KINDLE FIRE OR NOOK TABLET 2ND ROUND

Anne R. Allen wrote :

Kindle Fire it is! (Also, Nooks don't work outside the US, for anybody traveling abroad. Amazon is international.)

On her blog, she has a great post on why the "LIKE" button at the top of the Amazon page is important

and why 4 to 5 star reviews are even more important (and if you're reviewing THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH or UNDER A VOODOO MOON, they can win you a Kindle Fire!)

http://annerallen.blogspot.com/

Just a brief flurry of ideas of why AMAZON KINDLE FIRE edges past THE NOOK :

1.) Gorilla Glass -

Kindle Fire has it. The Nook doesn't.

Gorilla Glass, manufactured by Corning, is

an alkali-aluminosilicate thin sheet glass engineered specifically to be thinner,

lighter and more damage-resistant for portable electronic devices with screens.

2.) SPEAKERS

Kindle Fire has STEREO SPEAKERS on top edge of the devise.

The Nook has only speaker POORLY PLACED ON THE BACK of the devise.

No matter how you hold it, the sound is muffled. If you put it in a cover ... sigh ... man, is it muffled.

3.) BUTTONS

The more exposed they are -- the more likely they are to be punched ... at the wrong time.

Kindle Fire has its power button on the bottom. Always hitting it -- unless you use a cover for it which is only smart to protect your investment.

4.) STORAGE

This depends on if you have ready access to Wireless. If you do, then the UNLIMITED CLOUD SERVER beats 16GB. If not, then The Nook seems to have the advantage -- until you realize you have only ONE GB FOR NON- B&N content!

And B&N has the gall to say the Fire wants you to use AMAZON mostly. Say again? That is what B&N is doing with only one GB for non-B&N content.

5.) Music & Movies

With the Nook, you need secondary app's for them. Itunes sells their music a bit higher than Amazon. Netflix too. Amazon Prime costs you approximately $6.60 a month which is a lot less than Netflix, and it gives you more than movies for that price, too.

Until now, iTunes has been pretty much the only option offering a true end-to-end experience where you can find content you like, buy content, and access that content on a device, instantly," said Jeremy Toeman, chief product officer for Dijit, a digital media company.

"With the Kindle Fire, Amazon is now the first viable alternative to that. It's a place where you can buy a device and easily access all the content you want to consume as well."

Amazon has chosen to compete with Apple on content, betting that people will settle for a tablet that does less, and costs less, if accessing music and movies is simple and cheap. Experts say it's a savvy play.

"Consumers are not buying a device because it has a dual core processor or it has 16GB of RAM or an AMOLED display," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Gartner, a research firm. "They're buying it because they want to watch movies, listen to songs and play Angry Birds."

"Where Amazon separates itself from the Barnes and Noble Nook and even other Android devices is that it has content and services," Gartenberg added.

"For the purposes of content consumption, the Kindle Fire will be the ideal device," Gartenberg said. "Before Amazon went into the business of building a tablet, they built out an ecosystem of books and music, they put up an app store...and they launched streaming services. That really sets them apart."

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KINDLE FIRE or NOOK TABLET? LET ME HELP.

It's a lot like asking :

SANDRA BULLOCK or MEGAN FOX?

It depends on what you want out of the relationship.

THIS JUST OUT : THE NOOK ONLY ALLOWS 1GB FOR NON B&N CONTENT! OUCH!

That's like MEGAN FOX only letting you talk about her on the date. "Enough about me. What do YOU think about me?"

Amazon's Kindle Fire allows side-loading

by the checking of a box in Settings that allows the installation of non-Amazon-approved apps from unknown sources --

and that's allowed for internal memory.

B&N has been said NOT to allow sideloading of non-BN-approved apps.

All right, let's get back to what you want out of the tablet relationship ...


Let's say you like to watch movies, the most recent, the better.

KINDLE FIRE. Why?

