Amazon has announced the new color Kindle Fire. Backlit 7″ touch screen, no e-Ink, no keyboard, dual-core processor, forked Android OS, fast Internet via Amazon’s cloud servers, shipping November 15, 2011. 
The Fire Kindle is registered to your Amazon account out of the box, so no registration hassles. Price is competitive at $199. Turn it sideways to read color children’s books and yes, PDF documents.
The Fire has 80 available apps, including webmail and contact apps. Angry Birds, yes!
One of the big advantages Amazon provides is storage of your Amazon books, magazine subscriptions, audio, and video content in the cloud, so it’s available anywhere. I think the combination of Amazon’s huge inventory, apps, and cloud storage makes it extremely attractive as a small portable tablet. I do have a color Nook, and I love it as well. I also own a Kindle New Generation, which is light as a feather and good for reading without frequent recharging. Nevertheless, the Kindle Fire offers compelling advantages.
The trade-off for so much functionality is battery life and a heavier device. Anyone who uses a tablet is used to plugging in their device regularly. We’ve waited a long time for a color Kindle. A color kindle with cloud storage seems like a competition killer to me!
