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The Fire (which comes in your choice of black, magenta, blue or tangerine) has front- and rear-facing cameras, making it perfect for video calls with your far-flung friends and relatives. You also get access to hundreds of apps through Amazon’s app store (including all the biggies, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). The Fire lets you stream thousands of movies and TV shows via Amazon Video—oh, and it doubles as a Kindle, too.

Check out the $40 Amazon Fire tablet here

If you buy something through our Deals posts, we may earn some money. Thank you for your support!

The post They’re practically giving away the 7-inch Amazon Fire tablet appeared first on here's the thing.

(Update: the deadline to enter the contest has expired. Thanks for playing!)

This year, the prize is especially enticing: a 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX tablet.

We’re talking a svelte, 12.2-ounce tablet with a razor-sharp display, Dolby sound, a speedy 2.2 GHz processor, a front-facing camera, and “Mayday,” the handy new feature that lets you video chat with an Amazon support rep if you ever need help.

You’ll also be able to load all your Kindle books and Amazon Instant videos, as well as install thousands of apps.

Sound good? If so, just sign up for our daily tips newsletter by December 29, 2014 for a chance to win.

Click here for a chance to win!

Thanks again to all our readers, and I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday.

Read the official contest rules…

The post Want a chance to win a 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX tablet? (update: contest over) appeared first on here's the thing.

Not to be outdone, Google took the wraps off its online music store and threw open the doors to Google Music, another digital music “locker” that will store (you guessed it) up to 20,000 of your favorite tracks. Unlike iTunes Match, Google Music is free … but there’s a catch.

Also this week: hands-on with Amazon’s new, $200 Kindle Fire tablet; a field guide to the latest crop of feature-packed tablets, including the iPad 2, the Fire, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus; and how to share iCloud’s “Photo Stream” feature with your better half.

How to stream all your music from iCloud with iTunes Match
The $25-a-year service will scan your music library and “match” your songs with high-quality versions in iCloud, perfect for streaming from your iPhone or iPad. Read more…

Hands-on with the $200 Kindle Fire: You get what you pay for
The Fire lacks the silky-smooth performance of a pricier tablet like the iPad 2, but with its $200 price tag, you won’t have to empty your wallet, either. Read more…

Google launches music store, offers free online storage for 20,000 songs
The search giant unveiled its new music store Tuesday, as well as promising free storage of up to 20,000 tracks in your own, online music “locker.” Read more…

Podcast 004: The tablet show, starring the iPad 2, the Kindle Fire, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and more
This week, we poke and prod the iPad 2, the smaller but sexy Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, the bargain-priced Kindle Fire, and the $79 Kindle e-reader. Read more…

How can I share Photo Stream pictures with my wife? (reader mail)
No, you don’t need the same iTunes Store account to share photos using Photo Stream—but you will need to share an iCloud account. Confused yet? Read more…

iPad, Nook, Tab or Fire? A field guide for first-time tablet shoppers
So, ready to buy a tablet, but not sure where to start? Read on for a bird-eye view of the entire tablet landscape, from the Apple iPad 2 to the Kindle Fire. Read more…

Try this: Split the iPad’s keyboard in two (iOS 5 tip)
Want to type on the iPad’s keyboard with your thumbs rather than your fingers? It’s a lot easier once you split the iPad’s on-screen keypad in half. Here’s how. Read more…

How to upload and stream your tunes with Google Music
Google Music will let you upload up to 20,000 songs to a digital “locker” and stream your tunes over the web or on an Android device. Here’s how to get started. Read more…

HP’s slim, light Folio 13 laptop promises 9 hours of battery life
HP’s svelte, 3.3-pound Windows laptop boasts a 13-inch display, a potpourri of ports, and nine hours of juice—supposedly, at least. Read more…

Why won’t Mission Control label my desktops? (Mac OS X Lion tip)
Yes, Mission Control will label at least some of your desktops, but requires a little action on your part—and not all your Mac apps will be up to the task. Read more…

Kindle Fire review roundup: “Not an iPad killer,” but still “terrific” at $200
At $200, the Fire is less than half the price of the iPad—and you get what you pay for, reviewers say, although you’re also getting a lot of bang for the buck. Read more…

Quick take: Wingstand keyboard clips for iPhone, iPad
Here’s a clever idea: a pair of plastic clips that snaps onto Apple’s wireless keyboard and holds your iDevice at just the right angle for typing. Read more…

The post How to stream music with iTunes Match; the $200 Kindle Fire; Google’s new music store (week in review) appeared first on here's the thing.

