Kindle 2 Makes Content the Center of Life

The Kindle 2 holds a lot of books, yes. But it brings content into your life in many more ways than letting you bring a lot of books around with you. When you are reading a book, for example, you can look up an unfamiliar word and get a definition. In addition, if you want a more detailed explanation of something you find in the book, you can access Wikipedia. So you will literally spend hours on Kindle 2 once you get a hold of it.

When you want more books you can start by reading the first chapter of almost any book before deciding to buy it. This is kind of like having a bookstore everywhere you go. You can browse books and read what they are about from anywhere. Customer reviews are available too. Most new releases are only $9.99, which makes them a lot more affordable than the printed books from the bookstore.

Beyond reading books you can also read newspapers and blogs on your Kindle 2. Newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and magazines like Time are available for purchase. If you get a subscription, they are delivered to your kindle early in the morning. I'm exited that you can also get blogs on you Kindle 2.

If you're into seriously detailed reading, you can annotate the content quite easily. You can highlight important passages and mark up your text. The nice thing is that Amazon backs it up on their website forever, so you don't have to worry about losing your annotations.

Kindle 2 makes content a central theme in your life. Books, magazines, blogs, whatever. It's all there in your Kindle 2, with you wherever you go. This is the way to get everything you read into one place and simplify your life.

Brian Gabriel shows consumers how to use technology to save time and money. He reviews the Kindle 2 at [http://www.thekindle2.info/]

Amazon's Kindle Fire - Where Content And Price Are King

Amazon's Kindle Fire is 'rekindling' and 'firing' up the eReader market! From the Kindle's roots as a dedicated e-book reader, Amazon's new eReader is no longer just that. It is now a full-blown multimedia tablet designed to compete alongside the top competitors such as the Apple iPad. Announced in September 2011 by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, the Kindle Fire is scheduled to go on sale on November 15th just in time for Christmas. But will it really 'fire' up Christmas shoppers? Has it really sparked a change in the crowded tablet market? Can it compete against the ultimate market leader Apple iPad? Let's take a closer look at the Kindle Fire to see how it stacks up.

Screen size versus portability

The Kindle Fire packs a 7-inch touchscreen and includes multi-touch capabilities. With this compact size, it is easier to hold in one hand than the much larger iPad and this is what e-book readers prefer over tablets, but screen size is clearly a matter of preference and a necessary trade-off between screen viewing and portability. The question is: will a tablet reader except this trade-off?

How does the screen quality compare?

The Kindle Fire screen uses a new technology known as IPS (in-plane-switching), which is also found in the iPad to allow extra wide-angle viewing. One key highlight is its screen resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, which yields an image quality of 169 pixels per inch (ppi). It is interesting to know that this beats the iPad 2 which only sports 132 ppi. The display of the Kindle Fire is made of Gorilla Glass, which is a chemically strengthened glass said to be 20-30 times harder than plastic, which is a nice addition for durability.

What about performance?

Weighing in at only 14.6 ounces, it is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor and 512MB RAM, putting it on quite equal par with the iPad 2 in terms of speed and performance.

And Web-browsing and Storage?

Internet browsing on the Kindle Fire is no less inferior thanks to its Amazon Silk browser. Silk enables "split browser" technology that makes the most of Amazon cloud storage and the latest dual-core processor on board. Though the internal storage of the Kindle Fire is only 8GB versus the options of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB on the Apple iPad 2, Amazon overcomes this shortcoming by making full use of its cloud storage. So users of the Kindle Fire are able to store and backup many e-books and files online in the 'cloud' as well, similar to iCloud in the iPad's latest iOS 5.

And Connectivity?

Although Amazon's new eReader still does not include 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi is reliable at 802.11n with USB 2.0 connectivity as well. It is powered by a modified version of the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, which allows users access to the Amazon App Store.

And this is where Kindle starts to blaze! Content!

It really is all about content at Amazon. Though somewhat limited here to only about 10,000+ apps out of the 230,000 available on the Android marketplace, versus the 90,000 iPad apps from the 500,000+ apps in the Apple App Store, the Kindle Fire's strongest selling point is its seamless integration and access to Amazon's vast repertoire of content and online storefronts. Users have a visually-appealing and convenient access to Amazon content online, be it e-books, movies, music, magazines, games or even TV shows.

And Kindle Fire simply blows the roof off on price!

Best of all, the Kindle Fire is priced very competitively at only $199, versus the $499-$829 of the iPad 2, which makes it very affordable to a much larger market, both young and old alike. Although not as strong as the iPad 2 in some features and specs, it still packs enough punch in the package of content that it offers at great value for money.

To read more about Kindle Fire and Prebuy for Christmas Click Here.

Ben Saffal writes about Kindles at The Best eReader Blog.

Kindle Fire Now Offers Parental Content Controls

Mobicip, an app company that focus on helping parents control what their kids see on the web, has now released an app for the Kindle Fire to help parents control what they see on the Fire. This is a great idea, and could be a great comfort to those of you out there who have small children. I can see the value of this, as just the other day a friend of mine was talking about their child grabbing a device of theirs (I think it was a smartphone), and ended up on a site watching a video they should not have been watching within a few minutes!

The way it works is the app is actually its own browser, and this is the browser that you would allow your kids to use. You can set the content settings to several different levels based on their age. Right now you can set it to elementary, middle school, high school. You can try it for free for now, as it is still in beta. On other devices it costs $4.99 for the app, so I would guess this would be how much it will cost when it comes out of beta.

There is the obvious workaround for your kids – they could just use another browser! However, Mobicip has that covered, too, as you can actually use the app to block other apps, such as browsers, video apps, etc.

Overall, I think this is a great product, and I am glad it is coming to the Kindle Fire.

View the original article here