Did Amazon Misrepresent the Cloud?

as far as Docs are concerned, Amazon is not thinking clearly here and are using terms in a confusing manner. I doubt they are purposely trying to mislead us, but they need to consider the confusion level of what they are saying.

Amazon is loosely using Personal Documents in a confusing manner which can result in us thinking that they are referring to the Personal Documents that can be archived and synced via the Kindle Personal Documents Service. There are two definitions for Personal Documents as used by Amazon:

• A non-Amazon Store document that was sideloaded or emailed to your Kindle.
  • Document cannot be archived
  • Document cannot be synced with other Kindles
• A non-Amazon Store document that you emailed to your qualifying K3 or K4 to take advantage of the Kindle Personal Documents Service for purposes of archiving and syncing with other qualifying Kindles.
  • Document can be archived
  • Document can be easily downloaded from Archive to qualifying Kindles
  • Document can be fully synced with other qualifying Kindles

I wish they would use the terms sideloaded document for non-archiveable non-syncable docs and personal document for archiveable and syncable docs. They are not the same at all. I'm disappointed that the Fire and K4PC don't qualify to work with the Kindle Personal Documents Service. I hope Amazon adds them soon, but I'm not holding my breath.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Scarpad

it does not do this I tried this all it did was download a link to the folder I saved it to , not the file itself

I don't know what to say. I deleted the stuff from my Downloads folder and tried it again. As soon as I select "Save link" the download starts. I get a notification under "Ongoing" I see the file progress indicator. It's a .bin file. Progress says complete. I click on that and I'm prompted with "Complete action using ES Video Player (I installed ES File Explorer) or Movies (stock app). I select the stock app (Movies). The video immediately plays in the stock app. I check the "Download" folder and the file is there. I click on that and I'm prompted to choose an app to play the video. Maybe the .bin extension is throwing you off? For some reason it doesn't use the true file name (myvideo.mp4 or whatever).

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Scarpad

You have to admit Amazon did lead to believe that the Fire would be able to utilize your files and vids on the cloud that you upload. And it cannot. I kinda understood the fire at 8gb of file size because you could utilize your cloud drive, but it makes no sense that you cannot.

Yes they did misrepresent the Cloud in their statements. We do need a cloud app. There is no Personal Document Cloud either for the Fire. It uses the same method that the old Kindles used when you send a Pdoc to your Kindle not the new cloud that K3w3.3,K4 & KT have.

You need a PC to get content onto your Cloud which they never mentioned either.

[SamL]

Not to mention I uploaded like 800 photos to my cloud, thinking I could put them on my Fire. I tried to download them to my work computer so I could transfer them via USB, but you can not download more then one files at a time from the cloud. So for any storage of bulk photos or music files, it seems quite useless at this point.

[AlphaTerminus]

Amazon's cloud and Apples iCloud are both misrepresented. Amazons is more functional in that you can control it a liitle more than Apple's.

Amazon needs to partner with DropBox as they are the only company that knows how to make the cloud work well and across all platforms. Sideload Dropbox. It works perfectly. Why it is not in the Fire appstore is beyond me as it makes the device infinitely more versatile.

[ssahnan]

when there is a 800lb gorilla in the room is IOS and all its refinements, I do think Amazon dropped the ball on it. Cloud drive support for personal docs and pics should have been a vey easy implementation and by clearly stating the required formats, streaming personal videos should have been doable as well. Over-selling silk was a bad move as well, that browser is shockingly slower from what was promised.

Apple's cloud is actually quite nice for documents, bookmarks, contacts, etc...it obviously fails in media but when the rest of what you offer is so much by leaps and bounds better then the competition, defencies in your media cloud are much more acceptable. I've been a mobileme subscriber for some time and the whole having the ability to have the same set of bookmarks, contacts, etc on every device, pc and mac has always been an enormous plus. Conversely when you release a very limited device from a hardware standpoint and your defense of those choices is your cloud integration, you are more vested into that cloud being a selling point then apple has to deal with. Yet with the fire, i can't even have folders within my bookmarks for organization much less a cloud syncing for it, i havent explored if third party apps add push email but i dont think the default email client is very robust with cloud level syncing/pushing, contacts arent straightforwardly easy to integrate, buying more space on cloud drive is pointless as that doesnt stream to the fire....the cloud side of the fire is a failure in my opinion. it's bottom line is price, you wont get quality but for 200$ you will get a tablet based on a older os.

the fire's singular selling point was it's cloud integration. for every other reason, the nook at 250 is a better buy, sd card slot, better video quality, etc.....so when you don't deliver on what is supposed to be your only competitive advantage, it hamstrings you. i actually bought a few picture books for my daughter on the fire last night...it was such a gross dissapointment to what picture book experience is on ios. you get narration, auto page flipping, it's night and day....then, when you buy these kid's book apps that have interaction built in, forget about it....i wasted money on those kids pic books.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by AlphaTerminus

Amazon needs to partner with DropBox as they are the only company that knows how to make the cloud work well and across all platforms. Sideload Dropbox. It works perfectly. Why it is not in the Fire appstore is beyond me as it makes the device infinitely more versatile.

They already have such a partnership. Dropbox is hosted on Amazon's cloud.

[abookreader]

Well, as I said in the how do you rate it thread I know that Apple is in big legal wranglings right now with the movie industry on allowing iTunes users to access and re-download movies through the new iCloud. I found this out after I bought the latest Harry Potter movie in iTunes and thought that I'd be able to re-download several times via iCloud - not so.

I wonder if these issues that are impeding Amazon to allow easier access to uploaded movies via the Amazon Cloud service and then play them.

As of right now I have also used the download the movie as a .bin file and then play it. It isn't a happy solution but it does clunk-ily work. That and the 8GB limitation, and the lack of password protect purchasing are really my only beef with the Fire, but unfortunately I feel they are pretty big limitations.

I'm going to get Dropbox side-loaded today. That should make me happier.

[weatherman]

Originally Posted by HarryT

They already have such a partnership. Dropbox is hosted on Amazon's cloud.

Hosting on Amazon isn't a partnership - heck, even netflix is hosted on amazon. I think Alpha-T's point was that amazon is missing critical parts of what makes a cloud service good, specifically interface and integration.

I do think Amazon could have done a better job with that at launch, but I am also mindful that pulling off the transition from a physical good retailer to a provider of consumer service and devices is a pretty challenging task. Amazon's problem is that they have all these things they do very well - retailing, web services, ebooks, video, music, apps, etc and the Fire is really the first device to combine all of them in to one package. Its not just like trying to hit a bullet with a bullet, its like getting a dozen bullets to come together at the same point simultaneously. I'm not surprised that some things are either off target or not quite perfect at launch. That doesn't make me less disappointed, but at least I understand why its happening and have some hope that it'll all come together eventually.