Slashdot Mirror
Many Early Adopters of the Amazon Fire Are Unhappy
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that the Kindle Fire, Amazon's heavily promoted tablet, is less than a blazing success, with many of its early users packing the device up and firing it back to the retailer. A few of their many complaints: there is no external volume control. The off switch is easy to hit by accident. Web pages take a long time to load. There is no privacy on the device; a spouse or child who picks it up will instantly know everything you have been doing and the touch screen is frequently hesitant and sometimes downright balky. Amazon's response was: 'In less than two weeks, we're rolling out an over-the-air update to Kindle Fire.' The only problem with that is many of the complaints are hardware related and no amount of software can fix one of the early blunders: 'The fire is shipped in a box that advertised on the outside of the box exactly what it is. "Hello, you, thief, please come steal me!"' wrote one would-be customer who, as you might guess, had her Fire stolen and was left with the box. This was supposed to be an iPad killer, with its much lower price point, but Apple is tough to beat because most of its mistakes are software-based."
Another "iPad killer" in the dustbin. You are not going to compete with Apple with some cobbled together piece of junk. The iPad is positioned to be as dominant as the iPod in the mp3 player market.
Might as well buy a Kia and complain that it's not as polished of a driving experience as a BMW.
I have a Kindle Fire. I generally like it but the gripes above apply (no volume control, no security/locking for reading history, etc).
I can't wait to install a replacement version of android that's more like what you find on other tablets and phones: http://liliputing.com/2011/12/cyanogenmod-7-performance-on-the-amazon-kindle-fire-video.html
(I have no association with whatever site that is, I'm just exciting to be getting cyanogenmod on the fire).
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
"Itâ(TM)s expected to sell well among parents who always buy the wrong thing." according to Seth Meyers from SNL
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
I picked up my kindle fire about three weeks ago. I will not even try to hide the fact that it has flaws. However, the feature list for the price is exactly what I wanted.
It's no iPad killer, but anyone who thinks they're going to get a 200 dollar product to replace a 500 dollar+ one is delusional.
it has been on every frigin tech news site. Sicker yet of all the frigin people complaining about a $200 dollar device because they think it should be as polished and as feature rich as a $500+ device. The Fire is awesome at what it was designed for, consuming media at a budget. I think it was all the hype about the "iPad killer" and everyone was expecting so much more.
"There is no privacy on the device; a spouse or child who picks it up will instantly know everything you have been doing."
I don't know the situation for the complainers, but my Kindle Fire has a passcode enabled.
Settings > Security > Lock Screen Password
Actually many hardware problems can be fixed with software.
You can not change physical switch position, but with software you can change how long you need to keep switch in specific position until it will do something. So you can fix most of the problems with software when problems are that device is turned off or put on sleep mode by accident touch.
Of course software can not add a external volume buttons, but with software you can bind some existing buttons to work as such (if there is such buttons). Or you can add a easy to access virtual button to offer those functions. It is more a hack but can work for many.
The sensitivity of touch screen can be fixed with software, as software rules again how the input data is being used. Better to have very sensitivite input touch screen and then slow down outpus what with software.
What comes to privacy, well, that can be fixed with software as well, place PIN code or something similar. Add lock to every application and make a easy way to delete history of web browsing or book history etc.
The best selling tablet doesn't have an SD card, so no, that's not one of the problems.
"a spouse or child who picks it up will instantly know everything you have been doing"
So don't sit around the house looking at porn.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Amazon has had hardware products since 2007. They have been in the tablet buisness longer than Apple has.
The Fire arrives configured for Amazon One Click purchases, and the option to disable this does not work. Anyone who picks up your Fire will be able to order anything they like without any password, PIN, or other attempt to verify the purchase being made.
See here: Serious Security Flaw In The Kindle Fire
Was this article funded by Apple? It's very biased, as demonstrated by the fact that they cite the 22% of people who don't like the Fire rather than the 88% who clearly do. Even if _every_ one of those 22% gave it one star and _every_ one of the other 88% gave it only 4 stars, it's still a 3.75 rating. My wife got one a while back and she loves it. Sure, it's not an iPad, but it's also only $199, and it fits in a good-size pocket. It's a great little tablet for the price of two nice dinners. I sill prefer the real e-ink, but for getting all the additional tablet features, I'd say it's a pretty good compromise. Sure, it could use some improvements, but its the first generation, and it does what its advertised to do. Anyone used to Android should have no problem with it.
I've been boycotting Amazon ever since they started bullying states into dropping sales taxes.
I think they're just trying to keep from having to report taxes in thousands of local tax districts - many of which span zip codes, making it difficult and expensive to comply. Amazon does support a national proposal to simplify and streamline state sales tax collection.
