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Kindle Fire |OT|
- Thread starter BFIB
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Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
I want some examples of this ever happening.btrboyev said:
There are things like a browser outputting JS faster, but has any product ever gone from average to great through software updates?
Marty Chinn
Member
CzarTim said:
Uh no, iOS was always great.
iOS didn't do anything when it was released. Granted it was breaking new ground, but if we're talking about average software that became great, it's an example. iOS was a polished piece of software with too few features, Kindle has all the features but lacks polish.Marty Chinn said:
Marty Chinn
Member
CzarTim said:
I guess sarcasm doesn't come through too well on the forum sometimes. But, I bet that would be the Apple fan response.
Well I got mine, I think it's good and I think I will keep it.
The update fixed a lot of the UI issues for me, I have to admit when I first got it I was about to box it right the fuck back up and send it back, it ran like ass, when I shut it down it said it was applying an update so I tried it out again and everything runs much smoother. Absolute shame on Amazon for even shipping it with the shipping firmware though, I get meeting launch dates but fuck, it was bad, every app I downloaded would not execute, internet was slow as shit, the UI was choppy, it was really the worst possible first impression a device could give. I don't think directly comparing it to the iPad is the smartest thing to do but I'm not the smartest person so I'll just say the iPad's first impression was infinitely better. In fact the situation was reversed on the iPad, as far as the first impression went it started out amazing and as I explored the thing more and more that's when the disappointment set in. Bad Amazon.
So for me, after the update everything is pretty much as I expected it, the browser has been fast on both my home cable internet wifi network and over my Palm Pre's wireless hotspot, well as fast as that second one can go. The UI is snappy, in fact in many ways too snappy, books looked good enough, video looked good enough, it's what I expected for 200 dollars.
I see a lot of people comparing these things to other tablets, or saying this will be the first thing to really have a chance to compete with the iPad, that's ridiculous. I want to be clear here, I plan to keep this but sold my iPad but yes I am still saying the iPad is the better tablet, so what gives? My needs. If we're going to compare these two devices as tablets the original iPad on stock firmware already smokes the shit out of this thing. I don't care if you love or hate Apple, heck, I'm not a fan of them, but it's true, the iPad is a better tablet than the Kindle Fire. Now, if we can step back from fan boy allegiances for a moment I'll try and explain why I would keep this and get rid of the iPad.
The iPad was expensive. 500 bucks is a lot of money and it bought a lot of kit and with that comes expectations, I expect something that costs the same as a notebook to be on par with a notebook, something that's cheaper than my cellphone was, when subsidized through a contract mind you, gets rated on a different scale. If both the iPad AND the Kindle Fire were 200 dollars this Kindle Fire would look like a pretty bad deal. There are many things the iPad could not do at launch, like bluetooth printing, transferring files to my PC and back and many others that the Kindle Fire ALSO can not do. Again, at 200 bucks my expectations are different.
We have the actual usage of the two devices. I liked the iPad because I envisioned it replacing a laptop for me, it can't. Now granted, I never had a laptop, I don't need one, but I thought the iPad would make me not miss not having one and do anything a laptop could do. Typing for instance was fine in short spurts but was a total fucking chore over any extended period of time, I was not going to do any real work on the iPad. I also will not do any work on the Kindle Fire. I recognize some among you have transitioned to touchscreen typing and may find the iPad, or even the Kindle Fire acceptable for such things, Godspeed, but that's not for me. Again price changes perception and perception is important, I don't feel that obligated to be able to do heavy work on a 200 dollar device where as I do on a 500 dollar device.
This one I'm going to get out of the way, the iPad is an iPad. This isn't a jab at Apple but just a sad realization of sheeple out in the real world. I pulled this out at work today and people asked what it was and turned away, I was back to playing around in a minute, with the iPad everyone wanted to see it, it was non fucking stop. This is probably different in every area but where I was, with the people I was around, I couldn't even pull it out in public with the expectation of using it. Not a gripe just a funny little tidbit of my past experience.
So lets talk about what I really used the iPad for, browsing websites and checking email. That was it. I had spent 500 dollars for something and had delegated it to browsing the internet, well that felt like wasted cash! Now in all honesty that was fine in a way, the money was already spent and the reason I sold the iPad in the first place was because it held its value well and it was something extra, not necessary I owned, that I could sell to pay an unexpected ticket I had gotten. It wasn't out of pure disdain I sold the iPad, it hadn't lived up to all my expectations but it was good at browsing the web and checking email.
Now I did want to get into ebooks at some point, and I'm still mad that all normal books don't just come with a code to redeem the ebook, and I had tried to read ebooks on the iPad and it was good. The iPad's size was both great and a curse, it was a tad too big for books but it's the best size for browsing(IMO) and a better size for media, magazines and comics. There's not a winner here just something you have to choose based on your priorities. Since I was now in the market again for a tablet I had decided I was finally ready to start an ebook collection and that was my priority, email, well anything about works for email, browsing is good enough and I don't read comics or magazines so that's how my size priority went. Make no mistake, there is no better size full stop just better sizes for different things.
Another thing that factored into this purchase versus going iPad again is tied into price and size. The iPad was expensive the Kindle Fire, not as much, so when I had the iPad I only felt comfortable bringing it out a few times. If I break, lose or have a 200 dollar device stolen I'll be less heartbroken or put out than had I lost a 500 dollar device. The size is also easier for me to fit into my bag so it's a tad more portable.
So that's kinda how I decided on biting on the Fire and so far it's a fine little device but it's not comparable to an iPad. Sure they get compared to each other but only because the iPad does everything the Kindle does and more not because they're actually in the same league. And while I think this has a better chance at staying in my home for the long run than the iPad did that wasn't because the Kindle Fire is better than the iPad but because at the price it is more disposable, since it has less features and less expectations from those features I'm not apt to try things that exceed what it can do nor care that it can't do them. If you want to call those strengths, whatever, but I disagree they're just different products. Honest truth was if there was a 200 dollar iPad at the same size I probably would have got it instead. This fits a particular usage pattern and that is it. It is not a general all purpose tablet, it is not better than the iPad, Galaxy Tab or any other full feature tablet. I don't even really think it should be billed as a tablet, it should be looked at as nothing more than a LCD ereader that's also able to browse the internet in color and play movies or music. If portable movies are more your thing than books, go Ipad, they have a better video store, it's got a better screen for watching those movies AND it has more storage space for storing stuff you buy or load yourself. If you want music, again, go iPad as it's got the better store and again more space to store music or just get some kind of MP3 player. Want a general tablet? I still think the iPad is king.
It should be noted that for me storage was not an issue, I don't listen to music on the go, I don't watch movies on the go and so the only possible thing I might use space with besides text are apps, which even then I only care fort a handful of them, whether we're talking iPad or Kindle Fire. Which is good because the Kindle Fire doesn't have many apps!
3g, cdma is also not a feature I'm interested in because I refuse to use AT&T, couldn't if I wanted to since they fucked me over when my Cingular plan expired and I cancelled and I refuse to ever pay them money for months of service after I cancelled my plan and my current provider has even worse pricing. I'm grandfathered in on Verison to get free wifi tethering with my Palm Pre and I will probably keep that phone and take advantage of it until this phone finally craps out on me, hopefully by then the situation with mobile broadband is acceptable to me, currently it's not.
My verdict is the Kindle Fire is a great choice for a narrow group of people who live in the US, use Amazon a lot, want a small disposable device to view light content on and that's it. It's no iPad killer, they're not even really competing for the same customers.
The update fixed a lot of the UI issues for me, I have to admit when I first got it I was about to box it right the fuck back up and send it back, it ran like ass, when I shut it down it said it was applying an update so I tried it out again and everything runs much smoother. Absolute shame on Amazon for even shipping it with the shipping firmware though, I get meeting launch dates but fuck, it was bad, every app I downloaded would not execute, internet was slow as shit, the UI was choppy, it was really the worst possible first impression a device could give. I don't think directly comparing it to the iPad is the smartest thing to do but I'm not the smartest person so I'll just say the iPad's first impression was infinitely better. In fact the situation was reversed on the iPad, as far as the first impression went it started out amazing and as I explored the thing more and more that's when the disappointment set in. Bad Amazon.
