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."
Cyanogenmod to the rescue! (Score:3, Informative)
I have a Kindle Fire. I generally like it but the gripes above apply (no volume control, no security/locking for reading history, etc).
I can't wait to install a replacement version of android that's more like what you find on other tablets and phones: http://liliputing.com/2011/12/cyanogenmod-7-performance-on-the-amazon-kindle-fire-video.html [liliputing.com]
(I have no association with whatever site that is, I'm just exciting to be getting cyanogenmod on the fire).
Privacy (Score:5, Informative)
"There is no privacy on the device; a spouse or child who picks it up will instantly know everything you have been doing."
I don't know the situation for the complainers, but my Kindle Fire has a passcode enabled.
Settings > Security > Lock Screen Password
Oh my (Score:3, Informative)
"a spouse or child who picks it up will instantly know everything you have been doing"
So don't sit around the house looking at porn.
Re:Duh... (Score:5, Informative)
Parents Beware (Score:5, Informative)
See here: Serious Security Flaw In The Kindle Fire [seekingalpha.com]
But you can get more for the price. (Score:4, Informative)
Except by all accounts, nearly none of these problems exist for the Nook Color which is the same price. The Nook Color is slower than an iPad, but it is generally responsive and fairly well polished, especially after a year of updates. The Kindle Fire by comparison is a shoddy rushed product.
So this is like buying a Kia when you could have gotten a better Hyundai for the same price.
Just another NYT Troll Article (Score:4, Informative)
I'm an owner, and am VERY satisfied with my device.
The complaints I have are minor. It can take a little bit for it to connect to a wifi network, but that's not a huge deal. Sometimes, it's a little sensitive in registering taps, but that's once again not a big issue. The carousel is a little too speedy for my liking, but I rarely use it, and when I do, it's usually just to open the very most recent thing I've opened.
I haven't noticed any real speed issues with it; at least, nothing show-stopping. Books read fine. If you're trying to fly through a bunch of pages like you're thumbing through a book to find a certain page, sure, it can slow down there, but I almost never do that. Games & streaming content perform perfectly.
I didn't notice any real issue with the browser; I was able to load websites faster on my Kindle than a local iPad owner, over the same wifi connection.
Typing is easy for me; in landscape mode it can be slightly difficult, but not unusable. I usually use portrait mode, anyway.
The lack of physical volume controls doesn't bother me at all. It's stupid-easy to get to, and keeps me from accidentally raising/lowering volume.
I do wish I could change the lock screen photo(s) easily, but that's not exactly important.
Regarding the lock/power button, I have NEVER accidentally tripped it, and I'm using it on a daily basis in a variety of situations.
If you look at reviews on Amazon, there are a good number of 4 and 5 star reviews; more than 3 or less.
Re:You get what you pay for.... (Score:4, Informative)
stiff suspension is a prerequisite for good handling
No, it isn't. Stiff suspension will give you a harsh ride, nothing more. It may help give you good handling on a perfectly smooth road surface with banked turns - ie. a track - but it will give you atrocious handling on practical roads.
You need stiffly-damped suspension with relatively soft springs. Unfortunately lots of people now associate "sporty" with low, excessively stiff suspension (the suspension needs to be stiff because the car has so little ground clearance to begin with any heavy weight in the car will cause it to bottom out). Oh, and let's not forget a loud farty exhaust, that makes it sporty too.
I've driven a few cars with self-levelling suspension (Citroens and Mercedes, and also a Bentley with the cut-down cost-reduced version of the Citroen CX suspension - a horrible compromise but then the Bentley isn't really intended for fast twisty roads). I've also tried ones with active suspension - probably the nicest is the Hydractive system fitted to Citroen XMs and some Peugeot 605s. This actually varies the spring rate by switching in and out an additional "sphere" (gas spring) and damper block depending on how the car is being driven. A car equipped with this suspension system will easily outhandle anything with old bedsprings.
Re:What a surprise (Score:5, Informative)
Then they shouldn't market it as a general tablet. Don't blame people for measuring it against the same yardstick that they market the device to in their ads.
The link for it is right not he main Amazon page, and the ad above is pretty clearly being marketed as a tablet.
http://www.amazon.com/ [amazon.com]
Re:What a surprise (Score:5, Informative)
Good at book reading? Sorry it takes a turn for the worse for book reading. The display has a horrible glare to it, it attracts finger prints like its the next big thing, and the page turning is atrocious. You have to very carefully hold the device on the edges to avoid turning the page because the slightest on screen touch could jump you pages, or depending where you press even chapters ahead. The volume control is definitely an annoyance as you have to obstruct your view of whatever your watching or pause it. I also hate the lack of "forward" button. Its easy to press back on accident and there's no forward. When your going through book collections it will not remember your last location in the list forcing you to rebrowse from the beginning after going into a book, plus for a book reading device there's no button to go to the book list other than the home button and then the book list. There's no directory structure or categories for books its all one big jumbo collection with no organization. The apps market place is restricted to amazon app store only and many apps are blocked for fire use for no good reason(like twitter, but i don't use that one). The android market place works perfectly fine on the fire but you have to root the device to get it on there.
The screen can be very sensitive but it doesn't always work, sometimes you have to press something 2 or 3 times, but the very slightest touch elsewhere will trigger something you don't want.
Re:Privacy (Score:3, Informative)
The problem is that the device is not sharable (in the family).
Umm, which tablet currently available in the marketplace *does* sport an OS that is easily shared? I'll grant you the password protection for digital purchases, but the rest is par for the course for tablet devices.
--Jeremy
Re:What a surprise (Score:4, Informative)
Well except the software is not as good as my iPad for even that.
I would have imagined a great native app to shop on amazon, but it does not exist, so
I have to go to the web browser.
And while the web browser on an ipad is an enjoyable experience, it's not on a Fire.
It's slower, the soft keyboard is less convenient, the experience less snappy and the screen smaller.
The gold box is not well integrated.
The e-mails I receive from Amazon on my ipad/computer are useful, but not integrated. This should
have been built as the mother of CRM devices.
The other complaints from users are valid:
a) No privacy, so anyone can see what movies I watched on the main page (so you prefer not bringing it to work)
b) The cover flip UI is unusable if you have a lot of books. The iPad is more conveninient. Good luck being able to select
book number 43 - and selecting the right one is hard. Usually the page flips and it open the next one instead.
c) I inverted my fire because I don't find the location of the on/off button convenient, but the login screen does
not make use of the orientation, so need to log in upside down.
The hardware is lacking a video out for movies (cant't cost that much)
There is no external SD slot to expand internal storage
So the device can't be use to view PDF's which I do a lot on my iPad.
So yes, very much v1.0 in both hardware and software. I was hoping it would be more convenient - for example
to read in the subway - than my ipad but it's not.
Hope Amazon takes feedback and improve their feedback. Will be interesting how long they support the device.