Save on a Tween Kindle Fire

If you've been thinking about a tween Kindle Fire for the holidays, there is a great deal today (Dec 10, 2012) while supplies last.  One per customer, you can save $50 on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" tablet by using the code FIREHD89.  The 16GB option is $249 with the savings applied, and excellent deal for a large tablet with HD and Dolby Audio.

The site has provided some great deals throughout the holidays.  There have been a couple of opportunities to save $30 on the Kindle 8GB 7" tablet, but this is the first really great deal on a larger tablet.  I like the large size for video content, and it's great to be able to have larger space for ereading and games.  For the tween who's challenged by the awkwardness of a smaller screen, this is a nice alternative.

It's worth the extra investment to make sure that you have a good tween tablet case and a protection plan as tweens can be a little bit ruthless with their tech belongings.  My tween can be careless with her Kindle, and I definitely wouldn't pick up a tech device for her without a related plan.  My older daughter, a college student, is much more careful with her Kindle, but a case is still a much needed accessory.

Tablet Vs Netbook for Tweens

If you are considering a significant investment in a tech gift for your tween, there are a variety of options, more extensive every year given the advances in touchscreen technology.  If you are debating tablet vs netbook for tweens, there are some helpful considerations in narrowing your choices.

Affordable Meep Tablet for Tweens

Cost is a huge consideration when you are thinking about a tween tablet or a tween netbook.  Before the iPad was introduced, many parents hoped for the cheap netbook to be available as a holiday doorbuster.  The mini sized computers served as affordable alternatives to full laptops, easy to transport and fully functional.  I love my netbook as a portable device.  However, the entertainment value to my tweens is minimal when compared with other touchscreen devices.  A netbook for a preteen does provide compact computing.  However, a cheap netbook is limited in its usefulness beyond simple web browsing and game play.  Unless you are looking at the netbook for keyboarding skills and school curriculum, there isn't nearly as much appeal as there is with a tablet.

If you are intent on a netbook for a tween and if price isn't the biggest factor, I highly recommend something in a slightly larger size (11.6 inch screen) and with a larger amount of memory and hard drive space.  Acer dominates in terms of ratings, and the top rated choice at Amazon at this writing is its 11.6 netbook with 4 GB RAM and 500 GB Hard Drive. ( Acer Aspire One AO756-2808 11.6-Inch Netbook )  Less severe on the eyes and less frustrating with limitations on memory.  Only $350 in cost, it's going to be less frustrating.

Alternately, a full laptop in a 14.6 screen size may be a better choice for visual ease of use.

Tablets, though, provide Web browsing and game play, with tactile interaction making it much more appealing than a netbook for many preteen computer users.  If your tween likes games, apps on both iPad and Android tablets are primarily going to accomodate this need.  Further, the likeability combines with great affordability.  The Meep Tablet for a preteen is affordably priced at around $150.  Netbooks in this price range are going to be limited, but the Meep is a kid friendly device with great apps and parental controls built in.  The Kindle Fire is a 7" Android tablet in the $200 range.  These devices are much more user friendly than tween netbooks and the costs are much more budget friendly.  Ideally, many tweens would love to own an iPad, and with rumors of a 7" iPad tablet coming soon, it makes more sense to think about the iPad mini for your pre teen than to buy a netbook.  As a parent, I'd rather use a tablet than a netbook for research, and my main netbook use is for quick web browsing and composition on the road.  A tablet is more apt to meet entertainment and research needs without overly straining the eyes.

Kindle Fire vs Nook Tablet for Tweens

If you are considering Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet for tweens on your gift lists, then it may seem confusing as to which is the better choice. In fact, your priorities for the gift recipient will highly influence your decision, as both offer some obviously similar functions: Web browsing, app stores, email, video and digital music interfaces, as well as ereading. An additional Ereading Tablet is the Nook Color. Nook Color and Kindle Fire both retail at $199, while the Nook Tablet is $249. Price, of course, may affect your decision, but the options don't end there.






With your tween in mind, Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet may boil down to how you expect your tween to use the tablet. Digital content will be the major interest here, whether your tween is interested in playing music, watching videos, playing games and using apps, or reading.
When it comes to video viewing, both the Kindle and Nook tablets include Netflix, while the Nook Color will soon be able to play Netflix video, as well. Both have options for video and digital music to be played. With regard to music, Nook indicates the availability of various digital music services, such as Rhapsody, Grooveshark, and MOD for free trial, with Pandora pre-loaded to the device. Kindle Fire plays digital music through the Amazon Cloud, a storage service that hosts your content. 5 GB storage is available free of charge, with further storage available for purchase.

Kindle Fire is Priced at $199

Most tweens are just beginning to assemble music collections, and 5 GB is probably plenty of storage. However, knowing that tweens need to learn the fine art of management, it's possible that other digital content could take a decent chunk of that storage space. Nevertheless, this is a great means for them to learn management skills. Kindle Fire is particularly compatible with Kindle ebooks, though it also accomodates PDF document reading. Meanwhile, Nook is primarily aimed at Nook books and magazines. Both Nook Tablet and Nook Color include Kids' interactive books for purchase through the Nook store, but the tween is often just a little older than the target age for many picture books that fall into the interactive category. Magazines are available for both devices, but the availability of tween related magazine content is really lacking in both camps. I would love to see an emphasis on children's and tweens magazines from either platform, as the mass of clutter that kids' magazines creates is amazing. My tweens enjoy magazine reading, and an ereader or tablet that caters to this interest would be an outstanding improvement.

