooks. Acting as an independent app, the Kindle Store can be added to your iPad home screen for quick and easy access.

The online store is attractive and extremely user-friendly, with a large font and icons: You can search for a specific book or peruse through one of the store's categories, broken into sections such as customers' top rated books, best-selling books and New York Times' best sellers. The selections are also sorted by genre so readers can make a selection based on their interests. 

• Top iPad Alternatives
• Tech to Watch 2012: Apple's iPad 3, iPhone 5, and Apple TV
• Tablet Guide

LAS VEGAS -- Protect your eReader or small tablet with simple style with help from Targus. At CES 2012, the company unveiled new cases customized to fit the latest devices from Amazon and Kobo along with one new multifunctional case for the iPad 2.

Kindle owners will appreciate the 6" Folio for the Kindle Touch ($29.99)—with a padded exterior and a soft-lined interior for protection—and the 7" Slim Folio for the Amazon Kindle ($29.99), which also has a protective padded shell along with storage space for accessories. The 7" Slim Folio is also compatible with Kobo's Vox eReader. So far, the only color option for these cases is Charcoal Gray.

The company has a slightly fancier option for the Amazon Kindle Fire: the Targus Vuscape. The form-fitting case protects the eReader and can also transform into a stand for hands-free reading. The Vuscape comes in black faux leather and goes for $39.99.

On the tablet front, Targus offers a business-focused iPad 2 case called the SpinPad. The hard-shell case has a rotating stand, a handgrip and a foldable handle, so you have plenty of options for propping up your tablet. Targus says the case is also compatible with Apple's Smart Cover. The SpinPad sells for $59.99, and is available now—along with the company's other above-mentioned cases.

• CES 2012: Full Coverage
• Top 10 iPad Alternatives
• Face-Off: Amazon Kindle Fire vs. Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet

One of the biggest attractions of an E Ink eReader is how you can take it outside with you during the day and never worry about the glare of the sun reflecting into your eyes—an unpleasant affair that can easily ruin your reading experience. Now, with the soon-to-be-released SolarKindle cover, you get an added benefit from enjoying A Clash of Kings in the fresh air: this eReader cover quietly charges your Kindle during your daytime digital reading, and you can conveniently continue your book even after it gets dark.

Sporting an eye-catching, eco-friendly design with a lightweight solar panel incorporated into the jacket, the SolarKindle significantly adds time to your eReader's normal battery life—up to three months of unplugged Kindle use, in fact, which is spurred along by the dual-charging USB/solar reserve battery. The innovative power source also lets you use the SolarKindle's built-in LED reading light for up to 50 hours without taxing your Kindle's main battery.

The SolarKindle Lighted Cover will be on display all week at CES 2012, but you can get a peek at the gadget out in the real world when it becomes available on January 15, 2012. Expect to drop (a decent enough) $79.99 for this sun-powered eReader jacket.

• The Ultimate eReader Buying Guide
• Top 10 iPad Alternatives
• Face-Off: Amazon Kindle Fire vs. Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet

On the surface, the Amazon Kindle Touch and Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch are evenly matched. From their dimensions to their $99 prices, they're practically identical. So, how do you pick the eReader that's right for you? That's the question we sought to answer by examining these two devices side by side in a cage match. We looked at the outsides, the insides, and the stores that feed these devices to determine which touch eReader is best.

Design and Ergonomics

Side by side, these two gray rectangles display some striking differences in look, shape, and feel. At 6.5 x 5 x 0.5 inches the Nook Simple Touch is closer to square than the Kindle Touch (6.8 x 4.7 x 0.4 inches). We found the charcoal color of the Barnes & Noble eReader more attractive, and the shape gave us the impression that it was smaller and lighter. We also preferred the soft-touch coating that makes the Nook feel rubberized, as opposed to the smooth plastic back of the Kindle.

The Kindle Touch and Nook Simple Touch both weigh 7.5 ounces, but the 3G version of the Kindle is 0.3 ounces heavier. Either device is easy to hold for extended periods of time, but the physical buttons (the functions of which can be customized) on the Nook make it easier to use with either hand. However, we do wish the buttons weren’t quite so stiff.

Strangely, the Amazon’s eReader power button sits on the bottom, where it can be easily grazed, while the Barnes & Noble button sits along the top back of the device.

Winner: Nook Simple Touch. Everything about the Barnes & Noble version, from the shape and color to the buttons, impressed us more.

