AMAZON unveiled four new Kindle Fire tablet computers yesterday, including ones with larger color screens, as the online retailer steps up competition with Apple ahead of the holiday shopping season.

The larger Fires will have screens that measure 8.9 inches (22.6 centimeters) diagonally, compared with 9.7 inches for the iPad. The original Fire had 7-inch screens. The basic version of the larger Fire will sell for US$299, or US$100 less than the cheapest iPad.The basic, 7-inch Fire model will cost US$159, down from US$199 for the original model, which sold out last month. Amazon says it is 40 percent faster, comes with twice the memory and has a longer battery life than the old version. It will start shipping next Friday.

Amazon's bread-and-butter is not its Kindle gadgets but the movies, books and music that people consume through them. By contrast, Apple sees content sales as a sideline and wants to make a healthy profit on every device sold. For example, the cheapest iPad costs US$399 and the most recent models start at US$499.But Amazon signaled Thursday that it is going head-to-head with Apple when it unveiled its high-end Kindle Fire HD. It will have two Wi-Fi channels and two internal antennas for faster, smoother transfers. That will be crucial for high-definition movies and other large files, Bezos told reporters.

The Fire, however, won't have as extensive a selection of apps as the iPad. In addition, while the HD models will have a front-facing camera for video chats, the iPad has one on the rear as well for taking photos and video.

滬江英語快訊：亞馬遜宣布，它將從11月20日開始銷售一款8.9英寸Kindle Fire平板電腦。這款平板電腦配置高清顯示屏，能夠在Wi-Fi或者4G網(wǎng)絡(luò)上運行。Kindle Fire HD的顯示屏分辨率為1920 x 1200，落后于蘋果的所謂的“視網(wǎng)膜”顯示屏。在8.9英寸顯示屏方面，Kindle Fire HD的分辨率也低于iPad的顯示屏。亞馬遜還展示了一款“paperwhite”電子書閱讀器。該產(chǎn)品的屏幕更清晰并且電池使用壽命更長。

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