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"Anyone else have an intimate relationship with their Kindle? Mine accompanies me to bed, goes with me on trips, and has been my constant companion since the initial Kindle release back in 2008 (when GHRI smartly gave it a VIP Award!). As I&amp;#039;ve tried every iteration since its inception, I anxiously followed last week&amp;#039;s announcement of an all new suite of Kindles. While I didn&amp;#039;t get to attend the San Francisco unveiling, if the products live up to their hype and the videos I&amp;#039;ve seen, we&amp;#039;re in for a treat!  Announcements to three major categories Amazon intro&amp;#039;d its improved Kindle Fire lineup (dubbed Kindle Fire HDs), its new touch eReaders (dubbed Paperwhites), and a discounted non-touch Kindle. Amazon is hitting some impressively price points with all of these new releases. CEO Jeff Bezos aptly pointed out that Amazon is in the business of trying to &amp;quot;make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices.&amp;quot; Since Amazon has access to over 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, apps, games, books, audiobooks and magazines, it&amp;#039;s no wonder he feels this way. Most devices require post-purchase costs, so I&amp;#039;m all for getting less expensive hardware if it can perform.   What&amp;#039;s so special about the Paperwhite? Since its inception Amazon has stuck with monochromatic screens on its dedicated eReader devices-and the Paperwhite is no exception. Physically, it&amp;#039;s designed just like the Kindle Touch, except there&amp;#039;s no home button. The guts are what set this device apart. With its always-on front-lit display, you&amp;#039;ll be able to read sans squinting or eye strain whether you&amp;#039;re curled up in bed or at the beach. Other less notable improvements should make the font crisper and the device faster. All in all, I expect the Paperwhite will deliver the same great experience we&amp;#039;ve come to love with a more reader (and eye-) friendly) design. Standout features:    Time to Read Based upon your current reading pace, the Paperwhite will determine approximately when you&amp;#039;ll finish the next chapter or the entire book. Sometimes it&amp;#039;s difficult to put the book down until the chapter&amp;#039;s done -now you&amp;#039;ll be better able to gauge how long that will take.  X-Ray While not a new feature, it is a Kindle exclusive. It allows a deeper dive into whatever you&amp;#039;re currently reading, right on the page, such as finding all the other mentions of an essential character or topic in the book.  Whispersync Also not new to Kindles, but significantly upgraded. While Whispersync previously let you pick up where you left off in a book on any of your devices, Whispersync for Voice now you&amp;#039;ll be able to pick up audiobooks where you left off too.   When can I get a Paperwhite? Set to release October 1st, there will be four versions of the Paperwhite - two with ads at a reduced cost, and two without ads. Each type will come in two versions - one with Wi-Fi and one with Wi-Fi + 3G. With ads: Wi-Fi $119, 3G $179; without ads: each $20 more. And what about the new Kindle Fire HD? While from the outside it looks very similar to its predecessor, the beauty here too is inside the physical chassis. The new tablets promise crisper images, better contrast, less glare, and snappier processing - with a battery life that Amazon claims will still be 11 hours. With its new front-facing HD camera and Skype integration, calls to grandma and grandpa will be a snap! There&amp;#039;s also an extension of some of the great Kindle reading features on the Kindle Fire:  X-Ray Just as you can deep dive into books with X-Ray, you can get an in depth look into movies and other facets of the Fire. For instance, if you&amp;#039;re watching a movie it will pull info from IMDb (which is conveniently an Amazon subsidiary), such as bios of the actors in the scene that&amp;#039;s playing. If you are reading a textbook it will integrate related data from Wikipedia and YouTube. Whispersync Whispersync now saves game and movie location in the cloud as well.  Immersion Reading This Kindle Fire exlusive is a novel concept that uses audio and text to supplement the reading and understanding process. As text is professionally narrated for audiobooks, the words are highlighted across the page, making it easier to follow and more immersive.  Who should buy the Kindle Fire HD? Whether you&amp;#039;re a gamer, reader, or just like to surf the web, the Kindle Fire is an affordable device. The 7-inch model will run you $199 and the 8.9 one, $299, or    you can splurge on the 4G 8.9-incher for $499 (+$50 annual service charge). Any other Kindles news? With these new intros, the price of the original Fire has dropped to $159 yet offers improved speed, memory, and battery life. The staple Kindle&amp;#039;s been marked down to a very affordable $69 and also features faster speed and better performance. Bottom Line Did I mention I love Kindles? While I&amp;#039;ve yet to get my hands on these new devices for extended testing, what I love most is that they&amp;#039;re compatible across various platforms so you can choose whichever device is best in the moment. So I can read and sync Kindle books across my iPad, iPhone, PC, and Blackberry (and more if I wanted!). And I can play my Amazon Instant Video content on my iPad, PC, Xbox, Roku, and compatible Samsung TV - picking up where I left off. The flexibility, coupled with the low price points, are major selling factors in my opinion! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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