From the beginning, Amazon's Kindle Fire was positioned as the budget tablet. Compared to the competition, rarely do the specs measure up. The one consistently redeeming virtue is the price. At $229 it retains some appeal despite its many drawbacks.
Now T'is the season for flashy flourishes and the Kindle Fire hasn't disappointed on that account. With a slightly redesigned operating system, based on Android, and a free Mayday feature - single button press access to a service rep - they're certainly going for the flash factor. The 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX hit the market on October 18 followed by the larger 8.9-inch screen version on November 7.
However, anyone hopeful of major upgrades of functions and capacity will find little to cheer about here. Not only is there little in the way of quality upgrades, but some are going to wind up feeling a bit cheated. While the system is based on Google's Android, it's kind of the poor man's Android, lacking Google's popular apps and services.
In contrast, the purchase of the new Kindle Fire leaves one immediately faced with having to download desired apps from Amazon. (This annoyance has included, by the way, activating the Flash Player , which does come with, but not activated, to the chagrin of some.) As if the quality of the user experience wasn't hampered enough, the quantity adds additional limitations: something in the vicinity of 85,000 apps are available for the Kindle tablet compared to nearly a million for Android. And it's not just the sheer numbers, as many extremely popular ones are missing: e.g., Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube.
Sorry to seem to be piling on, but another unhappy aspect of the Kindle Fire HDX follows in the wake of this paltry assortment of apps. As with the earlier versions, you are constantly being up-sold. Holding the mouse over any product or service brings your friendly Amazon salesman leaping into action, drawing your attention to some similar Amazon good you might like to buy.
Admittedly this might be a matter of taste. Some people might quite like this relentless sales pitch. Especially given how skimpy the come-with goods are. For me, it's just too annoying. The catch here of course is that the marketing model is much like commercial television; this onslaught of sales pitches is the price you pay for the low sticker cost.
There is some good news for those determined to buy this product. They've succeeded at decreasing the general bugginess of early versions. That's not to say that there are not still too many glitches, but it is noticeably improved on that front. I like as well the "carousel" style display, which allows you to view apps, movies, books or anything else which the Kindle user has recently accessed. A navigation bar at the bottom of the screen allows you to browse conveniently through the content on the Kindle Fire.
Then there's that Mayday feature mentioned earlier. At the press of a button you get access to a live service rep, which appears in a corner of your screen. This rep can answer all your questions and actually take control of the tablet if that's a faster way to resolve difficulties than simply explaining how-to to the owner. This is a fairly cool thing and it is impressive that they've committed so heavily to customer service.
The thing is, though (and call me Joe-cynical if you like), but isn't the point of these tablets the creation of a distinctively user-friendly work environment? It's almost as though the Mayday name was less about the Fire owner calling out to Amazon than Amazon calling out Mayday to the market. It's like, okay, we admit, we couldn't do any better, but, hey, here's this cool workaround our inability to come up with a tablet most people could figure out on their own.
So, look, we have to conclude the same thing we have concluded on past versions. If you're sole interest is an unfailing loyalty to Amazon and its products, Kindle Fire may well be just what you need -- and there's certainly major improvements this time around. On the other hand, if your primary motivation is to save money on a tablet, you can do better .
Now T'is the season for flashy flourishes and the Kindle Fire hasn't disappointed on that account. With a slightly redesigned operating system, based on Android, and a free Mayday feature - single button press access to a service rep - they're certainly going for the flash factor. The 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX hit the market on October 18 followed by the larger 8.9-inch screen version on November 7.
However, anyone hopeful of major upgrades of functions and capacity will find little to cheer about here. Not only is there little in the way of quality upgrades, but some are going to wind up feeling a bit cheated. While the system is based on Google's Android, it's kind of the poor man's Android, lacking Google's popular apps and services.
In contrast, the purchase of the new Kindle Fire leaves one immediately faced with having to download desired apps from Amazon. (This annoyance has included, by the way, activating the Flash Player , which does come with, but not activated, to the chagrin of some.) As if the quality of the user experience wasn't hampered enough, the quantity adds additional limitations: something in the vicinity of 85,000 apps are available for the Kindle tablet compared to nearly a million for Android. And it's not just the sheer numbers, as many extremely popular ones are missing: e.g., Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube.
Sorry to seem to be piling on, but another unhappy aspect of the Kindle Fire HDX follows in the wake of this paltry assortment of apps. As with the earlier versions, you are constantly being up-sold. Holding the mouse over any product or service brings your friendly Amazon salesman leaping into action, drawing your attention to some similar Amazon good you might like to buy.
Admittedly this might be a matter of taste. Some people might quite like this relentless sales pitch. Especially given how skimpy the come-with goods are. For me, it's just too annoying. The catch here of course is that the marketing model is much like commercial television; this onslaught of sales pitches is the price you pay for the low sticker cost.
There is some good news for those determined to buy this product. They've succeeded at decreasing the general bugginess of early versions. That's not to say that there are not still too many glitches, but it is noticeably improved on that front. I like as well the "carousel" style display, which allows you to view apps, movies, books or anything else which the Kindle user has recently accessed. A navigation bar at the bottom of the screen allows you to browse conveniently through the content on the Kindle Fire.
Then there's that Mayday feature mentioned earlier. At the press of a button you get access to a live service rep, which appears in a corner of your screen. This rep can answer all your questions and actually take control of the tablet if that's a faster way to resolve difficulties than simply explaining how-to to the owner. This is a fairly cool thing and it is impressive that they've committed so heavily to customer service.
The thing is, though (and call me Joe-cynical if you like), but isn't the point of these tablets the creation of a distinctively user-friendly work environment? It's almost as though the Mayday name was less about the Fire owner calling out to Amazon than Amazon calling out Mayday to the market. It's like, okay, we admit, we couldn't do any better, but, hey, here's this cool workaround our inability to come up with a tablet most people could figure out on their own.
So, look, we have to conclude the same thing we have concluded on past versions. If you're sole interest is an unfailing loyalty to Amazon and its products, Kindle Fire may well be just what you need -- and there's certainly major improvements this time around. On the other hand, if your primary motivation is to save money on a tablet, you can do better .
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