The Kindle Fire has access to Amazon's streaming video library, which tends to offer newer movies in comparison to other streaming services, like Netflix.

Of course, there is a lag time in terms of the movies that are offered. Most movie studios still release many movies on DVD before they release them for streaming.

That said, out of all the streaming video services, Amazon is likely to offer most movies sooner, because it allows people to rent or purchase individual movies.

By contrast, Netflix offers a subscription service,

which means subscribers pay a flat fee to watch as many movies as they want per month. Since this doesn't allow movie studios to monetize more valuable titles, Netflix is often shut out of the hottest new movies for its streaming service.

Barnes & Noble doesn't have its own streaming service.

Instead, it has partnered with Netflix and will offer a Netflix app on its Nook Tablet. The Nook Tablet probably won't offer an Amazon streaming app.

So if it's more up-to-date movies that you are looking for, I'd say that the Kindle Fire is a better device for you since you're likely to get access to more of these films via the pay-per-view or streaming video rental service.

But what if getting the latest and greatest movies is not your top priority? Which tablet then?

Again, you want SANDRA BULLOCK or MEGAN FOX?

If easy access to more content at very affordable prices is the most important thing to you, the KINDLE FIRE is hard to beat.

But if you want a slightly more robust piece of hardware, then the NOOK TABLET is a good option.

THE NOOK has twice the storage capacity at 16GB, while the KINDLE FIRE has only 8GB of storage. But THE KINDLE FIRE has UNLIMITED DATA STORAGE in its CLOUD SERVER. That makes 16 GB look anemic, doesn't it?

So if you have easy access to WIRELESS, then UNLIMITED STORAGE beats only 16 GB.

When it comes to services and content, Amazon is pretty hard to beat.

It has spent a lot of time and effort building its own content stores filled with e-books, apps, music, games, and video. While the Kindle Fire was built specifically to be a vehicle for accessing this content,

Amazon's services are also available on a variety of other devices from smartphones to game consoles, which allow you to access e-books on your iPhone as well as watch movies from the Amazon streaming service via a Roku device on your TV.

And you can access all this content on any compatible device through your single Amazon account.

The other big advantage to buying the Kindle Fire is that it gives you access to a bunch of free content with an Amazon Prime membership.

MEGAN FOX just raised her pretty eyebrow at me.

Alright, so the content isn't exactly free since you must pay $79 a year for the membership.

But you get a lot for that $79 fee, and Amazon keeps sweetening the deal by adding more and more content to the service.

So what is Amazon Prime?

Initially, it started as a service that offered subscribers free two-day shipping for items from the Amazon store. Now, Amazon also allows Amazon Prime members to stream movies and TV shows at no additional cost. And it most recently added free downloads for hundreds of its e-books on its Kindle e-readers.

Some people balk at the recurring $79 a year fee for the Amazon Prime membership. But if you are a frequent Amazon shopper and you stream and download e-books that are available for free through the service, Amazon Prime more than pays for itself rather quickly.

And it's actually cheaper than other services like Hulu Plus or Netflix. Over 12 months, the $79 fee breaks down to about $6.50 per month.

But keep in mind that Amazon Prime is only worth it if you plan to use these services. If Netflicks' high-handedness of late doesn't bother you, stay with it.

Barnes & Noble has something that Amazon doesn't have:

hundreds of honest-to-mortar stores. This is an important distinction for customers who would like more hands-on with the Nook devices and who think they'll need some personal one-on-one help with their devices.

Still, BEST BUY is selling KINDLE FIRE and BEST BUY's support staff has always been supportive -- so the KINDLE FIRE does have a hands-on avenue for help.

Also with HULU+ signing on with Amazon and all the other benefits of AMAZON PRIME (which is free for the first month of your KINDLE FIRE ownership), I believe THE KINDLE FIRE edges past THE NOOK.

SORRY MEGAN FOX, I CHOOSE SANDRA BULLOCK.