Don’t get me wrong. I love the iPad, but I was the not the user it was designed for. I carry a full-fledged computer with me all the time. I never really needed it to be my main computer. I believe that the iPad was designed for a user who only needed something to get on the internet, get email, consume media, and do a little light computing. It did that admirably, but that was not what I needed it for. I wanted a better ebook reader than the epaper-based Kindles et. al. I also came to the conclusion that I really just needed that in something larger than my iPhone.
Then Amazon announced the Kindle Fire. Suddenly I had what I wanted; what I needed the iPad to be for me. So, I put my pre-order in and it arrived Wednesday, 11/16/2011.
First Impressions
Amazon packaging for the Kindle has been spotty, but this time is actually was a little fun. When I took the Fire out of the packaging, the first thing I noticed was the heft of the product. It felt solid and sturdy in my hand. It is lighter than my iPad, but the screen is smaller. The Kindle screen seemed sharp and the color was excellent. I watched a couple of episodes of the Big Bang Theory, and did not have to squint to see the screen. For some of the darker films, you may need to bring up screen brightness to see well. The Kindle was set for about 80% screen brightness.
I am an Amazon Prime Member, and I have taken advantage of the cloud storage that comes with that, as well as the free on demand for some movies and TV episodes. The Kindle Fire seems to be tied very much into that feature. The fact that a free month of Amazon Prime membership come with the Fire seems to substantiate that observation. Right now the only content that is on my Fire are the active books and magazines.
The magazines are now in full color and very much the same as the Zinio Publications that I am used to with the iPad.
So, the Kindle Fire has fired by iPad.
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