After weeks of speculation, Amazon has finally unveiled its new Kindle Fire, a 7-inch tablet that will help sell its e-books and streaming movies and, according to experts, be the toughest rival yet to Apple’s iPad and iPad2 tablets. The main reason: its US$199 price tag.

Amazon’s challenge is unique in that it is not so much a hardware seller as one more interested in pushing its online services and e-commerce business through its devices.

The Fire comes with a ready suite of apps and services, such as its free movie streaming service to subscribers of its US$79-a-year Prime membership. Customers also get a 30-day trial Prime membership, when they take the tablet out of the box, according to Bloomberg.

Another plus for Amazon is that it is running Google’s Android operating system, which likely means it will be able to run a good number of apps in the market. Just a reminder: Amazon also runs its own Android store if you are not inclined to the regular Android Market by Google.

For an attractive US$199 tablet, there are trade-offs, of course. It doesn’t come with 3G, a camera or a microphone, as Engadget points out. In fact, early pictures show that it follows a rather simple Kindle interface that is aimed at doing one thing right – media consumption.

Unlike others before who have been keen to pack in more features into their tablets, Amazon has clearly done the opposite and put in as few extra options as possible to keep prices down.

Launching their own tablets earlier this year, Samsung and Motorola had pegged their tablets’ prices close to Apple’s current iPad 2, which starts from US$499. Yet, the challengers are still trailing the leader by a fair margin, because of Apple’s first-mover advantage in building an ecosystem of apps and developers, as well as a well-liked design.

Will the Amazon Kindle Fire work? I’d like to think it will gain traction. Just as an upgrade to the old Kindle, the new souped up version will be an attractive proposition to Amazon’s many e-book users. Even for folks who never wanted to buy a tablet in the first place, coming across the Fire’s US$199 price tag while shopping on Amazon or at a retailer in the United States will surely tempt their credit cards out of the wallets.

Think of the failed HP tablet. When the TouchPad was dumped on the market by the company for US$99, or S$118 here in Singapore, it easily sold out and HP had to make more of it to satisfy demand for what was essentially an end-of-life product.

Thus with its low price, the Fire looks set to move off the shelves in the coming months. Sure, it’s irritating to hear about another “iPad killer”, as the Fire will be called by many pundits, but it surely does look like a credible competitor.

For Singapore users, don’t be surprised to see local retailers bringing in grey imports in the coming weeks.

Long before Apple and Samsung trotted out their tablets, the lesser-known Archos had been making what were known as portable multimedia players (PMPs), which worked sort of like tricked-up MP3 players with video playback.

Now, after being not particularly successful with early Android tablets, the French company is back with a couple of tablets you really have to check out before buying an iPad or Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Tab.

While buying some parts for a PC over the weekend, I found the Archos 70 and 101 tablets selling at Memory World and its other outlet Storage Studio at Sim Lim Square, and I joined a small crowd swiping our fingers over the screens of these two wonderfully portable machines.

Boy, was I pleasantly surprised after getting a quick hands-on with the gizmos.

For starters, look at the attractive prices:

• S$459 for the 7-incher 70 with 8GB
• S$499 for the 7-incher 70 with 250GB hard disk
• S$499 for the 10-incher 101 with 8GB (most popular, I’m told)
• S$599 for the 10-incher 101 with 16GB

All of them are Wi-Fi only and do not have 3G built in, which may be a good thing for those who don’t need mobile data, or can get it by tethering to their cellphones.

With the Archos 101, the bigger version with the 10.1-inch wide-screen, the first thing that hits you is how light it weighs in one hand. You can carry this and watch your movie on the train without tiring out your arm.

The specs say it is 480 grams, a good 200 grams or roughly 30 per cent lighter than the 680-gram iPad (Wi-Fi only model). On the hand, the lighter 101 really feels like a world of difference.

Looks-wise, Archos’ tablets are also much sleeker looking than the iPad and Galaxy Tab. Not just slim but streamlined, these feel like really thin computers that are perfect for surfing the Web or even reading e-books on.

The only thing is, the battery pack on the bigger 101 can feel a little warm. Though nowhere near your laptop’s warmth, it’s something you should look out for if you are sensitive to that. Archos doesn’t say how much juice the battery has, though it promises up to seven hours of video playback.

Under the hood, the 101 has the works: an 1GHz Arm Cortex A8 processor, support for all sorts of video and picture formats and a MicroSD slot that negates the relatively small 8/16GB flash memory for storing files. It also has a handy HDMI port to hook up to your TV if you want to watch movies stored on the tablet.

