Kindle Fire 7" HD Review

[TimW]

Originally Posted by DustyDisks

I was just noseing around the amazon kindle board and in at least one question answered by one of the "experts" about Sept 14 dates, and I swear that they said some have already shipped today, and some delivery's will be on the 14th. Found it near the end of the new posts.

Who are these experts, are they amazon employes? I sure do not want to start anything. Found it by using the show newest posts first and reading them backwards in order

Edit: My bad, they are talking about an August 14th date??

They probably mean September 14th. For instance, the FastCharger isn't supposed to be available until 9/14; Mine shipped from Chattanooga today.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by TimW

They probably mean September 14th. For instance, the FastCharger isn't supposed to be available until 9/14; Mine shipped from Chattanooga today.

So did they shut down the KY warehouse I wonder?

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by TimW

They probably mean September 14th. For instance, the FastCharger isn't supposed to be available until 9/14; Mine shipped from Chattanooga today.

I went back and re-read that thread, and the fire hd are shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/r...x33J3R56MS64YW

Right near the end of the thread, but top of the thread if reading newest first. Page 2.

Bruce Boyle says:

"Are the Kindle Fire Hds going to be delivered on August 14?"

Not to worry, they will get them to you on the promised date. I've seen them ship same-day and still deliver on time - yes, with two-day Prime shipping selected. They schedule shipments to make sure they can deliver all they promised for that day, so some will ship today, some tomorrow, some (with in-town delivery) Friday.


What confuses me, is the august 14th part, unless the questioner had the date off.

This was posted today.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by Blossom

So did they shut down the KY warehouse I wonder?

I don't understand their logic about their shipments originate. Someone in TN may get a shipment from KY.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by TimW

I don't understand their logic about their shipments originate. Someone in TN may get a shipment from KY.

I use to but lately all from TN. I'm not complaining. It's overnight for me.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I use to but lately all from TN. I'm not complaining. It's overnight for me.

Are you having sales tax collected yet? I guess that's the drawback to having 'Zon build warehouses instate. I don't really care...but our tax rate isn't as high as TN.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by TimW

Are you having sales tax collected yet? I guess that's the drawback to having 'Zon build warehouses instate. I don't really care...but our tax rate isn't as high as TN.

Not yet. We have the use tax we're suppose to pay each year.
Ours is 9.86% We have a state and county tax it sucks.

Kobo charges tax on everything I buy now.

[TimW]

Dang, that's a bunch. I'm thankful we don't have a county tax. 6% is plenty. I guess you don't buy from Kobo much. Why does Kobo collect TN sales tax anyway?

[wizwor]

Originally Posted by afv011

There is an extensive review at The Wall Street Journal. They are not terribly impressed.

I'm not terribly impressed by the review. For starters, "the best tablet at any price" is their 4g, 8.9 inch, 64g model. Was anyone else confused by Bezos' claim?

He pans the Fire for lacking "polish, fluid, and versatility" compared to the iPad, but only quantifies that 30,000 apps is a fraction of 500,000 apps. My subjective tastes find the Fire to be sufficiently polished, fluid, and versatile.

Originally Posted by Mossberg

The Fire HD also assaults users with ads occupying the entire screen every time they start or resume using it. You have to pay Amazon another $15, using an obscure setting on a Web page, to escape these ads. And there are pitches to buy more content on many other screens, even those displaying your already-purchased content.

Hyperbole much? I don't have a FireHD, but my Kindle/SO doesn't 'assault' me. Occasionally, I take advantage of an SO. Still, it's not like the $15 discount is what makes the Fire less expensive than the iPad, right?

Originally Posted by Mossberg

The main user interface has changed. Instead of a series of faux shelves displaying recently used apps and content, there is now a carousel, a scrolling horizontal array of these items. Across the top is a horizontal menu of categories, like Games, Apps, Books, Music, Videos and so forth.

