The iPad finally has competition! Or does it? Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet has been out a month or so now and the reviews are in, and man are they mixed. I pre-ordered the device and had it in my hot little hands before the delivery man was back in his truck. I’ll spare you yet another unboxing story and give you the highlights of what the device is all about.
I was very excited to get this device, despite the less than exciting announcement made by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. You can see my coverage of the announcement here http://youtu.be/t2NadEdyOo8.
The overall presentation of the device was excellent. Minimal box and packaging, neat and clean. Immediately absent was an instruction manual which to me meant it should be self-explanatory to use. Good!
Turning the unit on took longer than I would have expected as the power button was not placed in the most obvious location. After startup the device told me it had to contact Amazon for an update, which to be honest was a bit annoying; I wanted to use it already! Alas, the update happened and was done.
The Kindle Fire knew it was mine, already having my Amazon Prime account linked to it. I’ve always liked that feature with Amazon devices. I was able to immediately see my previous purchases, books, songs, just about any digital content that I had coughed up my hard earned buckies to Amazon for in the past. There they were, on a virtual spindle to peruse.
That was where the trouble began. The virtual spindle was akin to one of those cheap carnival rides that spin you around and around uncontrollably until you vomit. Whether I gave it a quick “swish and flick” or a gentle tap the content wheel whipped out of control like a crazed contestant on Wheel of Fortune. There was truly no controlling it.
Trying to listen to my Amazon acquired music was a mixed bag of tricks too. On the positive, my content was all there. On the negative, there was no readily accessible volume button to adjust the sound levels. I mean, really? No volume controls? Even Apple knows enough to put that basic of a control at easy reach.
I tried browsing the web using Amazon’s heavily touted Silk Browser, which was described as the Speedy Gonzalez of web browsers. All of the back end processing done at Amazon’s servers, and just enough of the data is pushed to the device to display the content you need. That’s the promise. The reality is a normal web browsing experience, no speed boost, leaving me with the question about how much of my personal data was being presented to Amazon while they crunch down the data on my behalf. Pinching to zoom in and out of content in the browser was noticeably slow too. Really icky poo.
Bottom line is for $199, it’s a cheap tablet. You get a cheap tablet experience. Having said that, if you are on a budget and want a tablet, go for it. If you’re a more tech savy dude or dudette, or you have a taste for the finer things in tablets, then pass it up and save up for an iPad or Galaxy Tab.
Karl Susman, Tech Boss
www.mytechboss.com
