Just received my Kindle Fire and three things are readily apparent. First, it is as simple as an iPad. Second, it is not as fully capable as an iPad. Third, filling it with content with content and using it will be great fun.

At $199 the Kindle Fire is less than half the price of the cheapest iPad. Yet it can perform about 80% of the tasks that an iPad can perform. You must have a wireless router or be in an area that gets a good Wi-Fi connection. That’s all you need. You can be up and running in less than five minutes with no computer needed for the setup.

The Fire is an Android tablet, but you would never know it when using it. Amazon has given the Fire a very specialized interface. This interface doesn’t give you as many options for customization as the pure Android interface, but I have found it very easy to use and very effective. Like the iPad, it is has a color touch screen, but the screen  is only 7″ so the whole device is much smaller than the iPad with its 10″ screen. Actually if you think of it being a size midway between an iPad and a smart phone, you would be pretty accurate in sizing it up.

The size has its pluses and minuses. Carrying it around with you is sure to be easier than lugging a larger tablet, but movies won’t be as large. Like the Apple devices with the Apple iTunes store, Amazon has an entire ecosystem for the Fire to use. You can very easily use Amazon’s resources to buy books, movies, and music. You can also use Amazon’s Cloud Drive to get your own books, movies and music onto the device, as long as they are not copy-protected. If you are already using Amazon Prime for Instant Movies or Amazon Kindle books or the Amazon Cloud for music,  pictures, or documents, accessing your content on the Fire is a no-brainer — easier than using iTunes.

The Fire has only a little more than 6 GB of usable storage space. While this is a little skimpy, the Fire does have a very easy way for you to access the data that you have stored in the Amazon cloud, so you don’t have to use up your storage space for books, music, or other data.

I’ll be posting a full review when I’ve had more time to use the Fire, but I can already say that you get a lot for the price.

Droid Razr

I loved my original Motorola Razr phone. In fact, I liked it so much that I went through three batteries before I finally let it go for a new model. So when Verizon announced the new Motorola Droid Razr, I was anxious to take a look. The original Razr was unique because it was a thin flip phone with an easy-to-use numeric pad. The new Razr is a flat candy-bar type of smart phone. So I wondered what Motorola could do to make it different.

When I saw the new Razr last week, I got my answer. The new Razr is really thin. When I put it next to an iPhone,  the iPhone looked twice as thick making the iPhone look surprisingly chunky and the Razr look extremely sleek. As I grabbed the new Razr, I wondered if that thinness would equate to flimsiness. All my concerns were immediately put to rest. The phone feels very solid in your hand. It has Gorilla Glass on the front and is reinforced with KEVLAR on the back. The 4.3″ Super AMOLED Advanced Display was also pretty impressive. Side-by-side, it actually looked more detailed and vivid than the Retina Display of the iPhone.

The Razr has plenty of extra accessories and features. The most impressive may be “Smart Actions” which let you program the phone to perform a certain task based on a certain time, location or both. Want to have your phone turn off automatically when you get to Sunday services? The Razr will do that and more. It is a 4G phone on Verizon’s LTE network which has just been ranked No. 1 in PC World’s 100 Best Products of 2011.

At $299 plus a two-year contract, the new Razr is not cheap, but it is impressive.

Amazon Fire

Okay, I’m sticking my neck out early this year. My pick for this years hot holiday gadget is a device with a hot name — the Amazon Fire.

If you haven’t yet heard of the Fire, it is a tablet PC with a touchscreen that Amazon will be selling for $199. The Fire is not an iPad killer, instead it is the tablet for those who want to get into the tablet market without spending $500 or $600 dollars. The Fire is smaller than the iPad (7″ screen vs. 9.7″.) It has no camera or microphone, and can only connect through Wi-Fi (no cellular connection.)Yet it will allow you to surf the web, send and receive email, listen to music, read books, watch movies and TV shows, view magazines in color, and even read documents like Word documents

and PDFs. Oh, and I almost forgot….it will also let you play games. Amazon has created its own App store where you can download games and other apps just as you can from the Apple iTunes store.