I guess we know that Walt has never used a Fire. I'm looking at my F1 and a screenshot of the F2HD and I think the user interface has not changed much. Walt's description of the 'array of items' is just wrong. F1 had a carousel. The 'faux shelves' were favorites not recently run items -- which seem to remain absent the shelves. And the horizontal menu looks exactly the same.

Originally Posted by Mossberg

The Fire is really a hardware entry point to Amazon's massive, unmatched selection of books and other content. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos introduced the Fire HD saying it shouldn't be thought of as a gadget. "The Kindle Fire is a service," he said.

This paragraph suggests that Bezos admitted that the Fire is nothing more than an entry point to Amazon's store and a tool for 'tapping Amazon's large collection of content' -- which is absurd. If Walt watched the launch, he completely misunderstood or misrepresented what Bezos was saying. 30,000 apps for accessing Amazon.com? Netflix, Crackle, and Playon say hello, Walt. Aldiko and the Kobo reader are waving you you. The Fire is a tablet. Get over it.

He actually says some nice things about the Fire if you read to the end...

- I found the screen to be crisp, clear and vivid
- I found its speakers far better than those on the iPad and Nexus
- [Amazon] content...is much better integrated into the Fire
- [The Fire is] much lighter than the larger iPad

and lauds the Amazon Lendning Library, Immersion, and X-Ray.

If you follow this guy back to AllThingsD.com, you will see that he writes about a lot of things -- but not Amazon or its products. For the most part, his discussion of 'things d' is in the context of Apple. It may be that no contributor to the WSJ has ever used a Fire. That's OK. Leave the reviews to those who have.

[wizwor]

A better review of the FHD suggests that the 'faux bookshelf' of favorites has been replaced with context sensitive recommendations and that the favorites are conjured on any screen with a tap of the lower right corner. I'm OK with that.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

All these reviews go on about how much better the iPad is which isn't fair! There is NO balance and it's just blatant Apple fanboyism. I love Apple, I have gone through many iPods, iPhones, and own several Macs, but I love the original Kindle Fire and am buying the new one because I don't like the iPad at this point still.

So as someone who's still a Mac user, but still likes these KFs, I'd wish the reviews were more about the device itself and not comparisons.

Given that the iPad is THE dominant tablet in the market, comparisons are inevitable. When most people think of a tablet, they think of an iPad, so naturally what many people will want to know is how any other given tablet compares to the iPad. There's nothing "unfair" about that.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by TimW

Dang, that's a bunch. I'm thankful we don't have a county tax. 6% is plenty. I guess you don't buy from Kobo much. Why does Kobo collect TN sales tax anyway?

Only if it's the cheapest price out of all the estores. They have pretty good coupons so I do shop there if I can get a good deal.

I have no idea why they charge tax on non agency books.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Given that the iPad is THE dominant tablet in the market, comparisons are inevitable. When most people think of a tablet, they think of an iPad, so naturally what many people will want to know is how any other given tablet compares to the iPad. There's nothing "unfair" about that.

Inevitably the statement of why an iPad is "better," which is certainly subjective, ends with the thought that the App Store has 500,000 apps. For my part, that's not compelling. I have more apps than I need now. My POV may be unusual, of course.

[TimW]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Only if it's the cheapest price out of all the estores. They have pretty good coupons so I do shop there if I can get a good deal.

I have no idea why they charge tax on non agency books.

They shouldn't charge you for non-agency books. Strange.

Btw, my Fire charger ended up in Nashville. Go figure.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by TimW

Inevitably the statement of why an iPad is "better," which is certainly subjective, ends with the thought that the App Store has 500,000 apps. For my part, that's not compelling. I have more apps than I need now. My POV may be unusual, of course.

I have 6 non-standard apps installed on my iPad:

Kindle
Goodreader (PDF reader)
Bluefire (ePub reader)
Frotz (interactive fiction player)
Online banking app from my bank
Chambers Dictionary

Like you, I see no need for half a zillion apps . I like my iPad, but not because of the apps.