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.

The battery on my Kindle Fire lasts a good eight hours with Wi-Fi turned on, more with the Wi-Fi off. But I pretty much always leave the Wi-Fi on because we have a wireless network here at home, and there's wireless at work, too. Tami, once you've downloaded a book to your Fire, you should be able to read the entire book with the wireless turned off. Go to the home screen on the Fire. You should see the Carousel, the Favorites shelf, and near the top, from left to right you should see the words "Newstand," "Books," "Music," "Video," "Docs," "Apps," and "Web." Touch on the word "Books." Centered near the top, just under where the time is displayed, you will see the words "Cloud," and "Device." Directly below them, also centered, you will see the words, "By Author," "By Recent," and "By Title." Whichever words are shown in orange are active. So, if the words "Cloud" and "By Author" are orange, it means that you are looking at all of your books that are in the Amazon cloud, and they are arranged by the authors' names. Also, if you're looking at the "cloud view," any books that have a small dark grey circle with a white downward-pointing arrow in the lower right-hand corner are only in the cloud. Any books that don't have that circle/arrow showing have been downloaded to your device. So, in the Books view, touch on "Device." Doesn't matter how they're sorted -- you just want at this point to see which books are on your device. If no books are showing in the Device view, it means you haven't really downloaded any books to the Fire itself. If you DO see books in the Device view, then turn off the wireless. You should still see those same books in the Device view. And you should be able to touch any one of them to open it and begin reading. You wrote, above, "I can not read with out wi-fi. I am supposed to be able to, but can not make it do it. I have not contacted amazon yet as I want to be home with no distractions when I do so. I have done everything that's been suggested otherwise, ans still can't read with out it, unless I just let it go to sleep instead of shutting it down." It's that last phrase that has me puzzled. You say you can't read without the wireless being on unless you let it go to sleep. When the device is in sleep mode, it's sort of the same as being powered off, except that you can bring it back more quickly. When the device is in sleep mode, it's not using the battery, but you can't do anything with/on it because it's asleep. So... if you look at the books on your Device, and it shows books, but you cannot read them without wireless, it means there is something wrong with your particular Kindle Fire, and you need to contact Amazon.

I am interested in the Kindle Fire but can't seem to get a clear answer on this question: can it handle corporate (ie. workplace; mine is a university) e-mail accounts? That is, will I be able to read and answer my work e-mail on it? Some have said that it only handles gmail or hotmail accounts. Others have stated that you can convert ("drop"?) corporate e-mail accounts into gmail or hotmail. The Kindle Fire would be useless to me if I couldn't handle work e-mail.

I wish AT&T was everywhere! When we are in FL, we are 22 miles from the closest town, and in the middle of a national forest. No cell service out here. I did tons of research before I got my Nexus 7. From reading forums, etc., it seems you can't (or if you can, it involves a lot of stuff that's more than I want to tackle) put a Kindle app on a Nook and vice-versa. But putting a Kindle app on my Nexus was very easy. As well as email, Facebook, Words with Friends, etc. Last night, for the first time in years, I read in bed. Only had the Nexus for a light, and it didn't bother DH at all.