That pesky button came up in some reviews, and one writer mentioned that a firmware update could fix it, somewhat. You can't change the placement, but you change how the device responds to the bump. I'll have to check out some keyboard apps. It's on my to-do list this weekend, along with making a step-by-step Overdrive to Kobo WiFi tutorial for my mother-in-law. She's flustered by Groupon, so I kind of dread going through all the steps involved in getting an ebook from the library!
As for if the Fire is a tablet ... Bezos said it's a
"multimedia device", and Amazon's really toed the line in press releases. Generically, yes, it's a tablet, but it's not a full-fledged tablet. B&N and Kobo call their "tablets" color e-readers, putting e-reading at the forefront. However, Amazon has treated e-reading as an afterthought but has christened the device with the same name as its e-readers ... So, where does that leave us? I'd say officially it's a multimedia device, but I'm not going to "correct" anyone for calling it a tablet.
For the threads title and theme of conversation, I think the title is fine and pretty descriptive of the arguments. The Fire is the Fire, a device unto itself, but its market competitors are tablets or similarly cultivated devices.