Kindle Fire

Will the Kindle Fire Give Apple a Run for Its Money

The Kindle Fire has got many people excited, especially for gift giving reasons.  Heck, at $199 you can buy several for the people on your list. This tablet is a sure hit for a great bargain; a premium product at a price most everyone can afford.  It won’t be released until November 15^th, but test drivers say it exceeds expectations.

Will the Kindle Fire Outselling the iPad?

Based on the pre-order numbers of between 20,000 and 50,000 tablets a day, many believe the Kindle Fire will outsell market rival iPad and iPad2 in a matter of months.  Here are some of the reasons why:

Price: Many people see the Kindle Fire as a chance to own a high quality tablet at a price they can afford.  It also means that they can get more than one for other family members for the price of one Apple iPad.

Consumers also feel good that its maker is a trusted merchant whom they regularly purchase from.  They know Amazon has a good reputation for treating its customers well, and they back their products.  The customer service is excellent.

This price has captured the attention of those wanting to buy one of these devices, but has balked at the high price.  Currently, the Kindle Fire is the most affordable tablet on the market, costing less than half of the Apple iPad2.

Performance: The new Amazon Kindle Fire is being described as “lightening quick” and “unbelievably fast.” The reason for the noticeably speedy processing is in part due to the incredibly responsive dual-core processor which operates at a speed of between 1 and 1.2 GHz.

In addition, the Amazon Silk browser leverages the power of the Amazon Cloud to improve the tablet’s overall function and speed. Unlike other tablets, the use of Silk means sites load faster, offering barely noticeable wait times.

 Platform: The Android platform. For some, slapping yet another tablet-face over an Android operating system isn’t a big plus; however Amazon’s heavily modified version has been re-envisioned to maximize performance – leaving little resemblance between the Kindle Fire and other Android based tablets on the market.

One issue that comes up over and over again for the new Amazon Kindle Fire is its lack of a 3G option; however you can overcome that issue with most smart phones by creating a wifi hotspot.

Doing so requires that you tether your phone to your Kindle Fire, so be sure that tethering is part of your phone plan. Once you’ve set up a wifi hotspot you can continue to enjoy your favorite websites and millions of content options including movies, music, books and a whole lot more.

Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own.

The Kindle Fire, eReader and iPad Comparison Chart: More than an eReader

The Kindle Fire is selling like crazy, with pre-orders exceeding 50,000 per day.  At this rate, it will certainly meet expectations of selling 2.5 million units the November 15^th release date. The word on the street is that the sale of this tablet will surpass both the Nook Color and the iPad2.  The question is:  Is the Kindle Fire more than an eReader?

How the Kindle Fire Compares to the Nook Color

One of the criticisms of the Kindle Fire is that it doesn’t offer an sd card option for expanding storage capacity making it a seemingly less desirable option to the Nook Color eReader – that is until you consider the “virtually limitless” storage available through the Amazon Cloud.

In truth, 8GB can store a significant amount of digital book, magazine and newspaper content. And that’s where the Kindle Fire, with its “limitless storage” capacity and access to video content, begins to blur the line between eReader and tablet.

How the Kindle Fire Compares to the iPad2

The processing speed of the Kindle Fire appears to rival that of the iPad2 as both use dual-core processors; however those who’ve had an opportunity to witness the Fire in action have noted its “instantaneous processing power.”

This slight-of-hand is Amazon’s innovative approach to handling time-intensive functions on its Cloud servers and then feeding it in one stream to the Kindle Fire.

In addition, Amazon “learns” from users browsing habits what they’re likely to click next, which enables the Amazon Cloud to preload the Fire with the information the user is most likely to want.

So is the Kindle Fire an eReader or a tablet? A review of the specs reveals that in terms of its size and weight, it resembles the Nook Color. When you consider the Fire’s ability to handle a variety of media at nearly “instantaneous” speeds, it more closely resembles the iPad2.

In terms of price and what you get for the money, nothing touches the Kindle Fire. In fact, some have called this latest offering by Amazon “a game changer.”

Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own.

The New Kindle Fire Heats up the Tablet Market

Surely, an Android tablet just $199 isn’t all that.  Well, thousands of people are betting that it is.  At the current rate of pre-ordering, Amazon is expecting to sell nearly 3 million by the release date of November 15, 2011.  In fact, Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO is adding millions more for the Christmas gift giving rush. Needless to say, tech gadget enthusiast are anxious to get their hands on them.

