Many Early Adopters of the Amazon Fire Are Unhappy 463
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that the Kindle Fire, Amazon's heavily promoted tablet, is less than a blazing success, with many of its early users packing the device up and firing it back to the retailer. A few of their many complaints: there is no external volume control. The off switch is easy to hit by accident. Web pages take a long time to load. There is no privacy on the device; a spouse or child who picks it up will instantly know everything you have been doing and the touch screen is frequently hesitant and sometimes downright balky. Amazon's response was: 'In less than two weeks, we're rolling out an over-the-air update to Kindle Fire.' The only problem with that is many of the complaints are hardware related and no amount of software can fix one of the early blunders: 'The fire is shipped in a box that advertised on the outside of the box exactly what it is. "Hello, you, thief, please come steal me!"' wrote one would-be customer who, as you might guess, had her Fire stolen and was left with the box. This was supposed to be an iPad killer, with its much lower price point, but Apple is tough to beat because most of its mistakes are software-based."
Remember what Seth Meyers said about the Fire... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You get what you pay for.... (Score:5, Funny)
Buttons! (Score:5, Funny)
You know you have problems when you have fewer buttons than the equivalent Apple device.
Re:Nicely played with the statistics... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Error in the summary (Score:5, Funny)
It means that the users make the mistake of using the device incorrectly.
For instance, if you recall, Apple users held their iPhones incorrectly, thereby causing antenna malfunction. Steve Jobs (RIP, Hallowed be His Name) was forced to publicly instruct iPhone users in the correct method of holding their iPhones, since their ignorance was not surmountable through regular support channels.
Another example would be with the early iPod. As you recall, users were not treating their iPods as the holy relics they rightfully should have been treated as, and instead subjected them to all kinds of profane abuse -- like putting them in their pocket with their keys. This resulted in desecration of the viewing screen on those iPods, again, totally caused by the user.
And, lest ye forget, it would be remiss of me not to mention the abhorrent failure of users to recharge their iPod batteries every two hours when using iOS4.
Seriously, though, Apple gets a pass on a lot of mistakes because they do a lot of things right. They also have major brand loyalty, which is kind of unique in the gadget world, where most people judge on features, not on styling or brand ("no wireless... less space than a Nomad... lame" is the relevant quote, I believe).
Re:Boycotting Amazon (Score:5, Funny)
That word... I do not think it means what you think it means.
Re:Remember what Seth Meyers said about the Fire.. (Score:5, Funny)
Steve Ballmer, is that you?
Re:What a surprise (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Remember what Seth Meyers said about the Fire.. (Score:2, Funny)
Ugh, now I am that parent. I ordered my daughter a Nook Simple Touch ($99 E-Ink reader) for Christmas this year because (1) she really likes to read, (2) reading is the only thing I want her to do on it, and (3) $99 is about my upper limit for a portable electronic device for a kid. But now her friend has an iPad and all the other kids are awestruck by it. I used to have my daughter pretty well brainwashed against i-devices (she would say, "don't call my mp3 player an iPod!) but peer influence is so much stronger than parental as they get older.
Is she hot?