The Fire uses the Android operating system, but has a special interface that was created by Amazon. It also has a special Web browser, called Silk, that is said to be very fast. The Fire will start shipping on November 15th. Amazon did a great job of creating the Kindle e-book readers so I am convinced that the Fire will also be a great product. I already put in my order. We won’t know until November 16th just how good the Fire is or how hot the flame will be, but if it meets expectations, I predict that it will be the hottest holiday gadget this year.

For $199 you can get a portable device that will do about 80% of what you do on a computer. And there is no monthly service charge.

I think we are looking at a winner!

If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that you would like to upgrade to IOS 5, you can do it now. Apple made the upgrade available about 1 pm (eastern) today.

Upgrading is easy. You can make it even easier by doing two preliminary preparations:

1. Download iTunes 10.5. This version just became available last night, so you probably don’t have it yet. To get it, start  iTunes, click on the About menu option, and click on Check for Updates. Then follow the on-screen directions to complete the update.

2. Update all of your applications.

Once that is done, you can proceed to the iOS 5 update:

1. Plug your iPhone (3GS or 4), iPad (original or iPad 2), or iPod touch (3^rd or 4^th generation) into your computer with the USB cord.

2. If iTunes doesn’t open automatically, launch it by clicking on the iTunes icon.

3. On the left side of the iTunes windows, find your device, for example, “Sandy’s iPad,” and click it.

4. Click on the button that says “Update.” Then follow the on-screen directions.

New Kindle

Last week Amazon announced several new versions of the Kindle, their popular eBook reader. Not only will the new Kindles be inexpensive, but Amazon is lowering the price of the current Kindle.

The Kindle that Amazon has been selling for $114, and the one that I own, will now be $99. That Kindle has a gray scale screen and a built-in keyboard. It also has Amazon’s Special Offers, which are ads that appear in certain areas, but do not interfere with the text when you are reading.

Amazon will now also have a $79 Kindle which is basically the same, but without the keyboard. The screen size and quality will the same, but the unit itself will be smaller because they were able to completely cut out the keyboard. Unless you take a lot of notes, the physical keyboard is kind of superfluous anyway. The four-way controller will still be available for moving around the screen and an on-screen keyboard will appear if you need to type something.

A new Kindle Touch with a touchscreen and Wi-Fi will sell for $99 with Special Offers. 3G versions of the Kindle Touch and Kindle with Keyboard will also be available for an additional cost of $40 or $50, depending on the model. All of these have black and white screens, which I find excellent for “easy-on-your-eyes” reading.

When I reviewed Amazon’s first Kindle in June of 2008, it was selling for $349. The new Kindles are better and obviously much cheaper. These new Kindle’s will make great holiday gifts at affordable prices.

Along with Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 4S, came another very important announcement — iOS 5. This is Apple’s newest operating system. Although it will come preinstalled on the new iPhones when they are released on Oct. 14th, it will be available for other Apple devices tomorrow.

If you have an iPhone, iPad, our iPod touch, you won’t want to miss out on this. It promises to be a fantastic upgrade. And it is FREE!

iOS 5 will work on the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4. It will also work with 3rd and 4th generation iPod touches and both versions of the iPad.

Install it by hooking up your device to iTunes and checking for an update. Once installed you should see a new Notification area, Twitter integration, a new Reminder feature, and improvements to navigation, surfing, messaging, and picture taking.

Apple didn’t say exactly what time the update will be available, but I am going to try to be the first in line!

If you don’t want to be first in line, I understand. Check back here in a day or two for my take on how hard or easy the download was and how worthwhile iOS 5 really is before you download it.

It’s not the iPhone 5, as much of the media has expected. Instead it will be called the iPhone 4S. The case and the screen will be basically the same. It will have a faster processor, faster graphics, better battery life, better camera with 1080p video, and a better antenna system. It will also be a world phone, so you can use it for traveling overseas.

