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It’s long been rumored, and tomorrow Amazon.com’s Kindle tablet will finally be announced. The iPad competitor will be called the “Kindle Fire,” TechCrunch reports, and it will resemble BlackBerry’s PlayBook with a 7-inch backlit display. The custom version of Android it will use “looks nothing like Android,” writes MG Siegler, and most of the big apps should be available by the time it launches in November. Amazon also has deals for magazines and streaming movies and TV shows, and Amazon’s MP3 service and Kindle bookstore will also provide available content.
The Kindle Fire was designed and built by Quanta, which also did the PlayBook, and some are concerned Amazon didn’t have its own team develop it. But Siegler has already played with a model, and insists both the software and content are much better than what is available on the PlayBook. There’s no email client built in, although one can be downloaded from the Appstore. But don’t rush out and order it until you consider this: Barnes & Noble is also rumored to be launching the Nook Color 2 next month, and it may be built on Android 2.3, compared to the Kindle Fire’s Android 2.1. The Nook Color 2 is expected to cost $250, while the Kindle Fire may run as much as $300.
