Kindle gets an upgrade

Apple enthusiast John Gruber gives Amazon's new iPad alternative something of a thumbs up, but draws distinctions between the two companies and their strategies on tablet computing:

The iPad and Kindle Fire are emblematic of their makers. Apple’s primary business is selling devices for a healthy profit, and they back that up with a side business of selling digital content for those devices. Amazon’s primary business is as a retailer, including as a retailer of digital content. They back that up with a side business of low-cost digital devices that are optimized for on-the-fly purchasing of anything and everything Amazon sells. The Kindles are to Amazon what the printed catalog was to Sears a century ago.

He goes on to make some rather amusing observations about previous-generation Kindles, saying that his young son refuses to believe that his father's Kindle isn't broken, because the screen doesn't respond to touches. Good point, though: anything of that shape and size has an antiquated feel if you can't use iOS-type gestures to control it. Perhaps I'm just a little too Apple-oriented. That said, it looks very good – but I shan't be getting a Kindle Fire.