Well, I happen to have four—count ’em—four tablets sitting on my dining room tablet at the moment, and they pretty much run the gamut, ranging from a pricey, full-size iPad 2 to one of the cheapest e-readers you can get.

Instead of burying you with details on every last tablet on the market, I’m going to give you a bird’s-eye view of the entire tablet landscape, from the best-selling iPad to the new (and bargain-priced) Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet.

So, which kind of tablet might be right for you—or for that special someone on your holiday shopping list? Let’s get started with…

Full-size, 8- to 10-inch tablet

Makes and models include:
Apple iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola Xoom, T-Mobile G-Slate

The $499 (and up) iPad 2, with its 9.7-inch LCD display.

What it does:
A little of everything: surf the web, checks email, manages calendars and contacts, plays videos and music, edits documents, handles video chat, plays games. Might even replace your laptop, as long as you don’t mind working with a touchscreen keyboard.

Weighs about:
A pound and a half, give or take

Feels like:
A thick magazine

Features to look for:
Dual-core processors (meaning two processors on a single chip) for peppy performance; dual cameras, including one in front for video chat; microphone; memory card slot (Android tablets only); GPS; 3G or 4G wireless support

Number of apps:
Hundreds of thousands, either from the Apple App Store or the Android Market

How much:
$500 and up (or less with a two-year contract through a wireless carrier)

What’s great about them:
Big, roomy display, just the ticket for surfing the web and watching movies or TV shows; growing selection of tablet-formatted magazines and newspapers, complete with slideshows, videos, and other interactive goodies; on-screen keyboards that are almost as large as real ones; powerful work and productivity apps; all-day battery life

What’s not so great about them:
Expensive; way too large for a pocket, or even some purses; can be tiring to hold in a single hand; difficult to use outside due to glare-prone LCD displays; require daily charging, depending on how heavily you use them

Perfect for:
Movie lovers, magazine subscribers, news junkies, on-the-go corporate users who want to check email or do some light document editing on the road; anyone who enjoys surfing the web from their sofa

Premium seven-inch tablet

Makes and models include:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, BlackBerry Playbook, HTC Evo View 4G

The $400 Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus: small, but powerful.

What it does:
Just about anything a full-size tablet can do, including surfing the web, handling calendars and contacts, doing video chat, playing games, you name it. That said, the smaller screen on a mid-size tablet will make laptop-style activities like email and document editing that much more difficult.

Weighs about:
12 to 15 ounces

Feels like:
A mid-size paperback book

Features to look for:
Dual-core processors; dual cameras, including one in front for video chat; microphone; memory card slot (Android tablets only); GPS; 3G or 4G wireless support

Number of apps:
Hundreds of thousands, in the case of Android tablets; a few thousand for the BlackBerry Playbook

How much:
$400 and up (or less with a two-year contract)

What’s great about them:
You get most of the benefits of a full-size tablet, but in a palm-sized package; small enough to fit in a purse, or perhaps even the inside pocket of a blazer

What’s not so great about them:
Expensive; smaller on-screen keyboards that’ll cramp your style when it comes to email or productivity; less battery life than a full-size tablet (think seven hours rather than nine, on average); same sunlight-averse LCD displays as larger tablets

Perfect for:
Mobile mavens who’d rather not juggle a full-on, magazine-sized device

Budget seven-inch tablet

Makes and models include:
Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook Color and Nook Tablet

The $200 Kindle Fire: great for books, magazines, and videos, but weak when it comes to productivity

What it does:
Lets you shop for and read books, newspapers, and tablet-formatted, full-color magazines; plays videos and music; plays games; surfs the web and checks email