The same specs are found on the smaller 7-incher Archos 70, which to me, is just the right size and weight (just 300 grams for the flash memory model) to carry around. For some reason, the device also seems noticeably faster than its larger 101 cousin when I tried swiping my finger through the Android menus.

Speaking of Android, Archos promises Android 2.2 on the machines, but the tablets on sale at Sim Lim are still running Android 2.1, with promises of an update within the coming weeks.

That, to me, was the deal-breaker at the moment I was going to take out my ATM card to pay. To be fair, the devices are only to be officially launched in Singapore on Nov 17, but I held back from buying a device that may seem still in development.

Why does Android 2.2 matter? For one, I’d like Flash on the big screen. And, of course, the speed improvements that I have seen with the same OS update on my Nexus One.

Another thing to note is that, unlike the Samsung Galaxy Tab, there are no extra software, such as an e-reader and content that you may (or may not) like. Out of the box, the Archos gizmos are plain vanilla Android devices that probably require the user to download his own software.

Speaking of which, there doesn’t seem to be native Android Market support here. That means you either have to apply a hack or “sideload” the apps, that is, download them separately and install them by running the APK packages from your tablet.

Still, the Archos tablets look like they will give other tablets a run for the money given its low cost – once they are updated with Android 2.2. And they could really ruin the party for the upcoming Creative ZiiOs shipping here next month.

Unlike the Creative tablets, Archos’ two offerings appear to use capacitive screens, which are more sensitive and enable multi-touch. Strangely, the Memory World salesman told me the tablets use a special type of resistive screen that provides for what felt like very smooth pinch and zoom gestures, while Engadget says they use the now-common capacitive models.

Either way, at the prices they are sold, I expect these Archos tablets to stake a claim in the growing market, which will likely see new entrants such as Acer, Asus and Toshiba very soon. At the low-end, the Archos 70 and 101 will do particularly well, especially with their sleek design.

They’ll also be attractive to users who don’t want a built-in 3G link – I, for one, can tether with my Nexus One. With Wi-Fi b/g/n, the 70 and 101 will appeal as a device to surf or play games on while lounging in the living room.

With more competition in the horizon, and tablets running Google’s upcoming OSes made from ground-up for tablets, consumers may be spoilt for choice in the coming weeks and months.

That’s the news that HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy S and other Android phone users have been waiting for all this while – paid apps accessible via Android Market.

In a blog post today (SGT), Google said it was expanding the number of countries where users can buy paid apps from 14 to 32.

These include Singapore, which means users here can start buying apps off Android Market in a couple of weeks’ time, bringing the total number of paid and free apps available to  them to 80,000 (we’re still waiting for the breakdown between free/paid apps from Google).

Until now, the Android market here only offers free apps and users have had to go to alternative app marketplaces such as SlideMe for paid apps.

Along with the announcement, Singapore app developers can also upload their paid apps onto the Market. The country is among 20 new places – up from 9 previously – that would allow developers to sell apps. Yes, I know, in some countries you can buy apps but can’t sell them, possibly because of local laws or other regulations.

But all in, this is great news for Android users in Singapore. It’s much easier to buy paid apps now by simply getting it from Android Market.

The news will also create more worry for Apple, whose sales of iPhones are already falling behind Android-based devices in the United States in the first half of this year. While Apple had a headstart with its tightly-controlled AppStore, it would likely be looking over its shoulder at this expansion of Android Market with unease.

You can now watch StarHub’s mobile TV channels, including some free ones, on your Nexus One phone by simply downloading the StarHub TV app via the Google Android market on your phone. Just search for “StarHub” (for some reason, it’s not on Androlib, so search for it on your phone).

After weeks of trying to tweak my Nexus One’s settings high and low, I had given up on watching these programmes on my Google phone.

Then came a lucky break last night when I was searching for stuff on Android market for my wife’s new Mototorola Milestone – the StarHub TV app is actually on Android market!

Why didn’t StarHub tell us so? That would have saved lots of people all the time trying to figure out how to watch the mobile TV channels on their new Nexus One. I have not tried this out on other phones, but if you manage to do so on your HTC Hero, for example, do share the info!

Anyway, go on and download the app (looks like the same free one from SPB that is being pre-installed on the Milestone) and enjoy your programmes.

Some are free if you’ve already signed up for them on your cable TV service. I got Football Channel free, for example, because I’m a StarHub sports package subscriber.

[UPDATE: Sorry folks, the free mobile channels are not tied to what you have signed up on your cable TV service - thanks to Albert for pointing this out.]