Both devices are based on Android, but Amazon’s Kindle Fire uses a custom interface developed and controlled by Amazon. Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet also uses a customized version of Android that restricts users from accessing Google’s Android Marketplace out of the box.

I like to stick up for the underdog, and Google doesn’t really fit the bill, but it is the one responsible for Android and it seems these two, amongst others, are skipping out with the goodies or googlies.

It must be so that the morals of business people mirror that of psychopaths. Maybe it would be OK, if they only did the psychopathing on each other and left the righteous (Apple) alone.

If you’ve ever wondered what a race to the bottom might look like, well,  look no further.

Coming up next: A five inch, 8 GB Kindle Fire for $149 ?

They still have the $249 version, which means for $50 more you get double the ram and double the internal storage.  I’d definitely go for the better version…

... oh, wait, I’d probably just prefer the iPad in the first place.  

But if you want a limited tablet, OR you are looking for the 7” size (which I think actually does have some good uses, despite what Apple has said in the past), then it’s probably a better deal to pay the extra $50 just for the double RAM.  (On the assumption that doubling RAM in a tablet has the same effect on speed that doubling RAM on a desktop/laptop has.)