Weights about:
14 ounces, or a little heavier than a premium seven-inch tablet

Feels like:
A mid-size paperback book, albeit one that’s somewhat thick and heavy

Features to look for:
Access to an online book and magazine store (the Kindle Store in the case of Amazon, or the Nook store for Barnes & Noble); streaming video and music players; dual-core processors

Number of apps:
A few thousand, with no access to the larger Apple or Google app stores

How much:
$200 to $250

What’s great about them:
Very cheap compared to premium tablets; designed to make life easy for book and magazine shoppers; emphasis on video, music, games, and other entertainment

What’s not so great about them:
No built-in cameras means no video chat; no GPS for using location-based apps like Yelp; no 3G, meaning you’ll need a nearby Wi-Fi network to go online; needs a daily battery charge, depending on use; limited access to business-minded productivity apps; LCD screen that’s hard to read outdoors; no access to Google’s massive Android Market for apps

Perfect for:
Bookworms, magazine readers, and movie lovers interested in a multimedia tablet that won’t break the bank

Dedicated e-reader

Makes and models include:
Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch, Sony Reader

The $99 Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch, complete with a touchscreen.

What it does:
Lets you shop for and read books, newspapers, and magazines

Weighs about:
5-8 ounces

Feels like:
A thin, very light paperback book

Features to look for:
“Electronic paper” display that doesn’t need a backlight; Wi-Fi and/or 3G wireless support; touch-sensitive screen (on pricier models)

Number of apps:
A few dozen games, most of which are pretty basic

How much:
$79 to $150

What’s great about them:
Very cheap; amazing electronic-paper display lets you read outdoors, even under direct sunlight; battery life is measured in weeks rather than hours; very light and easy to hold; capable of storing thousands of books; latest Kindle and Nook models boast touchscreens

What’s not so great about them:
Sluggish, black-and-white display is far too slow for video; magazines and newspapers are delivered in plain-text format; save for an “experimental” web browser on the Kindle, no real email or productivity apps; non-illuminated display means you’ll need a light source to read in the dark

Perfect for:
Bookworms who love curling up for several uninterrupted hours of reading, free from distractions like email, video, or web surfing; vacationers who don’t want to worry about charing their gadgets or who’d rather not lug paper books around; sunbathers who want to read by the pool

Still not sure what kind of tablet is right for you? Post your questions below!

The post iPad, Nook, Tab or Fire? A field guide for first-time tablet shoppers appeared first on here's the thing.

I haven’t had the chance to thoroughly test the $200 Fire, of course; after all, I’ve only had it in my hot little hands for a few hours. Still, I’ve poked and prodded it enough to make a few initial impressions, starting with…

Small, but heavy
With a screen that measures just seven inches diagonally, the Fire (click here for more details and specifications) is considerably smaller than competing tablets like the iPad and the Motorola Xoom, and it’s also much lighter at just 14.1 ounces. But while the Fire is lighter than the iPad on paper, it actually feels heavier thanks to its smaller shell; indeed, with its 0.45-inch profile, the Fire feels decidedly thick and hefty.

The Kindle Fire is thicker than its pricier competition, such as the seven-inch Samsung Galaxy 7.0 Plus (which is sitting on top).

Now, it just so happens that I’m currently testing another seven-inch tablet, the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy 7.0 Plus—and at 12.1 ounces and just 0.39 inches thick, the Tab feels much more svelte than the Fire. Then again, Fire only costs half as much as the $400 Tab.

Setup? What setup?
So yes, the Kindle is bit on the heavy side, but it couldn’t make a better impression the first time you turn it on. Mine arrived already connected to my Amazon account, with the swipable “carousel” on the Fire’s home page already populated with all my Kindle books and music I’d purchased from the Amazon MP3 store. There was even a personalized welcome letter from Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, thanking me for my Fire purchase. Nice touch.

The “carousel”: round and round she goes
Front and center on the Fire’s screen is the “carousel,” a flickable, rotating … well, carousel that displays the books, videos, songs, and apps that you’ve accessed most recently. Tap a book cover, album art, or a movie poster on the carousel, and zoom—you’re there. Want to jump from a book to a video, and back again? Tap the Home button at the bottom of the screen, flick to the video you want to watch, tap, and hey—you’re multitasking.

The Kindle app on the Fire is similar to those you'll find on the iPad and Android tablets.

There’s Android in here
You’d never know that the otherwise user-friendly Fire ran on Google’s Android mobile platform—that is, until you tap the Menu button and select Settings, at which point you’ll be confronted by a series of intimidating Android menu options. The settings in Android aren’t all that tough to figure out, but they might be overwhelming for anyone who’s new to tablets.

Kindle books look awfully familiar
I’ve you seen Amazon’s Kindle app for the iPad or Android phones in action, you’ve pretty much seen how Kindle books look on the Fire. No, there aren’t any fancy page-turn animations like there are on Apple’s iBooks app on on Google Books, but book text looks clear and sharp, you can change font sizes and background colors, and all your notes and bookmarks are synced with any other Kindle devices or apps connected to your account.

Magazines like Vanity Fair looks pretty sharp on the Fire's seven-inch screen.

There are also about 400 magazines available for the Fire, and like the digital magazines for the iPad, the reading experience depends on how much work the published has put into their respective magazine apps. I checked out an issue of Vanity Fair for the Fire and found it to be virtually identical to its iPad equivalent—that is, thoughtfully formatted, tablet-friendly, and generally pleasurable to read.

Crystal-clear videos
Amazon promised HD-quality video playback on the Fire, and so far, I like what I’m seeing. No, you’re not really going to get an HD picture on the Fire’s seven-inch screen, which lacks the resolution to display every pixel of a 720p image (and to be fair, Amazon only said the Fire can play HD videos, not that it can fully resolve them). That said, my eyes widened as I queued up an HD stream of “Lost” from Amazon’s video-on-demand service.

The very first scene of Jack lying on the jungle floor as he awoke from the plane crash looked razor-sharp; indeed, I could make out each of his individual eyelashes during the famous close-up of his dilating pupils, while the thicket of surrounding bamboo shoots looked impressively detailed. The picture started to get a little blocky during as Jack dashed toward the site of the crash, but still—not bad for a streaming video.

The Fire is capable of playing HD-quality videos, and yes—they look good.

Amazon has thousands of movies and TV shows available for streaming on the Fire, although you’ll have to pony up $79 to watch its all-you-can-stream “Prime” videos, a service similar to Netflix’s Instant videos.

Let the music play
The Fire also has a solid music player that connects to the Amazon MP3 store, perfect for quickly download tunes that you’ve already purchased directly onto the device.

And while the Fire lacks a slot for microSD memory cards, it does come with a USB cable that you can connect to your Mac or PC for transferring tunes from your hard drive. When I plugged the Fire’s cable into my MacBook’s USB port, the Fire popped up as a drive on my desktop; from there, I started dragging and dropping MP3 into the Fire’s “Music” directory.

Just don’t go too crazy with the file transfers, given the Fire’s somewhat stingy 8 GB of storage.

Related: How big is a gig (GB), anyway?

Email, web, and other apps
The bad news about the Android-powered Fire is that it lacks access to the hundreds of thousands of apps in the Android Market, Google’s equivalent to the Apple App Store. The good news, though, is that Amazon has its own, well-stocked version of the Android Market, including apps like Facebook, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, Words With Friends, and Angry Birds.

The Fire’s built-in email and web apps are serviceable, although nowhere near as slick as the versions you’ll find on the latest Android tablets. You’ll also find a Contacts app, but no calendar—although again, you could always go find the calendar app of your choice in Amazon’s app store.

Herky-jerky performance
While the Fire’s home page “carousel” spins nice and smoothly, everything else feels a little underpowered. Turning a page in a Kindle book is a bit jittery, screen taps often take a second or two to register, and otherwise slick interface animations tend to look a little creaky.

None of this renders the Fire unusable, of course, but it’s like the difference between a Corvette and a Chevette: one’s sleek, speedy and expensive, the other’s boxy, a little slower out of the starting gate, but far more affordable.

