Amazon's Kindle Fire from the start has been situated as the budget tablet. Its specs rarely are found to measure up to those of its competitors, but the price, the current edition offered at $229, is so appealing it has managed to leverage a spot in the market.

When the holiday season comes in sight, we naturally expect a new splash from electronics producers and Amazon hasn't let us down there. There are some redesigned features, including the operating system, which is pretty much Android Light. Also, some people are going to quite dig the brand new Mayday feature. As discussed below, this new feature provides free, single button access to a live service rep.

If though you're looking for dramatic improvements in functions and capacity, you'll be disappointed. There's not a lot of enhancement with this third-generation model. Indeed, some might even think they're getting ripped off. The software here is based on Google's Android system, but absent all of Google's apps and services.

Rather, these new Kindle Fire owners have to download any apps from Amazon. (This all reminiscence, by the way, of the whole mess around activating the Flash Player , which does not come activated, to the perturbation of many new owners.) And it's not just a convenience problem, but also a selection one: compared to nearly a million apps for the Android, Kindle Fire only has around 85,000 available. Nor is it merely numbers; many of the most popular Android apps, such as Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube, are not on offer.

Sorry to seem to be piling on, but another unhappy aspect of the Kindle Fire HDX follows in the wake of this paltry assortment of apps. As with the earlier versions, you are constantly being up-sold. Holding the mouse over any product or service brings your friendly Amazon salesman leaping into action, drawing your attention to some similar Amazon good you might like to buy.

I find this immensely annoying and distracting. Obviously, it's a matter of personal taste. Some folks, I expect, find real value in this endless exposure to new product opportunities. For me, it just gets in the way of what I'm trying to do. Like commercial television, though, this is the monetizing strategy: you suffer through the ads to get the product at such a low price.

It's not all doom and gloom, though. There are some genuine improvements. Happiest of all is a noticeable reduction in how buggy is the software. This has always been a problem with this tablet and while Amazon hasn't entirely remedied the situation, the reduction of glitches is much welcomed. Also, a thumbs-up for the "carousel" style view finder: it allows you to find apps, movies, books or any other offering with ease and a visual flair. The navigation bar at the bottom of the screen accesses the full assortment of content on the tablet.

Plus, we mustn't forget the feature that some will enjoy most of all: the Mayday button, with which a single press puts you in direct contact with a live service rep. This service guy or girl will introduce themselves, on a first name basis (of course), after popping up in a corner of your screen. This rep will be skilled and informed, able to deal with whatever problems you've encountered. In fact, should it prove a more efficacious solution, the representative can even take over direct control of the tablet. Those worried about corporate Big Brother may have pause at such a notion, but it can help resolve some issues much faster than trying to walk the owner through a series of involved steps. I certainly found this service impressive. And it represents a rare commitment to customer service.

The irony of course is that the whole idea of such tablets is that they are supposed to be highly user friendly, operating in intuitive ways. So, one can't help wondering if there isn't a certain kind of confession in the provision of this service. "Well, we couldn't quite get it right, but here's our workaround." Or, maybe I'm just too cynical.

At the end of the day, I'll say the same thing about this newest version Kindle Fire as I have about its forerunners. If you're into big time, long term loyalty to Amazon and its products -- and nothing is wrong with that -- you'll find some appreciated improvements in the newer version. If your priority, however, is a good budget tablet, you can do better .