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Fire reviews from the tech community - MERGED thread

11K views 71 replies 36 participants last post by  Ann in Arlington 
#1 ·
#4 ·
Thanks for the links!  So far it looks like we have two "great" reviews and two "just ok" reviews.  Guess ill just have to wait for mine to get here and make up my own mind.  ;D

PS, was very happy to see engadget say that they think the Fire's screen is the same as the playbooks, I love the playbooks screen.  Probably the best tablet screen on the market right now.
 
#8 ·
Lee said:
Love this line from the above article:

At this rate, by next year, Amazon will pay you to buy a Kindle.
I'd never heard this about any of B&N's nooks. Does the article author know this for certain? I'd tend to doubt it.

Barnes & Noble, on the other hand, offers the convenience of human tech support in its 700 stores.
 
#9 ·
Jon Olson said:
Yeah, David Pogue really panned it. It gives me pause.
Yeah, especially the magazine feature, which was one of the things I was really looking forward to... both for reading and the possibility of self-publishing.

I'll have to do some research on how the Nook does it... they've been at it for awhile.

I'm not too worried about the speed of the Silk Browser... a few people using it at any given time isn't going to give Silk much an opportunity to do what it's supposed to do best.
 
#10 ·
tnt said:
Yeah, especially the magazine feature, which was one of the things I was really looking forward to... both for reading and the possibility of self-publishing.
FWIW, the reviews are written based on them having the devices in hand ahead of time. But the Fire Newsstand isn't completely up and running yet. . .so it may be the 'magazines' they were evaluating were not yet Fire optimized. . . . .
 
#12 ·
As the only review that really matters is mine*, I'm not going to read any of them until I've got it in my hands and have had a chance to play with it.  Then maybe I'll read and see who (whom?) I agree with. ;D



*at least, it's the only one that matters to me.  I am under no illusion that my review matters to any of you. ::)
 
#13 ·
Yeah, nothing in the reviews really concern me... I'm pretty sure we were all aware of the Fire's limitations, but those were on purpose and why it's $199. IMO, in the ~$200 tablet space you really only have two good options... The Fire and the soon to be released Nook Tablet. The Nook Tablet might have the Fire on specs (but not by much), but If you are already living in the Amazon ecosystem (like many of us), then the Fire is a better buy IMO.
 
#14 ·
tnt said:
Yeah, especially the magazine feature, which was one of the things I was really looking forward to... both for reading and the possibility of self-publishing.

I'll have to do some research on how the Nook does it... they've been at it for awhile.
Magazines are never going to be good on tablets until they start reformatting magazines for the smaller screen. Even on the iPad's 9.7" screen most magazines stink in apps like Zino as the screen is just too small to display the full print page in an easily readable format without a lot of zooming in and panning around. So it would definitely be even worse on a 7" screen. Same with comics.

There are a few magazines that have their own apps like EGMi (video games) and those are great as they're formatted for the screen size, have videos embedded, make good use of the touch screen etc. That's what needs to happen with all magazines--make tablet optimized versions rather than just porting over the exact print version with pages larger than tablet screens.
 
#15 ·
There are currently some 'premiere' magazines offered as apps for Fire customers:

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sa_menu_knwstnd33_US?_encoding=UTF8&node=2735187011&tag=kbpst-20

Only 17 so far. . .they work as apps which says to me that they may be formatted specifically for the Fire. But they've only just come available today. . . . .

And there are another 20 that are featured Fire apps. . .you can't order these for any but the Fire. Again, they were not available until this morning. . .in fact weren't there when I looked a half hour ago! :D

AND. . . .there is also a section that says 'browse kindle fire magazines by category'. . . . many of these are also "Fire Only" though not all.
 
#16 ·
Good news if true.  Hopefully apple will start getting more Magazines formatted for the iPad, was hoping to see that with the launch of Newstand.

Tablets can be great for magazines if the magazine companies take the time to make versions optimized for tablets rather than just trying to cash in easily by selling a digital replica of the print versions.
 
#20 ·
Pogue's review didn't quite strike me as a pan.  He had a few serious reservations, but didn't not recommend it.  Also, his discussion of Silk seemed odd.  He said the pages took long to load.  But my assumption of how Silk works is that it gets faster the more you use it because it begins to build a cache of pages and starts making assumptions about where you go.  Pogue didn't quite make it clear how long he used it; if he just opened a page once, decided it was too slow, and tried something else.  If that's what he did then he sort of misunderstands the technology.

Also, I don't happen to like Pogue all that much personally.  What really put the nail in the coffin for me was his glowing review of FCPX.  As a professional editor I saw his ignorance of the technology he was discussing.  He did try to backtrack a few days later, but it was too late.  His initial review revealed the extent of his knowledge.  And if he didn't get it then, how do I know he's getting it now?

As other said, the only review that matters is mine!  And I got 30 days to make up my mind.
 
#22 ·
Dangerosa said:
I would take anything David Pogue says with a large grain of salt. JMO.

Here's a review from Wired:

http://www.wired.com/reviews/2011/11/kindle-fire/all/1
Now that's a pan! :D The only thing he liked was video playback.

It's interesting to compare some of these. The msnbc reviewer really liked it. The wired pretty much hates it. But the wired reviewer is comparing it almost feature for feature to the iPad. In fact at the end he urges people to just save more money and buy the iPad. Very different approaches and POVs.
 
#23 ·
DYB said:
It's interesting to compare some of these. The msnbc reviewer really liked it. The wired pretty much hates it. But the wired reviewer is comparing it almost feature for feature to the iPad. In fact at the end he urges people to just save more money and buy the iPad. Very different approaches and POVs.
Yeah, it's a really silly comparison. It should be compared to the Nook Color and other cheaper tablets.

It doesn't have the power, storage space, screen size etc. to be a true iPad competitor. These smaller, cheaper tablets are for people with more basic needs who don't need the power, bigger screen etc. of the iPad or Xoom and so on and can thus save $300+ by getting a smaller, less power tablet to just do basic surfing and media consumption.
 
#25 ·
mooshie78 said:
Yeah, it's a really silly comparison. It should be compared to the Nook Color and other cheaper tablets.

It doesn't have the power, storage space, screen size etc. to be a true iPad competitor. These smaller, cheaper tablets are for people with more basic needs who don't need the power, bigger screen etc. of the iPad or Xoom and so on and can thus save $300+ by getting a smaller, less power tablet to just do basic surfing and media consumption.
Yes, I agree. Speaking for myself, I don't want the bigger screen; I want portability. I take a crowded NYC subway every day and the large iPads are very inconvenient to hold with one hand (because you're holding to the railing with the other). That's a big reason I am interested in the Fire over the iPad. And yes, it's $300 cheaper than the cheapest iPad. You really can't start comparing the functionality and expecting them to be the same at a fraction of the cost. Things just don't work that way. I agree that the Nook is the correct comparison.

One other thing in that wired review is that he says the Fire is something you shouldn't read books on, that the e-ink Kindles are superior for that. I happen to agree. But - the author uses that as a negative for the Fire. I don't normally read wired and don't know that author - I wonder if he had the same complaint about the iPad.
 
#26 ·
mooshie78 said:
Yeah, it's a really silly comparison. It should be compared to the Nook Color and other cheaper tablets.
I wonder sometimes if tech reviewers were originally hired to write automobile reviews. After they turned in copy like, "The Ford underperformed the Mercedes in almost every way," the editor said, "Sorry, we can't really use in the auto section. But you'll make a great tech reviewer."
 
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