Kindle Fire

So for several months I have been not buying a TV since Child and X-Box became truly one in all ways. Also because--well, it feels weird to wander around nodding at all the features of large TVs when really, what I want here is a forty-one inch equivalent to a monitor that hangs on the wall. I mean, when one is being told about resolution so fine you can see the pores of their skin, breaking in with "But how do you think it will display these fonts?" is probably odd.

But of course, all the plans of mice and men: Kindle Fire, which after all the soul searching and wandering around staring at 37 to 60 inch HDs, I settled for a glorious seven inches of Kindleness touchpadness. Hell yes I preordered.

Oh my God. Okay, it is too pretty to be real. I mean, seriously.

I Am Frowning

No 3G? *blank* Just Wi-fi. I am suddenly less happy. I kind of have gotten used to living in a world where I say "I would like to read about puppieS" and lo, Kindle gives it to me right away.

I Am Frowning Less

I might actually start to take advantage of that cloud thing. And all those free movies.

In case anyone is interested in the Kindle, they've had huge drop in price and a surprising variety. Anyone whose ever wanted to try one out might think about looking these over.

Kindle - (Wi-FI, 2GB storage, 1 month battery life, no keyboard, no touchscreen, 6 inch display) - 79.00
Kindle Touch - (Wi-Fi, 4GB storage, 2 months battery life, touchscreen, 6 inch display) - 99.00
Kindle Touch 3G - (Free 3G/WiFi, 4GB storage, 2 months battery life, touchscreen, 6 inch display) - 149.00
Kindle Keyboard - (WiFi, 4GB storage, 2 months battery life, keyboard, 6 inch display) - 99.00
Kindle Keyboard 3G - (Free 3G/WiFi, 4GB storage, 2 months battery life, keyboard) - 139.00 <--this is what I have now!
Kindle DX - (3G, 4GB storage, 3 weeks battery life, keyboard, 9.7 inch display) - 379.00
Kindle Fire - (WiFi, 8GB storage, 8 hours, touchscreen, 7 inch display, color) - 199.00

I'm not sure about Kindle the first up there without touchscreen or keyboard, butif you usually synch with your computer to get books, the only thing I can't work out is how to do collections since Kindle and Kindle App don't synch to each other from Kindle to PC. And honest to God, the 3G is worth having if you can get it.

Update

...my Kindle Fire is already showing up in my devices in amazon. That's just cruel. Is it November yet?

Comments

[scy]

My dad's first remark: 'there is no rear facing camera'.

.....

[seperis]

*dies*

I love my kindle and I am sooo not giving it up, but adding this would be nice as well, especially for some kinds of reading positions that even my lighted cover does not find fun.

...but just WiFi is a problem. I'm used to Insta!Access, and the cloud thing won't do me much good if I can only use it at home surrounded by all my other equipment.

[scy]

Yeah, his priorities are HILARIOUSLY narrow minded at times.

Right, I think that not including 3G is a bad choice. Many people want to be able to loll around other places BESIDES home with their ereaders.

[dragovianknight]

Wait wait wait noooo, I thought the Fire was supposed to have 3G?

[bone]

There's talk that in 2012, they may offer a 10" version, a 3G version, or both. I think they are waiting to see if this version sells well (which I think it will).

I preordered one too! 3G would be nice, but since I'm already paying for a Verizon MiFi, I won't have to add another monthly charge -- it seems unlikely that the 3G for the Fire would be free like it is for the regular Kindle. I have limited bandwidth on the MiFi so I will be very curious to see how much it eats up web-surfing!

[seperis]

I think they are waiting to see if this version sells well (which I think it will).

I'm actually shocked the price is that low. If it works as well as I hope it does, a ten inch version would be fantastic.

I can see why they'd not give the 3G; with this and prime membership, that's twenty-four seven streaming movies just from amazon, much less anywhere else. But I'm not so sure of cloud value when I can only use it at home, where all my data is stored anyway.