Screen

Thanks to E Ink technology, both the Nook Simple Touch and the Kindle Touch are a delight to read in direct sunlight. Both devices also sport an identical 6-inch, 800 x 600-pixel Pearl E Ink display that shows 16 levels of grayscale contrast. The Barnes & Noble eReader offers seven font sizes and six typefaces, while the Amazon model includes eight and three, respectively.

Page turns on both eReaders happen nearly instantaneously. But in side-by-side comparisons, we found the Nook Simple Touch to be a tiny bit faster, showing less flickering.

Winner: Nook Simple Touch by a hair, because of speed and customization options.

User Interface

Infrared touch technology--not buttons--controls both these devices, meaning sensors along the bezel detect when your finger has interrupted the beams in a specific spot to register a touch. Both the Simple Touch and Kindle Touch feature home and power buttons, but most other navigation is accomplished with a fingertip.

We're fans of the Nook's interface, which looks like a pared-down version of that found on the Nook Color. Like its color sibling, the Nook runs Android 2.1, though users will see little evidence of that. When you first turn on the Nook Simple Touch you're presented with a graphically inviting Home screen, which provides an overview of your current status, the eBook you're reading, other recently opened or acquired books, and activity from people in your Nook Friends network.

Under the Menu button, users can access the Home screen, Library, the Store, a Search function, and the Settings. All this makes the Home screen a bit crowded, though we get that the idea was to present important information up front. Otherwise, we found the interface's aesthetics elegant and clear.

The Kindle Touch’s interface couldn’t be more different. The archaic-looking home screen is organized as a simple list of content that can be sorted into collections.  At the top of the Kindle Touch  home screen is a new tool bar that includes a back arrow, a search box with a drop-down Menu, and a Menu button. This Menu lets you  search your device, the Kindle Store, Wikipedia, or the built-in dictionary.

Within books, Amazon uses a navigation system it calls EasyReach. It separates the screen into three basic regions. Tapping the top of the display launches tool bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Tapping the far left of the display turns to the previous page, while tapping anywhere else moves the content forward. To turn pages, you can tap either side of the screen, or swipe from left to right. Swiping from top to bottom (or visa versa) jumps from one chapter to the next.

Once we understood how EasyReach worked, we found it easy to use and responsive, but we had to read the user guide first. We would have preferred to have physical buttons as an additional option, as Barnes & Noble offers with the Nook Simple Touch.

Winner: Nook Simple Touch. The Barnes & Noble approach is less confusing and more attractive.

Keyboard

Kindle Touch users are greeted by small white square keys on a black background when the keyboard is activated. The letter blinks black for a brief second when touched so you know something has registered. There is a good deal of space between the keys, but we noticed some lag when attempting to type fast.

The on-screen keyboard on the Nook Simple Touch is both comfortable and fast with bigger keys than those on the Kindle. The square white keys sit on a gray background, which isn’t as jarring to look at as the white on black. We preferred the font of the keys on the Nook as well. Though the letters appeared a fraction of a second slower than they would on an LCD, they were faster than on the Kindle.

Winner: Nook Simple Touch. This eReader's keyboard is easier to use and looks better.  

Books

Amazon boasts more than 1 million titles, while the Barnes & Noble eBook catalog has 2.5 million titles. However, more than a million of those are public-domain books from Google Books. Both  stores offer the top 25 fiction hardcover bestsellers according to The New York Times, and the prices were identical (averaging $12.99 per book) on both sites with only one exception. Micro by Michael Crichton could be found for $3 less on Amazon.com.

Both eBook stores also let you access books from your local library for free, and lend books to friends who also use a Nook or Kindle. Both stores also let you sample books for free, and add free out-of-copyright books to your library. However, Amazon offers a few more perks in the book arena.

Amazon Prime members (one-month free trial followed by $79 per year) can borrow from among 5,000 books, including more than 100 current and former New York Times best sellers, for free. You get access to only one book per month, but there are no due dates. Some big-name options include Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Students can rent eligible Kindle textbooks for 30 to 360 days. When you select the end date, the price is displayed. Buying the book later costs only the difference between the purchase price and rental cost. When a rental expires, you retain access to your notes and highlights.

Winner: Kindle Touch. Free books, textbook rentals, and the occasional better eBook price put Amazon on top.

