I’m really enjoying my new Kindle Fire, Amazon’s tablet version of its popular e-book reader.  (Eyes That Saw Plenty is the first book I read on it.)  At first I was leaning towards wanting the Nook Tablet.  Like its predecessor Nook Color, the Nook Tablet has apps and seemed like an overall good product.  But after reading this review among others, and also viewing the below video, I decided on the Kindle Fire for the below reasons.

By the way, I own no Apple devices.  (I have much respect for Steve Jobs and even used to be a “Mac head” back in the day.  Until I got a job that only let PC users work remotely.  Then I got another job that required me to offer remote support to PC users, and I help family and friends with their PC probs a lot.  So it just made sense for me to own a Windows operating system.)   But as far as a tablet and a phone, I’m just not pressed (yet) to “go Apple” like the masses.

In like spirit, instead of getting an iPad for my 3-year-old that he can easily drop and break, I got him a tablet made just for kids called LeapPad.  Not be confused with Leap Frog’s famous “Leapster Explorer,” the LeapPad kid-friendly tablet was released just this year on August 2011.  And it only costs $99.  It’s very durable and can withstand much toddler abuse.  It tracks your child’s learning progress, and much more.

But back to the Kindle and Nook!

Reasons I Chose Kindle Fire:

1.   Borders Flashbacks.  That’s right.  I figure that the bookstore industry is not so stable right now.  What if Barnes and Nobles goes out of business like Borders did?  Will they continue supporting their tablets and creating enhancements for their tablet?  I dunno.  But I’m pretty certain that Amazon, the maker of the Kindle Fire, is not going out of business anytime soon.

2.  The Cloud.  The Kindle Fire will store/sync your books, apps, music and docs in the “Cloud File,” which you can access from Amazon’s website on any PC with internet access.  So while the Nook has more physical storage space, it offers no online storage.  The Kindle Fire gives me plenty of physical storage, plus unlimited storage in the cloud.  So if my Kindle is lost or stolen, I simply re-download my data from the cloud.

3.  Documents.  There’s a special e-mail address setup for my Kindle (mine is june_835@kindle.com) that I use to e-mail PDFs that I want to store/read on my Kindle.  Sweet.  Because I have PDFs all over the place in e-mail, my Gmail Docs account, and my Box.net account.  Makes sense to have them on my eReader… those that are meant to be read in story-like fashion (books, articles, etc).

4.  Prime Status.  You automatically become an Amazon Prime member when purchasing a Kindle Fire.  Prime members receive many benefits, including thousands of free e-books, the ability to “borrow” books (like the library) at no cost with no due date, free 2-day shipping for many of Amazon’s products, free streaming on many TV sitcom shows, and many other “perks.”   This lasts for a month.  But it only costs $79.year to renew Prime status.

5.  Good Looks.  I love its size, shape, design, and weight, too.  It has a color 7″ multi-touch IPS display with an Android OS.  And I love that the Kindle fits right into my purse.   The touch screen is great too.  Doesn’t easily smudge with fingerprints, and I can easily navigate the screens.  The lighting is perfect for my eyes, too.  It’s enjoyable to read on it.  I also just got a cool case for my Kindle Fire by Marware in one of my favorite colors, pink!

6.  Web & Apps.  It comes pre-installed with the main apps I care most about:  Facebook, Pandora, Netflix, and a few others. But more android apps are easily downloadable to it.  There’s also a Kindle App that can be installed on the iPad/iPhone or Android phones and tablets.  Meaning I can access the content from my Kindle Fire on an Apple or Android device too if I wanted.  But I’m not as interested in apps as I am in reading books.  It also connects to WI-FI and you can surf the web, plus setup POP e-mail accounts, if desired.

7.  Music & Video.  It’s got that too.  You can watch movies and listen to music.  Perfect for watching a movie on the plane, or listening to some classical music while reading a book.  Its music player reminds me of iTunes (has playlists and you can readily locate any individual song and download it for 99 cents).  Or you can upload your own MP3 files to “the cloud file” on Amazon’s website, then easily sync it with your Kindle to listen to your own music on your Kindle for free.

8.  Price Point.  It also costs less than the Nook Tablet!  In fact, according to the above video on this page, Amazon seems to be selling the Kindle Fire at price value (making no profit on the sell of the Kindle) because their plan is to make money from the content itself (the e-books people purchase to read on their Kindles).

So there you have it.  My top 8 reasons for going with the “Kindle Fire” over the Nook Color or Nook Tablet.

One of my goals for 2012 is to read more.  (The best writers read a lot.  And I want to become a better writer.)  I’m already reading 100% more with the Kindle Fire, as books are so easily accessible at any time since I carry it in my purse.  I have the Bible on my Kindle Fire too, so I won’t even need to carry a traditional Bible to church since I can highlight electronically and even write notes, and these notes and highlights are searchable!

And I just absolutely love the idea of having all of my books on one digital device.  I’m big into being “paperless.”  I get my bank statements in e-mail as PDF attachments, for example.  I want to declutter and simplify my life.  I aspire to be as organized as possible, and having an eReader is another step in that direction.

Here’s another cool video review of KindleFire I came across while working on this post:

*         *         *       *

QUESTION:  What do you think of the Kindle Fire?  Do you have a Kindle, Nook, iPad, or other tablet?  To add your comments to this page, click here.

*         *         *       *