Got my new Kindle Fire a couple of days ago and damn, it is pretty amazing for a $200 device. When they were first announced, I ordered one for Mom for her birthday this week (Happy Birthday again Mom!) and she ordered one for my birthday last month – worked out pretty good for both of us!
One of the things I have noticed is that it is a little odd to go back to my G2 Android phone after using the Fire – the G2 seemed like a fairly large device but now it feels tiny in my hands!
Lots of reviews out there, Les Jones has a good one here – we have considered getting something like this for the 8 year old but we are going to get her an inexpensive desktop first.
Couple of little gripes I have about the Fire - I haven’t found an easy way to adjust the volume – it seems like a 4 step process to get to the volume control – wish they would have built something in to it to adjust the volume easily. I wish I could change the size of the icons on the home screen and on the flipper-like carousel – they are GIGANTIC and I wish they were about half the size. I set up access to my email accounts and for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to delete a bunch of email at the same time – seems like the only way is one at a time, grr.
Big likes - Being able to connect my Fire to my G2 wifi hotspot for 4G access. Absolutely gorgeous screen – brought up a couple of movies through Netflix on the Fire and they look great. Nice to have another device in the house with Pandora – need to get some external speakers for use out in the garage on the bench. I like the bright screen for reading and the ability to change the font and font size while reading. Digging on the cloud storage thing – I have been using that for some time and the Fire makes access seamless.
I have just barely started using it and I imagine there are many features and capabilities that I haven’t come across yet but I am very, very happy with it – highly recommended.
I will retire the 3G Kindle but will load it up with a ton of free “how-to” books and pack it away with one the little USB port solar chargers I picked up from Brown Dog Gadgets.
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