Kindle Fire

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is now available for $100 less. Both the WiFi-only and 4G LTE versions saw price drops in the US on the same day the Kindle Fire HD was launched in Europe and Japan.

• 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with WiFi: $269 (previously $299)
• 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with WiFi + 4G LTE: $399 (previously $499)

Wondering if the Kindle Fire HD is right for you? The tablet has higher resolution and more storage capacity than previous iterations, plus four more standout features.

If you do decide to take the leap, deck out your new device in one of these fine cases made just for Amazon's HD tablet.

Need to know the latest on the budding Swift-Styles romance or how to make gin for the holidays? Head over to the POPSUGAR app, now available for Kindle Fire (free).

The Android app offers the hottest videos in entertainment, fashion, beauty, fitness, and food. Whether it's a Fashion Week backstage report or a rundown of the Victoria's Secret model workout, POPSUGAR's got it all, with signature shows and fresh videos daily.

From Bella Beauty Book to YumSugar's Get the Dish, there's something for every woman. So download the app, and let us know what you think.

If the battle of the seven-inch tablet has you leaning Amazon, the Kindle Fire is seeing a sweet little price drop this Cyber Monday. The Kindle Fire with ads is down $30 to $129. Enter FIREDEAL at checkout.

The 8GB Kindle Fire holds up to 80 apps, plus either 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books, with unlimited backup in Amazon's cloud storage. Still deciding which tablet to buy? We weigh the pros and cons of the Kindle vs. the Nook.

If you've already got your hands on a Kindle Fire, but are still deciding on a case to keep it safe, might I suggest the new DODOcase For Kindle Fire ($45)? Just like its iPad, Kindle, and BlackBerry PlayBook counterparts, the Kindle Fire DODOcase protects your gadget from scratches and scrapes thanks to its strong bamboo casing and hardcover face that looks and feels just like a Moleskine notebook, complete with an elastic strap closure. Best of all, the cover folds back to prop your Kindle Fire up sideways so you can properly watch videos without having to hold it upright. You can even get it monogrammed for yourself, or for your Kindle-toting pals.

The Kindle Fire (and Nook Tablet, for that matter) are perfect travel companions. They store your books, movies, music, and apps, and run on the plane's WiFi so you could even browse the web at 30,000 feet. But a few users are reporting that their new Kindle Fires are being damaged after going through X-ray machines at airport TSA checkpoints. While the X-ray machine isn't exactly to blame, according to an expert, it can be a factor.

Professor Daping Chu, Chairman of the University of Cambridge centre for Advanced Photonics, says that static electricity is likely the culprit . He says:

"I don’t think the radiation used in an airport scanner would ever be strong enough to damage an electronic ink display. . . . But you can get a buildup of static inside these machines, caused by the rubber belt rubbing. If that charge were to pass through a Kindle, it’s conceivable that it could damage the screen. . . . A static charge from an airport scanner could be 100 volts or more. That could permanently stick the particles to the screen.”

Kindles, tablets, laptops, cameras, and thousands of other devices pass through airport X-ray machines every day, but one way to be totally sure your new Kindle Fire won't be damaged due to static electricity is to leave it in your bag when going through TSA checkpoints. Any electronic items smaller than a 13-inch laptop doesn't need to be removed from your bag when going through the X-ray machine anyway, so this should make your trip move that much smoother.

So far, my experience with the Kindle Fire has been positive, but one downside is that it does not read the popular (DRM-free) epub format. If you have amassed a collection of epub books over the years (whether you've downloaded them for free in the Google Library, or elsewhere) and want to take them on the go with your new Kindle Fire, fret not — there is a simple way to convert and upload these books to your device.

Called Calibre, this free software download helps you manage your ebook library, collect information on your books (meta data, titles, descriptions, ratings, and more), and most importantly, convert your books to a Kindle Fire-readable format. Getting started is simple — download Calibre, select your device, upload your books to the program, and drag and drop them into your ereader for proper conversion. Calibre supports a number of devices (from Kindles, Nooks, Sony Readers, smartphones, and others) and can get your ebook library organized fast. I don't want to say it's the iTunes of ebooks, but it kind of is. The software is free, so there's no reason not to try it.