Kindle Fire? Like an iPad?

[Coolio]

Hi, LiveYourLive, to start you'd be better off not to rush with your purchase as Nook Color 2 is rumored to be released shortly in time for the holiday season's shopping. For most of your questions (other than SD card slot) the answer is yes for both Nook Color or Kindle Fire. Even with the current one, of the major advantages of Nook Color over incoming Kindle Fire is the microSD card slot which neither of old or new Kindle models have. With Nook, you can actually have two devices instead of one as you don't have to root the actual device but instead can make it boot from a “rooted” microSD card. If you want to get back to the original Nook you can just take out the card and reboot. This way you can go back and forth between rooted and original Nook Color within minutes. There are plenty of instructions on how to do it on the web.
Also, with the microSD card you can add up to 32 GB of additional capacity for books, videos, photos, and apps to your Nook Color. More, Nook Color's screen is anti-glare coated and thus it better performs in sunlight while Kindle Fire's details do not list that.