Well, I now have a Nook Tablet AND a Kindle Fire. I'm planning to return one of them but I felt like I had to try them both. I've had the Nook for a few days but just got the Fire tonight. So far I think I like the Nook better. I like the feel of it - it's more comfortable to hold and not as slippery. It also has kind of a frame around the screen that makes it nicer to hold compared to the Fire which just has a little ridge around the edge - probably why the Fire is a bit smaller. I want to use it without a book-like cover on it - will just store it in a sleeve. I do think the web browser is better on the Fire since it has tabs and the keyboard and shortcuts are nice. However the Nook touch screen seemed more responsive - touching things on the Kindle sometimes didn't "register". The Nook has more options for the book display though and I think some of them are easier on the eyes than the Fire - at least I prefer some of the options that aren't available on the Fire. I imagine a lot of this stuff can change though with a software update. What wouldn't change is the home button on the Nook which I also like - maybe I've just gotten used to it. I'm going to try them out over the weekend and then decide. I do think Amazon is way ahead on content but I'm mainly interested in books and there are lots of books available through B&N and other sources. Kindle has many more apps but I don't care much about that because I do all that stuff on my iPhone. One thing I loved with the Nook was that my favorite magazine (Cooking Light) is available in a beautiful version tailored to the Nook. There is a Cooking Light app that's available for the Kindle to paper magazine subscribers but I really don't want the paper magazine. That could just push me over the edge. Plus I kind of want to give the underdog a chance.

There are already rumors about Kindle Fire having free 3G in the future. If this comes true - this will be a major revolutionary move. This is something I can see Bezos doing, as he has become a "Disruptor." Here you go Teresa: iPad - Apple's "tablet" computer. It is just a touch screen, and you can purchase a separate keyboard for it. You can load it with applications that you download from the Apple app store. notebook, laptop, netbook - these are all computers where the screen is on one side and the keyboard is on the other and the thing opens and closes like a book. Started out with laptop, then got smaller and smaller and called themselves notebooks and netbooks. tablet - what iPads are, and everyone is now copying - touchscreens with no separate keyboards. If you want to type - a virtual touch keyboard appears onscreen. pda - personal digital assistant like the old Casios, then Palms. Pretty much obsolete since the features (mostly address books and notes) are now added to cell phones. smart phone - cell phone with computing features. ereader - electronic book readers. You can read electronic books on any computer, tablet and smart phones now. But ereaders like the non-tablet Kindles have a special screen that makes reading easier on the eye.

The Kindle Fire runs a modified version of the Android O/S which is based on Linux. While viruses do exist, they are still relatively uncommon. There is anti-virus software for Android but I don't know if it would run on a Kindle. Frankly, I wouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about it. There have been a few instances of infected apps making there way into the Android Marketplace, which is policed nowhere nearly as carefully has Apple's App Store. While I haven't researched those specific apps, I wouldn't surprise me if they were the kind of apps someone might download if they were looking to circumvent "the system" (perhaps I should say getting something for free that they should have been playing for). I also don't know if the Kindle Fire has access to the Android Marketplace or just the Amazon Marketplace. Based on the previous post it appears there is a way to "sideload" apps on a Kindle. Sideloading is a term that refers to installing an application that doesn't come from an "approved" source. This doesn't mean the application is "bad" just not where the vendor wants you to get it from. For for example, I have an Android phone and the "official" source of apps is the Android Marketplace. As it turns out, Amazon gives away a free app every day. I can download, for example, a perfectly legitimate (and free) version of Angry Birds. To get it onto my phone, I have to "sideload" it. The software you mention are all for Windows based machines and would not run on Android. Any updates will come from Amazon and likely be pushed to the device.

The second of two steps that suzieque posted, regarding removing books from your Kindle: "2) then go to Amazon.com on your computer and find "Manage Your Kindle". That'll show everything you've downloaded. Find the book you want to delete and on the right hand side under "Actions", click delete." I don't have an issue with suzieque's first step in the process, but I personally disagree with this second step. If your goal is to remove the book from your Kindle device to free up space (or for any other reason), all you need to do is step 1. What's the harm in leaving the book in your Kindle items in your Amazon account??? You have one heck of a huge amount of storage space in the Amazon cloud; and should you ever want to read the book again, or check something in it, etc., you can do that as long as it's in your account. Yes, if it's not in your Amazon account you can still download it again as long as Amazon still has it available; but even if it's available it might not be free at that time. An example: a book I downloaded for free in January of last year is Unbillable Hours: A True Story. I thought it was great, and told my husband (who is an attorney) that he should download it to his Kindle, too. But, it was $11.99 when he went to download it, so he passed on that and he read it on my Kindle. I just looked up the book on Amazon, and today the Kindle price is $8.99. So, I never delete any of my downloads from my account on Amazon. ~*~*~*~ When I bought the book: Here it is today: