Kindle Fire review thread

[RegGuheert]

I think I read the same article just a few minutes ago. But why wouldn't there be as many educational apps for the Fire?

There are a few reasons I can think of:

1) The Kindle Fire has been designed to be a front-end for accessing content from Amazon. For instance, the Android interface has been modified to make it more "Amazon-centric". That doesn't mean it can't do other things through apps, it just means that is not the market focus.

2) The Kindle Fire hardware is not as capable as an iPad. The screen, memory and storage are all smaller than that of an iPad. There is no microphone, camera, compass, gyroscope, GPS or Bluetooth in the Kindle Fire, all of which are available in the iPad 2. To my knowledge you also are limited to two-finger multitouch on Android devices. There IS an accelerometer, even though Amazon does not advertise this. Any application which uses any of these additional features on the iPad will not work on the Kindle Fire without modification. (Here are my sources for these specs: Apple iPad 2 and Kindle Fire.)

3) I don't get the impression that the Kindle Fire has the same level of parental controls built into it that Apple has built into the iPad. Without these controls in place, I do not think the Kindle Fire will gain the acceptance from parents that iPad currently enjoys.

 

FWIW, I expect much of this to change over time. I believe Amazon has chosen the screen size and price point where they want to attack the market. I think future versions of the Kindle Fire will maintain these two characteristics but will offer additional capability under the hood as technology advances. Assuming Apple maintains their price point as well, I expect the Kindle Fire will always lag the iPad. The question, as always, is whether or not the hardware and content support (including apps) for the Kindle Fire is "good enough". For very many people it is. As one reviewer wrote: "It does 80% of the job for 40% of the price."

 

I think you will also likely see a Kindle Fire DX or some such arrive later with a larger screen and price tag.

My decision would really depend on educational apps. For example, iStart has an app for learning Chinese, Spanish, and German, but will Amazon have a similar one (very, very soon)?

First, thanks for the tip on iStart Spanish! Nice app!

 

I don't know. Here is a quote from the Mirai LLP website, the company which makes iStart Spanish:

Mirai LLP is a boutique app creation company located in Tokyo, Japan. We design and develop smartphone apps with a focus on the iOS (iPhone/iPod touch/iPad) platform.

I agree that they *could* start writing Android apps if they want to assuming their apps do not use the microphone, and it appears they do not. If they do not do this, then other companies will certainly offer something in this space. The relative quality between apps for iPad and Kindle will almost certainly depend on how attractive the Android tablet market is or becomes. Kindle Fire seems to be the first Android tablet which has really captured developers attention, so perhaps things are starting to change. We will see. Edited November 17, 2011 by RegGuheert
Typo.

[RegGuheert]

If you want to read about all the warts in the Kindle Fire, check out the new review by PC World: Amazon Kindle Fire Misfires. It is a pretty complete review and it is, by far, the most negative review I have seen so far on the Kindle Fire.

[momofkhm]

Can you tether the Fire?

 

I think dh has said we can use our phones to tether a laptop. (Maybe I'm dreaming?) can we similarly tether the Fire to our phones and then use it on the go when there is no wifi?

[RegGuheert]

Can you tether the Fire?

 

I think dh has said we can use our phones to tether a laptop. (Maybe I'm dreaming?) can we similarly tether the Fire to our phones and then use it on the go when there is no wifi?

Yes, you can! (Using WiFi. You cannot tether with a cable.)

 

I'm sure we will do this when we are out-and-about. Our Android phones can create a WiFi hotspot that the Kindle Fire can access.

[nono]

If you want to read about all the warts in the Kindle Fire, check out the new review by PC World: Amazon Kindle Fire Misfires. It is a pretty complete review and it is, by far, the most negative review I have seen so far on the Kindle Fire.

 

And, quick, read the comments while they are still are reasonable. No one has gone around the bend yet! ;)

[crazyforlatin]

There are a few reasons I can think of:

1) The Kindle Fire has been designed to be a front-end for accessing content from Amazon. For instance, the Android interface has been modified to make it more "Amazon-centric". That doesn't mean it can't do other things through apps, it just means that is not the market focus.

2) The Kindle Fire hardware is not as capable as an iPad. The screen, memory and storage are all smaller than that of an iPad. There is no microphone, camera, compass, gyroscope, GPS or Bluetooth in the Kindle Fire, all of which are available in the iPad 2. To my knowledge you also are limited to two-finger multitouch on Android devices. There IS an accelerometer, even though Amazon does not advertise this. Any application which uses any of these additional features on the iPad will not work on the Kindle Fire without modification. (Here are my sources for these specs: Apple iPad 2 and Kindle Fire.)

3) I don't get the impression that the Kindle Fire has the same level of parental controls built into it that Apple has built into the iPad. Without these controls in place, I do not think the Kindle Fire will gain the acceptance from parents that iPad currently enjoys.

 

FWIW, I expect much of this to change over time. I believe Amazon has chosen the screen size and price point where they want to attack the market. I think future versions of the Kindle Fire will maintain these two characteristics but will offer additional capability under the hood as technology advances. Assuming Apple maintains their price point as well, I expect the Kindle Fire will always lag the iPad. The question, as always, is whether or not the hardware and content support (including apps) for the Kindle Fire is "good enough". For very many people it is. As one reviewer wrote: "It does 80% of the job for 40% of the price."

 

I think you will also likely see a Kindle Fire DX or some such arrive later with a larger screen and price tag.First, thanks for the tip on iStart Spanish! Nice app!

 

I don't know. Here is a quote from the Mirai LLP website, the company which makes iStart Spanish:I agree that they *could* start writing Android apps if they want to assuming their apps do not use the microphone, and it appears they do not. If they do not do this, then other companies will certainly offer something in this space. The relative quality between apps for iPad and Kindle will almost certainly depend on how attractive the Android tablet market is or becomes. Kindle Fire seems to be the first Android tablet which has really captured developers attention, so perhaps things are starting to change. We will see.

 

Thank you very much! There's a lot of information here that I need re-read later. ElizabethB posted the tip about iStart on the K-8 board and helped me to figure out that this app could be used offline. Isn't it worth about $500 to learn German :D? Well, that's what I asked DH.

 

I really need to see the Fire and iPad in person. We have a Kindle 2 and even though the screen is small, it's e-ink and the font can be enlarged. Now that our library has plenty of Kindle books to borrow, I can save a lot of money by not buying large print books for DD. However, I'm not buying the Fire or iPad for reading since backlit screens can be tiring on our eyes. It's for all those apps!!!

[Lady Florida.]

If you want to read about all the warts in the Kindle Fire, check out the new review by PC World: Amazon Kindle Fire Misfires.

 

This quote from the end of the review seems to hit it spot on. People are trying to get an iPad for $200. The Fire is a jacked-up Kindle. If you expect more than that, you are likely to be disappointed.

 

"but the reality is that the Fire may not meet your expectations if you're looking for an Apple iPad 2-like tablet.

For those people who go in knowing what they're getting, and who want an inexpensive tablet that capably--though not spectacularly--handles their Amazon books, music, and video, the Kindle Fire's limitations may be acceptable. "

 

 

I do believe this is Amazon's "test tablet". I'm interested to see how the Fire changes (including several types as with the e-ink Kindle now) in the next year or so.

[acurtis75]

If you want to read about all the warts in the Kindle Fire, check out the new review by PC World: Amazon Kindle Fire Misfires. It is a pretty complete review and it is, by far, the most negative review I have seen so far on the Kindle Fire.

 

This is very similar to the review that was in the technology section of "The Daily" which is a newspaper designed directly for the ipad. I'm not sure how to get to old articles and I don't think you can post them but it sounds like these two reviews were done by the same person.

[RegGuheert]

Here is a review from Extreme Tech in which they tested the Silk cloud browser in the Kindle Fire. In their tests, they found that using the cloud-assisted default option in the Kindle Fire made browsing slower, not faster.

 

While it is certainly a valid test, I must say that I sometimes wonder if these reviewers really understand the technology they are reviewing. The reason I say this is that they did not report the specific conditions of their test. Specifically, what was the latency of the connection that they used for testing? If it was a 10 msec link like my son has at school, then I would say that is not the problem the cloud browser was designed to solve.

 

(FYI, latency is a measure of how long it takes for a request to go out to the internet and for the reply to return. You can easily test this on your PC by typing 'ping www.google.com' without the quotes into a command prompt. It will report your latency.)

 

Anyway, I suspect that the "reviewers" who have tested the Kindle Fire have not considered that this new browser technology might have a big advantage when tested on a link with higher latency. Perhaps they didn't even watch Amazon's video about the Silk browser in which they explain that some websites may require the browser to make dozens of requests to the internet to populate the page and that their new browser can reduce these requests to sub-5 msec latency. Clearly, this technology will have more value for a link with 700 msec latency than for one with 10 msec latency. If nothing else, I think the reviewers should have performed the test over various types of internet links with various latency values and reported the different results.

 

Anyway, I have high hopes for Amazon's new Silk web browser for our application. We are keenly aware of latency issues here since we have been saddled with high-latency connections for many years. In any case, once I have a chance to play with MomsintheGarden's new Kindle Fire after she opens it and moves onto something else today, I will test with the following links we have here at the Guheert residence:

 

- HughesNet Satellite - Latency: 700 msec to 2000 msec

- T-Mobile 2.5G - Latency: 450 msec to 3000 msec

- T-Mobile 3G - Latency: 250 msec to 400 msec

- T-Mobile 4G - Latency: 60 msec to 150 msec

 

You might be saying: But I have a cable modem, so what do I care about high-latency links. You won't when you are at home. But what if you are out-and-about and want to browse using a hotpot in the mall or Starbucks or McDonalds? If those places are busy, you may find browsing does not work so well. The other case is tethering off your cell phone. That works great with a 4G connection, but what about when there is only 2.5G available?

 

Anyway, I have high hopes for the new Silk browser (security concerns aside). If I'm wrong, we'll find out when I post the results later today or tomorrow.

 

ETA: I am also thinking that the new Silk cloud browser could greatly improve web browsing on regular Kindles should Amazon choose to put it onto them. They have much slower processors and when they are connected over a 3G link, this technology could make a big difference.

Edited November 18, 2011 by RegGuheert

[nono]

Word is, my Fire arrived at my post office yesterday afternoon. :) Our mail lady already told us to stalk her, and she'll hand it over. (Gotta love small town living!)

 

Review to follow tomorrow. Oh, and one thing. The charger for the Fire -- it prefers a 1.8 amp/5V. All our USB wall adapters here are lower amperage. Gotta get a new one to keep the charging time minimal! (I think a few reviews made mention of this, but I didn't get the takeaway that many folks don't have the right amperage. Could only be a deficiency of my mind though, so ignore me if everyone already put that together! LOL)

[Lizzie in Ma]

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/diy-it/12-things-that-kinda-suck-about-the-kindle-fire/283

[RegGuheert]

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/diy-it/12-things-that-kinda-suck-about-the-kindle-fire/283

Thanks! Nice review! IMO, here is the pertinent quote from that review:

I agree completely with my ZDNet colleague Jason Perlow that the Kindle Fire is, essentially, the People’s tablet, in the that it’s inexpensive, accessible, and not entirely perfect — but certainly workable.

 

And here is a positive review from the same guy: 7 reasons the Kindle Fire is better than the iPad.

 

I will add these two reviews to the original post.

 

On our side, MomsintheGarden has just completed the unwrapping and unboxing. I'll encourage her to write up her first impressions once she has had a chance to get to know it a little better.

[RegGuheert]

I have been watching over MomsintheGarden's shoulder (she loves that! ;)) while she got started with her Kindle Fire. Here are a few initial comments:

 

- Wow!! I really like what I see so far!

- I LOVE the form factor. I would say the size and shape are about ideal.

- It is heavier than I would like. (She let me hold it once!)

- I like that the edges have thickness. (This is one thing I do not like about the iPad 2.)

- After she logged in to her Amazon.com account from the Kindle Fire, we *immediately* had Amazon Prime. I checked! (And I already made a purchase! :001_smile:)

- Also after logging in to her account, the Kindle Fire updated itself to the latest software release. The download was 200 MB, so be ready for that. It informed her that the download speed was low (like we didn't already know that! :glare:) and offered to let her do the update later. That was nice, but we went ahead and did it since we wanted to test it with the latest version.

- Angry Birds (without ads) seems to come free with the Kindle Fire.

- Some reviewers complained that they inadvertently touched the power button because it is on the bottom of the unit. MomsintheGarden verified that all you need to do is turn it upside down. Problem solved! All the buttons are virtual, so they are still in the same relative place after rotation.

- I thought the email tool would be the worst part of the Kindle Fire. But it actually looks very nice! You can set up multiple accounts in the tool and then you have the option to view your accounts individually or to view them in a unified view. Very nice!

- All of the books in her account came pre-populated in the Kindle Fire. They also were in the recently-viewed carousel on the front page. Even though she says she does not like carousels, she carefully looked through all the covers of the 350-some titles that we have. We have some good stuff! It's good that we now have a Kindle! :tongue_smilie:

- There is no way to put books into categories. This is a feature which I like on iBooks. With 350 books we have, a single list is not good enough. Hopefully Amazon will improve this tool in the near future.

- She is reading the Well-Trained Mind forum right now in the browser. Kindle Fire is GREAT for reading this forum in landscape mode with font size set to Large. Very clear and all of the hotspots are large enough to hit with your finger.

- The Amazon App is pretty primitive. Since the Kindle Fire has such a nice browser, I think it is easier to simply use the Amazon main website instead.

- Amazon Prime Instant Videos are now enabled on the Kindle Fire and on our Blu-ray player. We haven't tried watching a video since we used much of our limited internet simply updating the firmware. I will test Prime Instant Videos later.

[MomsintheGarden]

What he said.:001_smile:

 

Seriously, I like it. It is a very thoughtful, appropriate birthday gift. I am going outside this afternoon, so I'm sure Reg will write more when he has had a chance to play with it.

[vonfirmath]

3) I don't get the impression that the Kindle Fire has the same level of parental controls built into it that Apple has built into the iPad. Without these controls in place, I do not think the Kindle Fire will gain the acceptance from parents that iPad currently enjoys.

 

 

This is the main complaint I"m seeing on various boards

1.The power button being in an inconvenient spot so people are accidentally turning it off.

2. The volume controls being in software NOT a hardware button

and

3.many many different things that are child unfriendly. EVERYTHING appearing in the Carousel even if you just browsed it. No way to turn off one-click buying so the kid can go and buy... all sorts of stuff. And no parental controls on the Internet.

[southernm]

So if my DS downloads an app does it require him to put in my amazon password like my iphone does for itunes? If not, that could be very problematic for my bank account!

 

ETA: N/M I went to the amazon site and it looks like One click settings can be turned off under account settings. BUT apparently this only works for books, videos, and music. Does not work on apps. Yikes!

Edited November 19, 2011 by southernm

[vonfirmath]

So if my DS downloads an app does it require him to put in my amazon password like my iphone does for itunes? If not, that could be very problematic for my bank account!

 

ETA: N/M I went to the amazon site and it looks like One click settings can be turned off under account settings. BUT apparently this only works for books, videos, and music. Does not work on apps. Yikes!

 

The person who complained turned off one-click on the amazon site. But her husband was still able to get a Magazine with one click on the kindle fire.

[nono]

The charger for the Fire -- it prefers a 1.8 amp/5V. All our portable USB wall adapters here are lower amperage. Gotta get a new one to keep the charging time minimal! (I think a few reviews made mention of this, but I didn't get the takeaway that many folks don't have the right amperage. Could only be a deficiency of my mind though, so ignore me if everyone already put that together! LOL)

 

Above, please see the insertion of the word portable. The kind with fold away prongs that we use for travel. I just opened up this thread to give my 2 cents and couldn't figure out for a minute why my post from yesterday didn't make sense to me. :lol:

[nono]

OK, here's what I wrote on another thread:

 

I'm one of the rabid Kindle Fire folks. To me it's a device that suits a gap.

 

For the deficiencies in my life*, it's perfect. I have a laptop and a basic tiny phone. The Kindle Fire fits into the space in between perfectly. Add to it that I came from a high tech, traveling environment for over 10 years of my life, and it was completely portable, if not entirely paperless. This whole Mom thing of the last 5+ years has been a nightmare organizationally. I'm supposed to remember to bring books, audiobooks, and videos with me when I leave the house? And an address book and planner? :001_huh: The laptop is "business" to me, not "Mothering." So, it doesn't fit.

 

The Kindle Fire should. That's why it is attractive to me.

 

*Can't emphasize that enough. I don't think it's for everyone.

 

So, yesterday, after school was done, I had approximately 1 hour of time to prep my Fire before leaving for a mini-road trip with the family. I took it to the car, and we were off. After 1/2 hour driving, we stopped at a Wawa (world's best chain convenience store) to grab a light lunch for all. I ran in and gathered snacks, sandwiches and drinks. Had to go in my purse to get my money, paid, and then got back to the car.

 

 

• After I got back to the car, I realized my Fire was in my purse (mini-messenger bag). So, from the very first time I had to actually carry the darn thing, it was convenient. :thumbup1:
  
• Once we arrived at my Mom's Nursing Home, Mr. Nono pulled out his Fire to show Mom some Halloween photos. She loved seeing them, as she was in some of the photos, and it helped her remember (dementia). :thumbup1:
  
• On the drive to see my sister and her family, I opened up my Fire to see how things looked. WhisperSync had worked in the hour my Fire had charged and the book I was reading via Kindle for the PC (whatever it's called) had worked. My book was on the correct page. :thumbup1:
  
• After we ate dinner, we hit the road for a two hour late evening drive home. I plugged into the car sound system, and activated one of my Audible audio books. Worked like a charm (easier than on a Zune). :thumbup1:
  
• After the kids fell asleep, I paged through the December issue of Better Homes & Gardens, which I had purchased before I left the house for the ride. Magazines got kicked out of my life a long time ago, and it was such a pleasure to flip through one! :thumbup1:
  

Soooo, based on what I expected, and what I received yesterday, holy cow am I stoked! The device is the right size for me. Everything makes sense. That is, I find it easier to navigate than our Android tablet. There's just something with the Tablet OS that takes me a 1/2 beat longer than it should. I'm not finding that problem with the Fire.

 

Now, I just have to play the waiting game for a couple of specific Android apps I want for organizational purposes to come to market. That's the last piece of the puzzle for me. It's my last great hope! :D

 

Bottom line, I am thrilled beyond belief at this product. For a version 1 product, at that price, I'm actually amazed it did more than turn on, let alone give me the experience out of the box that I had!

 

Mr. Nono is really Mr. Sideloader. He's sideloaded a TV player to support .avis and watching something right now next to me while I write this. He loaded Dolphin HD just in case he doesn't like the Silk browser. He also sideloaded the YouTube Android app, which works great. (Oh, and he's thrilled the Fire Gallery player is .mkv compliant.)

 

That's about it from our house. I have to load up Angry Birds. :tongue_smilie:

Edited November 19, 2011 by nono
needed bullets

[nono]

Try ES File Explorer app for getting items off your home servers.Type in the ip address, your credentials and it works! Didn't expect this level of ease of networking. I had visions of emailing a lot of things to my Fire, based upon the demo I saw.

[RegGuheert]

Yesterday I purchased the Amazon Free App of the Day but I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to get it to show up on the Kindle Fire. I even read the help page about it and STILL didn't get it (even though the instructions were correct). So I'll post the instructions here in case anyone else struggles with this. Follow them very carefully! For me, the trick was that you do not get a menu option at the bottom if you are in your Library. You must first go to Store. So it is Home->Apps->Store->Menu->My Apps->New->Refresh->Install.

 

From the Amazon website:

Managing apps and settings

 

Open Amazon Appstore on your device by tapping Apps from the Home screen, then select Store. Press the Menu icon and select My Apps.

 

 

• To install new apps, tap the New tab to see all the apps you own that are available on Kindle Fire and have not yet been installed. Find an app you want to install and tap Install.
  
• To update your apps, tap the Update Available tab to see all the apps you installed with an update available. Find an app you want to update and tap Update.
  
• To view all your apps, tap the All tab to see all of your apps available on Kindle Fire.
  
• To view full details of an app, tap the icon of any app in the list to view the detail page of that app.
  
• To review an app, go to the detail page and tap Reviews. Tap Create your own review and set up a Pen Name if prompted.
  

 

 

ETA: Amazon responded by saying that this would all happen automatically and immediately, which is completely wrong unless you happened to purchase directly from the Kindle Fire itself. I sent them a reply saying that they needed to improve this part of the product to make it MUCH more obvious and that they should teach their support personnel how to do it as well.

 

Finally, I will add that after some time the Kindle Fire WILL get a notification that says new apps are available which takes you to the correct location to download the software.

Edited November 20, 2011 by RegGuheert

[Scrapmom3]

We received our Fire Thursday night and so far so good. We don't have a smart phone or another tablet so this was our first time trying out the touch technology and apps.

 

We have enjoyed streaming movies from Amazon prime and Netflix. I sent amazon an email through the feedback feature on the Fire regarding the lack of a queue for the amazon prime movies. It would be much easier to search for movies on my computer and have a queue set up ready to go anytime we wanted a movie.

 

We have read a couple of books. However, my eyes prefer to read on the e-ink of my kindle keyboard.

 

We downloaded a couple of kids songs which my boys loved.

 

We are especially enjoying the book apps from Oceanhouse Media. They have an autoplay feature that works great! The boys enjoyed hearing the narrator do the voices and loved the sound effects. I can definitely see us purchasing more of these in future. I am also keeping track of the free app of the day.

 

The email and web browsing worked fine though I didn't do much with it.

 

I haven't yet figured out to get some of our school books on it. We have a bunch of the amanda bennett studies and her new passport books. I need to work on this.

 

Not too happy with the Marware cover I purchased. The stand is flimsy and I don't think the cover protects it well enough when out and about.

 

I have to agree with many other users regarding the carousel. I really don't like that it shows a history of your activities and all of my book covers. Hopefully there will be a software update for this soon.

 

So overall we have been pleased. This was a great price point for us to give a portable tablet a try.

[DaffodilDreams]

I went to B&N and tested the Nook Tablet today. I particularly wanted to see how the browser handled these three sites:

 

Khan Academy (caused browser to shut down and go to device settings page during several attempts until I realized there was a "VIEW STANDARD SITE" option; worked fine in Standard Site)

 

Discovery Education Streaming (videos wouldn't play at all; got help; they changed the media streaming from Windows Media to Flash; it worked fine then)

 

Brain Pop (worked well right from the start)

 

So, why am I mentioning the Tablet on this Fire thread? I would like to know how the Fire handles these three sites. Librivox is another I'm interested in, but I didn't take the time to test.

 

By the way, the sound quality isn't fabulous on the Nook Tablet. I found it not loud enough (and I don't even like things to be loud), and besides being faint, it was also "tinny" sounding. What has been your experience with the Fire's sound quality?

 

If the Fire handles those three sites well, and has at least semi-decent sound quality, I think I'll go with it. I hate that I can't test one in person like I did the Tablet, so I'm relying on you guys! : ) Thanks!!!!

[Halcyon]

I went to B&N and tested the Nook Tablet today. I particularly wanted to see how the browser handled these three sites:

 

Khan Academy (caused browser to shut down and go to device settings page during several attempts until I realized there was a "VIEW STANDARD SITE" option; worked fine in Standard Site)

 

Discovery Education Streaming (videos wouldn't play at all; got help; they changed the media streaming from Windows Media to Flash; it worked fine then)

 

Brain Pop (worked well right from the start)

 

So, why am I mentioning the Tablet on this Fire thread? I would like to knowy how the Fire handles these three sites. Librivox is another I'm interested in, but I didn't take the time to test.

 

By the way, the sound quality isn't fabulous on the Nook Tablet. I found it not loud enough (and I don't even like things to be loud), and besides being faint, it was also "tinny" sounding. What has been your experience with the Fire's sound quality?

 

If the Fire handles those three sites well, and has at least semi-decent sound quality, I think I'll go with it. I hate that I can't test one in person like I did the Tablet, so I'm relying on you guys! : ) Thanks!!!!

 

Brainpop and Khan academy work great as far as I can see. Don't have discovery ed though!

[Big Buckin' Longhorn]

I hate that I can't test one in person like I did the Tablet, so I'm relying on you guys! : ) Thanks!!!!

 

Do you live near a Best Buy? Ours has the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire on display. I haven't tested those particular sites, though.

[RegGuheert]

Praises:

 

- I continue to be very impressed with this device! I particularly like to form factor and the look and feel of the unit.

- Unlike many reviewers, I actually like the user interface, including the carousel!

Glitches:

 

- This morning the front image on the carousel, which happened to be of this site, was flickering back and forth between an image of the actual page and some generic image of a globe along with a caption in grey letters the read "The Well-Trained Mind".

- Occasionally the unit seems a little unresponsive to touches. I generally cannot tell whether it did not register the touch or if it is simply lagging. Both things seem to happen.

 

Gripes:

 

- Mail should be one of the options across the top of the screen. It can replace Newsstand as far as I am concerned. I should not have to go into Apps first to get there. Yes, you can make it a favorite to get it onto the home screen, but that shelf is not visible in landscape mode.

- I do not think the backlight gets dim enough on its lowest setting for reading in the dark. Hopefully this can be fixed in firmware, but somehow I doubt that is the case.

- I am not able to get a list of running apps by long-pressing on the home button like I do on other Android devices. Yes, you can get to them from the carousel, but it would be nice to have a consistent way to see what is still running and switch to it.

- Long-pressing on a piece of selected text does NOT bring up a list of options like it does on other Android and iOS devices. After selecting the text, I found that I had to double-tap to get it to copy into the buffer. But what if I wanted to delete the text or overwrite it with what is in the buffer? Is that not supported?

- I would like to be able to open an application from the carousel by simply touching it. As it stands now, I first have to touch it to bring it to the forefront and then touch it again to get it to open. I see no need for this to be a two-step process.

- As one of the professional reviewers commented, the carousel is a little too touchy, as it is difficult to touch the top application and get it to open. It often just slides around a little.

 

Tips:

 

- Repeated from my post above: If you purchase something on Amazon's website, you need to follow this set of button presses to make it available on your Kindle Fire: Home->Apps->Store->Menu->My Apps->New->Refresh->Install.

- Once you have something in the copy buffer, long-pressing in a text-entry area DOES give you the option to paste the text or take a couple of other actions.

 

Questions:

 

- How do I change the "friendly name" that shows up at the top of the device? I went into Your Account->Manage Your Kindle->Manage Your Devices page and changed the names there, but they do NOT change on the Kindle Fires. Now it is really confusing, since the names on the website and the names on the Kindle Fires are different. Does anyone know how to change the name on the device itself?

- What exactly does Gear->Sync do? (Ha, ha! I pressed it and then I looked at the screen and I see that it updated the "friendly name'! Well, I'll leave this all here since it may answer these questions for others!)

- What ELSE does Gear->Sync do, if anything?

[nono]

Tips:

 

- Repeated from my post above: If you purchase something on Amazon's website, you need to follow this set of button presses to make it available on your Kindle Fire: Home->Apps->Store->Menu->My Apps->New->Refresh->Install.

 

 

Are you finding this 100% of the time? I confess, I was the walking dead this morning :bored:, but think I had something appear that I didn't activate through the refresh.

[RegGuheert]

Are you finding this 100% of the time? I confess, I was the walking dead this morning :bored:, but think I had something appear that I didn't activate through the refresh.

You are correct. They do sometimes appear. In fact, sometimes there is a notification that new apps are available and then they show up on the cloud view. But that seems somewhat random. Other times new apps will not show up.

 

If I want something immediately that I bought using the web browser I use Home->Apps->Store->Menu->My Apps->New->Refresh->Install. I feel that eight touches is deeper than this menu should be.

[nono]

. I feel that eight touches is deeper than this menu should be.

 

Oh, you're way past me in thinking about this. :D I'm still at the immersion stage. This is an experiential purchase for me. The big question for me was "Will this get in the way?" I'm not thinking (yet) about "How could this be better?"

 

I'm so stinkin' happy that I have my shopping list, composed on my PC, ready to go this afternoon! I didn't have to print out a piece of paper. (If I were thinking about it though, the way I had to do that was :confused: as I had to go authorize it on the amazon site, even though it was from my email acct that is my log on for amazon).

 

Also, I wonder if the slow delivery has to do with me and those like me purchasing (esp. free stuff) like kids in a candy store! I'm wondering if in the coming weeks capacity will grow and demand will level off to achieve some equilibrium.

[RegGuheert]

 

I'm not thinking (yet) about "How could this be better?"

It's kinda what I do for a living. I'm pretty tuned in to user experience with software.

I'm so stinkin' happy that I have my shopping list, composed on my PC, ready to go this afternoon! I didn't have to print out a piece of paper. (If I were thinking about it though, the way I had to do that was :confused: as I had to go authorize it on the amazon site, even though it was from my email acct that is my log on for amazon).

If you haven't already, check out Amazon's Free App of the Day today: List Master Pro.

Also, I wonder if the slow delivery has to do with me and those like me purchasing (esp. free stuff) like kids in a candy store! I'm wondering if in the coming weeks capacity will grow and demand will level off to achieve some equilibrium.

I don't think that's it. The first time I ran into this, it simply wasn't happening. I think I waited for quite a few hours. Perhaps Amazon has corrected something on their side since then. I'm not sure...

[DaffodilDreams]

Brainpop and Khan academy work great as far as I can see. Don't have discovery ed though!

 

Thank you for that feedback! I appreciate the help.

[DaffodilDreams]

Do you live near a Best Buy? Ours has the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire on display. I haven't tested those particular sites, though.

 

I'll have to check locations. Unfortunately, the one in our town lasted all of about two weeks a few years ago. It was very odd. Maybe some other locations survived in nearby towns. I haven't noticed. Thank you for that tip, though!

[nono]

It's kinda what I do for a living. I'm pretty tuned in to user experience with software.If you haven't already, check out Amazon's Free App of the Day today: List Master Pro.I don't think that's it. The first time I ran into this, it simply wasn't happening. I think I waited for quite a few hours. Perhaps Amazon has corrected something on their side since then. I'm not sure...

 

Got it. :) I have a template in Word that I already use and wanted to send it over. Making a food shopping list is one of the few thing I prefer to do via typing. (who knows why!) So, for now, I foresee me continuing to compose that in Word on my ThinkPad and then emailing it to my Assistant, a.k.a my Fire. ;)

[RegGuheert]

Here's another negative review, this time from AppleInsider: Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet: an in-depth review. I will say this is exactly the kind of high-brow review I would expect to read from a an Apple-oriented rag.

 

At the end of the day I have to conclude the author is trying to convince himself that the Kindle Fire is no threat to the iPad or iPod Touch while simultaneously trying to make Apple owners feel smug with their choices. He still manages to miss some points in Apple's favor, such as the missing parental controls on the Kindle Fire.

 

Although not balanced, it is a thorough review that I recommend to anyone trying to weigh the iPad against the Kindle Fire.

[ChristusG]

I haven't read this whole thread so that my review can be unbiased LOL.

 

I got mine in the mail on Wednesday and have been playing with it since then.

 

I really like it so far. For me, it is replacing my desire for an iPad. I have an iPhone so I basically know what an iPad does (since it's really just a giant iPhone without the phone part). I like to sit on the couch and browse the internet, catch up on my Facebook, lie in bed and read a book, etc. And I wanted a larger screen to do this on rather than my iPhone, which I've been using. The Fire does all of that for a whole lot cheaper than an iPad.

 

Internet browsing is clear and bright, plus it's been pretty fast for me.

 

I'm looking for there to be lots of apps developed for the Fire in the next year. I really think that for a lot of people, the Fire will win out over the iPad just due to cost. There's lots of people that just wants a table to use it exactly how I'm using it. Sure, if you want to do more business type stuff, then you need the iPad.

 

I also love that it runs Flash.

[Halcyon]

anyone else finding that emailed documents take a LONG time to arrive on their kindle?

[nono]

anyone else finding that emailed documents take a LONG time to arrive on their kindle?

 

Yeah, so what I did, is force it. I went to amazon.com/myk and clicked on Personal Document Settings in the left-hand pane. Sitting there was my "Shopping List" that I had sent via hotmail. So I had the option of forcing it (forget what the terminology was) and voilà, there it was.

 

And yes, food shopping with the Fire was sweet. No chasing the pen down the aisle. Don't ask.....(remember, my kids are 7 & 4!).

[Halcyon]

Yeah, so what I did, is force it. I went to amazon.com/myk and clicked on Personal Document Settings in the left-hand pane. Sitting there was my "Shopping List" that I had sent via hotmail. So I had the option of forcing it (forget what the terminology was) and voilà, there it was.

 

And yes, food shopping with the Fire was sweet. No chasing the pen down the aisle. Don't ask.....(remember, my kids are 7 & 4!).

 

Thank you!!

[RegGuheert]

I had high hopes for the browser on the Kindle Fire based on the feature set and the promise of faster browsing. While I still have hope that it will eventually meet my expectations, it needs some work to get there. Here are a couple of observations:

 

- I get the distinct impression that the cloud-based acceleration feature in the browser only provides a speed benefit for one particular website: Amazon's. :glare:

- If we try to browse any web servers inside our network, they will not come up. I guess Amazon didn't put any exceptions into their proxy settings. I suppose I could do that, but it should be smart enough to handle this without my intervention.

- If we work around the above by turning off the acceleration features, then the page that is rendered does not have scroll bars. As a result, anything that does not render as visible is inaccessible.

 

Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad browser. I actually like it. However, my expectations were higher based on the hype from Amazon. It does not yet live up to that hype. Hopefully they will be able to improve it with future updates.

[RegGuheert]

I spent about an hour browsing this morning after the version 2.6 update installed last night. The browser seems much better than it was! I was seeing some pages getting rendered in about 2 seconds and this was with an 2.5G wireless connection.

 

Anyway, it was not an overly scientific test, but it does appear that they are making progress with the browser.

[brill123]

How is the sound on the Fire? I have a nookcolor and I'm disappointed in the volume of the speaker. The only way I can hear audiobooks is if everyone is silent and I have the nook close to my ear.:001_huh: Youtube videos and Pandora aren't much better.

 

I'm really hoping to get a Fire with our tax return. I want to be able to watch movies and I think Amazon has much better prices on their ebooks.

 

Hi,did you get kindle fire ?which one is bbetter for browsing web watching videos and e reader kindle fire or nook ?