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Tanzaku · 11-19-2011, 12:46 PM

I've always been reluctant to criticize a new product for what it won't do. It's a bit of a straw man argument. My MP3 player won't load the dishwasher, so therefore . . .

True, the Fire is not a tablet, but my iPad and my Transformer are not a netbook, and my netbook is not as capable as my desktop, etc. For what the Fire is and was intended to do, I'd give it a solid 9.9*.

Yesterday I watched 2 episodes of Voyager (Amazon prime) and an episode of Mad Men (Netflix) and they were flawless. I read for an hour using Mantano (sideloaded). I checked my email using Touchdown synced to my Exchange server. I listened to some music both from the Cloud Drive and from the local device. I played a little gin rummy (and was trounced), surfed the web, looked at some downloaded PDFs, made a few notes in Evernote which successfully synced to my other devices, listened to a couple chapters of an Audible book, and checked out a book from the Amazon.com Kindle library. Not bad for $199 and only 65% of its battery capacity.

As to Skype, this occurs to me: How many of us are single device users? For example, I always have my phone with me — currently an Atrix 4G smartphone. I use it for Skype, too. Why would i need to use the Fire? I also use the Atrix for podcasts (via BeyondPod) because I find it easier to carry with me all the time. I won't use the Fire for podcasts, although I could. I also use my phone for voice notes, alarms, and text messaging — none of which I'll do on the Fire. I won't use my phone to watch movies or surf the web, though technically I could. At the other end of the spectrum, when I travel I almost always take my Sony netbook because it runs Adobe Lightroom and I can do remote desktop computing with my computer back home. Multiple devices to provide a variety of tech-intensive needs. I have no doubt that the Fire will have a place in this panoply. I'm not so sure about the iPad and Transformer which may very well find themselves warming the back bench and gathering dust in favor of the smaller, more portable, quite capable, and handy Fire.

* Loses 0.1 points because I can't seem figure out how to play MP3 links from the browser nor download them; I would use bluetooth headphones if the Fire had bluetooth capabilities; poorly positioned on/off switch; and it won't load the dishwasher.

11-19-2011, 12:46 PM	#39
Tanzaku Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 225 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Anacortes, WA Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle 3	I've always been reluctant to criticize a new product for what it won't do. It's a bit of a straw man argument. My MP3 player won't load the dishwasher, so therefore . . . True, the Fire is not a tablet, but my iPad and my Transformer are not a netbook, and my netbook is not as capable as my desktop, etc. For what the Fire is and was intended to do, I'd give it a solid 9.9. Yesterday I watched 2 episodes of Voyager* (Amazon prime) and an episode of Mad Men (Netflix) and they were flawless. I read for an hour using Mantano (sideloaded). I checked my email using Touchdown synced to my Exchange server. I listened to some music both from the Cloud Drive and from the local device. I played a little gin rummy (and was trounced), surfed the web, looked at some downloaded PDFs, made a few notes in Evernote which successfully synced to my other devices, listened to a couple chapters of an Audible book, and checked out a book from the Amazon.com Kindle library. Not bad for $199 and only 65% of its battery capacity. As to Skype, this occurs to me: How many of us are single device users? For example, I always have my phone with me — currently an Atrix 4G smartphone. I use it for Skype, too. Why would i need to use the Fire? I also use the Atrix for podcasts (via BeyondPod) because I find it easier to carry with me all the time. I won't use the Fire for podcasts, although I could. I also use my phone for voice notes, alarms, and text messaging — none of which I'll do on the Fire. I won't use my phone to watch movies or surf the web, though technically I could. At the other end of the spectrum, when I travel I almost always take my Sony netbook because it runs Adobe Lightroom and I can do remote desktop computing with my computer back home. Multiple devices to provide a variety of tech-intensive needs. I have no doubt that the Fire will have a place in this panoply. I'm not so sure about the iPad and Transformer which may very well find themselves warming the back bench and gathering dust in favor of the smaller, more portable, quite capable, and handy Fire. * Loses 0.1 points because I can't seem figure out how to play MP3 links from the browser nor download them; I would use bluetooth headphones if the Fire had bluetooth capabilities; poorly positioned on/off switch; and it won't load the dishwasher.