What’s missing
A camera and a microphone, for starters. Also missing in action: 3G (meaning you’ll need nearby Wi-Fi to go online) and GPS (so no maps of nearby restaurants or museums).

And the verdict is…
Ah, not so fast; like I wrote above, I haven’t even had the Fire for 24 hours yet. So far, though, the Fire is living up to my modest expectations. No, you won’t get the silky-smooth performance of higher-end tablets like the iPad 2 or the latest Samsung Galaxy tablets, but with its bargain $200 price tag—less than half the price of the cheapest iPad—you won’t have to empty your wallet, either.

And if you think of it less as less of a productivity tool and more as a portal for countless hours of entertainment from Amazon’s various Kindle, video, and music stores, the Fire starts to get more and more interesting.

Of course, the Fire won’t be the only bargain tablet coming out this holiday season; we’ve also got the upcoming Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet, which boasts the same size screen as the Fire, more memory (16 GB versus 8 GB), but also a slightly higher price tag ($250 instead of $200).

So, any questions about the Fire? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll investigate and get back to you.

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Update: Check out my own hands-on with the Kindle Fire right here.

Amazon is set to start shipping the Fire—a full-color tablet with a seven-inch screen and access to thousands of streaming movies, millions of Kindle books, hundreds of magazines, a mountain of music, and apps like Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, and Angry Birds—this week. (And let’s not forget that Barnes & Noble is teeing up its own Fire competitor, the $250 Nook Tablet.)

But a few pre-release reviews are already trickling in, and the consensus seems to be that the Fire is still a little rough around the edges: a bit too thick and solid, “sluggish jerky” when it comes to graphics, limited in the memory department (just 8GB, versus a minimum of 16GB for the iPad), and lacking key features like speedy 3G support (meaning you’ll need a Wi-Fi connection to go online), GPS, and a camera or microphone (so no video chat).

That said, reviewers say, the Fire has an ace up its sleeve: its $200 price tag, making for one of the best tablet bargains now on the market, warts and all.

The Fire is also winning praise for its ability to tap into your digital “locker” on Amazon.com, which turns the modest tablet into a Wi-Fi-connected treasure chest of seemingly limitless entertainment—although to take full advantage of the Fire’s online services, you’ll need to shell out $79 a year for an Amazon Prime membership.

Read on for a few snippets from the first Fire reviews, starting with…

Tim Stevens, Engadget:

The Kindle Fire is quite an achievement at $200. It’s a perfectly usable tablet that feels good in the hand and has a respectably good looking display up front. Yes, power users will find themselves a little frustrated with what they can and can’t do on the thing without access to the Android Market but, in these carefree days of cloud-based apps ruling the world, increasingly all you need is a good browser. That the Fire has.

Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times:

Take an iPad, solve its two biggest problems, and you’d hope to wind up with something exactly like Amazon’s Kindle Fire. The iPad has a 10-inch screen and costs a minimum of $499. The Fire slips into many pockets and purses and will set you back just $199. Its designers started off with a fundamentally good idea, executed that idea extremely well (despite a few 1.0 hiccups), and wound up with a product that fills a sorely-felt gap in the marketplace.

David Pogue, New York Times:

The Fire deserves to be a disruptive, gigantic force — it’s a cross between a Kindle and an iPad, a more compact Internet and video viewer at a great price. But at the moment, it needs a lot more polish; if you’re used to an iPad or “real” Android tablet, its software gremlins will drive you nuts.

Josh Topolsky, The Verge:

This isn’t an iPad killer … [but] there’s no question that the Fire is a really terrific tablet for its price. The amount of content you have access to — and the ease of getting to that content — is notable to say the least. The device is decently designed, and the software — while lacking some polish — is still excellent compared to pretty much anything in this range (and that includes the Nook Color). It’s a well thought out tablet that can only get better as the company refines the software. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great start, and at $200, that may be all Amazon needs this holiday shopping season.

Donald Bell, CNET:

The Kindle Fire is not the best tablet I’ve seen this year, but I have to give credit to Amazon for seeing something that no other manufacturer–not even Apple–was able to grasp. When you look at the gap between what tablets are capable of doing, and what people actually use them for, you’ll find that most people just want to be entertained.

