(There’s a $299 version and a $499 one with built-in 4G LTE wireless broadband and a crazy-cheap data plan that goes for $50 a year.) That one isn’t due until November 20. Another, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″, takes on the iPad almost directly: The screen is smaller, but so is the prices. One of the new models, the $119 Kindle Paperwhite, is a monochrome, book-centric e-reader with an outstanding illuminated screen. CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled three new Kindles at an event in Santa Monica, California, giving the company a lineup with something for almost everybody. Last week, Amazon made its most aggressive move into hardware yet. When it comes to this stuff, it may be Apple’s only true rival. But what it’s really good at is content: It’s collected up massive quantities of books, movies, music and apps, and makes them a cinch to find, buy and consume. And it introduced its first color tablet, the Kindle Fire, a year ago. The online merchant started tiptoeing its way into the hardware business in 2007, when it released its first Kindle e-reader. ( MORE: My First 21 Questions About Amazon’s New Kindle Devices) Which means that has at least as good a shot as anyone else at building a killer tablet. The most recent iPad alternatives have moved in the right direction, but hardware makers are still struggling to match what comes so naturally to Apple. But it wouldn’t be the iPad without Apple’s software, services, App Store, deals with content owners and - above all - obsessive focus on making everything work as one seamless whole. Over and over, though, these companies proved that anyone who thinks that the iPad is merely a piece of hardware doesn’t understand the iPad. The initial wondering, logically enough, focused on hardware manufacturers: HP, RIM, Motorola, Samsung and others. Follow the moment Apple shipped the first iPad back in 2010, pundits started wondering when someone else would ship a tablet that rivaled it for overall appeal.

Kindle fire hd 7 reviews