Kindle Fire HD - A Great Gift For Technophobes

The Kindle Fire HD tablet computer is a great gadget. It's available for a very reasonable price and has more than enough features and functions to satisfy the most discerning gadget head.

However, it is also a great choice for the more technically challenged user - such as my better half for example. My wife dislikes almost all forms of technology. She doesn't even like using her mobile phone - which is now a rather old mobile, but will not be changed anytime soon as she has "just got used to it".

She requires to check her e-mail a few times a day and keep her schedule up to date for work purposes. This has always been a tense experience for her until recently.

Booting up her notebook (inherited from my youngest son), getting online and opening up her G-Mail was always an unpleasant activity - both for her and for anyone else unfortunate enough to be in the family home at the time. In short, she didn't like it at all - but she had to do it.

So getting her a tablet computer as a birthday gift was a bit of a gamble - but one that paid off in the end. The thing is, for all of its technical features, the Fire HD is really very easy to use.

Now, when my wife wants to check her e-mail, she just turns on her tablet and a single tap takes her right into her G-Mail account (works for Yahoo, Hotmail and other mail service providers as well). There's no need to wait and see if her notebook is going to play nice, no need to wait for Windows to fire up and no need to open up Chrome and then navigate to her e-mail account. One tap is all that it takes.

The Fire HD is very user friendly - and it is one of the fastest tablets available. It's absolutely ideal for anyone who needs to use the web, but who doesn't get along all that well with technology. It's been a liberating experience for my wife. She finds checking e-mail to be easy and stress free these days - and she has now graduated to watching movies on her Kindle and doing a bit of online shopping as well (slipped up a bit there).

As mentioned earlier, the Kindle Fire HD is a great choice for anyone who isn't all that technically inclined. However, it has plenty of features to satisfy those who do love gadgets and technology. Here are some of the main ones:

• 1280 x 800 HD display with anti-glare, polarized filters.
• Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches (see image above).
• Weighs just 13.9 ounces.
• Dual antenna, dual band wi-fi for super fast downloads and fewer dropped connections.
• Up to 11 hours of use on a single battery charge.
• On board Dolby stereo speakers (or use headphones connected into 3.5 mm jack).
• 16GB or 32GB memory options.
• Front facing camera.
• Very user friendly and simple to use.
• Integrated support for services like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Twitter, Facebook etc.
• Easy access to the Amazon content system - books, magazines, TV shows, movies, apps etc.
• Free "app of the day", every day.