Angry Birds Free Apps are available for Kindle Fire,
While both Nook and Kindle have paid Angry Birds Apps.

In exploring the app stores for both platforms, I find that there are far more free apps in the Amazon app store, and when it comes to popular games like Angry Birds, the Amazon price is .99, while the Nook price is 2.99. This generally holds true for most of the apps I searched or browsed, and this makes Kindle Fire content for tweens a little more budget friendly. Further, Amazon includes several perks for an account that has a paid Prime shipping membership: instant video on demand (many free titles for members), and monthly book borrowing, specifically. These are outstanding selections for tweens, finding a good middle ground between the expensive iPad, and inexpensive, low quality tablets that will frustrate. However, a couple of more considerations are worthwhile for the parent of a tween.

If you want to emphasize the ereading experience, but limit web browsing and game play, the more basic Kindle ereaders for tweens provide web browsing and email, along with games developed for the Kindle platform(some free), without the distraction of video viewing. Digital music can be loaded to all but the most basic Kindle, and text to speech is available on all but the basic version. Meanwhile, the Nook Touch is strictly an ereader, and provides a basic touchscreen option for reading digital content.


On the more expensive end of the tablet spectrum, the iPad 2 for a tween is a powerful tool. Being used in classroom instruction, and with a huge selection of apps, this is more than a glorified video game console. It also functions as a communication device, in conjunction with compatible Apple products. iTunes is hugely popular among young people, and likewise, a new cloud storage option makes it possible to move digital content to other devices easily. If the price of iPads for tweens is a little steep, the iPod Touch is comparable to the Kindle Fire, and Nook Color, in cost, at just under $200. Like the iPad, the iTouch for a tween functions as a communication tool, music player, web browser, and camera, a feature lacking in any of the ereader tablets. Apple's app store includes ereading apps for both Kindle and Nook, which means that if you start with one of these platforms, and later move your tween into an iPad or iPod, the ereading content will still be useful.

iPod Touch for Tweens

In all cases, it's my strong recommendation that a parent of a tween explore the costs of accident protection plans, due to the changing physical and emotional traits over the tween years. Having replaced two broken cell phones for a tween son, and having seen the great service provided for a malfunctioning video console for that same son, I firmly believe that an ounce of prevention is worth it. Tweens can be forgetful, clumsy, or reactionary, and an expensive device can suffer the consequences of careless actions, intended or not.

Nook Tablet for Tweens

Nook Tablet
Available for Pre-order,
Slated for a November 18 release.

With competitive pricing on it's other Nook ereaders, Barnes and Noble has rolled out the Nook Tablet, a 16 GB tablet that includes digital media and ereading, web browsing, and popular apps, another cost concious tablet for tweens, as parents consider the possibilities.

Pricing on Nook Color is now $199, and the tablet like ereader is an outstanding tween ereader choice due to the availability of interactive Nook books.  The Nook Touch is now $99, which makes it a competitive ereader, when compared with Kindle Touch.  The original Nook is $89.  If you are looking for tablet alternatives for your tweens, the Nook tablet is an outstanding choice, as is the Nook Color.  The costs are much less expensive than those of the iPad, while the multiple uses are great for keeping your tweens busy.

Tablets for Tweens: Kindle Fire

Kindle Fire
An inexpensive, cutting edge, tablet computer choice
for your tween, or for you.

Tablet computers are at the top of many holiday wishlists, including those of tweens, with the iPad 2 being high in demand. However, many parents will shirk and shudder at the $500 price tag for the basic model of the popular tablet pc. Amazon has just announced pre-order, however, for it's latest offering in this tablet computer medium, the Kindle Fire, which will be released Nov. 15 of 2011.

The $199 tablet is more than just an ereader, though the Kindle name has been associated with the ereading platform since it's introduction. However, the Kindle Fire is a tablet sized device which incorporates video streaming (Amazon Instant Video), digital music, ereading (in color display, with this latest release), document viewing, and web browsing, with the Amazon Silk browser. Use of cloud computing allows storage to be handled via the cloud, rather than on the device, freeing up space.

Whereas the iPad, and other Apple products such as iPod and iPhone have memory limitations, with greater memory models costing significantly more money, Kindle Fire includes unlimited storage for Amazon content. This may be the biggest drawback for the tween who might want to use the tablet as a listening device, for streaming audio from their iTunes library. However, the use of a tablet, for many, is more about the apps and activities, than about the music. iPods seem to be the tween's preferred music playing device.

You can view more information about the Kindle Fire, along with demonstration videos, and comparisons of the various choices in Kindle ereaders, and in the Kindle Fire tablet computer, in order to make a good decision as to whether this is the tablet for your tween.