Amazon today announced the next generation Fire HD 8-now with always-ready, hands-free access to Alexa. The company also introduced the new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition.

Fire HD 8

With up to 10 hours of mixed use battery life, the new Fire HD 8 offers a 8" HD (1280 x 800) display with over 1 million pixels, a Quad-core 1.3 GHz processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage with support for up to 400 GB more, plus hands-free access to Alexa, for $79.99.

The Fire HD 8 also includes:

• Show Mode - A new hands-free experience for Fire tablets with full-screen visuals that complement voice responses from Alexa. Show Mode lets you ask Alexa to see trending news, weather, movies trailers, camera feeds, and more-all glanceable whether you're up close or across the room.
• A HD 720p front-facing camera; a 2MP rear-facing camera
• Amazon claims that the Fire HD 8 is 2x as durable as the iPad mini 4.
• Dual stereo speakers optimized for Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Atmos
• Dual-band Wi-Fi
• Alexa, ASAP, For You, X-Ray, Second Screen, Amazon FreeTime, Family Library, Blue Shade, On Deck, Prime Video downloads, and more.
• Access to millions of movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps, and games-with free, unlimited cloud storage for all Amazon content.
  Screen Sharing-Let an Amazon expert guide you remotely through any feature on your screen, available 24x7, 365 days a year-for free.

The new Fire HD 8 comes in four fun color options: Black, Marine Blue, Punch Red, and Canary Yellow, and is available for pre-order today starting at $79.99. Fire HD 8 will begin shipping on October 4.

Fire HD 8 tablet cases are also available in matching colors and can stand in both landscape and portrait orientations- $29.99.

Fire HD 8 Kids Edition

In addition to the Fire HD 8, Amazon also today introduced the new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition tablet for $129.99.

It offers a 8" HD display, 32 GB of storage with up to 400 GB of expandable storage via a microSD card slot, and up to 10 hours of battery life. Fire tablets support up to two adult profiles (accessible with a PIN) and four child profiles that can be customized for each member of the family.

Fire HD 8 Kids Edition includes a year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, which offers more than 20,000 premium books, videos, Audible books, educational apps, and games that have been curated for age-appropriateness, plus access to tens of thousands of hand-selected websites and web videos and parental controls.

kids break things, so Fire HD 8 Kids Edition comes with a kid-proof case available in blue, pink, or yellow, and a two-year guarantee.

Fire HD 8 Kids Edition comes with a year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited. After the first year, Amazon customers can continue their subscription starting at $2.99 per month for Prime members and $4.99 per month for customers who are not yet Prime members.