Quote:
Originally Posted by kjk
Here on MobileRead?
|
No. I have not seen much hate here (I haven't looked for it). Most of the conversation here is polite.
During the month and a half between between announcement and availability of the Fire, I read all there was to read. First thing I noticed was that most of the previewers -- and there were a lot of them -- had not touched the hardware. Wondering why people who had not used a Fire would bother to demean it, I started googling the 'authors' and found most had a long love affair with the iPad.
Weeks after launch, a lot of the reviews seem to be intended to show that the Fire is lacking in some way or that it is not an iPad. When you google the 'author' these people are still iPad champions.
Personally, I cannot fathom why a person in love with an iPad would even consider purchasing a Fire. Yet it seems that all of them have and most of them have blogged that the iPad is better.
Even on MR, I could not find objective reviews at launch. I decided to buy one and see what I thought. Personally, I have not found the Fire lacking. To be fair, that comes from the perspective of one who has never driven an iPad or a Galaxy. To be even more fair, I probably have less than ten hours at the wheel of the Fire. But I have watched movies using eMIT, Prime, and Netflix -- all very satisfying. I've listened to internet radio and checked my email and browsed the web. I installed the Nook app via a nonAmazon app store (which I found educational and challenging). I've downloaded documents and periodicals using Calibre -- works. I've played a couple games and texted.
I prefer to sit in front of dual 23" screens with a keyboard and mouse, but have retired to the couch with the Fire to watch TV (IMDB more than ESPN).
My wife uses the fire the most. She has dialysis three times a week and it accompanies her. We put a spreadsheet on the Fire to track her care -- it's a convenient place to track the info since she always brings the Fire with her. She likes the radio and netflix, plays games, and reads to kill her time. Zero complaints out of her. In fact, she loves the Fire. Again, never having used an iPad.
I guess you could say that my 'mini review' doesn't talk about specs (still trying to tie back to the original post). They are in there -- it's just subtle. The Fire is fast enough to play video, small enough to fit in my wife's purse, and cheap enough that I didn't have to think much about buying one. The battery lasts long enough that I didn't even think of it when reviewing the device and there is enough storage that it's not an issue -- despite four people with diverse applications sharing a single device.