Amazon Kindle: Kindle Paperwhite! Updated Fire! Kindle Fire HD!

[gellar]

Anyone know how the Fire holds up to reading in sunlight?  My Kindle 2 finally died at some point in the past year and it's sole purpose of existence was for vacation reading.  I was considering replacing it.

The Engadget blog said the screen is Gorilla glass, which I believe is the same as an ipad.  So my guess is that's it's basically impossible to use in direct sunlight, much like the ipad.

Yeah that was my fear.  Oh well.  No purchase.

No Kindle Touch either?

Ehhhh... maybe.  I mean it's a 'use a handful of times a year' sort of purchase.  So maybe.

[Soulchilde]

thinking I might jump on the Fire to upgrade my Kindle 3G ...

pre-ordered... now to decide what I will do with my old Kindle 3G.  They current 139.99 version...

[Crusis]

Anyone know how the Fire holds up to reading in sunlight?  My Kindle 2 finally died at some point in the past year and it's sole purpose of existence was for vacation reading.  I was considering replacing it.

The Engadget blog said the screen is Gorilla glass, which I believe is the same as an ipad.  So my guess is that's it's basically impossible to use in direct sunlight, much like the ipad.

If it's like the color nook it may be readable. I don't know what they do to the glass but it is surprisingly easy to read in sunlight.

[Asharak]

The Fire is only available in the US? I'm not shocked but still disappointed.

I bet they're going to stagger the worldwide release.  at these prices I think they're more aiming at getting new customers then getting current owners to upgrade.  get them in and get them buying from Amazon.

I was assuming it had more to do with the still-abysmal content copyright restrictions. I.e., since services like Hulu and Netflix are either completely unavailable or completely worthless in Canada, devices that make their living streaming that sort of content are pretty horribly gimped up here at the moment.

- Ash

[TiLT]

thinking I might jump on the Fire to upgrade my Kindle 3G ...

pre-ordered... now to decide what I will do with my old Kindle 3G.  They current 139.99 version...

I wouldn't say the Fire is an "upgrade" to the Kindle 3G. It's more like a completely different product with some function overlap. Your old Kindle 3G will still be much, much better for actual reading, while the Fire will have functionality beyond that. I'd keep the old one and use both if I were inclined to get the Fire (which I'm not).

[Soulchilde]

thinking I might jump on the Fire to upgrade my Kindle 3G ...

pre-ordered... now to decide what I will do with my old Kindle 3G.  They current 139.99 version...

I wouldn't say the Fire is an "upgrade" to the Kindle 3G. It's more like a completely different product with some function overlap. Your old Kindle 3G will still be much, much better for actual reading, while the Fire will have functionality beyond that. I'd keep the old one and use both if I were inclined to get the Fire (which I'm not).

I have to agree, but I have been considering a tablet lately and this might be what I am looking for especially, if it can be rooted like the Nook

[Destructor]

thinking I might jump on the Fire to upgrade my Kindle 3G ...

pre-ordered... now to decide what I will do with my old Kindle 3G.  They current 139.99 version...

I wouldn't say the Fire is an "upgrade" to the Kindle 3G. It's more like a completely different product with some function overlap. Your old Kindle 3G will still be much, much better for actual reading, while the Fire will have functionality beyond that. I'd keep the old one and use both if I were inclined to get the Fire (which I'm not).

I have to agree, but I have been considering a tablet lately and this might be what I am looking for especially, if it can be rooted like the Nook

I very highly doubt it'll be as rootable as the Nook Color is (because the NC is absurdly easy to do so apparently by design). And if they limit you to the Amazon Store for Android purchases (which it seems to do), they can exclude out of it whatever they want (like say, the Nook Android app).

It looks like a great device however. If it's rootable (or you can modify it just enough to get to the standard unlocked Android Store), it'll be absolutely outstanding and be the best Android based tablet to get by far (and maybe best tablet overall due to price as well). The question is if it'll happen or not.

And on the sidelines is B&N, and no doubt their own Nook Color 2 (or whatever it is). What to do, what to do...

Also, FYI, the Fire still doesn't support the common ePub format. Yes, you can use Calibre to convert it over to a format the Fire will support, but it'll still be annoying to have to do.

[CeeKay]

I wonder how things went at B&N HQ this morning after the press conference- i.e. How much they expected Amazon to announce.