So for me, after the update everything is pretty much as I expected it, the browser has been fast on both my home cable internet wifi network and over my Palm Pre's wireless hotspot, well as fast as that second one can go. The UI is snappy, in fact in many ways too snappy, books looked good enough, video looked good enough, it's what I expected for 200 dollars.
I see a lot of people comparing these things to other tablets, or saying this will be the first thing to really have a chance to compete with the iPad, that's ridiculous. I want to be clear here, I plan to keep this but sold my iPad but yes I am still saying the iPad is the better tablet, so what gives? My needs. If we're going to compare these two devices as tablets the original iPad on stock firmware already smokes the shit out of this thing. I don't care if you love or hate Apple, heck, I'm not a fan of them, but it's true, the iPad is a better tablet than the Kindle Fire. Now, if we can step back from fan boy allegiances for a moment I'll try and explain why I would keep this and get rid of the iPad.
The iPad was expensive. 500 bucks is a lot of money and it bought a lot of kit and with that comes expectations, I expect something that costs the same as a notebook to be on par with a notebook, something that's cheaper than my cellphone was, when subsidized through a contract mind you, gets rated on a different scale. If both the iPad AND the Kindle Fire were 200 dollars this Kindle Fire would look like a pretty bad deal. There are many things the iPad could not do at launch, like bluetooth printing, transferring files to my PC and back and many others that the Kindle Fire ALSO can not do. Again, at 200 bucks my expectations are different.
We have the actual usage of the two devices. I liked the iPad because I envisioned it replacing a laptop for me, it can't. Now granted, I never had a laptop, I don't need one, but I thought the iPad would make me not miss not having one and do anything a laptop could do. Typing for instance was fine in short spurts but was a total fucking chore over any extended period of time, I was not going to do any real work on the iPad. I also will not do any work on the Kindle Fire. I recognize some among you have transitioned to touchscreen typing and may find the iPad, or even the Kindle Fire acceptable for such things, Godspeed, but that's not for me. Again price changes perception and perception is important, I don't feel that obligated to be able to do heavy work on a 200 dollar device where as I do on a 500 dollar device.
This one I'm going to get out of the way, the iPad is an iPad. This isn't a jab at Apple but just a sad realization of sheeple out in the real world. I pulled this out at work today and people asked what it was and turned away, I was back to playing around in a minute, with the iPad everyone wanted to see it, it was non fucking stop. This is probably different in every area but where I was, with the people I was around, I couldn't even pull it out in public with the expectation of using it. Not a gripe just a funny little tidbit of my past experience.
So lets talk about what I really used the iPad for, browsing websites and checking email. That was it. I had spent 500 dollars for something and had delegated it to browsing the internet, well that felt like wasted cash! Now in all honesty that was fine in a way, the money was already spent and the reason I sold the iPad in the first place was because it held its value well and it was something extra, not necessary I owned, that I could sell to pay an unexpected ticket I had gotten. It wasn't out of pure disdain I sold the iPad, it hadn't lived up to all my expectations but it was good at browsing the web and checking email.
Now I did want to get into ebooks at some point, and I'm still mad that all normal books don't just come with a code to redeem the ebook, and I had tried to read ebooks on the iPad and it was good. The iPad's size was both great and a curse, it was a tad too big for books but it's the best size for browsing(IMO) and a better size for media, magazines and comics. There's not a winner here just something you have to choose based on your priorities. Since I was now in the market again for a tablet I had decided I was finally ready to start an ebook collection and that was my priority, email, well anything about works for email, browsing is good enough and I don't read comics or magazines so that's how my size priority went. Make no mistake, there is no better size full stop just better sizes for different things.
