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Art's Tart · 11-21-2011, 10:27 AM

The Fire may not be a good fit for me.

I just got my first Smart Phone, (i-Phone) and had no trouble learning to use it at all. It is loaded down with apps and I love it. I love it so much I jumped to buy the Fire the minute it went up for pre-order. Using it has not been the seamless experience I expected, given how great the e-readers (K 2i and 3G) have functioned.

I downloaded apps that the product page said would work on the Fire but don't. One said I needed to enable the GPS...there is no GPS on the Fire. The other two just don't work. I can open them, put in information, but it is never there when I go back.

I have never used an Android device and I find the Fire experience daunting. I thought I would be able to use it "out of the box" and have the same great experience I had with my Kindles and smart phone.

My first books took hours to load. I bought them in the early evening and they didn't show up until the next morning. Books I own already took 5 minutes to download from the cloud. I'm reading how to do sideloading and what I need to have in order to have useful apps, but I'm not experienced enough to understand a lot of this. Compared to the Kindle app for the i-Phone, the reader experience on the Fire is such a disappointment. It is a struggle to get the pages turned, to go back and forth between pages or to get the Home button to come up when you need it.

I have a POP email account and emails with attached PDFs and photos won't download on the Fire. When trying to download a book from the cloud, I'll get the message I'll have to try later. Then it will start downloading again before I have a chance to say okay or try again. We have a broadband account and all our other wireless devices work fine.

Frankly, using the Fire is a struggle and I don't see any particular feature that is so great I could overlook the all the things I am struggling with.

I am so disappointed. All I wanted was a device I could use for web browsing, apps for weather and specifically for hurricane info, reading books where color photographs are essential and reading email. None of these can be done seamlessly on the Fire.

Are these issues Amazon can fix with software upgrades, and if so, what are the chances it will be done before my 30 days expire?

11-21-2011, 10:27 AM	#71
Art's Tart Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 24038 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Florida Device: Kindle 2i, Kindle 3G, Kindle Fire	The Fire may not be a good fit for me. I just got my first Smart Phone, (i-Phone) and had no trouble learning to use it at all. It is loaded down with apps and I love it. I love it so much I jumped to buy the Fire the minute it went up for pre-order. Using it has not been the seamless experience I expected, given how great the e-readers (K 2i and 3G) have functioned. I downloaded apps that the product page said would work on the Fire but don't. One said I needed to enable the GPS...there is no GPS on the Fire. The other two just don't work. I can open them, put in information, but it is never there when I go back. I have never used an Android device and I find the Fire experience daunting. I thought I would be able to use it "out of the box" and have the same great experience I had with my Kindles and smart phone. My first books took hours to load. I bought them in the early evening and they didn't show up until the next morning. Books I own already took 5 minutes to download from the cloud. I'm reading how to do sideloading and what I need to have in order to have useful apps, but I'm not experienced enough to understand a lot of this. Compared to the Kindle app for the i-Phone, the reader experience on the Fire is such a disappointment. It is a struggle to get the pages turned, to go back and forth between pages or to get the Home button to come up when you need it. I have a POP email account and emails with attached PDFs and photos won't download on the Fire. When trying to download a book from the cloud, I'll get the message I'll have to try later. Then it will start downloading again before I have a chance to say okay or try again. We have a broadband account and all our other wireless devices work fine. Frankly, using the Fire is a struggle and I don't see any particular feature that is so great I could overlook the all the things I am struggling with. I am so disappointed. All I wanted was a device I could use for web browsing, apps for weather and specifically for hurricane info, reading books where color photographs are essential and reading email. None of these can be done seamlessly on the Fire. Are these issues Amazon can fix with software upgrades, and if so, what are the chances it will be done before my 30 days expire?