I bought my girlfriend a Kindle and a couple gift cards, but aside from maybe a few more books for her Kindle, Amazon won't be getting any more of my money.
That's not much of a boycott - by buying a Kindle you've locked her into purchasing further e-books from Amazon (unless she buys all unprotected content that can be viewed on the Kindle). You should have gone for a Nook.
It means he wants a +3 Insightful next to his post.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
You know you have problems when you have fewer buttons than the equivalent Apple device.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
Except by all accounts, nearly none of these problems exist for the Nook Color which is the same price. The Nook Color is slower than an iPad, but it is generally responsive and fairly well polished, especially after a year of updates. The Kindle Fire by comparison is a shoddy rushed product.
So this is like buying a Kia when you could have gotten a better Hyundai for the same price.
I'm an owner, and am VERY satisfied with my device.
The complaints I have are minor. It can take a little bit for it to connect to a wifi network, but that's not a huge deal. Sometimes, it's a little sensitive in registering taps, but that's once again not a big issue. The carousel is a little too speedy for my liking, but I rarely use it, and when I do, it's usually just to open the very most recent thing I've opened.
I haven't noticed any real speed issues with it; at least, nothing show-stopping. Books read fine. If you're trying to fly through a bunch of pages like you're thumbing through a book to find a certain page, sure, it can slow down there, but I almost never do that. Games & streaming content perform perfectly.
I didn't notice any real issue with the browser; I was able to load websites faster on my Kindle than a local iPad owner, over the same wifi connection.
Typing is easy for me; in landscape mode it can be slightly difficult, but not unusable. I usually use portrait mode, anyway.
The lack of physical volume controls doesn't bother me at all. It's stupid-easy to get to, and keeps me from accidentally raising/lowering volume.
I do wish I could change the lock screen photo(s) easily, but that's not exactly important.
Regarding the lock/power button, I have NEVER accidentally tripped it, and I'm using it on a daily basis in a variety of situations.
If you look at reviews on Amazon, there are a good number of 4 and 5 star reviews; more than 3 or less.
"Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
It means that the users make the mistake of using the device incorrectly.
For instance, if you recall, Apple users held their iPhones incorrectly, thereby causing antenna malfunction. Steve Jobs (RIP, Hallowed be His Name) was forced to publicly instruct iPhone users in the correct method of holding their iPhones, since their ignorance was not surmountable through regular support channels.
Another example would be with the early iPod. As you recall, users were not treating their iPods as the holy relics they rightfully should have been treated as, and instead subjected them to all kinds of profane abuse -- like putting them in their pocket with their keys. This resulted in desecration of the viewing screen on those iPods, again, totally caused by the user.
And, lest ye forget, it would be remiss of me not to mention the abhorrent failure of users to recharge their iPod batteries every two hours when using iOS4.
Seriously, though, Apple gets a pass on a lot of mistakes because they do a lot of things right. They also have major brand loyalty, which is kind of unique in the gadget world, where most people judge on features, not on styling or brand ("no wireless... less space than a Nomad... lame" is the relevant quote, I believe).
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
That word... I do not think it means what you think it means.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
And I would cladly take 4:3 ration over any 16:9/16:10 ration screens. As I LOVE to use device in vertical direction instead just in horizontal and I want to see more from webpages without scrolling.
The 4:3 is great for pads.... give me a iPad with 12-15" screen and I would be very happy with it as drawing board.
You can orient the 16:9/10 screens vertically or horizontally just fine. In fact, I use my tablet vertically 90+% of the time and would lose out on that benefit with an iPad. 4:3 just doesn't make sense to me when most devices (and a lot of content) in the world has switched over to something closer to 16:9.
But, opinion is just that. Enjoy your 4:3.
All these negative reviews focus too much on the lack of polish of the UI is compared to the actual usefulness of the device. It's UI lags behind iOS, but it is about the same as a mid range Android device, which are widely successful.
I own the Kindle Fire, and its flaws are really just minor annoyances with device, but the overall experience is good enough. I can surf the Internet, watch videos and play graphic intense games no problem and the small form factor makes it comfortable to hold in one hand. Just because you occasionally have to double tap on a button or experience a 1/2 second lag every once in a while, doesn't mean that the $200 tablet is a failure.
This device was never intended to be an iPad killer. Amazon itself said as much. The linked article makes it sound like it was set to be an iPad killer by "important people," but the link just links back to another pcmag.com article. What a joke.
The fire is not intended, has not been intended to be an iPad killer. It's a cheap tablet device that does what many people need it to do without all the extras that the iPad has that some people will never use. It's one of the primary reasons I returned my iPad and got a Color Nook and rooted it - the Nook did everything I wanted a tablet to do at a fraction of the price. If I were to do the same thing today, I would buy a fire instead of a Nook.