Will Kindle Fire Sell Out Before Christmas?

The Amazon Kindle Fire is still getting steady pre-orders, with many ordering more than one. Amazon is scrambling to make millions more, confident they will be sold.  Analyst are predicting it will be one of this year’s best selling electronic gadgets; and could sell out before Christmas.

Such enthusiasm has caused some to speculate that the Fire will be the biggest launch in tablet history; however that remains to be seen. In the meantime few have actually handled the Kindle Fire so there are some things we just don’t know yet, but there is also a lot that we do know and much of what we know is pretty exciting.

• Quick Responsiveness: If the Silk browser and the Cloud work together as described by Amazon, the new Kindle Fire will provide the user a responsiveness that is almost instantaneous. It won’t matter if the user is accessing movies, streaming music, or playing games; the Cloud will handle all of the time consuming data collection on its servers, which will then send it in one stream to the tablet.
• Vibrant Color: Amazon states that the Kindle Fire offers 16 million colors providing saturated, vibrant color in movies, videos, pictures, games and website content.
• Screen Size: The screen size is similar to Barnes and Nobles’ Nook Color; however the dimensions of the Kindle Fire more closely mimic the widescreen format when turned in landscape mode. This, combined with the quick responsiveness and vibrant color, should make watching movies on the Fire a more enjoyable experience than many other tablets.
• Whispersync: This fun feature is something analysts have wondered about since the launch of the Kindle 2 back in February of 2009 when PCWorld quoted a Garter Inc. analyst, Van Baker saying, “If you could extend the function of the Kindle to additional devices or, even better, if you could acquire content via another device and have it end up on the Kindle, then that’s getting more compelling as a value proposition.”

And that’s exactly what Amazon has done. According to Amazon reps, Kindle Fire users will be able to begin watching a movie on their tablet, pause it, pull it up later on their big screen TV and continue watching from where they left off. The movie could be paused again and viewing could continue on a desktop or laptop.

The millions of content options, fast processing speed, and low price are all helping to position the new Kindle Fire as a serious contender in the tablet market.

Disclosure:  We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire’s Web Browser – Read this Before You Buy

The new Kindle Fire comes loaded with Amazon Silk as its default browser.  This makes your browsing experience much faster and more powerful.  However, there 2 areas to consider.  This process is also set up to collect data on your browsing history, which has raised some concerns about privacy.   So how does this happen?

First of all, the Kindle Fire’s web browser (Amazon Silk - exclusive to the Kindle Fire) is integrated with Amazon's Cloud computing capabilities. The Silk browser is sort of a smart browser.  In short, each time you load a web page, Silk makes a decision to either run it locally or remotely; Amazon’s Cloud computing platform.

This extends the limited capabilities of typical mobile browsers, and extends the battery life.  Overall, this is good because it improves the tablet's performance.

Privacy Invasion?

For all the power and quickness of load times with this dual browser architecture, some are expressing concerns about their privacy.  Read on:

• Recorded Browsing: If you’ve never cared whether Amazon kept track of your purchasing history, then you might not have a problem with this.  In addition, this information has help many others make buying decisions based on what you’ve bought. Certainly, you’ve seen the “customers who bought this item also bought” statement.

However, with the Kindle Fire, your browsing habits are recorded.  Basically, Amazon Cloud determines where you’ll go next and preloads it. This allows your requests to be instantly returned.

•  Sharing information and Terms: Amazon is sensitive to these concerns, citing its Amazon Silk Terms & Conditions ““We generally do not keep this information for longer than 30 days.”  It further indicates that Amazon Silk is subject to the Amazon.com Privacy Notice which in part states, “We do not provide any personally identifiable customer information to third-party advertisers or third-party Web sites.”

The real issue seems to be just how much of their information is being shared, so this policy may not ease everyone’s concerns.  Definitely,  Amazon is addressing the matter.

• Can You Turn the Off the Recording and Sharing?  The answer to this question is yes.  Amazon makes it possible to opt out of the Cloud optimization functioning.  The Kindle Fire would then retrieve all data using Amazon Silk without the aid of the Amazon Cloud. The downside to this is that disabling the Amazon Cloud may result in longer website loading times and increased use of battery power.

Nevertheless, even with this sharing issue at hand, which can be disabled, many are still amazed at Kindle Fire’s capabilities. They are intrigued at the response times, battery conservation, unlimited storage, improved streaming of movies, games and other media.  These advantages cannot be overlooked.

Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review. We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own.