Periodicals

Most newspapers are available for free as a 14-day free trial from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble . Subscription prices are very much the same on both platforms, ranging from around $1 to nearly $20, depending on the publication. But the selection does vary in some instances.

Amazon’s Newsstand offers Kindle versions of 13 of the 15 most popular newspapers in the country, while Barnes & Noble offers only nine. The Dallas Morning News was the only one of these newspapers found on the Nook that's not available on the Kindle.

But Barnes & Noble has the edge on digital versions of magazines, offering 14 of the 15 most popular titles to Amazon’s 10. Amazon does offer app versions of Better Homes and Gardens, People, and Sports Illustrated, but that won’t help Kindle Touch owners.

Winner: Draw. It truly depends on exactly what publication(s) you like to read.  

Documents

Outside the Amazon ecosystem, the Kindle supports PDF, unprotected MOBI, and PRC eBook formats. You can add Doc/DocX, PDF, TXT, RTF, HTML, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and PNG files of your own to your Kindle via e-mail, as long as the files are 50MB or less. Transfers over Wi-Fi are free, but using a 3G connection will cost you 15 cents per megabyte from inside the U.S. Or you can plug the microUSB cord into the device to drag and drop files from your PC for free.

On the other hand, the Nook Simple Touch supports ePub5, PDF, JPG, GIF, PNG, and BMP formats. Notably missing are Doc and TXT files, but it does accept the ePub format that many non-Amazon bookstores use. That means you can buy books elsewhere and easily transfer them onto your eReader later.

Winner: Kindle Touch. Amazon's eReader offers more options for reviewing files.

Social

The Share feature on the Kindle Touch connects to social networks, allowing users to link to any passage within a book. In Twitter, the service automatically adds the hashtag #Kindle to the message, and in Facebook it pulls up a thumbnail image of the book's cover. On the final page of a Kindle eBook, Amazon invites you to share your thoughts on that book. You can also rate the title.

We did like seeing in a book exactly what other Kindle readers think are important passages, but after a while it became distracting. When you come to such a section, an underline beneath the text displays a small annotation showing the number of users who selected this sentence. You can turn this feature off in the device Settings.

Public Notes is another way to connect with  fellow readers. By visiting kindle.amazon.com, you can search for and follow other Kindle readers. As long as they have Public Notes enabled on their device, when they make a note you'll see the passage highlighted along with their name. You can also turn this feature off in Settings.

Nook Simple Touch owners can also share information about the books they're reading to Facebook and Twitter, as well as the Nook Friends service. Sharing features include posting excerpts and quotes from a book, sharing how far along you are in the title, or simply liking it on Facebook. Quotes to Facebook can be fairly long, but on Twitter you're limited to 114 characters to make room for the link to the book and a #Nook hashtag. We like that this links to the book's product page, but we wish that it also showed the longer quote as Amazon does.

Nook Friends connects users with Barnes & Noble accounts to Nook-based social reading. This social network is fairly basic and is meant to mirror the ways people share books and recommendations offline. On the Nook you can see a news feed of updates from your Nook Friends, including how far they are in books and the ones they've reviewed. You can also see which of their books are lendable and request a book from a friend. Users can choose what information they want to share with friends.

Barnes & Noble does offer one social option that Amazon does not. You can sync your Nook with your Google account in order to share things through Google+.

Winner: Nook Simple Touch. Google+ support gives the Simple Touch an edge, and we like that Barnes & Noble has built its own community.

Storage

Both booksellers offer free cloud storage for your library. On the device, 4GB of internal storage on the Kindle Touch can hold up to 3,000 books. Approximately 3GB of that space is available for storage, with the rest used by the operating system. But Amazon does not offer an SD card slot like the one found on the Simple Touch.

The Nook comes with only 2GB of internal storage, which should hold about 1,000 books. The device software takes up 250MB of space, and 750MB is reserved for Barnes & Noble specific content, leaving you only 1GB to do with as you please. However, you can expand your Simple Touch's memory via up to a 32GB microSD card.

Winner: Nook Simple Touch. It doesn't come with as much internal space, but the Simple Touch lets you expand your device’s memory.

Battery Life

Amazon claims that the Kindle Touch 3G will run for two months on a single charge with wireless off and up to 10 days with wireless on. If you read for one hour a day with wireless off, you should get a month of battery life. With 3G on and an hour of use for three days, our Kindle Touch lost only about one-eighth of its juice.

The Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch is rated to last up to two months with wireless off, based upon an hour of daily reading time. With Wi-Fi on, it should last for about 3 weeks.

Left alone for almost two weeks fully juiced, the Kindle Touch retained about 25 percent of its battery life, while the Nook Simple Touch was too depleted to turn on without a charge.

Winner: Kindle Touch

Special Features

The Kindle Touch 3G offers 3G connectivity through AT&T--a.k.a. Whispernet--while the Nook Simple Touch offers Wi-Fi and free access only to AT&T hotspots around the country (which are also available with the base model of the Kindle Touch).        

X-Ray, also found exclusively on Amazon eReaders, offers information you might find in Cliff Notes, such as how often and where in a book a specific character or term might appear. In Heat Wave by Richard Castle, touching the character Matthew Starr's name in the X-Ray window brought up a brief description of the character, along with the option to find out more on Shelfari. Beneath that was a listing of each page and passage where he appears in the story.

Selecting Shelfari inside X-Ray opened the browser to Shelfari.com, so you'll need to be connected to the web. As Amazon's online social reading community, this site offers user-generated descriptions of books, characters, reviews, and readers' favorite quotes. It's like Wikipedia for eBooks.

Also only found on the Amazon eReader, two speakers sit at the bottom of the rear, and a headphone port is next to the power jack. These features make it possible for you to take advantage of the bookseller’s relationship with Audible.com, which allows Kindle owners to automatically access up to 60,000 books as read by authors and actors. Audible subscriptions start at $14.99 per month, which earn you one free credit each month (most Audible books cost one credit).

You can also use the speakers and headphone jack to listen to MP3s while you’re reading. Or use the Kindle Touch Text-to-Speech feature. This device will actually read some periodicals and books to you. Your spot is saved when you switch back and forth between reading and listening. It’s a robotic voice that might not be fun for hours of listening but is an interesting option. Text-to-Speech will also read menu options aloud if you turn on the Voice Guide feature in the Settings menu.

The Experimental WebKit browser on the Kindle Touch shows stripped-down web pages, and it requires a Wi-Fi connection. The Kindle feature may not be super-exciting or useful,  the Nook Simple Touch has no web browser at all.

The Nook Simple Touch isn’t left out of the special features party, however. We do appreciate that Barnes & Noble doesn’t subject readers to ads on the home page or anywhere else. Barnes & Noble's 40,000 stores nationwide offer in-person technical support for free. Plus, when you’re in a store, you can read any eBook for free for an hour and get special offers on books and in-store cafe treats.

Winner: Kindle Touch. While in-store help is nice, the Kindle Touch edges out the Nook by offering a 3G wireless connectivity option, audio support, and a web browser.

Overall Winner: Nook Simple Touch

With a score of 7 to 5, the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch brings home the prize. It took the design, keyboard, and user interface categories, and it managed to eke out a win in the social category while offering slightly faster page turns. The Amazon Kindle Touch has better extras, such as free books for Amazon Prime members, better document support, built-in audio, and the neat X-Ray feature.

Both of these devices are good touch-based eReaders, but overall the Nook Simple Touch is the better choice.

We just got through testing Amazon's update 6.2.1 for the Kindle Fire and overall it seems like it offers users some fairly decent improvements. The update promises "enhanced fluidity and performance," allows users to remove items from the carousel, and lets them lock Wi-Fi access, a crude parental control feature that helps prevent anyone from purchasing items on the tablet without the owner's permission.

Performance

Overall, we noticed some slight performance increases when navigating through the tablet's menus, and touch sensitivity has improved markedly, meaning you'll no longer have to repeatedly tap buttons to get a response. Still, we noticed a good amount of lag when flipping through magazines. The Silk browser still suffers from lag, with more image-heavy pages stuttering as we scrolled through them.

Wi-Fi Access Password

Before this 6.2.1 update, the Fire offered no parental control or security features. Amazon has attempted to address both issues with one solution by giving users the option of limiting Wi-Fi access. Under the Settings menu, you'll now find a Restrictions tab. From there you can set an administrative password that locks Wi-Fi access for the tablet. By enabling Password Protected Wi-Fi, users will have to enter a password everytime they want to enable the Fire's Wi-Fi radio.

