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Sparkle (2)
There's a new gadget out there, just in time for holiday shopping. But is the Kindle Fire right for you?
I've had mine for almost a week now, and my answer? It depends. What do you want it to do for you, and what problems with your current devices are you looking for it to solve? I'm a dedicated iPhone user who hasn't yet bought an iPad, as I couldn't be convinced that an iPad would really change my life for the $599 I would have to spend. The same with the Kindle, which I had never gotten around to ordering, even though my husband has one. Paper and ink books were good enough for me, gosh darn it! But when the Kindle Fire, an iPad-looking tablet that woud run games, apps, movies, and email in addition to the Kindle ebook capabilities, was announced for $199, I was ready to try it, and I preordered it last month. My Fire arrived promptly at noon on Friday, and it hasn't left my hands since. (Full disclosure: I paid full price and am not being compensated by anyone for this review.) I use my iPhone, laptop, and desktop every day, for different uses, but I bought the beautiful new Kindle Fire to help me in a very specific instance: media consumption, including blog reading and commenting, and email triage while I'm relaxing or otherwise away from the computer.
The Fire's 7.5 inch screen (the size of three iPhones together) is welcoming and easy to read, the perfect size and weight for holding in your hands, whether sitting or relaxing comfortably or standing in line for an appointment. It has a glossy glass screen, black case, and a state-of-the-art dual-core processor, changing the quiet e-reader Kindle experience into more of a multi-media internet experience, capable of meeting most of a casual internet user's needs now - and hopefully all of our social needs shortly, once their apps store is more mature. Indeed, when I think about how I plan to use this tablet, e-reading is just one of my options.
In just four days, the Kindle Fire has already become my go-to device for games, movies, social networking (albeit not with some adaptation), notes, reading web pages or books online, and keeping up with my friends' blogs - and knowing the number of blogs I'd like to read every day, that alone would be worth the $199 investment! One caution: the Fire does not have 3G or 4G enabled; it runs purely on wireless, so this device runs everything only at a place like home, work, or the hospital rather than on-the-go. There are workarounds, of course, like downloading movies before you leave home, but that may be a drawback for some.
The Kindle Fire excels at:
- Quick launch - the device and its apps and browsers are up and running in under a minute;
- Quick loading of web pages - they say, thanks to the Amazon Silk browser. For independent testing, you'll have to look elsewhere, but the described approach is way cool and the reason I bought mine. Since the browser relies on past visits to web pages to "preload" your requests in the cloud, my Fire is still "learning" my favorite pages, but I am very excited about this!;
- Easy access to your most-used applications - placed on the bottom shelf of the Kindle's bookshelf-like opening screen. While this is really a grid, of course, it makes it look both homey and high-tech. Flipping through the apps with a flick of the finger makes them fall gently to the side, not unlike the album imagery on the iPod and iPhone;
- Immediate access to Yahoo mail - keep the Yahoo app on the bottom shelf, and you're up and running in less than a minute. Read, reply, forward, it all works fine, and the built-in virtual keyboard (standard layout) means you won't lose any time typing. Email triage is easy using the Fire, just like on smartphone; answer or delete the easy ones on-the-go, and you'll have more time for the ones that spawn work back at your desk. While a major drawback is the lack of a gmail app, Gmail can be accessed easily via the "web" tab at the top of the screen;
- Blog reading - the screen size is perfect for reading two or three column blogs! I can read most blog posts in a single screen and then scroll to the comment area to leave comments easily, in type large enough that I can
