Kindle Fire - Review For Those Who Dislike Small Screens

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by CRussel

I find the holidays are a perfect time to have a heart to heart discussion with your UPS / FedEx delivery person. I like to begin the discussion with a holiday envelope. In my experience, this enables him/her to find a creative way to leave packages, even those that require signatures. Assuming, of course, that it is safe to do so.

Alternately, if you live in an area where there really isn't any way for a delivery person to leave something, consider renting a box at a local "UPS Store" or equivalent. Then you can pick the package up at your convenience.

I live in an apartment complex and share my porch with the family next door. They pretty much took over most of it so I wouldn't feel safe him leaving things. Not to mention he have to drive all the way out here in the boonies. Not many people out here use UPS. I seldom see him here in the past 4 years ever. There are 30 units here. If I lived in town it would be different.

I look into the UPS store but I don't see hubby allowing it seeing we pay for a PO Box in town already.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by ectoplasm

UPS drivers have several criteria they have to follow before leaving a package. Some drivers follow the rules more strictly than others. You can almost guarantee the driver will leave your package (assuming it's not signature required) by providing him a location that is out of plain sight, and out of the elements.

I bought a large plastic patio box and placed it alongside my front steps. It's big enough for most deliveries, and it has a lid which protects the contents from rain. I then left a note on my door telling the driver he could put deliveries in the box.

He took to it right away, and he remembers, even years later. Fedex and USPS also learned to use it (sometimes after leaving another note). That was several years ago, and it's been working great. I am a very heavy Amazon user.

I had a quick chat with the UPS guy last year, and he commented that he wished more people would do what I did, which was a nice validation. Understand that the UPS guy wants to get rid of his packages, but he also doesn't want to get in trouble when a package is reported missing. If he leaves a package in plain sight, then he can be held accountable.

Great idea! If I move to more populated area someday I may use that. Right now I live in the boonies and share my porch with the family next door who love to occupy it with their dirty plastic chairs and leave garbabe bag on it. *grumble* I hate ants... *sigh*

Good thread. I admit that the KFire has some shortcomings, nothing that cannot be overcome or addressed via updates and/or 3rd party apps, but over all it is a really great tablet. I purchased mine specifically for reading. However since I got it I've gotten used to using it for web browsing and many other tasks for which I used my iPad. So much so that I've not touched my iPad in days. Today I made the decision to go ahead and sell my iPad as I prefer the smaller size of the KFire for the kinds of tasks I perform on a tablet. Mostly I surf the web from my recliner, check some emails, and run a few apps on occasion, and of course I read on it mostly. I can see where some would want a larger screen like the iPad if they played games or created documents, but for me the smaller, lighter, more portable KFire is a better fit. My hardcore computing has always been and always will be done on a more powerful computer with a 23" LCD monitor.

[AndyfromVA]

Originally Posted by Charis

Does anyone know if the KindleFire can be purchased from a store or is it exclusive to amazon.com?

I spent about 15 minutes with it today at Best Buy. It's a sweet machine. Quick, responsive, colorful. I didn't notice any lag.

Of course it doesn't have the iPad interface - but it's less than 1/2 the price.