So if you want to let your kids use the Fire, you can disable the Wi-Fi radio, keeping them off the web, and effectively cutting them off from Amazon's various media stores. The problem is that you'll have to disable the radio every time you want to block access to the web. And since there are no parental control options, its all or none. If you want to let your kids surf their favorite websites, you'll also have to give them access to the entire web.

We also would have liked to see some kind of parental control option that lets you lock down certain books, apps, or movies, to prevent children from viewing them. Even with Wi-Fi off, your kids can still get into any mature content you've stored on the device. 

Carousel Improvements

One of the more welcome features the update adds is the Fire is the ability to remove items from the carousel. As you'll recall, prior to the update, the last webpage a user visited was automatically displayed in the carousel. In order to remove it, you had to clear the browser's history.

But now, users can remove their most recently visited webpage from the carousel by long pressing the icon and selecting the Remove From Carousel option. The same steps can be used to remove books, apps, or other media from the carousel. It's a welcome addition that goes a long way in improving user privacy on the tablet. We just wish there was a way to prevent your most recently viewed content from appearing in the carousel in the first place.

Silk Still Slow

Before the Fire first shipped, Amazon promised that its Silk browser would offer better performance than most other tablet browsers by using Amazon's EC2 cloud server to consolidate files before sending them to the user. As more users accessed the web, Amazon's servers were supposed to cache the information and help improve page loading speeds. But in our initial tests, the browser performed significantly better with accelerated page loading turned off. And unfortunately, acceleration still doesn't help.

Although Amazon's update notes didn't mention enhancements to Silk, we decided to test the browser to see if there was any noticeable speed improvement over our previous tests. After testing People.com and Businessweek.com three times each with the accelerator on and three times each with the accelerator off, we found that there was no real difference between using the accelerator and not.

Without the accelerator Businessweek.com loaded in an average 2.5 seconds, while People.com loaded in an average 11.7 seconds. With the accelerator on, Businessweek.com loaded in 3.7 seconds, while People.com loaded in 11.9 seconds. In our previous tests, it took 13 seconds to load Businessweek.com and 8 seconds to load People.com with the accelerator off. When we turned the accelerator on previously, we saw page load speeds increase to 15 seconds for Businessweek.com and 10 seconds for People.com.

The differences between the load speeds aren't huge, but they certainly don't give users any incentive to use the web accelerator, which is especially disappointing considering how heavily Amazon touted the Silk's supposed speed benefit in the run-up to the Fire's release.

Verdict

Overall, this update feels more like a stopgap measure to deal with the user complaints that the Fire's various shortcomings have brought on. That being said, this is still the best tablet you can get for $199. There is a lot to like about the Fire and its innovative design and operating system, and once it offers a faster browsing experience and real parental controls, it could be a contender for the top tablet crown.

• Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet Review
• Face-Off: Amazon Kindle Fire vs. Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet
• 10 Tips to Make The Most of Your Kindle Fire

In a rare move on Amazon's part, the company has released specific sales figures for its Kindle eReaders. According to a press release, Kindles have been selling at a rate of 1 million-plus for the last three weeks. Amazon also reports that the Kindle Fire tablet  is the number-one best-selling, most gifted, and most wished for product on its site—and has been since it was first introduced 11 weeks ago.

In the words of the company's vice president of Amazon Kindle: "Kindle Fire is the most successful product we’ve ever launched – it’s the bestselling product across all of Amazon for 11 straight weeks, we’ve already sold millions of units, and we’re building millions more to meet the high demand. In fact, demand is accelerating.."

Given that Amazon is not one to bandy sales numbers about, this announcement be seen as an effort to drive up demand to stay competitive against other tablet and eReader manufacturers as we head into the home stretch of holiday shopping.

• Face-Off: Amazon Kindle Fire vs. Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet
• 10 Tips to Make the Most of Your Kindle Fire
• Kindle Fire Versus the Competition: Tale of the Tablet Tape

Amazon's Kindle family finally includes an eReader with a touchscreen. No, we're not talking about the Fire, but the Kindle Touch 3G, which uses infrared sensors to enable finger input on a crisp E Ink display. New features such as the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for Amazon Prime members and X-Ray are also intriguing additions. But, at $149, is this version worth the splurge?

