By Steve Windwalker
September 30, 2011
Amazon held a press conference in New York Wednesday morning, and Kindle Nation was well represented by correspondent Len Edgerly of The Kindle Chronicles, who provided our readers with a live blog of a truly dazzling event marked by the launch of four brand new Kindles — include the new Kindle Fire tablet — at prices that shocked us all.
There’s a lot of information to share with you, but we’re going to try to strip it down and proceed from the simple to the sublime, with links in this week’s Kindle Nation WEEKENDER to more information and video for those who want to read more.
In that spirit, let’s begin with a very simple comparison chart for the hardware Kindle models that were unveiled Wednesday:
COMPARING THE NEW KINDLES
| Model | Kindle* | Kindle Touch* | Kindle Fire |
| Price | $79.00 | $99/$149 | $199.00 |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi | $99 Wi-Fi Only; $149 Free 3G+Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi |
| Release Date | Available now | 11/21/2011 | 11/15/2011 |
| Covered by 30-day no-hassle return policy | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Content | Millions of
books, newspapers, magazines, games, and docs |
Millions of
books, newspapers, magazines, games, and docs |
18 million movies,
TV shows, apps, games, songs, books, newspapers, audiobooks, magazines, and docs |
| Web browser | Experimental
browser |
Experimental
browser |
Amazon Silk
cloud-accelerated browser |
| Display | 6″ E Ink Pearl | 6″ E Ink Pearl | 7″ Vibrant Color IPS |
| Text-to-Speech | No | Yes | No |
| Battery Life | 1 month | 2 months | 8 hours continuous reading or
7.5 hours video playback |
| Cloud storage | Free for all
Amazon content |
Free for all
Amazon content |
Free for all
Amazon content |
| Dimensions | 6.5″ x 4.5″
x 0.34″ |
6.8″ x 4.7″
x 0.40″ |
7.5″ x 4.7″
x 0.45″ |
| Weight | 5.98 ounces | 7.5/7.8 ounces | 14.6 ounces |
| Interface | 5-way controller | multi-touch | multi-touch |
| *Models with Special Offers | Kindle | Kindle Touch | Not yet |
| *Prices with Special Offers | $79.00 | $99/$149 | Not yet |
| *Models without Special Offers | Kindle | Kindle Touch | Kindle Fire |
| *Prices without Special Offers | $109.00 | $139/$189 | $199.00 |