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Thoughts on the Kindle Fire enhanced ereader
November 28, 2011 | 1:00 am
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By Paul Biba
I’ve had the Kindle Fire since the day it was released and here are my thoughts after giving it a pretty fair bit of use:
It’s a neat machine: No question about it, it’s fun to use and makes a wonderful enhanced ereader. The menu system is intuitive and easy to use. The combination of an ereader and a media device, in a pocketable format, is a definite winner. Everyone who came over at Thanksgiving, both techie and non-techie, loved it and had no trouble figuring it out. It is an ideal unit for the non-techies among us. Several of my guests are buying one as we speak. Even my daughter, who is a science writer and a high-techie, and who thinks that the iPad is a complete waste of time and money, wants one.
It works well: Everything on the Fire has worked very well. Ebook reading is just fine, media playing is flawless and the games and extra apps all work. There are a few glitches. No question that the touchscreen needs a firmware upgrade. Sometimes it is too sensitive and sometimes it won’t reflect a touch at all and several tries are necessary. This can typically be fixed in firmware. The web browser is typical Android and seemingly is not faster or slower than the browser on my Android Droid Bionic. It’s pretty close to my iPad in speed and is certainly more that adequate for anything you want to do with it.
Form factor is ideal: I’ve long suspected that Steve Jobs was wrong in saying that the 7″ tablet is not what people want. I, personally, find my iPad 2 too heavy and big to carry around a lot. It certainly makes for an awkward ereader. I’m using it less and less, as a matter of fact. The 7″ form factor seems ideal to me. I can take the Fire anywhere and carry it to places where I would not carry my iPad. My only complaint is that the Fire is a bit too thick and heavy to be a perfectly comfortable ereader. However, as a video player, I’m just as happy watching a movie on it as I am on my iPad. I’ll probably end up getting a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus so that I can have the full tablet experience in a more portable form factor. I suspect it will be a long time before I take out my iPad again.
Amazon App Market is OK: Not great, but OK. Since I already use an Android phone I have a lot of apps on it from the Google Market. I found all of them replicated in the Amazon market, much to my surprise. However there is absolutely no question that both of the markets pale by comparison with the Apple App store. If you really need something you’ll likely find it in the Apple store. Also, the apps that are the same in both the Apple and Android stores are more sophisitcated when purchased from Apple. The interface is usually clearner, the menus more consistent and logical and they seem to be, overall, more professional when purchased on the Apple platform.
Overall, I like the machine a lot and would have no hesitation recommending it to anyone who wants a ereader that can double as a media device. If you have any questions I’ll be happy to answer them in the comments.
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Comments:
Seconded. Every word.
OK, you’ve praised the Kindle Fire and now, after having praised the iPad, condemned it to the nonusable pile (I wonder if Jobs is turning over in his grave as iPadders increasingly find the luster of ownership fading?).
But here is my question, the one that no seems to ever tackle except by indirection: If the purpose of an ereader device is to be able to read ebooks comfortably, and if that is your purpose in buying such a device, which is the better device to buy?
I haven’t considered the Kindle Fire because, as you know, I am not a fan of Amazon, but I have considered the Nook Tablet, yet have not bought one. The one thing that intrigues about the Nook Tablet is that I can record myself reading a book so that my grandchildren can listen to me read to them when we are separated. Aside from that, the Nook Tablet offers nothing that compels me to purchase it over, say, the Nook Touch. Consequently, if I were to recommend a device for someone who primarily wants to read ebooks, I would not recommend the Tablet.
Is that similarly true with the Kindle Fire? How much use will you make of the “features” that the Fire has but the K3 lacks? How do you justify spending the price differential if 95% of the time you want to use the device to read an ebook?
FWIW, I agree about the 7-inch form factor. My Sony 950 is a great device and has the 7-inch form factor. (It also has all the features I want for reading ebooks, which is why I bought the device.)
I think you’re missing the point, Rich. While the ereaders available now work great, by getting the Fire (or Nook Tablet), you get an inexpensive device ($60 more than the Kindle Keyboard, for example) that can also read magazines in color, check email, browse the web, listen to music, watch movies, and run apps. I love my Kindle, but it would be great to pause while reading, and be able to do those other things, and do them well. If ALL you want to do is read, use your 950. If you would like to do the other things, (and I notice you use the web a lot), why not consider one.