Design

Click to EnlargeSimple would be the best word to describe the Kindle Touch 3G's design. Its gray face is a shade lighter than the non-touch Kindle, which we found kept our eyes better focused on the screen. At 6.8 x 4.7 x 0.4 inches, the Kindle Touch is more rectangular than the Nook Simple Touch (6.5 x 5 x 0.5 inches). The Kindle Touch and Nook Simple Touch both weigh 7.5 ounces, but the 3G version of the Kindle Touch is 0.3 ounces heavier. We found the Touch 3G easy to hold in either hand for extended periods of time.

Click to EnlargeAlong the bottom of the screen is a home button made up of four horizontally stacked lines, which doesn't indicate "home" to us. The On/Sleep/Off button sits on the underside--only a minor inconvenience--along with the microUSB port and headphone jack. Two speaker grilles, which put out crisp but soft audio, line the bottom of the backside.

User Interface

What makes the Kindle Touch 3G truly different than its Kindle cousins is the lack of physical buttons in favor of an IR-based touch interface. Two thin sensors sit along the sides of the screen, and when your finger interrupts the infrared beams, the device registers a touch. This is the same method used by the Nook. Other than the physical home button, everything is done via touch, including device navigation, page turns, note taking, and searches.

Click to EnlargeThe familiar-looking home screen is organized in the same manner as other Kindles: a simple text list of content, which can be sorted into collections, by title or author, or by date added. By comparison, the Nook home screen is much more graphically appealing, thanks to the use of thumbnail book covers.

At the top of the Kindle Touch 3G home screen is a new tool bar that includes a back arrow, a search box with a drop-down Menu, and a Menu button. This Menu gives you the options to search your device, the Kindle Store, Wikipedia, or the built-in dictionary.

Click to EnlargeSmartly, the Menu options change based how you're using the Touch 3G. On the home screen, the Menu pop-up includes options for archiving content, creating collections, and syncing the device to look for new content. Inside of a book, the Menu button pops up options for turning on/off wireless, shopping the Kindle store, syncing the book to the furthest point read, bringing up a book description, adding a bookmark, viewing notes and marks, and turning on/off the text-to-speech feature.

Within books, the navigation system, called EasyReach, separates the screen into three basic regions. Tapping the top of the display launches tool bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Tapping the far left of the display turns to the previous page, while tapping anywhere else moves the content forward. To turn pages, you can tap either side of the screen, or swipe from left to right. Swiping from top to bottom (or visa versa) jumps from one chapter to the next.

Once we understood how EasyReach worked, we found it easy to use and responsive, but we had to read the user guide first. We would have preferred to have physical buttons as an additional option, like Barnes & Noble offers with the Nook Simple Touch.

Shortcuts

There are a ton of hidden features in the Kindle Touch, if you know where to look. For instance, long-pressing on a title on the Home screen displays a thumbnail of the cover and a menu of options, including sorting that book into a collection, jumping to a specific spot in the book, reading a book description, and viewing notes.

Tapping the top part of the screen from inside a book also launches a bottom tool bar for customizing the font, jumping to a specific place, or syncing to the furthest point read. Beneath this tool bar, Amazon now displays the matching page number in the physical book to the one you're currently reading, but this feature only works in some eBooks.

X-Ray

Click to EnlargeAlso available in some eBooks, the Sync button in the bottom tool bar is replaced with the new X-Ray feature. X-Ray offers information you might find in Cliff Notes, such as how often and where in a book a specific character or term might appear. In Heat Wave by Richard Castle, touching the character Matthew Starr's name in the X-Ray window brought up a brief description of the character, along with the option to find out more on Shelfari. Beneath that was a listing of each page and passage where he appears in the story.

Selecting Shelfari inside X-Ray opens the browser to Shelfari.com, so you'll need to be connected to the web. As Amazon's online social reading community, this site offers user-generated descriptions of books, characters, reviews, and readers' favorite quotes. It's like Wikipedia for eBooks.

Overall, the X-Ray feature, which worked on four out of five books in our library, was interesting. However, unless you're writing a term paper, we're not sure how useful this feature will be for casual readers. And for the crime novel lover, X-Ray gives away some of the mystery of the story.

The Kindle Touch supports non-Latin characters for those who prefer to read in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Russian.

Keyboard & Ads

Click to EnlargeWe found the on-screen keyboard much easier to use than the one on the base Kindle model which requires the directional pad. When you touch the search box at the top of the home screen, for example, small white square keys appear on a black background toward the bottom of the page. Pressing a key causes it to blink black for a brief moment. There is a good deal of space between the keys, but we were able to type as accurately on the Kindle Touch 3G as on our myTouch 4G Slide smartphone's touchscreen. We did notice some lag when we went too fast for the device.