The Kindle Fire is here to entertain us, and at $199, I suspect many will take Amazon up on the offer. If you need a tablet that can keep up with your jet-setting, spreadsheet-editing, video-chatting lifestyle, I can point you to a few dozen better options. For the rest of you, read on.

As for me, I’ll have to wait like everyone else to get my hands on the Kindle Fire; once I do, though, I’ll post my own review.

So, what do you think: Would you consider the smaller, less-polished but cheaper Fire over the larger, peppier, but pricier iPad?

The post Kindle Fire review roundup: “Not an iPad killer,” but still “terrific” at $200 appeared first on here's the thing.

But how does the Nook Tablet really stack up to the Fire—or, say, more traditional e-readers like the Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Nobile’s own Nook Simple Touch?

Read on for a few key things you need to know about the new Nook Tablet, starting with…

It’s (almost) the same size as the Kindle Fire, and a little smaller than the iPad
Measuring seven inches diagonally, the Nook Tablet’s display is precisely as large (or as small, depending on your point of view) as the one on the upcoming Kindle Fire, and it’s a couple inches smaller than the iPad 2’s 9.7-inch screen.

Measuring 8.1 by 5 by 0.48 inches, the Nook Tablet’s shell is slightly thicker than the Fire’s 0.45-inch girth. But at 14.1 ounces, it’s also a bit lighter than the 14.6-ounce Fire.

It’s more of a multi-function tablet than a single-purpose e-reader
Like the iPad, the Fire, and the Nook Color before it, the Nook Tablet will surf the web, check your email, play music, display the weather, and yes, even let you read books and magazines from Barnes & Noble’s mammoth (as in 2.5 million volumes) online Nook store. That’s opposed to the smaller, lighter, and cheaper Kindle ($79 and up) and Nook Simple Touch ($99), which are pretty much dedicated e-readers.

You’ll have a hard time seeing the Nook Tablet’s screen outside
The Nook Tablet has an LCD display, same as on the iPad and the Kindle Fire. That means while you’ll be able to watch movies and TV shows and scroll web pages on the Nook Tablet, you’ll also have a tough time seeing its display in the great outdoors, particularly under a bright sun.

It’s $250 less than the iPad 2, but $50 more than the Fire
While the $249 Nook Tablet will be one of the cheapest tablets around (compared, say, to the $499 iPad 2) when it debuts later this month, it’ll still be a bit pricier than the $199 Amazon Fire.

It packs in more memory than the Fire, and it (supposedly) has better battery life
Yes, the Nook Tablet costs more than the Fire—but you’ll also get twice the storage, with Barnes & Noble promising 16GB of on-board memory plus an expansion slot for an optional 32GB microSD memory card.

Barnes & Noble is also claiming up to 11.5 hours of reading or 9 hours of video on the Nook Tablet with a single charge, versus 8 hours of reading and 7.5 hours of video on the Kindle Fire. Whether those numbers hold up after real-world testing, however, remains to be seen.

It runs apps, but can’t access Google’s Android Market
Like the Nook Color before it, the Android-powered Nook Tablet won’t have access to the hundreds of thousands of apps in Google’s Android Market. That said, Barnes & Noble says it’ll offer “thousands” of apps customized for its new tablet, including apps from Netflix, Hulu, and Pandora, along with games like Angry Birds and Scrabble.

You’ll be able to watch videos from Netflix and Hulu
So yes, the Nook Tablet with ship with the aforementioned Netflix and Hulu Plus mobile applications. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll have to subscribe to Netflix ($8 a month) and/or Hulu (ditto) before you start streaming movies or TV shows. The Amazon Fire, meanwhile, will stream movies and TV shows via its $79-a-year Amazon Prime service, which also offers free two-day shipping for purchased items from Amazon’s online store.