Another thing that factored into this purchase versus going iPad again is tied into price and size. The iPad was expensive the Kindle Fire, not as much, so when I had the iPad I only felt comfortable bringing it out a few times. If I break, lose or have a 200 dollar device stolen I'll be less heartbroken or put out than had I lost a 500 dollar device. The size is also easier for me to fit into my bag so it's a tad more portable.
So that's kinda how I decided on biting on the Fire and so far it's a fine little device but it's not comparable to an iPad. Sure they get compared to each other but only because the iPad does everything the Kindle does and more not because they're actually in the same league. And while I think this has a better chance at staying in my home for the long run than the iPad did that wasn't because the Kindle Fire is better than the iPad but because at the price it is more disposable, since it has less features and less expectations from those features I'm not apt to try things that exceed what it can do nor care that it can't do them. If you want to call those strengths, whatever, but I disagree they're just different products. Honest truth was if there was a 200 dollar iPad at the same size I probably would have got it instead. This fits a particular usage pattern and that is it. It is not a general all purpose tablet, it is not better than the iPad, Galaxy Tab or any other full feature tablet. I don't even really think it should be billed as a tablet, it should be looked at as nothing more than a LCD ereader that's also able to browse the internet in color and play movies or music. If portable movies are more your thing than books, go Ipad, they have a better video store, it's got a better screen for watching those movies AND it has more storage space for storing stuff you buy or load yourself. If you want music, again, go iPad as it's got the better store and again more space to store music or just get some kind of MP3 player. Want a general tablet? I still think the iPad is king.
It should be noted that for me storage was not an issue, I don't listen to music on the go, I don't watch movies on the go and so the only possible thing I might use space with besides text are apps, which even then I only care fort a handful of them, whether we're talking iPad or Kindle Fire. Which is good because the Kindle Fire doesn't have many apps!
3g, cdma is also not a feature I'm interested in because I refuse to use AT&T, couldn't if I wanted to since they fucked me over when my Cingular plan expired and I cancelled and I refuse to ever pay them money for months of service after I cancelled my plan and my current provider has even worse pricing. I'm grandfathered in on Verison to get free wifi tethering with my Palm Pre and I will probably keep that phone and take advantage of it until this phone finally craps out on me, hopefully by then the situation with mobile broadband is acceptable to me, currently it's not.
My verdict is the Kindle Fire is a great choice for a narrow group of people who live in the US, use Amazon a lot, want a small disposable device to view light content on and that's it. It's no iPad killer, they're not even really competing for the same customers.
JORMBO
Darkness no more
Is there a way to customize the carousel that displays your history? I do model photography, and I'd prefer not to have all my stuff right on display up front if someone asks to test out my Kindle. I have pictures, PDFs and websites that are stuff right on it and I don't see an option to customize and remove things.
I don't see why anyone would want their complete history on display right up front regardless of content....
I don't see why anyone would want their complete history on display right up front regardless of content....
If you press down on the icon a popup asks to remove the item. This is also how you add things to the 'favorites.'. Yes, in actual practice it's kinda dumb.Darkness said:
And yeah, I'm not quite as negative as Marco there, and there are a few things I haven't tried like music, but I can't say that most of that isn't valid.
Stormwatch
Member
The more I use my Fire, the more I like it. I just finished watching Harry Potter on Flixster and it never stuttered at all. I think if you go into it with $200 expectations then you'll come out with $200 impressions. I did notice some stuttering while watching a movie on Netflix, but I have a feeling that might have been Netflix's fault.
dskillzhtown
keep your strippers out of my American football
jvm said:Either people have crazy high standards or mine are crazy low. The Fire is fine. Maybe I will feel different after more experience with video but sheeeesh.
I do think that people are expecting iPad2 for 200 bucks when that is not the case. I played with it last night, it does what I expected and then some. I streamed a movie off Amazon Instant and it looked great, no stuttering and the load time was short. I surfed the net, it wasn't any slower than my iPad2. It simply does what it was advertised to do very well.
One note...for me and my wife, if we weren't on Amazon Prime, I am thinking that it wouldn't be a good experience. I am digging the free TV shows and movies and she is really interested in the Kindle Borrow Library or whatever it is called. We are not interested in apps, we have iPads for that. But for interacting with Amazon content, and some web surfing, it is great for us.
