Sunday, August 19, 2012

Likes and Dislikes of My New Kindle Fire


As you might already know, hubby got me a Kindle Fire for our 20th wedding anniversary last month. Before then, he had gifted me with the Kindle 2 back in 2009, and sadly, the poor thing was not charging as it should anymore (although ‘B’ was quite happy to get it).

I am not the more technologically inclined person, but the Fire was easy enough to figure out. Of course it helped that I read the user’s manual and I also bought a copy of Kindle Fire How-To Guide: Your Guide to Tips, Tricks, Free Books, and Startup by Michael Gallagher. As we were traveling to Virginia for a romantic weekend, I had a chance to read these.   Here is what I like about it:

Very colorful – The Kindle Fire is technically a tablet, so the screens are very colorful and I can see all the book covers in all their glory, which I truly love.

More than an eReader – Besides being able to get books, magazines and other documents, such as PDF; now I can also get videos, movies, music, apps and browse the web.  I could do some of these things with my old Kindle, but the Fire makes it easier and more intuitive.  I can also use Twitter and check my email!

Size – Although the Fire is a bit heavier than my previous Kindle, it is also smaller and easier to carry everywhere.

Touch screen – My old Kindle had a keyboard and buttons to change pages and select items.  Now everything is touchscreen. If you have a smartphone, they you are already used to this technology.

Easier to highlight and take notes – I can take advantage of these perks (as well as view other people’s favorite quotes) that make it easier to go back when I’m reviewing a book.

And of course, there are some things that I don’t like:

Wi-Fi – is not that I don’t like the Wi-Fi, but my old Kindle had 3G technology.  That meant that I could get connected to the internet and to Amazon all the time.  Now I have to be connected to a Wi-Fi network or a hot-spot.

‘Book description’ is gone – My old Kindle had a link that would take me directly to the book description in the Amazon store.  This was very handy as I have a LOT of eBooks and I can’t remember all of them, therefore I like to read the synopsis of any book before I ‘open’ it.  Not only that, I could see customer reviews too.  Now, I have to go the ‘Web’ tab and go into Amazon or Goodreads to see the synopsis.

Screen – The screen of the Fire is shinny and reflects light, which is a nuisance.  I immediately missed my old Kindle that read as the page of a book.  The solution was to buy an anti-glare screen protector (I got this one), problem fixed!

Collections are gone – In my old Kindle I had ‘collections’, books that I grouped by categories. For example, you could keep all your review books together, or all your YA and adult books separate.   I really miss this feature.

What eReader do you use?  What do you love about it?  What don’t you like?



5 comments:

  1. I have a Kindle Keyboard, though mine's the wireless only version (I was a student when I got it, so the cheaper version appealed!). I love the anti-glare screen, and collections make it really easy for me to keep the thing organized. I have to admit, it's starting to look a little bit battered now after two years of very heavy use, but I think I'd actually replace it with the same model if anything were to happen to it, partly because we don't have the Fire in the UK yet, and partly because I actually like the buttons, and the fact the screen is e-ink rather than a proper screen... though I might end up using it as an excuse to get an iPad instead!

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  2. I have the Apple iPad 2, and had to get an anti-glare screen to read books on that too. My friend got the Kindle Fire and I'm loving how you can get videos and stuff on that- pretty neat!

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  3. Oh noes! I was thinking that if I ever replaced by K.Keyboard I'd get a K.Fire, but the collections is a must feature for me. I'm very obsessive with keeping everything organized, and I can't imagine having all my books out of those neat collections :(

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  4. kindle is a great tool, one can buy as many books as one wants, instantly. It good that people are reading more books thanks to the kindle.

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  5. I bought the 6' Kindle specifically because it wasn't a tablet. I was really drawn to the e-ink display and that it didn't have all the bells/whistles. I also own a couple tablets (a Playbook and a Samsung Galaxy tab) and find that even with anti-glare screen protectors, they're still much harder on my eyes than the e-ink of my Kindle. And my Kindle is so much smaller and lighter!

    I would like highlighting to be easier/more intuitive and the colorful covers on the Fire just make me more excited to read the book than the grayscale ones on my Kindle though. Sigh, can't have everything, can we? lol

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I love comments! Please leave me one and I will try to reply as soon as I can. Liza

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