Amazon debuts $299 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, 4G LTE for $499 | The Verge

A tablet game-changer -- see the link below for more details and slides from today's announcement event (there's also a new 7" Kindle Fire HD for $199, available next week; the 8.9" version, available in November, is $299 for 16 GB or $499 with 32 GB and AT&T 4G LTE; latter requires a $50/year LTE subscription for 250 MB/month and 20 GB Amazon cloud storage)

"After making an informal debut in a televised ad late last night, Amazon's larger Kindle Fire has finally been unveiled. Introduced today at a press event in Los Angeles, the new Kindle Fire HD features an 8.9-inch 1920x1200, 254ppi display. It includes an HD front-facing camera and a laminated touch sensor for better visuals and 25-percent less glare. Under the hood, Amazon has dropped in a Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 processor, which it says outperforms the Tegra 3. The Kindle Fire HD also includes stereo speakers, an upgrade over the Kindle Fire's mono driver. While the company is also offering a 4G LTE variation, Amazon has also improved Wi-Fi networking by adding a dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz receiver, two antennas, and its new MIMO radio technology. It'll ship with 16GB of local storage, with additional storage available in the cloud."

p.s. I updated this post -- I originally had the price wrong for the 7" Kindle Fire HD; apparently the original Kindle Fire is also still available, and it's $159

Amazon debuts $299 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, 4G LTE for $499 | The Verge