[Blackjack]

Laptop Mag was pretty enthusiastic in its impressions (not hands-on, Amazon didn't seem willing to let anyone actually hold and use it yet):
http://blog.laptopmag.com/kindle-fire-up-close-why-its-the-android-tablet-to-beat

The Kindle Fire looks like the best Android tablet yet. Why? Because it doesn’t look or act like an Android tablet.

We would like to spend a lot more time with the Kindle Fire to see how well it performs, but it has all the makings of a hit. We love the intuitive interface, crisp and bright display, and easy access to content and apps. Then there’s the $199 price, which is $50 less than the Nook Color and hundreds less than other tablets. Yes, Honeycomb-based slates are more versatile, but they’re also more confusing for the masses. Amazon made the right call by starting from scratch with the Fire, and it looks like its going to burn most of the competition this holiday season.

I'd just take everything with a grain of salt when it doesn't seem like anyone got to actually use one; they promise a full review in November.

[rshetts2]

thinking I might jump on the Fire to upgrade my Kindle 3G ...

pre-ordered... now to decide what I will do with my old Kindle 3G.  They current 139.99 version...

I wouldn't say the Fire is an "upgrade" to the Kindle 3G. It's more like a completely different product with some function overlap. Your old Kindle 3G will still be much, much better for actual reading, while the Fire will have functionality beyond that. I'd keep the old one and use both if I were inclined to get the Fire (which I'm not).

If its anything like the Nook Color, the difference in readability wont be as major as you think.  After owning the NC for a month I gave my e-ink Nook to a friend because I had zero issues reading on the NC.  I can read for hours with no eye fatigue at all.  Of course, it may be different for someone else, but in my experience it was a non-issue.

Regarding the Fire though,  no memory card slot seems like a bad idea.   Cloud usage is limited to "amazon content" per the description at Amazon.com so it looks like Bezel is trying to keep people from looking for media outside of Amazon.  Restrictions like that and the lack of e-pub are what made me look at the Nook in the first place. 

[Crusis]

I'm pretty sure "eye-fatigue" is marketing term by the competition. How long do people stare are computer screens all day? I have done it for close to 20 years and I don't get eye fatigue.

[TiLT]

Screw eye fatigue! When I spent a week sunbathing in the tropics this summer, my e-ink Kindle was a godsend. An LCD tablet would have been completely useless in the bright sunlight. It's also more relaxing when the screen has a brightness that matches the environment, whether I'm outside in the sun or in my dark bedroom with only a small reading light. An e-ink screen also simply looks better for text in the first place because it doesn't display pixels in the regular sense the way an LCD screen does and looks just as good from any viewing angle.

[Morgul]

I browsed some things on this yesterday, but looking for some answers I didnt see..
On the skyfire..

Will it play android apps?  Netflix?  email? 

[McNutt]

It doesn't look like it's going to be rootable like a Nook Color since there's no card slot.  You also have to get all of your apps through Amazon, so not sure what will be there.  The video made it look exactly like a Nook Color without expandable card storage. 

[Jumangi]

It doesn't look like it's going to be rootable like a Nook Color since there's no card slot.  You also have to get all of your apps through Amazon, so not sure what will be there.  The video made it look exactly like a Nook Color without expandable card storage. 

I don't think it doesn't mean it can't ever be rooted. As long as the 8Gb of memory is accessible(which it is I believe to allow manually added things like video files) then I bet one of the teams can root it.

[KC]

After reviewing the specs, I will probably wait for the Kindle fire 2.0.  Hoping that they will get the bugs out, more than 2 point multitouch, add more memory and a camera.

[CeeKay]

After reviewing the specs, I will probably wait for the Kindle fire 2.0.  Hoping that they will get the bugs out, more than 2 point multitouch, add more memory and a camera.

rumor has it there will be bigger version in Q1 2012 with at least 3G and a camera

[naednek]

can you save movies on the device, so when you are out of wi-fi range, can you load up a movie off of the device?  Or is it just streaming only

[Destructor]

can you save movies on the device, so when you are out of wi-fi range, can you load up a movie off of the device?  Or is it just streaming only

8GB of storable space, so I'm guessing yes.

And Amazon's Android Store has a lot of apps there - just not quite updated as often as the official Android store, and obviously not all products as well (like competitor software).