[drunkoffthestars]

Would I be horrifyingly missing the point of this post if I wanted to ask you what TV/monitors you've been looking at? The next time I have money (after replacing my 5yr old laptop) I want to get a TV, but the people who sell TVs are not really selling to me, who wants to know how easily and how many ways can I connect it to my old laptop.

[seperis]

Vizio, Samsung, and Motorola are three companies I really like, but check newegg reviews; they'll tell specifically if there's usb access or if the TV's networkable or internet ready.

I'll try to track down the specific ones I looked at, but Samsung models were the ones I was definitely lingering around. Especially the youtube and internet enabled types.

[seperis]

Coming back to this, because I forgot--if you have a Fry's nearby, I heavily suggest visiting. They sell to computer geeks; I built my server with assistance from them on getting what I needed and not either overkilling or getting things that weren't necessary. Their prices are also excellent. They cater to geeks and if you explain what you're looking for, I think they'll be able to help you narrow it down.

To put it another way; I don't buy anything for my computers or my server or my network from anywhere else because they're so good at helping me work out what it is I'm looking for and directing me to the correct product. They're true geeks; tell them you want this for use with your laptop, and they'll know precisely what you're searching for (I'd also suggest bringing it, but if you write down what inputs you have, they'll beeline for the right one. And the guys that helped me with the server were surprisingly unconscious they were supposed to be condescending to women; even when (and I remember this vividly) I had some dumb ideas, they were awesome about finding out first why I wanted X and explaining that while that wouldn't work, I could do it with Y.

I forgot to mention that; it hit me suddenly this is a job for a well informed geek. *g* Good luck!

[drunkoffthestars]

That is actually super-good to know because it made me actually look it up. For some reason I thought they were a northern/Canadian chain? But yeah, I'm in Austin too, so I can totes go barrage them with questions. \o/ Which I think would be good because I start to glaze over very quickly when it comes to reading TV specs online.

But I will note down those makers and do some homework! And then make them tell me WHY my tv needs to talk to the internet, because that still makes no sense to me without a computer behind it to play all the video files I would get from the internet. /behind the times

[darkrose]

Preordered for both of us. 3G would be nice, but only if it didn't come with a data plan requirement, which is probably unlikely. Mostly what I want it for is watching stuff and reading in bed without having the heavy laptop to deal with.

[seperis]

*nods* The weird thing is, I thought I read a lot before I got my first Kindle, but apparently I was not; now I'm going through books like crazy. And the convenience is weirdly started to widen my taste; when I used to go bookshopping, I was much more focused because I had limited time to browse (usually) and kind of rutted myself. Now at 1.99 sales or 3.99, it's not necessarily less expensive in bulk from when i go to a used bookstore, but when basically a Kindle is like living in a bookstore twenty-four seven, I'm branching out since I don't have to think about time constraints on buying books; if I really hate it, I can immediately get something else I might like.

I didn't expect that the access would be such a huge factor; it's like, weirdly enough, when I was a kid I volunteered at my mom's work during teh summers in the morning and then would spend the entire afternoon at the library and have five or six hours five days a week to look at everything and check out whatever I liked. That's a huge game changer for me and my son both; he loves to read as much as I do, but since the Kindle he's really expanded his reading (and his school was fantastic in introducing and encouraging novels so early to the kids and teaching them how to read them, which not a lot of schools get that young kids need when they jump from short stories and pre-novellas).

...and I am rambling. *g* This is just so cool, and I'm ridiculously excited that Amazon's offering something that fits perfectly into what I need and what I actually do and at a price that makes it possible to buy it.

[laniew1.livejournal.com]

I pre-ordered the 3G Kindle Touch, I had thought about ordering the Kindle Fire but I have a tablet through Verizon and they've got me tied to it for the next 21 months. Maybe by then Amazon will have a 3G version?

And my Kindle Touch is showing up at the top of my Kindle devices. I went to buy something last night and wasn't paying attention, connected my Wi-Fi Kindle Keyboard and sat there going synch, synch, why won't you synch?!? I figured it out, but that's going to be a bit annoying until the new one comes.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Mine's showing second. *frowns* Can it be moved?

