Amazon's new Kindle Fire HDX tablets: the full story

Alongside the announcement of the new Kindle Fire HDX tablets, Amazon has created three TV spots. Each of the spots focus on Mayday, the innovative tech support feature that allows users to quickly get an Amazon support representative to log into their tablet and fix things. You might think of the feature as a virtual "Genius Bar" for the Kindle Fire series, though of course Amazon doesn't quite position it in those terms. In an interview with The Verge, CEO Jeff Bezos pointed out that those creeped out by a representative could turn it off, but "you’d be disabling the greatest feature we’ve ever made!"

Indeed, Amazon seems to be aware that it needs to walk a careful line in promoting Mayday. The three commercials spend a lot of time making it something friendly and approachable. Mayday allows Amazon to see whatever is on your screen when you call in, and then the representative can draw on your screen or even directly control your tablet. One commercial even goes so far as to point out that while you can see a video image of your support specialist, he or she "can't see you."

The Kindle Fire tablets have always served primarily as portals to Amazon's massive trove of content. But this year, as the company introduces the new Kindle Fire HDX, Amazon tablets are on the precipice of becoming something much more powerful, and much more useful besides. Amazon's ready to compete on specs, on content, and on price — and it makes a compelling case in every respect.

The HDX is actually two tablets: a 7-inch model and an 8.9-inch version, just like the Kindle Fire HD before it. Both are still relatively inconspicuously designed, with virtually no flair — they're just black. Both models feel solid and well made when you’re holding them. The company has made a big deal about the reduction in size and weight, and there is some noticeable fat trimmed, particularly on the 8.9-inch model. As before Amazon is using a soft-touch material around the backs of the tablets, but it’s dotting the edges of that surface with angular, raised plastic edges that jut out at surprisingly funky angles.

Jeff Bezos has a big laugh. It's a shotgun; a booming sound that reverberates through a room. It can be a little scary, actually. It is not subtle, gentle, or otherwise restrained. But when he does laugh — which is often — it is a laugh trained squarely on the room. Not inward, but outward. A laugh that says: there's fun to be had, so join in.

To say that Bezos is one of America's most accomplished and prolific businessmen would be an understatement. In a little under two decades, he went from wide-eyed internet soothsayer and humble online bookseller to superstar — nay, titan — of a new industry. Several industries actually, and counting; industries he helped to shape, and continues to define as he expands Amazon's reach (and his own, having just purchased one of the country's oldest newspapers, The Washington Post).

Amazon is rolling out the brand-new Kindle FIre HDX with upgraded everything tonight, but last year's Kindle Fire HD isn't going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, the company announced that it is updating the tablet and cutting its price down to $139 — a very aggressive price point for a still-competitive tablet.

The new Kindle Fire HD features a 7-inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display, faster dual-core 1.5GHz processor, and dual stereo speakers. It won't give the new Nexus 7 much of a performance challenge (that's reserved for the new HDX models), but for nearly $100 less, it's certainly an enticing deal for anyone looking for a low-cost tablet. The new Kindle Fire HD is thinner and lighter than before and has a new industrial design with beveled edges and back-mounted controls.