At the bottom of the unit's home screen, Amazon discretely presents advertisements. You also get ads as a screensaver instead of the traditional book covers. Types of offers vary from half off at a local spa to an ad for the Amazon.com Rewards Credit Card. We were not bothered by the ads, and found the offset well worth keeping $40 in our pocket. If you are interested, you can see more offers by selecting the Menu button from the home page and clicking View Special Offers.

Display and Reading Experience

Click to EnlargeReading books, even in direct sunlight, is a pleasure on the Kindle's screen. The 6-inch E Ink Pearl display, with a 800 x 600-pixel resolution at 167 ppi, is comparable to what's found on the Nook. Cartoons in The New Yorker were reproduced well. However, illustrations of warriors on horseback in Sun Tzu's Art of War weren't as crisp as we'd like.

There are eight font sizes, three typefaces (regular, condensed, and sans serif), and options to shorten the space between words and space between the lines. You can manually change the screen orientation in all four directions.

Electronic page turns took just a second on the Kindle Touch, and it exhibited minimal flickering. We couldn't detect any difference in page-turn speeds between the Kindle Touch 3G and the Nook Simple Touch.

Wireless and Whispernet

Unlike the Barnes & Noble eReader, the Kindle Touch 3G offers 3G connectivity through AT&T--a.k.a. Whispernet--but it also includes 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and free access to AT&T hotspots around the country.

Via a 3G connection in midtown Manhattan, the Kindle Touch 3G downloaded The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (a 985KB file) in 15 seconds and Heat Wave by Richard Castle (354KB) took 9 seconds. With Wi-Fi on, the same books downloaded 15 and 6 seconds, respectively. These speeds were on par with our experience using the Nook Simple Touch.

Kindle Books

With 4GB of internal storage, the Touch 3G can hold up to 3,000 books. Amazon boasts more than 1 million titles with 800,000 for less than $9.99. We found all the top 10 hardback fiction books on The New York Times' best seller list.

Amazon lets anyone download and read the first chapters of a book for free. But if you subscribe to the Prime membership service (One month free trial followed by $79 per year), you can borrow from among 5,000 books, including more than 100 current and former New York Times best sellers. You only get access to one book per month, but there are no due dates. Some big-name options include Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Students can rent eligible Kindle textbooks for 30 to 360 days. When you select the end date, the price is displayed. Buying the book later only costs the difference between the purchase price and rental cost. When a rental expires, you retain access to your notes and highlights.

Amazon, like Barnes & Noble, lets users lend some Kindle books to other Kindle or Kindle app users. Eligible books--those marked as Lending Enabled on the product details page--can be lent for up to 14 days. Recipients have 7 days to accept, or the book is returned to your archives.

Kindle Newspapers & Magazines

Kindle Touch owners can subscribe to periodicals, such as USA Today and San Francisco Chronicle, starting at $5.99 per month with the Kindle Touch 3G. Most titles are available for free as a 14-day free trial. Magazine subscriptions for 130 titles, such as Shape and Time, start at $1.29. Updates from your favorite blogs, such as ESPN, Gizmodo, and TechCrunch, cost $0.99 per month.

Non-Kindle Content

Outside the Amazon ecosystem, the Kindle supports PDF, unprotected MOBI, and PRC eBook formats. That means you can load any of millions of free, out-of-copyright books. At Amazon.com/kindletouch, you'll find directions for loading books from archive.org, gutenberg.org, manybooks.net, and openlibrary.org.

One of our favorite sources for free eBooks, the public library, is now accessible from the Kindle Touch 3G. eBooks from 11,000 local institutions retain Kindle features such as notes and highlights. And when your eBook checkout expires, you can check it out again or buy it from the Kindle store. When you buy the book, it preserves all those notes and bookmarks.

You can add Doc/DocX, PDF, TXT, RTF, HTML, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and PNG files of your own to your Kindle via e-mail, as long as the files are 50MB or less. Transfers over Wi-Fi are free, but using the 3G connection will cost you $0.15 per megabyte from inside the U.S. Or you can plug the microUSB cord into the device to drag and drop files from your PC for free.

Audio

With the Text-to-Speech feature, Amazon's Kindle Touch 3G can read some periodicals and books to you. Your spot is saved when you switch back and forth between reading and listening. Text-to-Speech will also read menu options aloud if you turn on the Voice Guide feature in the Settings menu.