@Michael — The reason I won’t consider one is that I have no need for one. I access the Internet via my desktop PC, whcih is where I am most every day (I work for myself out of my home). When I am away from my home, the very last thing I want to do is check e-mail or surf the Internet. In a way, I am a Luddite. I need my computer and the Internet for my business but if given a choice, I would do without both, just as I do without TV (I have one — in fact, it is a 42-inch plasma — that I bought so that when I do occasionally watch a video, I can watch it on the big screen. In the past year I have watch exactly 0 minutes of TV and perhaps 3 or 4 DVDs) and a smartphone. I think one of the worst things about society today is that friends are those we can communicate with via e-mail and text messages and social websites like FAcebook. When I was a youth, friends meant visiting someone else’s house or having them visit mine, playing games face-to-face, talking face-to-face.
I think technology has its uses and its place. But what I see is that parents are more concerned with what is on their smartphone than listening to their child and families who sit at the dinner table together, each immersed in something on a screen and communicating with each other by texting. I’m not convinced that more technology is better.
Similarly, when I read a book, I want to read, not check e-mail, surf the web, or do the myriad other things that technology will let me do. I want to enjoy the experience of reading.
As I said, I am probably a Luddite.
I think pitching the FIRE as an “ereader that can double as a media device” is… well, backwards.
(Sorry!!)
A more precise description would be that FIRE is an entry level Media Pad that can double as an ebook reader.
Not to say, FIRE isn’t a good device, but it isn’t as good a reader as the eink line.
The FIRE’s primary mission is to access media content; audio, video, and to a lesser extent, magazines and graphic novels. eBooks on FIRE are really a secondary function and it is less capable that the eink readers; I.E., no support for collections, TTS, etc.
As Bezos is fond of pointing out, the eink Kindle readers are focused on reading and minimize distractions; FIRE, on the other hand, is all about the distractions.
I don’t buy this whole “distraction” business. By that definition the e-ink Kindle isn’t any good because it contains a web browser and you can get games for it!
Distraction is in the mind of the reader – not projected by the reading implement. If you are in the mood to be distracted then you will be, whether you are reading a paper book, an ebook on an e-ink Kindle or Nook or on an iPad or a Fire. If you are not in the mood to be distracted, you won’t be.
As to what is the “best” one to get – that depends completely on the reader. If you read a lot of magazines then the iPad is the best choice. If you don’t look at video or multi-media, then any e-ink machine is just fine. If you are like me, that is, someone who reads several hours a day and watches several hours of movies, anime and select television a day, then something like the Fire, iPad or a tablet is the best way to go.
I actually think that two, or more, ereaders is the best choice. I use my e-ink Kindle all the time when I need something small and that has a great battery life. I keep the Fire and the Touch synchronized and have the same books on both units. With WhisperSync I can pick up either one depending on what is going on. I also have the Kindle software on my phone and keep that in sync too. That way I can read wherever and whatever I want and adapt my reading to the particular circumstances at hand. That’s one of the beauties of ereading and ebooks.
The FIRE is a fine device, agreed.
But it is a multifuction device that is far from optimal for reading. And you can buy it and get a ton of value for your money without reading a single ebook on it. (Ditto for iPad and smartphones and android tablets.) The eink Kindles, on the other hand, are targeted at reading; if you buy one to do anything *but* read on it you’re not going to get much value out of your purchase.
If you look at the value of eink readers, a lot of it comes from their light weight, extreme battery life, outdoor readability, advanced reading features like collections and TTS, etc. Not everybody needs or uses them but that is what made the category successful, what *defines* contemporary ereaders.
FIRE goes after a different kind of buyer one that doesn’t mind the added weight, lower battery life, and skimpier reading feature set as a trade off for color magazine readability, music, video, and gaming features. A lot of value there. But the bulk of that value doesn’t come from the features that *define* the ereader category. Those are, however, features that *define* the contemporary media pad tablet category.
Which is why to me, the FIRE is more of a media pad that can do light duty as an ebook reader than an ebook reader with media capabilities; it isn’t a straight superset of a Kindle reader, but rather trades off useful reading features to accomodate the media capabilities. Now, if the FIRE had *all* the reading features of a Kindle Touch and merely asked me to put up with double the weight and a quarter the battery life as the price of color and video, I might change my tune.
It’s really the old debate about dedicated ebook readers vs multifunction devices brought in-house to the Kindle brand. Its all about personal preference. And now, whether you prefer one or the other, you have (almost) no excuse not to buy from Amazon.
I’ve been using my Fire to read magazines (love it – taking advantage of the 90 day trial of the New Yorker and Vanity Fair), play games, surf the web, and look at the maps and pictures in my ebooks that don’t show up as well in eInk. For long form reading of books, I still prefer eInk; I’m using my new Kindle Touch, and just handed down my Kindle Keyboard to my daughter.
For me, the e-ink Kindle eliminates distractions and puts me in a different frame of mind, where I focus on a book. Yes, technically speaking it has a broswer – but try it sometime and you’ll agree, it’s basically a form of torture and essentially unusable.