The Kindle Fire

Related Comic: Kindle Fire

I haven't followed other tablet releases, so I don't know what kind of insane things happen when one gets announced and the time leading up to when it gets launched, but if the Kindle Fire is any indication, the people are the internet are crazy.

Back in September, being a person who lusts after gadgets, but rarely buys them, I had been shopping around for a tablet. I missed the gravy train that was the HP Touchpad for $99, and I was looking for a tablet that wasn't an iPad.

On September 30th Amazon announced the Kindle Fire. After a couple of hours of debating I decided I'd get one. I posted that I had pre-ordered one on Facebook:

As often happens when I become bored, I start buying gadgets (I'm addicted to shopahol). I preordered a kindle fire.

Within a few hours someone had replied to my status:

I have read almost nothing good about that thing. I think you could have done better on a different tablet.

The only thing anyone knew about this tablet was its hardware specifications, and its price. Nothing else was available, no one was using one. So I was surprised to discover there were already negative reviews about a product no one had seen yet.

A couple of weeks before they shipped (November 15th) I mentioned that I was expecting a Kindle Fire to some of my coworkers. Again I was regalled with all the problems of the Kindle Fire (a device no one had). One person had read that it was very slow, and impossible to watch movies on. Another one said all the reviewers had already decided it was a flop (he was unable to substantiate his claim with any actual reviews that said this). After rechecking some articles my friend Justin admitted that they mostly just said what the hardware was, but he maintained his feeling that isn't wasn't a good tablet.

Now that I've been using the Kindle Fire for a week, I feel like I'm in a position to say a few things about it.

It plays movies and games fine. Although apps need to be obtained from the Amazon App Store, which is a subset of the full Android App Store, I was able to find every app I wanted, with the exception of one. I was able to find a workaround for that app though.

It is a little bit big for reading books, on the other hand, the screen is huge compared to my phone (which was my previous Kindle book device) and very crisp. Once I figured out how to lock the orientation reading became easier. I set the brightness to its lowest setting, the thing was simply too bright out of the box. Still a tad on the heavy side, but I'll just bulk up for it.

Overall I am liking it a lot.