[laniew1.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I've been kind of futzing with it but I've not seen anywhere in Manage Kindle where you can set one as a default above any of the others. I'm sure it's there somewhere, I've just not focused on it yet.

[firesprite1105.livejournal.com]

Not to harsh your excitement, but you might want to read KateKat's post about why Amazon is kind of horrible: http://katekat1010.livejournal.com/343979.html

I"m rethinking buying a Fire myself. : /

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*g* I'm not harshed at all. Thanks for the link, though!

[alwaysaddled.livejournal.com]

I pre-ordered one, too. \o/ It'll be a toy at home so I didn't care about 3G. I still can't get over the price.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*NODS* It's ridiculously good! And I realized now I can pull manga and a lot of different magazines as well. I mean, my current Kindle is so not going anywhere near retirement, but this is a fantastic supplement to it!

(I actually went for one day shipping for the Fire. I had to!)

[fyrdrakken]

I checked that out yesterday after I saw amireal's post about it. I had a bit of fun comparing the various options, actually, since while I've been wanting a Kindle since last spring the urge to get one now now now has faded, so I've gotten a bit of emotional distance from the urge to acquire! and am now just kind of debating how much I'd actually use the keyboard on a Kindle or whether I'd like a tablet-equivalent enough to be worth springing for the Fire.

Of course, this is basically a birthday-money splurge at this point in the calendar year, and that's another month in the future, so I have plenty of time to contemplate important issues like, how much (permanent-archive, rather than read-and-delete) fic could I really fit into 2GB of storage, or which of these setups is the bare minimum for conveniently downloading MOBI files from AO3? (Collections I know nothing about as of yet, so at least I'd be starting from scratch there. Probably while building up the travel library of the fic I'd want on hand for rereading at any time.)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

You can try my current Kindle when you come down for the beach (I have a keyboard on it) and see how it feels. I don't like onscreen keyboards at all, but in the case of the Kindle Touch at least, you don't use it for more than searching the Kindle store, naming collections, or making notes. With the Fire, I don't think the physical one lacking will be much either, since I can't see doing anything that text intensive (unlike my phone, where I used the physical keyboard far more due to texting a lot).

I'm not sure about not having anything like the Kindle (the 79 dollar one) that doesn't have either touchscreen or physical.

If you decide on keyboard, though I recommend getting the 3G model. It's ridiculously convenient for travel or even at work to grab some books when they go on sale. It's also the only wireless thing I own that always, always has a signal.

[fyrdrakken]

Well, mid-November is a bit too late for me, since my birthday is a week before Halloween. I'm kind of leaning towards the models that maximize the amount of real estate the screen takes up, so nice to hear the keyboard doesn't get much use. (I admit the $79 model might have been more tempting earlier in the year, when I really wanted one immediately and part of why I was holding off a few months was expecting the price to drop again. Of course, the other part was not quite having $100+ spare to drop on anything that frivolous after a cluster of vet bills ate my savings, and deliberately waiting till I had the prospect of birthday money to play with.)

3G, yes. I get signal issues in a lot of places I spend a fair bit of time in (like work, like especially the break room at work when I'm trying to read while I eat my lunch), I wouldn't want WiFi to be my only option.

I haven't been tempted to get an iPad for a lot of reasons -- price, complete unfamiliarity with the way Apple does things (I don't even have an iPod, and when I borrowed a family member's iPad at my grandfather's house for quick internet access I couldn't get the bloody windows to open and close properly), the feeling that everything it offered I was already doing on my netbook. The Kindle Fire looks like it'd do anything I'd try to do with a tablet, and small enough to live in my backpack and take anywhere. I'm kind of wondering about that streaming video, actually, because I don't do anything like that, but Netflix is apparently about to lose me (because I own no devices at all that I find suitable for watching streaming anything on -- I use the netbook occasionally under protest, but it's inconvenient and the audio is crap and mostly the netbook just stays at home and gets pulled out and turned on Sunday nights and that's it and so I don't steam) -- anyway, I'm wondering about cancelling my Netflix membership entirely and going for Amazon Prime instead, if they have any kind of a decent selection. (Main selling point for Netflix -- the selection that was available.)