[KC]

I notice that the Kindle Touch allows you to change the size of the text and has speech-to-text capabilities.  Is it safe to assume that the Kindle Fire will also have these capabilities?

How does it the text-to-speech work?  Will it work well for someone with reading disabilities?

[CeeKay]

I notice that the Kindle Touch allows you to change the size of the text and has speech-to-text capabilities.  Is it safe to assume that the Kindle Fire will also have these capabilities?

How does it the text-to-speech work?  Will it work well for someone with reading disabilities?

My Kindle DX has text to speech (I think all of them may have it).  it's basically either a female or male computerized voice reading the words.  whether or not it pronounces them correctly can be a different story, and not every book supports it.  so far every Kindle (and even the app for the iPhone) lets you change the text size (iPhone app even lets you change the color between black, white and sepia) so I don't see that changing either.

[Punisher]

And that's fine.  I've started storing all my music purchases to the cloud, but I've still got a large amount that would overfill the 8GB if I wanted to take it all with me.  And I really don't want to get to the point where I'm paying a yearly fee to store it.  Besides, I've still got to clean up a bunch of it before I'm happy with it.

It just seems like we're going backwards in terms of on-board memory.  Would it have killed them to throw an SD card slot in there as well?

This may be the deal breaker for me.. picked up a 32GB touchpad and it's already almost full....

[CeeKay]

just saw this:  Kindle Owners Lending Library.

[edit[ and The Hunger Games trilogy is part of it.  sweet!

[Crusis]

Looks like the Kindle Fire is getting ready to ship. I was charged for it on Friday.

[CeeKay]

Looks like the Kindle Fire is getting ready to ship. I was charged for it on Friday.

ditto.  kinda freaked out when my account was showing 200 bucks lighter, but checked and saw it was amazon charging really early.

[kathode]

Got a note that my Kindle Touch is going to be here Tuesday or Wednesday.  I'll let you know how it is.

Actually scratch that.  I cancelled my order.  Reviews aren't bad but they aren't great either.  My 3 is doing fine.  I would like to get 3G again to get whispersync everywhere but sounds like I'm better off waiting for another revision.

[CeeKay]

just got my shipping notice from Amazon, looks like I should have my Fire on Wednesday.

[Soulchilde]

Looks like I'll have my new Kindle Fire tomorrow.  Yeah for prime and paying for 1 day delivery for 3.99

of course my damn Kindle Fire is stuck at the distribution center... At least Ass:Creed is out for delivery...  but I want my Kindle Fire

[CeeKay]

Looks like I'll have my new Kindle Fire tomorrow.  Yeah for prime and paying for 1 day delivery for 3.99

of course my damn Kindle Fire is stuck at the distribution center... At least Ass:Creed is out for delivery...  but I want my Kindle Fire

same here, all it says is the label has been created, but it still estimates my delivery date as tomorrow.

[The Grue]

Mine shows out for delivery, but I am in Dallas and won't be back until tomorrow to check it out.  I did just realize I didn't buy any kind of case or cover for it.  What did you guys go with in that department?

[Soulchilde]

Looks like I'll have my new Kindle Fire tomorrow.  Yeah for prime and paying for 1 day delivery for 3.99

of course my damn Kindle Fire is stuck at the distribution center... At least Ass:Creed is out for delivery...  but I want my Kindle Fire

same here, all it says is the label has been created, but it still estimates my delivery date as tomorrow.

Yeah, I was supposed to get today, but it hasn't budge since it arrived to my local distribution center.  I am hoping it's a glitch....

[Soulchilde]

So I've been playing with the Fire for about an hour now and I am impressed with my purchase.  More reviews later


Okay, browsing on Fire seems okay.  The speed is adequate and I am seeing some improvement the more I use it. I've tried all my usual sites without any issues, but I notice some graphics heavy sites will load slower than say surfing over to OO. Again, once I go back the graphics seem to load much faster on my second visit, so I am assuming Silk is caching the graphics.

The Fire only comes with a wall adapter, but I tried the Kindle e-reader cable to connect to my laptop and it work, but there seem to be no charging using the cable like that which is a HUGE negative for me as I tend to connect my devices to my PC or laptop to charge.  Connecting using a USB cord puts in the Fire into usb mode which will allow you to transfer documents, pictures and videos.. 