All of these features are already available in a variety of Android phones. The 4S will only have 3G capabilities. It won’t take advantage of the new 4G cellular network that makes data transfers faster. Many Android phones already have 4G capability.

It looks like where the iPhone 4S will trump the Android operating system is in it’s addition of verbal commands. You will be able to ask the 4S  every day questions and have it answer you. Also, Apple has included a complete overhaul of their iOS operating system. So the software on this iPhone is bound to be better and have new features.

I think the fact that Apple called it the iPhone 4S instead of the iPhone 5 says a lot. Instead of being an entirely new revision of hardware and software, it is only incrementally better. That doesn’t mean that it won’t be a great smart phone. It is sure to sell extremely well, but unless the new operating system is truly more spectacular than the Android operating system, I won’t be in a hurry to buy one.

Starbuck's Pick of the Week

Who doesn’t like a freebie? And this one is fun.

Just head over to your local Starbucks and grab a small card called “Pick of the Week.” You will find these cards on the Starbucks counter near the straws, sugar, and creamer. On the card you will find instructions for downloading the free song from iTunes and a download code. Songs include the type of music that you hear in Starbucks – jazz, independent artists, guitar music, etc. If you visit every week, you can accumulate quite a collection of free music.

Besides songs, these cards also offer free apps, TV shows, book samples and other content from the iTunes store.

You can also bring your laptop or other device with you to Starbucks and connect to the Starbucks Wi-Fi where you can download the Pick of the Week from the Entertainment section.

Kindle Fire

Kindle Fire

Amazon’s big announcement today will bring several new and/or updated devices to market for the Christmas selling season at some remarkable prices.

The first two are perfect Christmas presents. The new base level Kindle with Special Offers will be smaller, lighter, faster, and cheaper. It has no keyboard, but the price will now be $79, down from $114. This is available now.

At $99, the new Kindle Touch with Wi-Fi will also make a great holiday present. The KindleTouch with 3G connectivity will be $149. Both are gray-scale e-ink with 6-inch touch screens. These will be available on November 21^st.

The third Amazon product is the one that is sure to rock the boat. Amazon is calling it the Kindle Fire. It has a color 7” touch screen and will sell for $199 when it is released on November 21^st. They are billing it as the perfect color Kindle (read that as tablet) for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, games, and web browsing. This device will run on the Android operating system. Amazon has already opened their own Android app store. They have also developed a  special Amazon web browser, called Silk, for the Fire.

The Kindle Fire will not have a screen as large as the iPad. It will not have as much memory or as powerful a processor. It will not have a camera or a microphone. So it will not be an iPad killer. It will instead open the market place to another level of tablet. If the implementation is as good as it sounds, the $199 price point will allow  many who cannot afford the $500+ iPad to get into the tablet world.

The beauty of all this for Amazon is that Amazon will make Amazon purchasers out of all the Kindle and Kindle Fire purchasers. This allows them to subsidize the cost of the device. This is something that no other tablet manufacturers could not do as effectively as Amazon. Other manufacturer brought out tablets that were priced at the high end like the iPad. These tablets include HP’s TouchPad, RIM’s Blackberry Playbook, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, and Motorola’s Xoom. All of these have already flopped.

Amazon’s reach for the low end of the tablet market is ingenious. If the implementation is as good as previous Kindle devices, it will give us some great choices for holiday presents this year.

Big Announcement!!

I’ll be on Craig Crossman’s Computer America radio show this evening, September 27, 2011 –  from 11 to midnight, Eastern Time. That’s 8-9 pm, Pacific Time.

We’ll be talking about printers, cell phones, cameras, and the other interesting gadgets and gizmos that I review for HardwareSecrets.com. With Amazon’s press conference slated for tomorrow and Apple’s iPhone announcement set for next week, there will be plenty of new gadgets to talk about.

Join us by listening over the air on the Business Talk Radio Network or online at http://computeramerica.com/listen.htm.