Introduction

Following up on the success of the Kindle series of eReaders, Amazon launched its contender in the tablet arena, the Fire, in November of 2011. Though its performance pales compared to the iPad in most regards, the Fire sits at a price point of $200 – very hard to ignore. Buyers on a budget can finally afford a tablet without having to settle for far less.

Whether you're new to the Kindle series or trying to decide whether to step up to a newer model, here's the skinny on the different operating systems for Kindle's top eReaders and tablets.

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Kindle Fire Operating System

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Explore the Kindle Fire's port of Android.

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Kindle Keyboard Operating System

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Explore the OS of the Kindle eReaders.

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Kindle App

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Explore the features of the Kindle App.

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Operating system

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Though Amazon's proprietary operating system is based on Android 2.3, the user interface is very different than what Android users would be used to. On the main screen, there is a toolbar at the top that categorizes all your options in media. From this toolbar you can access all your music, video, documents, apps, browser, and periodicals.

Below that is a flow-list of recently-opened apps that you can flick through, though there is also the ability to view all your apps on a single page if you'd like, or just your favorites on the shelves to the bottom of the screen. With the exception of the home page, and lack of multiple home screens that you can flick through, most of the meat of the Kindle Fire's operating system is very similar to the early versions of Android.

The controls for the Kindle Fire's operating system are virtually identical to that of Android tablets and every iteration of iPad; you tap to click, move screen elements with swipes, pinch to zoom, and hold down for an additional menu. If there's one consistency between all tablets, the controls come the closest.

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App Market

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The application market for the Kindle Fire is anemic compared to those of Android and iOS tablets, falling short of having comparable apps by a longshot. Though Amazon does its best to add as much content as they can, they simply do not have the same support as the two other big kids on the block. In addition, not having a Google-blessed version of Android limits the additional services that Google offers to its authorized devices limits the Kindle Fire.

For users looking for nothing more than the standard Netflix app, or a simple range of games and services, the Amazon app market has you covered, right down to having Angry Birds and Dropbox. Also included is support for flash, which is not available for the iPad, but is commonplace with Android tablets.

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Multimedia Features

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Like Android tablets and iPads, the Kindle Fire has access to the Kindle app for reading eBooks, but with the added benefit of being able to use the lending library. Additionally, music and video can be played in a similar fashion to an Android tablet. Users will also be able to make good use of the natively-installed Netflix and Amazon apps to stream video to their devices via WiFi. Each media interface is quite simple, and very easy to figure out at first glance.

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Browser

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The "Silk" web browser on the Kindle Fire is rather standard in appearance, but unlike other browsers used by some other tablets, it uses cloud computing to reportedly "speed up" the whole experience. The main functions of the browser are very similar to Google’s Chrome browser: you can open new tabs and windows, bookmark your favorite websites, and load just about any page available to your desktop or laptop at home.

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Amazon Kindle eReader

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You've seen it on the train, you've seen it on planes. If you've wandered outside in the past few years, chances are extremely good that you've seen Amazon's powerhouse of an eReader being used by several people to read their books in public. If you're in the market to be buying an eReader, wouldn't you like to get a better peek at what this may look like? Wouldn't you like to know what you're getting yourself into before you buy? Join us as we take you into the user experience of Amazon's Kindle eReader software.

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Basic Experience

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The overall experience of reading an eBook on the Amazon Kindle is very natural. For the older Kindle Keyboard, the buttons on the side, as well as the QWERTY keyboard will allow you easy control over most functions like searching for titles in the Amazon Kindle eBook store. Until the release of the Amazon Kindle Touch, the user experience of the Kindle didn't stray very much from the very first iteration.

The earlier models still have the same "dip to black" effect that the Keyboard has, but the Kindle Touch minimizes this by 3/4^ths. It can be a little distracting, but it's a small tradeoff. If you find the font size to be unsatisfactory, by clicking the "Menu" button, or tapping the "Menu" icon on the Kindle Touch, you can change the size of the font to one of several options. Because different font sizes make page numbers rather pointless, your progress in reading is marked by a percentage instead.

In addition to all this, Amazon somewhat recently added the ability to select passages from your favorite eBooks and post them to your Facebook or Twitter feed directly from your Kindle. It's an interesting social media function, but one that's not heavily advertised.

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Buying eBooks

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Buying eBooks on any iteration of the Amazon Kindle is excessively easy to do, as the eBook store support for the Kindle eReaders is unparallelled in its simplicity. Once you've made an account with Amazon, and registered your device complete with billing information, you can search for your titles in the store (reached by slicking the "Store" option in the home screen), then tap "buy" to purchase and download.

Kindle users with a subscription to the Amazon Prime service should be aware that they do not always have to pay for their eBooks if their local library participates in the Amazon Kindle Lending Library program. Not only can users borrow titles in eBook format for up to 30 days, but they can also lend them as well to other users, all at no cost (minus the Prime membership). Avid readers, or users who are most concerned with eBook content on their tablets/eReaders should strongly consider this feature when buying their slate of choice.

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Periodicals

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Due to the nature of the Kindle's ability to connect to the web via 3G or WiFi (depending upon the unit you buy), users are able to subscribe to periodicals in the eBook format via the eBook store, which is a very cool thing to have if you regularly read during your morning commute. The Kindle platform allows you to automatically download the newest issue of a newspaper or magazine if you pay for the subscription, and it reads very much like an eBook does. Observe for yourself.

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Web Features

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Because eInk screens have physical limitations that prevent them from refreshing more than once or twice a second, web browsing and checking email are next to impossible on the eReader units. Not only is it a pain for them to load, but it is also very difficult to change the scale of each page, requiring several zooms that take a few seconds to load each time. At the time of writing, this feature is far more trouble than it's worth, but that's not to say that Amazon won't improve this feature in the future.

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App Overview

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In addition to their vaunted eReader, Amazon also has published an iOS app and an application for reading eBooks on any iteration of the Android operating system as well. It has all of the features mentioned on the last page, but with the added wrinkle that it can display limited images and different paper colors to make the best use of the LCD/OLED/AMOLED screens employed by the iPad and Android devices. If you prefer the color scheme of sepia, white, or black pages, you can experiment with these in the same menu that you control font sizes.

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Control Interface

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Unlike the Kindle Keyboard eReader unit, the touchscreens of iOS and Android devices unlock the ability to control the application through touch alone. This enables you to swipe your finger across the screen to turn pages backward or forward, or tap the edges of the screen if you prefer.

Tapping the top or bottom of the screen will call out an overlay that allows you to access a menu, scrub bar, and other options that are hidden from the main screen. The scrub bar allows you to quickly browse through the eBook much like one would flip through a longer title. Much like the Kindle eReaders, you can also select text and post it to your facebook wall or twitter feed should you feel like this is an appropriate thing to do.

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Differences in Tablet Platforms

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Though the Kindle App is virtually identical across all platforms, only Kindle Fire owners have access to the lending library. Members of the Amazon Prime service are not barred from their streaming content on other platforms, though. Consistency is a nice thing when importing content to different systems. All of the controls are the same, as well as the menus.

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