Kindle Fire- What’cha Got?

Well, I’ve had hmmm, 11 days to get to know my Fire. So, what can it do? I won’t ask “what can’t it do?” because there’s plenty it cannot do. I’m a realist, sorry. It is not an iPad, people.

It works great for checking my email and checking on Facebook. It also works well when someone links to a website (in email or on FB) that I want to read.

Here are a few photos {I changed the screen to bright for better photos this time }:

 

  

First two are the screen when it is first turned on {the bottom ‘shelf’ are my Favorites- and you can see the stylus I purchased for my Fire}; next two are the upper part of the screen at the ‘home’ screen [indicators show ‘settings’ button, wifi connection and battery life] {it shows you how far you’ve advanced in each book at the top right corner of the book [percentage]}; last is my ‘carousel’ [what I have recently looked at or has been recently downloaded onto the Kindle].

The carousel can be cleared by placing your finger (or stylus) on the book or ‘item’ until a little box pops up with choices (sometimes you will be given other options)

Here is what it looks like when I am browsing online. Facebook, of course

The visibility/quality is good for reading online [but it is small print unless you double click to zoom or ‘pinch’ and stretch- check out the video below]. I can read it but sometimes I zoom in.

It works fine when I want to fill out a survey {I got 10% off from Old Navy} or to fill out a form online {required for the TOS Homeschool Crew often} . It works great to get things from Amazon (of course ). Here is a short and very quiet (purposely) video of me going online and browsing Kindle Free Books.

I have always had trouble selecting “Kindle” on Amazon.com- sometimes it takes me way too many tries. You’ll see me click on “Top 100 Free” more than once also... issues.

My Fire won’t read to me So sad… As much as I dislike the robotic voice on my 2nd Generation, I really liked the option at least. Perhaps I had gotten used to her {I prefer ‘her’ to ‘him’}. From what I understand one would need to purchase an mp3/audio in order to get it to read to you. In that case, I’m content reading on my own

It will download amazingly fast the apps I ‘purchase’ from the App Store at Amazon {I don’t pay for much}. The books available from Amazon are sent directly to my Kindle Fire {just like with my other Kindle}. Also with my Kindle Fire, I noticed I get Prime membership for a month. Nice! Saved me quite a bit on shipping already but not just that, Prime-members also get free video streaming {the selection is somewhat limited} for the length of the membership. Oh, and then there is that Prime-members-Kindle-Fire-owners-thing with the Lending Library… I haven’t checked that out yet.

For now that’s enough I will be doing more posts {hopefully} after I learn more about it. I really really am looking forward to when Fire owners can download directly from places such as Gutenberg and ManyBooks. That will be awesome.

*all links that go to Amazon.com are affiliate links

Kindle Fire- Obviously I’m Spoiled

You may have heard that I received a Kindle Fire as a gift from my most wonderful husband for our 15th anniversary. Even if you didn’t- you did now.

I’ve loved my 2nd Generation Kindle. I still love it. It is wonderful for carrying hundreds of books wherever I go. And I can read on it for hours without eye strain. (Check out my review of Yesterday’s Classics ebook collection- you can see other photos of my beloved Kindle ) Love, love, love it!

The Kindle Fire looks so small but it is heavier than my Kindle. Attempting to show the difference in screens (e-ink vs back-lit), I forgot that I set my Fire to the lowest brightness. I’m so used to the Kindle not being ‘bright’ {and not straining my eyes} that I didn’t take into account that it would affect my photos. The screen is brighter on the Fire and not as bright on the Kindle, as they look in the photos, if that makes any sense at all.

 

I also set the reading screen on sepia to lessen the strain on my eyes so it looks a little odd in the photos. After reading for awhile, I forget that the page isn’t white!

Yes, I am spoiled and will not complain again. The end.

I am still trying to figure it all out. It appears, at first that I cannot download books directly from websites such as Gutenberg and Manybooks (my two favorites) but still can download to my computer and then upload via USB cable. I did put all of the books from my Kindle onto my Fire but have encountered some hiccups. I am not sure if this is usual or operator error {gauging from the discussions on Amazon.com about the Fire, it’s not my doing…hope it is fixed soon…}. Some of the books say that they cannot be put/read on my Fire and need to be removed. I click remove and then it gives the option to download. Almost all of my books are ones that have been free so they download free- again- but I worry/wonder if sometime I will come across one that will try to charge me. I won’t be happy if that happens.

But until it does- I am happy with my Fire.

And I can get totally consumed by play Angry Birds. My kids want to play with my Fire (the games) but I haven’t let them yet… give me some more time to enjoy having only my fingerprint smudges on the screen (click on that photo and you’ll see the little prints I’ve left lol).

I’ve used my Kindle since having the Fire and try to use it as a touch screen! Haha!

I’m hoping to have a few posts on what nifty things to do with the Fire…but that’ll come after the new year.