amazon kindle fire

UPDATE September 2012:

See this post for the latest round of Amazon Kindles, including the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite.

Original older post below.

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So the Amazon Kindle Fire ereaders are out now and there’s a lot of anticipation in the air as folks wonder what this new device is all about.

Here’s a quick guide I put together, explaining what are ereaders, ebooks, and Kindles. And here’s an overview of the Kindle ereaders now available.

As for the Kindle Fire itself, I put together a quick unboxing video so that you can see exactly what comes in the box if you get one.

Once I get to use it more I will post a more extensive review, but initial impressions are quite positive: I connected it to my Wi-Fi network easily and in seconds I was able to surf on the Internet. The Kindle Fire also found my Amazon account and library of previously-purchased Kindle books painlessly–I was reading one of my books with just a few screen touches.

The device itself feels quite solid in the hand (but heavier than the second gen Amazon Kindle) and the touch screen is responsive.

But until I can take the device through its paces more, for now, please enjoy the unboxing.

So I guess this is now the Kendall Fire.

By the way, once I connected the Kindle Fire to my Wi-Fi network and to my Amazon account, this is what the screen looks like.

Kindle Fire Screenshot

You can see in the middle Carousel I’ve got a few books opened up and the last web page I browsed to. Along the bottom are pre-installed apps and along the top are the categories of apps, books, movies, etc. that I can view/watch/use.