Well, pour one out for the Fire Tablet. Amazon has replaced its Fire Tablets with a new line of Alexa Tablets, and from what Gizmodo saw in their hands-on, these are not the plasticky bargain slates we're used to.

The Fire Tablets always had a place in my heart, mostly because I recommended them constantly. "Get a Fire for your grandkid," I'd say, "it's cheap, it's fine, it plays videos." That was the whole pitch. My granddaughter Jess went through two of them before she moved on to fancier things, and they served their purpose beautifully.

The new Alexa Tablets sound like a different animal entirely. The design has gone more premium, which frankly was the Fire line's biggest weakness next to every mid-range tablet on the shelf. And the part that actually matters, at least according to Gizmodo: they run all the apps from the Amazon Appstore. App selection on cheap tablets was always the sticking point in my own house, though I'll be honest, the source doesn't tell us how this compares to what the Fires could do, so I'm not going to pretend it does.

I remember when 1GB of storage felt unthinkable, and now we're arguing about whether a tablet's app store has enough apps to justify existing. Technology should work for you, and a tablet that can't run the apps you actually want is working against you no matter how cheap it is.

So the Alexa Tablet rebrand makes a certain amount of sense to me, and to be clear this is my own read on it. I suspect Amazon wants these devices to be Alexa-first, little hubs for your kitchen counter or nightstand, rather than just budget iPads. Whether that's what people actually want from a tablet is an open question...

My advice, as always: don't preorder until we know prices and real battery numbers. Cheap tablets that frustrate you daily are more expensive than good ones. I'll be watching this line closely, and once I get one on my counter next to the coffee maker, you'll hear from me.