After thinking about it...

(aka: My Kindle Buying Guide)

There's a lot of choices to pick from now if you want to buy a kindle. Will you get one with a keyboard, a touch screen, color or the most basic option? Wi-fi or 3G? Special offers?

The answer will be different for everyone, of course, which is why it's nice to have so many different choices. After thinking about it and how I've used mine and reading different things, I think if I were buying a new kindle, I would get the Kindle 3G with keyboard and special offers - the same thing I already have with special offers. I like the keyboard and wouldn't want to give it up, even for a touch screen (I guess I'm old fashioned). I also like the text-to-speech, which isn't on the cheaper model. I don't think it has the browser either, which has come in handy, especially when travelling ("Look up the closest Michaels to where we are. See if there's a post office nearby.")

As for the special offers, I have read from people who have kindles from before those were available who bought one with special offers for a family member or had some other chance to use one, and they said they'd trade theirs in for one. The ads aren't invasive and the special offers are great - 2 for 1 amazon gift cards, super deals on audio books, etc.

If you want the cheapest thing, are only going to use it for reading, and would never want to type or use audio, then I would say go for the $79 Kindle 4 with wi-fi.

When I first got my kindle and was showing it to people, almost everyone tried to use it like a touch screen. Obviously for those people, the Kindle Touch would probably be the best choice, and the price structure is almost the same as the Kindle with keyboard (the 3G model is $10 more).

As for the Kindle Fire... well, it would fun to have a tablet computer, and that is a really good price for one. I don't care about having a camera in my computer, so I don't mind about that. I understand why there is no 3G version, because the bandwidth required for streaming movies is completely different than what's required to download books (those book files are teeny). I wish, though, that it had more storage or a way to add more storage and/or an option for a 3G contract.

If I were getting a Kindle Fire, it would be in addition to my other Kindle, because I really like the e-ink screen for reading, and the lighter weight for one-handed reading is a must-have. I expect a Kindle Fire at our house would get used mostly for streaming movies and tv and for the apps, both of which would be really handy features on roadtrips. (Have you ever tried entertaining one or more small children in a hotel room when their siblings are taking a nap in the same room?)

The cloud storage is a nifty thing, but it's just not practical for us on its own. We live in an area without many wi-fi hot spots, and when we're driving there's certainly not going to be any. Firebirdluver could probably use something like this on his bus rides to and from work (almost everyone has to ride the company buses to and from the mines, and it is a long commute). There is certainly not going to be wi-fi out in the middle of a remote desert.

In all of those cases, movies would have to be preloaded onto the tablet before the trip or at the beginning of the work week. We'll be going on a trip next month where the Kindle Fire would be perfect, except that the hotel we're staying at does not have free wi-fi (ever notice that it's the nicer hotels that make you pay for internet?) so with the way the Fire currently is, we'd have to pick 6-8 movies to put on there before the trip, and that's what we'd have for the whole week. I suppose we could put more on the laptops and then transfer them over to the tablet, but in that case, we might as well just watch them on the laptop.

I know. I should be writing this to Amazon. I figure, though, right now they are probably getting hundreds, maybe even thousands of e-mails right now about the Fire. I read somewhere that they got a quarter of a million pre-orders in the first two days after it was announced, so they certainly don't have to worry about making money.

One more thought on Kindle, as long as I am on the subject: After using the library lending for a couple of weeks, I think I'd be willing to pay for a book subscription service where you's pay a monthly or annual fee to borrow books. I like being able to read best sellers and other popular books without having to pay the $10 cover price. I think a subscription fee would be worth having a bigger selection and no waiting lists.