Amazon Unveils 'Fire' Tablet And New Kindle Readers

There's much breathless live-blogging going on in the tech world as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveils his company's latest gadgets, including what Bloomberg News says will be a $199 tablet computer called Kindle Fire — Amazon's much-anticipated competitor to the iPad.

Bloomberg reports it will have a 7-inch display and "will run on Google Inc.'s Android software." Among the things it won't have, according to Bloomberg: an embedded camera or microphone. And it comes with Wi-Fi connectivity, but not 3G access.

But as the anticipation builds, Bezos is first introducing some new versions of its Kindle reader. Among the blogs following his every word is The Wall Street Journal's Digits, which says that as of 10:35 a.m. ET Bezos was just getting to the Fire, but had already shown off:

-- A Kindle Touch, which as its name implies has no keyboard and instead employs a touch screen. There's a WiFi only version for $99 and a 3G version for $149.

-- A simpler Kindle that will cost $79.

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