You can transfer MP3 music files to play on your Kindle by connecting the device to your PC via USB.

Amazon's partnership with Audible.com brings Kindle owners access to up to 60,000 books as read by authors and actors. Downloading The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett from our Amazon account (which was automatically linked to our Audible account) took a couple of minutes over Wi-Fi. Listening to John Lee's smooth narration sounded just as good through the headphones as when we listened via the Audible app on our smartphone. Audible subscription starts at $14.99 per month, which earns you one free credit each month (most Audible books cost one credit).

Notes, Share, and Dictionary

Highlighting important passages is more convenient on this Kindle than on the base model and the Kindle Keyboard, because it only requires your finger--not a tiny d-pad. You simply press and hold, then slowly drag your pointer finger over the text you want. When you release, three buttons appear in a pop-up that allow you to Highlight, Add Note, or Share. Clicking Add Note brings up a blank box and the keyboard, with options to Delete, Cancel, or Save your thoughts. Once you select Save, a footnote number appears at the end of the highlighted text.

The Share feature connects to your social networks, allowing you to link to a passage within the book. In Twitter, the service automatically adds the hashtag #Kindle to the message, and in Facebook it pulls up a thumbnail image of the book's cover. We did miss the physical keyboard when typing notes or sharing passages, because our hunt-and-peck typing was error-ridden.

We did like that we could see in a book exactly what other Kindle readers think are important passages. When you come to such a section, an underline beneath the text displays a small annotation showing the number of users who selected this sentence. You can turn this feature off in the device Settings.

On the final page of a Kindle eBook, Amazon invites you to share your thoughts on that book. You can also rate the book.

Public Notes is another way to connect with your fellow readers. By visiting kindle.amazon.com, you can search for and follow other Kindle readers. As long as they have Public Notes enabled on their device, when they make a note you'll see the passage highlighted along with their name. You can turn this feature off in the device Settings.

When we encountered the word "gesticulating" in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, we long-pressed on the word to bring up the New Oxford American Dictionary definition in a pop-up box with the option to get the full definition or highlight, note, or share the word.

Games

While not a gaming device, the Kindle Touch 3G is compatible with some games, both free and paid. Thread Words, a Boggle-like word game, was diverting for a few moments, but it won't keep you engaged for long periods of time.

Web Surfing and Searching

The Experimental WebKit browser shows stripped-down web pages, and it requires a Wi-Fi connection. When you click in the URL bar, the keyboard pops up. We appreciated the dedicated www. and .com keys. Loading the graphically heavy mobile version of National Geographic took 6 seconds, but the photos looked pixelated.

Options and Accessories

The Kindle Touch 3G costs $149, but you can shave $50 off the price if you opt to go without 3G access. That's the version we would recommend for most buyers. For $189, you can get an ad-free version of the Kindle Touch, but we don't think the ads are that intrusive. Amazon also offers a base Kindle for $79, which lacks a touchscreen. Or you can get physical buttons on the Kindle Keyboard starting at $139, but that doesn't have a touchscreen either.

There is a whole world of Kindle Touch cases available from Amazon.com, which radically range in price and style, starting as low as $19.99. You can also purchase a USB-to-wall power adapter for $9.99 from Amazon.

Battery Life

Amazon claims that the Kindle Touch 3G will run for two months on a single charge with wireless off and up to 10 days with wireless on. If you read for one hour a day with wireless off, you should get a month of battery life. With 3G on and an hour of use for three days, our Kindle Touch lost only about one-eighth of its juice.

Verdict

Click to EnlargeIt might not have the buzz of the Fire, but Amazon's other touch-enabled eReader has plenty going for it, too. The $149 Touch 3G has anywhere connectivity, a great E Ink screen, and innovative features such as X-Ray. Still, we prefer the Barnes & Noble Nook Touch, which has a more intuitive interface and physical page-turn buttons (though it lacks a headphone jack). Plus, even though they're not a big deal, you don't have to put up with ads on the Nook. But if you believe that touch and 3G access is the way to go, the Kindle Touch 3G is the eReader for you. It's pocket-friendly, easy on the eyes, and offers tons of ways to get content.

• Barnes & Noble Nook Touch: Full Review
• Six eReaders They'll Love
• eReader Guide