Kindle Fire
What it is: Great ebook reader and front end to Amazon.
What it isn’t: iPad killer.
It’s a neat little gadget but I don’t know yet if it’s more useful than the $79 e-ink Kindle. It’s ok on the ebook reading, the screen is large enough. It will stream my music stored on Amazon’s Cloud Player but it’s WiFi only and I only really listen to music when I’m driving where the WiFi doesn’t work (and it’s all on my iPhone already). It’s does a good job of streaming movies from Amazon and Netflix but I only watch those at home and I have a large screen I use there.
I’ve already decided that I’ll swap the Fire for the iPad in my EDC bag (the murse). The iPad is superior in almost every way except size which makes carrying around a problem. I’ll leave the iPad at home for a while, where it excels as a living room/bedroom computer and see if the Fire can work as a replacement. At the very least I’ll be a lot less upset about losing the Fire than I would the iPad.
Is the Fire worth the $120 price increase over the $79 E-ink Kindle? Honestly, I’m not sure yet. If all I ever use the Fire for is reading books then no, it’s not. Time will tell.
Something tells me that Fire will sell well over the Holidays, but after that, probably not.
Also, will Amazon continue to support Kindle Apps for Apple, or will they go “Google Only” in the future? Time will tell.
The fire looks cool and all, but I have Internet on my 4s, plus the kindle app, so the reader won’t replace anything and it means I’m carrying more crap around and that sucks.
Post up in a few weeks with info.
Riley
Riley, I think that’s an issue with tablets in general. They’re the third device after your computer and cell phone. They’ve got to fit into some niche that the first two don’t fill.
For our house the Fire is mostly for the kids to use. We’re hoping that will free up the other computers and cut down on the malware the kids are downloading along with their games. Getting free TV shows, movies, and books with our Amazon Prime membership is a bonus.
I’ll be curious to see your follow-up on this one…
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Shrug.
I just loaded Amazon’s app into my iPad.
Same content, different machine.
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That sounds hot! I’ll bet they sell like hotcakes.
1. “Front end for Amazon” seems to sum it up pretty well. A colleague demoed her iPad for us last month, and it’s impressive. I’m waiting to go tablet, though. My Sony Reader Touch serves my e-reading needs well, and my laptop isn’t two years old yet.
2. Can’t believe .45LC isn’t a choice in the pistol cartridge poll. 😉
3. Nice picture of Squire’s Castle up there. Did a lot of walking in the hills behind it.