I think that the iPad-killer talk is doing this tablet a disservice. It is not a iPad-killer, but it is a very viable alternative for those who want a tablet but don't need as much tablet as the iPad delivers. On the other hand, I do appreciate the navigation of the Fire, segmenting types of content into tabs makes it an easier experience for non-power users.
Vik_Vaughn said:
Yes and yes. There is actually a Kindle Fire version of PvZ in the app store.
JORMBO
Darkness no more
tino said:
I just connect it to my PC with a USB cable and transfer stuff. Not that time consuming. I don't need a billion pictures on it, usually just 1-3 from each shoot.
Then I have a giant folder full of posing examples on my PC I just transfered over via copy and paste. Having decent sized picture examples can help a lot on shoots
I love my device so far, but one thing REALLY irks me and I think is a big fail on their part, considering this is a Kindle branded tablet.
I can't create book collections. This is complete BS.
I love reading epic fantasy, and a lot of the series I read have many books. WoT, SoT, ASOIAF etc...
And I like having all my content on my device at the same time.
Even though I am not reading all of the books at the same time, I like having the ability to upload all the books to my tablet, and then put them in a collection for organizing purposes. I like my shit organized, and this kinda is a big downer for me.
Hopefully they will add this in a future update soon. I'm going to e-mail Amazon as a suggestion, maybe it will help if enough people complain.
I can't create book collections. This is complete BS.
I love reading epic fantasy, and a lot of the series I read have many books. WoT, SoT, ASOIAF etc...
And I like having all my content on my device at the same time.
Even though I am not reading all of the books at the same time, I like having the ability to upload all the books to my tablet, and then put them in a collection for organizing purposes. I like my shit organized, and this kinda is a big downer for me.
Hopefully they will add this in a future update soon. I'm going to e-mail Amazon as a suggestion, maybe it will help if enough people complain.
Battersea Power Station
Member
What is the general consensus on the best e-ink Kindle? The Touch?
patrickthehedgehog
Member
Battersea Power Station said:
I haven't tried the touch, but I think the tactile buttons are far easier to use and very difficult to hit on accident. I have a hard time reading on my fire because if your fingers slip off the bezel just a bit you'll be turning pages.
dskillzhtown
keep your strippers out of my American football
kazinova said:
I didn't say it wasn't comparable and I did point out ways that it was favorable. For how I use (or under-use) my iPad, the Fire does a good job. I look at videos and surf the net. That is about it really. I don't play games, I don't use airplay, nothing really. At work I use the iPad to take notes and create reminders for work.
I do like the navigation that is on the Fire. The content segments get me right to what I want on the homepage. Seeing as that I use all my tablets for 85% consumption, that is all I am worried about and that homepage/nav gives me that easily. If I didn't have Prime, I wouldn't like it nearly as much. The smaller screen isn't nearly as a problem as I thought it would be for me.
I will try out playing Prime content on my TV tonight.
For me, a tablet is completely useless, but I want to have technology, it's aspirational. If something is going to sit on my coffee table for when I need to look up a movie, IMDB a website and I don't want to use my phone the Fire is perfect.giga said:
7" form factor is far more "lazily-useable" than the two hand requirement of a 10" form factor. 7" form factor is far more useable for content consumption than a 4" phone.
If your needs are the 7 or so categories at the top of the interface (music, video, books, etc.) then this is the perfect fit.
"Sure a Ferrari is a better car, but sometimes you need a Ford Focus Hatchback." Is the mentality that helps me understand why I like the Fire in the face or really negative tech journo reviews.
Marty Chinn
Member
Burger said:
Hahahaha, man what did I say about the Apple fan response? Hahaha. My how you've rewritten history.
ClovingWestbrook
Banned
So after reading the reviews from tech sites and from those from GAF'ers, I was prepared to send the Fire back to Amazon. This is going to be for my 4 year old daughter (she has taken over my wife's laptop, knows how to use android/ios). It was predominately for Netflix, games, helping her learn how to read with childrens books, etc. I received it yesterday and tried it myself. I am really impressed. The browser is perfectly fine, smooth, and all in all loads fairly quick. Netflix quality was fine as well. All in all, definitely well spent $200.
Mine arrived Wednesday but I didn't get a chance to play with it until last night.
Overall impressions so far: not bad for $200. I haven't tested everything but I'm happy with my purchase. I didn't have a tablet prior and I'm primarily going to use the fire as an e-reader with web-browsing capabilities and the occasional video when I'm in bed and I don't want to turn on/off my gaming rig to consume crazy amounts of electricity and produce tons of heat just so I can view a webcomic/gaf.
Most of the complaints in the thread were along the lines of slow browser, choppy video, and unresponsive touch so I felt like testing out just how bad those were first.
One thing that probably helped a lot was buying a stand for it so I can prop it up, especially useful for reading e-books and watching movies. http://i44.tinypic.com/9vfg47.jpg
I didn't really see any problems with the sites that I had visited in brief testing (gaf and a couple webcomic sites) but my dad had mentioned yahoo being slow. Scrolling on websites feels slightly off because your finger moves first and then the site scrolls behind it as opposed to both moving in tandem. This may be true for scrolling in the UI as well, but I didn't really notice it there.
When testing the amazon prime streaming video, I saw the movie 'Foolproof' and clips of other random video w/o any hitches. It wasn't super HD, but still much better then the playbook/fire comparison pics I saw posted earlier in the thread that had given me concerns. I'll try to get a pic of it later when I go home tonight. I do not have a netflix or hulu+ sub anymore so I cannot comment on either of those services.
Unfortunately, when I went to the youtube mobile site to watch the MK:Legacy webisodes, I was constantly getting 10-20 second skips in video and would have to rewind repeatedly to see those skipped parts. I'm a pretty patient person so that still wasn't killing it for me until I had trouble setting the seeker back. Apparently there's a failsafe algorithm of some sort for youtube videos (possibly prime streaming as well but I didn't have to rewind there) where if you tap to bring up the seeker/volume controls and quickly tap again to grab the seeker, it just hides the seeker/volume controls instead of letting you move the seeker. :/ I did notice I was on the HQ setting after I saw the videos so I replayed one w/o HQ but there still was a stutter at one point in the video. This could just be a problem with the mobile site though since I didn't use a youtube specific app to watch the webisodes.
Regarding the rest of the UI, I didn't really run across any problems yet. Navigation felt pretty smooth and intuitive. Carousel bothers me a little bit because pages and apps are different sizes, plus it scrolls a little fast once you have enough items on that carousel. I like the concept but I need to check to see if I can limit it to the 5 most recent apps/books or something because otherwise I think I'm going to write it off and not really use it.
That pretty much covers what I've done with the fire so far. I'll try to remember and update over the weekend when I play with e-books and file transfers etc.
Oh! Regarding the speakers: They felt poorly placed and/or a little weak to me (I also don't expect them to be super awesome) because I would have to have angle the fire's speaker side towards me when watching a video if I wasn't in complete silence and that ruins the viewing experience some since I am then watching it from an angle.
Overall impressions so far: not bad for $200. I haven't tested everything but I'm happy with my purchase. I didn't have a tablet prior and I'm primarily going to use the fire as an e-reader with web-browsing capabilities and the occasional video when I'm in bed and I don't want to turn on/off my gaming rig to consume crazy amounts of electricity and produce tons of heat just so I can view a webcomic/gaf.
Most of the complaints in the thread were along the lines of slow browser, choppy video, and unresponsive touch so I felt like testing out just how bad those were first.
One thing that probably helped a lot was buying a stand for it so I can prop it up, especially useful for reading e-books and watching movies. http://i44.tinypic.com/9vfg47.jpg
I didn't really see any problems with the sites that I had visited in brief testing (gaf and a couple webcomic sites) but my dad had mentioned yahoo being slow. Scrolling on websites feels slightly off because your finger moves first and then the site scrolls behind it as opposed to both moving in tandem. This may be true for scrolling in the UI as well, but I didn't really notice it there.