Its predecessor, the Nook Color, just got a $50 price cut
You can now snap up last year’s Nook Color, which also comes with a seven-inch color LCD screen, for $199, or $50 off its original $249 sticker price. That said, you’ll have to settle for a less-robust version of the Nook Tablet’s processor, and you won’t get access to Netflix or Hulu. Update: Netflix just announced that its mobile app is, indeed, coming to the Nook Color.

It hasn’t been reviewed yet
So, which of these two bargain-priced tablets—the Amazon Fire, or the Nook Tablet—should you get? (At $499 and up, the larger iPad is in a different category.) Well, neither the Fire nor the Tablet will go on sale until later this month, meaning we’ll have to wait a bit before reviewers get to take a crack at them. Stay tuned.

Have more questions about the Nook Tablet? Let me know!

The post The new Nook Tablet: what you need to know appeared first on here's the thing.

Well, here’s the thing: the iPad’s LCD display is, indeed, perfect for watching videos, flicking through color photos, and even reading e-books and digital magazines—provided you’re indoors, with a power socket nearby.

And while the Kindle’s screen can barely scroll through a web page, much less let you stream Netflix, it does a beautiful job of displaying text outside, even in direct sunlight. You’ll also be able to read for days or even weeks between charges.

So, what’s the actual difference between the screens on the Kindle and such tablets as the iPad, the LCD-equipped Kindle Fire, and the new Nook Tablet? Allow me to explain—and don’t worry, I’ll try my best to keep it simple.

The iPad’s display: Jack of all trades, master of none

The iPad (along with most other tablets, smartphones, flat-screen computer monitors, and HDTVs) uses a screen technology called LCD, short for “liquid crystal display.”

Rather than going into the technical details on how an LCD screen works, suffice to say it consists of thousands or even millions of tiny dots, or pixels, that can change color dozens of times a second—fast enough to display a smooth video image, a scrolling web page, or an angry bird.

The downside of LCD, though, is that all those vibrantly colorful, rapidly refreshing pixels aren’t terribly reflective, meaning that light (like sunlight) doesn’t bounce off of them all that well.

For that reason, an LCD must be illuminated by a steady backlight, and that demands constant power—from, say, a wall outlet (in the case of the HDTV in your living room, or the PC on your desk) or a battery (for an iPad, an Android phone, or an iPod Touch). Indeed, one of the biggest reasons that your smartphone needs a charge every night is because of its power-hungry LCD.

And while a backlit LCD screen is easy to read indoors, or in the dark, it pales the moment you step outside. Good luck reading an e-book on your iPad by the pool, under a clear blue sky.

On the other hand, consider the black-and-white screen on a Kindle, or a similar e-reader like the original Barnes & Noble Nook or the Sony Reader.

The Kindle’s E Ink display: Great at displaying text, terrible at motion 

These e-reader devices don’t use LCD screens. Instead, they use a type of display that’s broadly described as e-paper. The Kindle and the Nook Touch use a particular type of e-paper display, made by a company called E Ink.

Unlike LCD, these so-called “E Ink” displays don’t need a backlight—and in fact, an E Ink screen looks better and better the brighter it is outside.

How does an E Ink screen work? Well, here’s one way of looking at it: a pool table covered by thousands of billiard balls, with each ball painted black on one side and white on the other. When the balls are turned in just the right way, you’ll see words or even pictures.

All these billiard balls do a fantastic job of reflecting light. And here’s the real beauty of an E Ink display: it only uses power when it “turns” its thousands of billiard balls from one side to another, to form a new page. When the page is just sitting there, the display doesn’t use any power at all. (Of course, a snoozing e-reader device may still use a trickle of power for its built-in clock or wireless radio.)

Now, E Ink displays aren’t really made of thousands of tiny billiard balls; instead, we’re talking countless pixels with electrically-charged particles capable of displaying many shades of gray, not just black or white. But you get the idea.

What’s the downside of an E Ink display? For one thing, its pixels “refresh” very slowly—just once every second or so, versus dozens of times a second for LCD pixels. In other words, there’s no way you’ll be watching YouTube on an E Ink screen.

Also, while E Ink displays don’t need a backlight, they do need some ambient light to be visible at all. That means if you’re planning on reading your Kindle or Nook in a pitch-black room, you’d better bring a flashlight, too.