Some Apps aren't optimized for the Fire screen yet.  Words for Friends for example a small section of the screen is cut off on each end.  Not enough to detract from the playing field, but enough to be noticeable.

By the way I am noticing screen smudges already and I am considering investing in a screen protector



More later

[wonderpug]

Requesting impressions on web browsing on the Fire, especially compared to using the iPad!

[EngineNo9]

Yeah, definitely some more detailed impressions of the Fire in general would be great, and specifically their version of the Android OS. 

I know there have been other 7" tablets out there, but I'm also curious what people think of this one compared to the more standard 10" tablets.  It always seemed to me that 7" was a weird size of not quite as big and useful as an iPad, but too large to put carry your pocket like a phone.  Kind of the worse of both worlds.

[Crusis]

They had Touch's and Fire's at my local Target today. I should have my Touch tomorrow. Played with the demo for a few minutes and was impressed with the screen, graphics, and the size of the device. More after I get my own.

[EngineNo9]

Wired has an in-depth look at the Kindle Fire that raises some potential concerns.

[Jimmy the Fish]

Requesting impressions on web browsing on the Fire, especially compared to using the iPad!

The browser is decent but comes up a bit short compared to Safari on the iPad in my opinion. For one, unless there is something I am missing, there is no way to sort and arrange your bookmarks on the Kindle Fire. Bookmarks are arranged in one big mass list. There isn't even a way to sort the mega-list manually.  As far as loading web pages, it's faster on the iPad but I suppose that is due to the faster processor. One other minor annoyance is that you have to bring up the bookmarks screen in order to access the embedded browser search. In the Kindle's favor, there are webpage elements I've seen load on the Kindle browser that don't appear on Safari. I think those are embedded Flash elements. So in short, Safari on the iPad feels like a full featured browser minus the Flash support. The Kindle browser feels like a smartphone quality browser, but at least it can do Flash, if that is important to you.

As for general impressions of the Fire, I think people who somehow expect it to be an equal to the iPad will be disappointed. It's clearly not. One thing I really do not like about the interface is that the top 2/3 of the home screen is occupied by a coverflow-like row that shows the most recently accessed items (app, web page, movie, book, song, etc) from left to right. There is no way to manage the favorites row, like removing items or resizing that part of the interface. I would rather have the screen space used to display the apps in a grid, like you see on iPads. At the least, Amazon should have allowed the option to hide the coverflow row.

Another observation is that the touch sensitivity of the screen is not as robust as the iPad. There are times when I touch an icon and nothing happens and I have to touch the icon again for the device to recognize it.

I've read a bunch of the major online reviews, like Engadget for example, and they are all pretty much spot on with their pluses and minuses of the device. It seems somewhat limited right now, but I think there is a lot of potential for Amazon to really improve the user experience. Will it ever become an equal alternative to the iPad? I don't know if it will ever become that, but as long as you are aware of its limitations, it's a good tablet device.

[Soulchilde]

I agree with Jimmy.  This isn't an iPad Killer and I am satisfied with that.  It does exactly what I was looking for and that's light web-browsing, Kindle e-reader (Newspapers look gorgeous, btw) and video streaming.  I watched a episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from Amazon Video and the picture and streaming was flawless.  Anyway, for 199.99 I am happy with my early Christmas gift to myself.  

Btw, unless I haven't found it there doesn't appear to be a native email client

--CORRECTION.. There is a email app hidden in the app screen.  I added to my favorite (hold down on the app to add/remove from favorites), so it will appear on the home screen

[The Grue]

Anyone have a case or cover for the Fire they really like?  We got ours in yesterday and my wife's comment was that it was small (we have a couple of iPads, so she is used to that).  I wonder if they have a cover similar to the one for the iPad 2 that you can buy that is basically just a little flap that magnetically lays on the screen.  It even turns off the iPad 2 when you close it.  Anything like that for the Fire?

[Soulchilde]

Anyone have a case or cover for the Fire they really like?  We got ours in yesterday and my wife's comment was that it was small (we have a couple of iPads, so she is used to that).  I wonder if they have a cover similar to the one for the iPad 2 that you can buy that is basically just a little flap that magnetically lays on the screen.  It even turns off the iPad 2 when you close it.  Anything like that for the Fire?

I am using Marware   No magnets thats shuts off the Fire, but I like it