And consolidating replies: Calibre I do have on my netbook, it's what I use to convert LJ post fics to MOBI (or to process a whole batch of downloaded fic files, from whatever sources) to transfer them to my Blackberry via USB. I've gotten so attached to fic on AO3 because I can directly visit AO3 via my mobile browser and download the fic directly to my Blackberry without having to be at home on my netbook and using a USB cable. (And also because I can get the whole thing without it being broken into chapters, and because LJ fic invariably comes with at least the first page's worth of comments, which just add file space and leave me unable to tell how close I'm getting to the end of the story as I'm reading.)

There have been a number of things I haven't wanted to get on Kindle because I'm reading on my Blackberry screen, yes, and no real room for images, just text. (That's actually an argument against getting a proper Kindle, that I can be reading fanfic in public or at work in the break room or whatever and have minimal concerns about anyone being able to come up and read over my shoulder. Which I have Issues about. Another argument being that the illuminated screen is pretty damned handy considering how often I find myself reading in the dark and having to make sure I've got a separate light source for my Kindle sounds like a pain.)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Calibre. It looks complicated, but if you just go with the defaults, you'll be fine. It also can be a server with mobile access, which I've been playing with recently.

For the record, even getting the Fire, I'm not going to give up using my Kindle 3G with keyboard anytime soon. It's pretty much a take-everywhere with the 3G and size and being on an LCD screen too much is part of the reason I went for e-ink in the first place. And even using the case (it has an attached light that runs off Kindle, and that thing comparatively speaking is a battery hog), I don't need to recharge more than once a week. But with the Fire, there will be digital manga in my future, which I am so looking forward to.

[fyrdrakken]

Oh, and regarding the case with the attached light: Sounds convenient, but I've been dying to get one of these, and they don't appear to have a light. Inconvenient, but gorgeous.

[burnishedvictory]

Wow, that site is gorgeous. Do you have any other sites like that that you'd recommend? (Jewelry, leather-work or anything else that's that gorgeous.)

[fyrdrakken]

Well, that site itself offers jewelry and other leather goods in addition to the Kindle cases. But other sites? Hmm. I was actually just browsing through my Delicious "shopping" tag earlier today...

GaelSong has similar jewelry and leatherwork both, among other things worth browsing through. I don't have too many leatherwork sites bookmarked, but a lot of jewelry:

I was just reminded of a Celtic hounds pendant I'd bookmarked that might be on a site worth exploring.

Crafty Celts has a small but interesting selection -- I discovered them by way of a booth at Dragon*Con one year, and bought a hare talisman I like wearing.

Victorian Trading Co. has some interesting jewelry if you like ornate and frou-frou. Also worth browsing through their fashion and accessories -- and Halloween costumes, too!

Ran across Sheila Fleet a few years back while visiting Orkney and I still haven't gotten around to buying any of the gorgeous enameled stuff -- a bit out of my usual price range, but one of these years I'm going to take my Xmas or birthday money and get something beautiful.

SilverShake I discovered by way of eBay (which BTW is where most of my jewelry purchases over the past year have taken place -- amazing what you can find and for how cheaply).

[burnishedvictory]

Oh so belatedly (thank you computer crash), these look great. Thank you!

[ladyclio16.livejournal.com]

I pre-ordered a Kindle Fire today. I've been looking at various tablets in stores and mainly I'll admit it was the price that gave me pause on most. Amazon knew what they were doing setting up their prices so cheap for their new devices. It won me over easily with price and it sounds like it's set up just for what I want to do on it.

[hellpenguin.livejournal.com]

i've been told the Kindle Fire allows Amazon access to everything you look at/buy/download ever. AKA no privacy if you care about that sort of thing.