The article looks at a few individual reviews on amazon's website, to support its claim that consumers are unhappy with the device, however overall if you look at the average of these ratings they are on par with the iPad. And the statement that "some of the early adopters are unhappy" is relatively useless as it could be applied to the iPad or any other device and still be true. Where is the substance to this argument?
Ugh, now I am that parent. I ordered my daughter a Nook Simple Touch ($99 E-Ink reader) for Christmas this year because (1) she really likes to read, (2) reading is the only thing I want her to do on it, and (3) $99 is about my upper limit for a portable electronic device for a kid. But now her friend has an iPad and all the other kids are awestruck by it. I used to have my daughter pretty well brainwashed against i-devices (she would say, "don't call my mp3 player an iPod!) but peer influence is so much stronger than parental as they get older.
Thieves take any and every box. Doesn't matter what's on the outside or what time of year. Sometimes they get gourmet cheeses, sometimes electronics, sometimes prescription drugs... there's almost never anything bad in a box. Instruct your local UPS/Fedex/USPS shop to have a blanket-hold on your items. It beats never getting them.
The amount of bitterness emanating from your post is enough to power a whole room full of returned Kindle Fires.
Steve Ballmer, is that you?
The Kindle Fire (like the Nook Color and Nook Tablet from B&N) are marketed as tablets (the Nook Color was originally marketed as "the reader's tablet"), and marketing for both the Amazon and B&N devices often includes the e-Ink devices from the same vendors as preferred devices as readers while the LCD devices are pushed as tablets.
While the iPad may not be the most relevant comparison for any of these devices (their closest competitors are each other rather than anything from Apple), it is the marketing from the vendors that has invited them being compared for features as tablets rather than as "book readers".
I have as many Apple devices as the company (literally 5 or more computers, three ipods in the house, and an ipad). I like their products a lot and I love the ipad for web browsing and such. I use it daily.
I bought a Kindle Fire last Friday and I think it's great. Is it an iPad? Well, no. But it's a nice device that doesn't have to be compared to the iPad. It stands on its own and is a fine device. It actually fits in some of my pants pockets, so I like the size even if the screen's a little smaller. It plays Angry Birds and a lot of other games, it has nice built-in software (I like Silk), and I have no problem changing the volume on-screen. The batter also lasts a long time.
I feel like this comparison is similar to the comparisons made between the iPad and some low-end netbooks or notebooks when the iPad first came out. The iPad was a different device but quite useful, and now the Kindle Fire is also a slightly different device but also quite useful. It might not be what every wants, but I think it's a fine device.
Do you have ESP?
I am extremely happy with my Kindle Fire, far more than I would be with an iPad if someone had given me one for free. The form factor is right for the airplane and for reading in bed, much more useful for what I want it for than a 10" tablet would be.
It's true that exactly like the iPad, the iPhone, every Android phone, every other Android tablet, HP's ill fated WebOS tablet, most default OSX, Linux, and Windows installation with auto-login enabled, etc. that there is no privacy protection. It's a single user device, and anyone who sees the device can pretty easily determine what its user was doing on it recently (and in general). That is indeed perhaps a weakness, and I wouldn't mind having Android devices (especially tablets, but perhaps phones also) be multiuser (likewise for the iWhatever stuff).
During my most recent plane trip with my Kindle Fire, which unlike an iPad fits in my pocket, I:
* Read a variety of documents sent to the device from web pages using the Firefox Readability plugin
* Read some PDF documents
* Read (part of) some books that I purchased from Amazon
* Watched a video that I downloaded directly onto the device from a 3rd party website (in anticipation of flight)
* Listened to some music I had put locally onto the device
* Played a few moves of Words with Friends before takeoff
* Played Plants vs. Zombies while in flight
* Checked GMail and Facebook and Google+ quickly before takeoff (using Wifi connection to hotspot)
In every respect that I can see, not least including price, but even more so including Freedom, the Kindle Fire is a far better device than the iPad is.
Buy Text Processing in Python
Does the iPad not do that? All tablets (not slate computers) I have seem do not seem to be set up with user accounts.
The iPad has a large number of apps that essentially provide accounts. Plus of course for things like games there is GameCenter, where you can log in as different people.
The iPad also has parental controls safeguarding purchases. The Fire has none; once it's wired to an Amazon account you cannot block purchases (without unlinking the account which also disables some things on the tablet).
The iPad has basically lurched halfway to being a multi-user device, while the Kindle doesn't pretend to be at all to start with.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
But don't worry, you'll figure it out sooner or later, as Android tablet manufacturers will eat Apple's lunch.
They sure will.
The only problem for them is that Apple has already moved on to dinner.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley