Nestof3 Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 (edited) We are seriously thinking of getting a Kindle Fire for Nathan for his 13th birthday. He loves books, and I downloaded the Yesterday's Classics deal for $49.95. He will also have access to books through Amazon Prime. I am leaning toward a Fire instead of a standard one because he will have the added benefit of apps and movie viewing. He loves documentaries, and I figure the apps could be fun on trips and stuff. Do any of your kids have the Kindle Fire? What do you think about it? Edited August 17, 2012 by nestof3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5knights3maidens Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 I have a kindle fire and my kids love it. I'm trying to convince my dh to let me buy one for each of them for school. :) Ages: Almost 15, 9, and almost 7. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 After about 2 weeks of debate, I ended up with a Kindle fire. We also ended up getting the iPad2. Each of them do different things, and it (the Kindle Fire) cut WAY way back on the amount of books to store here, like 3/4 of the titles I wanted were on Kindle Fire. Love that thing. The other huge benefit was the cost of the books were slashed. Watching netflix for us is better on the Kindle Fire, for whatever reason the iPad connectivity here isn't that great. For us, the Kindle Fire ended up being a huge benefit in increasing text size and it slows the kid down for comprehension; she tends to zoom over passages and just plain reads too fast. We can adjust the Kindle fire to short chunks of information and it works really well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann@thebeach Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 (edited) The Kindle Fire is MINE ;) but my 13 yr old has read books on it and he liked it. I've been trying to get more books for him to read on it just to cut back on the physical copies taking up space and because he reads them so fast anyway. You can check out digital books from the library too if your library has that service. I've watched a few movies on it thru amazon prime w/ no problems. There is a little bit of learning curve in that the screen is pretty touch sensitive and he'll want to watch for accidental purchases but you can change the setting for 1 touch purchases to help with that. I think the $199 is a good deal, I say go for it. ETA: You can also borrow 1 book a month with your amazon prime with the Kindle lending library-this is how my son read the Hunger Games trilogy. Of course, it drove him nuts to wait that long between books but he survived. Edited August 17, 2012 by Ann in IA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellers Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 I bought five Kindle Fire's for Christmas. We gave one to each of our girls (21, 20, 16, 14) and then my DH also got one. Everyone LOVES their Fire! I bought a Fire for my mom for her birthday last month and she LOVES her fire! I bought my DS12 a Nintendo 3D for Christmas and I wish I had bought him a Fire instead. I don't know what I was thinking. :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 My girls each have a Google Nexus 7. The advantages over the Kindle include better hardware (including a better display) and not getting trapped in one ecosystem (Kindle, Nook, Google Play Books, and other markets all have apps that work on the N7). The N7 has access to the Google Play app market (the Kindle does not), and you can download an application that gives access to the Amazon app market. Both run Android (as do the Nook colour tablets), but the Kindle Fire runs a forked version several revisions behind the current one. Because the N7 is a Google flagship product, it will receive timely updates. The downside is current lack of access to Prime movies (though Netflix works fine), and I don't think you can get the "free" monthly borrowed book from Amazon. Here it doesn't matter, because our library has a deal with Amazon to lend books through the Kindles and Kindle apps. I am impressed with these tablets, and consider them to be a tremendous bang for the buck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 My 12 year dd has one and loves it. There are tons of free cool apps! She's into origami, and there is even an app for that. :001_smile: I want one for ME next. I do enjoy my regular kindle for reading though. The screen is better for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
higginszoo Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 I have a Kindle Fire. My kids already had iTouches when I got my Fire. I think that a 13 year old would probably enjoy it and still be at a point to care for it (some family members gave their 3 year old an iPad and were shocked when it was shattered in weeks). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Princess Peach Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 My kids and I all have Fires and love them. I also agree with the PP who said that you should check out the Nexus 7, as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 My boys & I each have a Fire. We love them. I have them all tied to my Amazon account, so if I buy a book once we can all read it (I have syncing turned off). The same thing goes for apps. They watch Netflix and Amazon instant on them (I have Prime). I haven't regretted the purchase at all (they got theirs for Christmas, and then they pooled all the money they'd been saving and bought me one for Valentine's Day). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparrow Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 My girls each have a Google Nexus 7. The advantages over the Kindle include better hardware (including a better display) and not getting trapped in one ecosystem (Kindle, Nook, Google Play Books, and other markets all have apps that work on the N7). The N7 has access to the Google Play app market (the Kindle does not), and you can download an application that gives access to the Amazon app market. Both run Android (as do the Nook colour tablets), but the Kindle Fire runs a forked version several revisions behind the current one. Because the N7 is a Google flagship product, it will receive timely updates. The downside is current lack of access to Prime movies (though Netflix works fine), and I don't think you can get the "free" monthly borrowed book from Amazon. Here it doesn't matter, because our library has a deal with Amazon to lend books through the Kindles and Kindle apps. I am impressed with these tablets, and consider them to be a tremendous bang for the buck. I don't want to hi-jack the thread, but thanks for this review. We're considering Nexus 7s for our kids. I have a rooted Nook Color and prefer being able to access several sources for my books (Amazon, B&N, Kobo Bluefire Reader, etc) and the N7s allow for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingersmom Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 There are rumors all over the internet that a new kindle fire is coming out in September. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
higginszoo Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Does the Fire have good parental controls, or is it pretty wide open? There's not a lot of middle ground. You can lock a child completely off the internet, meaning that no apps that need the internet can be used (my dc like to have a weather app that wouldn't work with no internet), or it's wide open. there's no net nanny kind of thing on the internet/purchasing, so parents would have to make a decision of all or nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNC Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 I sideloaded K9 web protection onto my daughter's Fire. I had to google how to do it bc there isn't an Amazon approved Kindle app for it yet. http://www1.k9webprotection.com/support/kb/K9177.html She has 120 oop classic and good books on her Kindle. The Yesterday's Classic set sound great. She loves several game apps. I regretted that aspect at first because they played games more than I thought they would at first. Now, they just play once in a while. She watches Netflix on it when she is sick. My favorite feature of touch screen Kindles is clicking on vocab words while reading and getting a dictionary to pop up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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