Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Fire HD

Amazon showed off its new Kindle lineup today in Los Angeles and these are some exciting new electronic rectangles for you to read on, play on and work on.

Kindle Fire HD

The Kindle Fire HD (pictured above) is available in two versions: one with an 8.9 inch display and one with a 7-inch display. Both come with Dolby Digital Plus sound. Other exciting specs on the Fire HD include; 1920×1200 resolution, a laminated touch sensor that cuts out a lot of the glare and two antennas for more dependable Wi-Fi performance and to make it 41% faster than iPad. The device also has a front-facing HD camera, HDMI out and Bluetooth.

The Kindle Fire software also got a boost with an all new interface based on Android 4.0, a new email client, a custom Facebook app and a custom Skype app. A new app called X-Ray works with your movies to pull info from IMDb about actors in specific movie scenes and Free Time allows you to set daily time limits for apps.

The 7-inch Fire HD will cost $199 and comes with 16GB of storage, and will be available starting September 14. The 8.9-inch Fire-HD will go for $299 with 16GB of storage or $499 with LTE capability and 32GB of storage, ships November 20. About that new Kindle Fire HD With 4G LTE, Amazon is offering a full year of 4G LTE service for $50. Yes, fifty bucks. That’s about $4.17 per month. That kicks the iPads ass price wise.

Most exciting in my book is that they’ve also upgraded the original Fire with double the RAM, a faster processor and longer battery life and you can pick one up for an absolute steal at $159.

Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G ($499)  |  Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ ($299)  |  Kindle Fire HD ($199)  |  Kindle Fire ($159)

Kindle Paperwhite

Since day one my biggest beef with the Kindle has been the lack of a backlight, I don’t buy a slim e-reader so that I can slam it in a bulky case just to read in low-light. The Kindle Paperwhite ($120-$180) fixes that issue. It’s based on an all-new touch display, offers 25% more contrast and 62% more pixel density (221 ppi) and uses a patented light guide to spread clean LED light across the surface to replicate ambient light. Other features include a 9mm thick, 7.5 oz. body, 8-week battery life and optional free 3G wireless. Oh, and it has a very clean dark paint job.

There are two other features that might be the most exciting of all.  The Kindle is finally getting real page numbers and it’s also getting a new Time to Read feature that helps you know how long it will take to finish a chapter or book based on your reading speed.  The Kindle Paperwhite will be available this October.

Kindle Paperwhite ($119)  |  Kindle Paperwhite 3G ($179)