That’s my colleague Chris, a long time Amazon customer returning his Kindle Fire 12-hours after buying the device. he did this after going on a rant. Of course, Kevin Tofel feels otherwise. Instapaper creator Marco Arment is not a fan and his review makes it clear in a language humans can understand. And this is what the rest of the web has to say about Kindle Fire.
I think the Scotch tape being used was bought on Amazon. #amazonwinning either way! š
An Android and iPad user don’t like the Kindle Fire? I’m shocked! These guys aren’t target audience for this product. This is a consumption device for casual users. Don’t expect anything more.
I think Bob nailed it in his comment. There are some things I don’t like about the Kindle Fire, but I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as Marco suggests. A $199 tablet will never compare favorably or even comparably to a $499 to $829 iPad, but that’s not Amazon is trying to accomplish nor is what Amazon needs to do to sell a boatload of these.
I see quite a few flaws, but they’re not uncommon to a V.1 product and most, if not all, are fixable through software upgrades. I think for people that have never used an iPad nor have $500 or more to spend on one, this will meet their needs. Guess we’ll see! š
If you already have a Kindle (i have the Kindle3 aka Kindle Keyboard) and you also have a smart phone, i’m not sure where the Kindle Fire really fits in.
The only thing i can think of if for better viewing of PDF’s and magazines, but that is a small use case.
Some people will say for video but personally i love watching netflix on my smartphone, not sure a 7 inch tablet would be that much better than my 4 inch phone.
haven’t done it yet, but I’m going to…
Marco Arment has zero credibility. I hate to use the word, but he is clearly a full-on Apple fanboy.
This is neatly evidenced by this overly emotional review and the way he has felt the need to respond to folks who do have positive things to say about Android (See his response to Ars Technica regarding the Galaxy Tab 10.1) in the past.
He doesn’t just dislike Android, and by extension the Fire. He hates them like any true fanboy hates things that oppose the brand that his self-worth is based on.
I hadn’t considered returning mine, but now that I see that, I am going to. It stinks.
what a dink
I’m packaging up my second Fire in under a week and sending it back. The first one was so buggy and crash-prone that I thought I must have gotten a freakish factory accident.
The second one, while not as bad as the first, continued to randomly freeze, crash, and stutter. I couldn’t properly decide how pleasant the device made reading or finding content – nary a page or two would go by and I’d be pressing my thumb against the power button again (incidentally, you have to hold down the power button for 30 SECONDS to reboot the damn thing) to start over.
This isn’t about wishing the Fire was an iPad.
This is about wishing the Fire was a product that was ready to ship.
It isn’t. Not by a long shot.
Two strikes: the Kindle Fire is out.
Jennifer, I tend to agree that the Fire seems rushed to preempt the holiday shopping season, but my experience with the device has been good.
I have yet to accidentally hit the power button and it takes my Fire exactly 3 seconds to initiate a reboot. I have yet to see the device crash and I’ve been using it steadily for a week now.
I don’t think the Fire is nearly as bad as some are making it out to be, but Amazon could have avoided a lot of bad press by running the Fire software through a few more revisions before letting it out the door.
I am not going to return it. My view is one should not compare Kindle to iPad at all (even if Amazon wants to do it). Compared to iPad, it is slow, touch is not responsive. However, on its own its good, real good for $200.