And while there are color E Ink displays in development, they don’t offer nearly the same vibrancy as color LCD screens do (or at least, not yet).

The bottom line

Devices like the iPad, an Android phone, the Amazon Fire, and other LCD-equipped gadgets can display just about anything, but they need lots of juice—and the darker the ambient lighting, the better their screens look.

E-readers like the Kindle and the (old) Nook, however, display one thing—text—better than just about anything else, and they can do it without backlighting or constant power.

One display isn’t better than the other, really; they just do different things in different ways.

Have more questions? Let me know!

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Announced Wednesday morning at a New York press conference, the $79 Kindle is on sale now, while the Touch and Fire will land in November.

So, what makes the new Kindles so special, and different from the Kindle readers that were already on sale? Let’s take a look at each of the new models, one at a time. (And just to be clear, I haven’t had the chance to handle the new Kindles in person yet, so no—these aren’t reviews.)

The $79 Kindle
Armed with the same six-inch, black-and-white E Ink display (good for reading in direct sunlight) as its predecessor, the cheapest Kindle of them all is also the smallest at just 6.5 by 4.5 by 0.34 inches—and at six ounces, it’s also the lightest.

There’s no full keyboard, but you can still turn pages or (laboriously) tap out the titles of books using the five-way navigational mouse—and yes, you can download new books wirelessly if you’re in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Battery life for the $79 Kindle is only half that of the previous Kindle, meaning you’ll only go a month between charges rather than two.

And again, there’s the price tag: $79. Looks like I’ve run out of excuses for not getting a Kindle for myself.

Check out the Kindle on Amazon

Kindle Touch
About the same size as the cheaper Kindle but an ounce and a half heavier, the $99 Kindle Touch marks the first Kindle with a touchscreen, good for turning pages, pulling up menus, and typing out book titles with a few taps on the screen.

Again, we’re talking a six-inch, black-and-white E Ink display that you can read outdoors, along with two months of battery life—double that of the cheaper, $79 Kindle.

And while the new, cheaper Kindle can only download books over Wi-Fi, a $150 version of the Kindle Touch adds free 3G support, good for downloading Kindle books in more than 100 countries—even if you’re not in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot.

All in all, very enticing—although personally, I’m not sure I’m sold on the need to pay extra for a touchscreen Kindle, given than most of the time you’re doing little more than turning from one page to another.

Check out the Kindle Touch on Amazon

Kindle Fire
Unlike previous Kindles, the $199 Kindle Fire boasts a seven-inch, full-color screen, along with the ability to play video and music, plus browse the web, check your email, and read Kindle books.

But here’s the thing about the Kindle Fire: it doesn’t use the same E Ink display as the standard Kindle does. Instead, the Fire boasts a backlit LCD display, same as on the iPad and most Android tablets. (Indeed, the Fire basically is an Android tablet, bells and whistles aside.)

The good thing about an LCD display? Color, plus the ability to display video. And the bad thing about LCD screens? They’re nearly impossible to read in direct sunlight. That’s the trade-off.

The Fire comes with other compromises, too. You’ll have to settle for just eight hours of battery life, versus weeks and weeks on the black-and-white Kindles. It’s also missing some key features you’ll find in most Android tablets, not to mention the iPad; there’s no camera, for instance, nor a microphone, so don’t count on snapping photos or video chatting with friends.

Then again, the 14-ounce Fire makes for one of the cheapest Android tablets around—just $199, versus at least $499 for the iPad or other, comparable Android tablets. Nice.

Meanwhile, the bells and whistles on the Fire are nothing to sneeze at. Expect free and unlimited “cloud” storage for all books, movies, and TV shows purchased through Amazon, along with a new web browser, dubbed “Silk,” that promises ultra-fast mobile browsing.

In other words, the Fire is shaping up as a cheap, light, and snazzy entertainment tablet, loaded with on-demand access to thousands of movies, TV shows, music tracks, and books. Nice.

Check out the Kindle Fire on Amazon

So, thoughts on the new Kindles? Questions? Leave ’em below!

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