Now that Amazon has announced the Kindle Fire, the inevitable questions about how it stacks up against the iPad are being raised. The Fire costs about $300 less, but has these disadvantages compared to the iPad:

• Smaller screen (7 inches compared to the iPad’s 10 inches)
• No camera or microphone
• No creative or business apps
• Limited onboard memory

The bottom line is that you want a tablet to watch movies or read books and find the iPad to be too expensive and too large to be truly portable, the Kindle Fire could be you’re best bet. If you want to edit photos, manage a spreadsheet or perform some other functional task, the iPad is probably the better choice.

Read more analysis of the iPad vs. Kindle Fire question on the MSNBC GadgetBox blog.

Windows 8, which will features a new interface called Metro, is due for release in late 2012. It will offer a new Windows paradigm for running, switching and working inside apps. Apps are represented as tiles rather than icons. When an app is running, it occupies the full screen with no menu buttons showing until you right-click your mouse (or swipe your finger on a touchscreen device). Many tech experts are predicting that Windows 8 will be an excellent OS for non-Apple tablets.

Read more details about Windows 8 in this Fast Company article. You can also see it a demo from the BUILD conference in this YouTube video.

Did you know that some gadgets and appliances continue to draw power even when turned off? This waste of energy is sometimes referred to as “vampire power.” Now there are devices that help you monitor and control this energy drain. One of these is ThinkEco’s Modlet, a wall plug that continuously monitors the energy usage of any device plugged into it.

Using an interface installed on your computer, you can shut off devices connect via Modlet or set a schedule for turning them off and on. Modlet communicates with the computer through a wireless connect or USB dongle.

ThinkEco claims that the Modlet can reduce overall energy usage by a household by 6 to 10 percent. It retails for about $45. You can find out more about Modlet on the official ThinkEco website.

The IFA Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin has just wrapped up (that’s show icon Miss IFA pictured above). This year, visitors to the huge expo had the chance to see a variety of iPad competitors, state-of-the-art television sets (some with 3D displays and touchpens), smartphones, kitchen appliances and hundreds of other useful and not-so-useful gadgets and gizmos.

Check out a summary of some of the best gadgets on the Huffington Post website.  You can also find out more on the official IFA website.