journey00 Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 What can a Kindle Fire do that a mini Ipad cannot in regards to homeschooling? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Nothing? I suppose the bigger screen would be a plus for writing on pdf pages, but I never found an app on Kindle that worked well for that anyway (though this may have changed as we ditched our Kindle Fire). I think it's mostly the other way around because there are still more educational apps on the iPad than the Kindle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 If you use Mango Language, I don't think it works on the Kindle. It works very well on the iPad, though, and that was one of the deciding factors for me in deciding between the Kindle Fire and the Samsung Galaxy for a second tablet (another iPad being out of my price range). Notability alone would be worth iPad over Kindle, IMO; so far, it's the best of the PDF annotators I have looked at, but it doesn't run on Android devices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 On the Fire, the whispersync audio and ebook can be accessed from the same page. Last time I checked the only option was for the word being read to be highlighted, and that was so annoying. There was no option to highlight sentence by sentence or to turn the highlighting off. For a student that is listening and reading along to whispersync sets, the Fire can be very nice. Other than that the iPad is usually better. I like Amazon customer service much better than Apple. But the Fire is more locked down than the iPad. You cannot purchase apps from anyone but Amazon, and they are limited. The Fire is android, but you are not allowed to buy the bulk of android apps. If I had a student that needed the word for word highlighting, or Amazon adds options to the types of highlighting, I will suggest the Fire for some of my students, rather than an iPad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BugsMama Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 It's easier to "lock down" a kindle fire with freetime (but that does NOT work with the audible immersion reading, which ticks me off)But for everything else- the ipad is bigger, faster, with more options. I LOVE the ipad. I like the kindle fire for young kids with freetime, and I like the immersion reading. But I do not love it, it's slow, and clunky, and I can't customize it as well as I want to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Yes, I am having a LOT of trouble with iOS 7. I seldom use any apps, and pdf reading has become more difficult with iOS7. The main reason I chose the Ipad mini at the time was the hardware. At the time, the mini was the smallest/thinest device that displayed pdfs well enough. If the newest Fires had been out, I might have chosen one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elliotterae Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Amazon's customer service is so much better than Apple that I just wouldn't consider another apple product personally. Kindle does have less apps, but Ive never not been able to do something I wanted or needed with the Kindle. The new HDX is suppose to be a lot faster than the first Fire or the HD. I use Kindle PDF app that I love and use it for ebooks with no problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueTaelon Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 I've had both an Ipad and a kindle fire, I'd go for another Ipad hands down just because of the sheer amount of apps available for homeschooling. Kindle is pretty limited unless you want to root it which voids your warranty to get to google play but it still doesn't have any where near the app choices apple does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
journey00 Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 Are the audible books easier to access on the Fire than the iPad? Sometimes I want or need the book,read to me while my hands are full but I haven't found a good ipad app for that. Has anyone else. Thank you m Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerka528 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I would most definitely get an iPad over Fire. We have both and the Fire is a dust collector, while the iPads are used daily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I have two kindles and two iPad minis, we use all of them. The app selection for kindles has improved dramatically in recent months. Duolingo and Dragon Box are two favorites we have recently added to the kindles. Oh, and I just checked, mango languages for libraries is available now for the newer kindles. I just downloaded it, already had it on the iPads now it's on the kindle too. Considering the price differential, I think the kindle fire is a great deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Are the audible books easier to access on the Fire than the iPad? Sometimes I want or need the book,read to me while my hands are full but I haven't found a good ipad app for that. Has anyone else. Thank you m I'm not sure I understand. Do you want an app that reads text with a computerized voice? I don't know much about that. Or do you want an app that plays audio books? Where are your audiobooks purchased from? The audiobooks I have purchased from audible.com, I play in the audible,com app. The books I downloaded from the library, I play in the overdrive app. The books I downloaded from currclick, I store on a card and play from my cell phone. The Kindle Fire gives you the added feature of being able to play a whispersync set from ONE screen and not have to switch back and forth. Below the text, is the audiobook controls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My3girls Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 We have both, and the Kindle is used much more than the iPad. The one thing that the iPad has that the Kindle doesn't, that affects us, is the ability to zoom in on certain picture books. I'm not even sure what the difference is in the book, but some we just cannot read on the Kindle so we have to pull them up on the iPad. That being said the number if these books is few. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't t have bought the iPad. It's way overpriced . I thought it would be able to do so much more. I would have stayed with a laptop and the Kindle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I bought my 6 year old a Fire XD for two reasons: I wanted the lock-down features in Free Time, and I wanted the immersion reading experience that is only available on the newest Fires. Overall I am super bummed that I cannot use it as I intended. As BugsMama noted, immersion reading does not work within Free Time. You can only approve apps, games, and video for Free Time. No audiobooks, and no documents either. So the .mobi files that I added via Calibre (that show up as documents) can't be used during Free Time. I have Free Time set up to only allow reading for the first 15 minutes before games are unlocked, and I've set daily limits for the types of media, but all of that is pointless if my son has to be logged out of Free Time to use immersion reading or the non-Amazon ebooks. Is there another way to add .mobi ebooks other than emailing them to the device? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Anyone knows what is the equivalent of Itunes U for the kindle fire? I don't have amazon prime so I appreciate the freebies on itune U. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BugsMama Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Andrea, Did you message amazon to request the feature? I was SO mad christmas morning when I realized I couldn't use immersion reading IN freetime. That is the whole reason I bought the stupid thing, but of course I didn't realize until after I had given it to my child.... otherwise I would have sent it right back. Both features are listed as selling points on the fire page, but don't work together. I sent them a request but was told there is no plans to fix this unless many people request it. Grumble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Andrea, Did you message amazon to request the feature? I was SO mad christmas morning when I realized I couldn't use immersion reading IN freetime. That is the whole reason I bought the stupid thing, but of course I didn't realize until after I had given it to my child.... otherwise I would have sent it right back. Both features are listed as selling points on the fire page, but don't work together. I sent them a request but was told there is no plans to fix this unless many people request it. Grumble. I did. First I used the mayday feature to call up a tech support person, thinking that surely I must just be doing it wrong. I was sent to two supervisors and ultimately told that Free Time does not support audio. After the call I was asked if it solved my problem, and so I chose NO. Then I was asked to give feedback, and I did. This is the response that was emailed to me: "Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com Kindle Support with your kind words and letting us know your valuable suggestions on improvisation the Kindle device Freetime app. I completely understand that this collection feature ( Adding Audiobooks to Freetime ) definitely would be of great help to our customers. It's unfortunate that this feature is not available right now on Kindle device. As a Kindle user myself, I understand, how convenient it would for all our customers if this feature is implemented. Although at this time there is no option for this, we'll be sure to consider your feedback as we plan for further improvements. Rest assured that I have passed along your comments to our developers. We definitely value your opinion and will continue to listen and respond to our customers' concerns. We will make every effort to evaluate the information you have provided, and try our level best to lead it to program changes or enhancements. At Amazon, we are passionate about driving continuous innovation to serve our Kindle customers in the best way possible. Please be assured that, as soon as the collection feature ( Adding Audiobooks to Freetime ) becomes available on Kindle device Freetime app, we will definitely make official announcements about this on our website. As of now, I apologize for any disappointment this may have caused. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Andrea, thanks again for taking the time to provide this feedback to us. We hope to see you again soon. Thanks of using Kindle." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BugsMama Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Oh, you got a much nicer message than mine! How reassuring :) I hope it comes along sooner rather than later :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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