When testing the amazon prime streaming video, I saw the movie 'Foolproof' and clips of other random video w/o any hitches. It wasn't super HD, but still much better then the playbook/fire comparison pics I saw posted earlier in the thread that had given me concerns. I'll try to get a pic of it later when I go home tonight. I do not have a netflix or hulu+ sub anymore so I cannot comment on either of those services.
Unfortunately, when I went to the youtube mobile site to watch the MK:Legacy webisodes, I was constantly getting 10-20 second skips in video and would have to rewind repeatedly to see those skipped parts. I'm a pretty patient person so that still wasn't killing it for me until I had trouble setting the seeker back. Apparently there's a failsafe algorithm of some sort for youtube videos (possibly prime streaming as well but I didn't have to rewind there) where if you tap to bring up the seeker/volume controls and quickly tap again to grab the seeker, it just hides the seeker/volume controls instead of letting you move the seeker. :/ I did notice I was on the HQ setting after I saw the videos so I replayed one w/o HQ but there still was a stutter at one point in the video. This could just be a problem with the mobile site though since I didn't use a youtube specific app to watch the webisodes.
Regarding the rest of the UI, I didn't really run across any problems yet. Navigation felt pretty smooth and intuitive. Carousel bothers me a little bit because pages and apps are different sizes, plus it scrolls a little fast once you have enough items on that carousel. I like the concept but I need to check to see if I can limit it to the 5 most recent apps/books or something because otherwise I think I'm going to write it off and not really use it.
That pretty much covers what I've done with the fire so far. I'll try to remember and update over the weekend when I play with e-books and file transfers etc.
Oh! Regarding the speakers: They felt poorly placed and/or a little weak to me (I also don't expect them to be super awesome) because I would have to have angle the fire's speaker side towards me when watching a video if I wasn't in complete silence and that ruins the viewing experience some since I am then watching it from an angle.
luoapp said:
Yeah, I know how sound works. Just kinda felt it was a poor design choice (not that I have a better idea. Maybe give up some of the screen space along the edge to fit the tiny speakers on the front?) and I wish I didn't have to take that extra step for the sound. Also not sure if this is a problem with other tablets since I don't have much experience with them.
With youtube videos, I do not mind the lower quality but I appreciate the noticeable difference in higher quality when I can get it for the mobile version. It didn't appear to be a bandwidth issue, (I have AT&T Uverse and the buffer had highlighted most/all of the seek bar) just a problem with how the fire handled decoding the video. I also need to watch a few more youtube videos and see how they run.
i am going to purchase a some cooking knives for work. Japanese and German knives seem to be the best, but I havent decided yet. They cost about 80 bucks each and I will be buying two.
I am going to include them as part of my Kindle Fire review, because they are part of the 500 dollar budget that is usually being included in the comparisons. How well does Ipad cut thru beef chuck? Does the Ipad stay sharp for at least 2 years?
I have yet to decide on the last 140 dollars and how to include that into the review. Maybe strip club.
I am going to include them as part of my Kindle Fire review, because they are part of the 500 dollar budget that is usually being included in the comparisons. How well does Ipad cut thru beef chuck? Does the Ipad stay sharp for at least 2 years?
I have yet to decide on the last 140 dollars and how to include that into the review. Maybe strip club.
notjackbauer
Member
Darkness said:
Any problems doing that? Is it easy to access the mp4s once they're on there? Do they look okay? You can probably only fit a handful of movies on there at once, right?
Apps are exactly what you expect, some of them seem upscaled and many of the icons aren't sized correctly as well (which is really irritating).giga said:
As far as the OS goes, the asthetic is about as miserable as the Apple design motifs but the interface is focused on content instead of app grids.
I'm a fan of non appcentric OS design--I have a Windows Phone in my pocket for pete's sake--and other than the carousel on the starting point of the OS everything else is a storefront in design. Which is kind of gross on one hand. And kind of what I really want on the other hand.
A Kindle Fire exposes your inner consumer whore. It's different, and I like it.
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