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Kindle Fire, pt. 2
Dec. 4th, 2011 09:04 am Reader, I married it.
I tend to have one of two reactions to new technology: abject love (original Macintosh, Pilot, my first Samsung) and loathing that may or may not eventually modulate. My husband often talks me through the latter, and so it was with the Kindle Fire.
As all the reviewers say, you have to set expectations: The KF is a media consumption device that is incidentally useful for Web consumption. It's not a full-function tablet. This is not a mini iPad. It doesn't want to be. It's a way for Amazon to lock you into their onlline products.
Taken that way, it's pretty darn good. It's a better reader than my last Kindle -- hurrah, lighted screens -- and it has an absolutely killer feature. You can select a word/phrase. First the Kindle looks it up in the (local) Oxford American Dictionary. Then you get an option to look the word up on Wikipedia or on the Web at large. ((cuddles Kindle hard)) For some insane reason, some books are allowed to disable this feature; I found it disabled on a Gutenberg book I got through Amazon as well as on one of my horrible-death-on-the-high-seas books. When it works, though, it is bliss. I was reading the latest Brust and I kept forgetting backreferences, and all I had to do was long-press on the name to be directed to the Lyorn fanwiki and get brought up to date. Never, never leave me. ::smooches screen::
Be aware of the hardware deficits. No camera. No Bluetooth. The USB port is not powered. That means as far as I know that it is impossible to add on external hardware of any sort.
So, Mme. Hardy? What about that usability deficit you were bitching about? It's still there. There are still too many objects in wee tiny ruby type. However, there are many (somewhat obscure) settings that can help mitigate it; in particular, setting the default browser font size to big, rearranging the book lists so that they are text grids rather than cover grids; and, surprisingly, using the Gmail web page in the mobile browser.
The Gmail page that is served to web mobile clients is infinitely, and I do mean that superlative, better than the Gmail being foisted on me by Chrome. In particular, it is aware of limited screen space, so it does things like float the tiny icons for archive and reply all the way down a message as you read it. Once I began using the Web client and ignoring the built-in Amazon platform-ignorant mail client, I was a very happy woman.
Summary: It's a good reader with a killer app, the external lookup It has sharp video. The Web browser is adequate for reading the Guardian during the day, while wandering over and checking one's mail periodically. I expect there to be more apps in a month or two; it will be interesting to see what the third parties come up with. If you have eye problems, memory problems, and want to read books online, this is a keeper.
Mine now has a purple leather cover.
I tend to have one of two reactions to new technology: abject love (original Macintosh, Pilot, my first Samsung) and loathing that may or may not eventually modulate. My husband often talks me through the latter, and so it was with the Kindle Fire.
As all the reviewers say, you have to set expectations: The KF is a media consumption device that is incidentally useful for Web consumption. It's not a full-function tablet. This is not a mini iPad. It doesn't want to be. It's a way for Amazon to lock you into their onlline products.
Taken that way, it's pretty darn good. It's a better reader than my last Kindle -- hurrah, lighted screens -- and it has an absolutely killer feature. You can select a word/phrase. First the Kindle looks it up in the (local) Oxford American Dictionary. Then you get an option to look the word up on Wikipedia or on the Web at large. ((cuddles Kindle hard)) For some insane reason, some books are allowed to disable this feature; I found it disabled on a Gutenberg book I got through Amazon as well as on one of my horrible-death-on-the-high-seas books. When it works, though, it is bliss. I was reading the latest Brust and I kept forgetting backreferences, and all I had to do was long-press on the name to be directed to the Lyorn fanwiki and get brought up to date. Never, never leave me. ::smooches screen::
Be aware of the hardware deficits. No camera. No Bluetooth. The USB port is not powered. That means as far as I know that it is impossible to add on external hardware of any sort.
So, Mme. Hardy? What about that usability deficit you were bitching about? It's still there. There are still too many objects in wee tiny ruby type. However, there are many (somewhat obscure) settings that can help mitigate it; in particular, setting the default browser font size to big, rearranging the book lists so that they are text grids rather than cover grids; and, surprisingly, using the Gmail web page in the mobile browser.
The Gmail page that is served to web mobile clients is infinitely, and I do mean that superlative, better than the Gmail being foisted on me by Chrome. In particular, it is aware of limited screen space, so it does things like float the tiny icons for archive and reply all the way down a message as you read it. Once I began using the Web client and ignoring the built-in Amazon platform-ignorant mail client, I was a very happy woman.
Summary: It's a good reader with a killer app, the external lookup It has sharp video. The Web browser is adequate for reading the Guardian during the day, while wandering over and checking one's mail periodically. I expect there to be more apps in a month or two; it will be interesting to see what the third parties come up with. If you have eye problems, memory problems, and want to read books online, this is a keeper.
Mine now has a purple leather cover.
