Amazon's Kindle Fire from the start has been situated as the budget tablet. Its specs rarely are found to measure up to those of its competitors, but the price, the current edition offered at $229, is so appealing it has managed to leverage a spot in the market.
Now T'is the season for flashy flourishes and the Kindle Fire hasn't disappointed on that account. With a slightly redesigned operating system, based on Android, and a free Mayday feature - single button press access to a service rep - they're certainly going for the flash factor. The 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX hit the market on October 18 followed by the larger 8.9-inch screen version on November 7.
Hopes for dramatic improvements in the Kindle Fire's functions and capacity, though, will be sadly letdown. The improvements are minimal in the third-generation model. Actually, some might even think the situation worse than that. Though the system is based on the Google Android the new owners of the Kindle Fire find themselves lacking in all the great Google apps and services that the standard Android user enjoys.
Rather, these new Kindle Fire owners have to download any apps from Amazon. (This all reminiscence, by the way, of the whole mess around activating the Flash Player , which does not come activated, to the perturbation of many new owners.) And it's not just a convenience problem, but also a selection one: compared to nearly a million apps for the Android, Kindle Fire only has around 85,000 available. Nor is it merely numbers; many of the most popular Android apps, such as Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube, are not on offer.
Sorry to seem to be piling on, but another unhappy aspect of the Kindle Fire HDX follows in the wake of this paltry assortment of apps. As with the earlier versions, you are constantly being up-sold. Holding the mouse over any product or service brings your friendly Amazon salesman leaping into action, drawing your attention to some similar Amazon good you might like to buy.
Admittedly this might be a matter of taste. Some people might quite like this relentless sales pitch. Especially given how skimpy the come-with goods are. For me, it's just too annoying. The catch here of course is that the marketing model is much like commercial television; this onslaught of sales pitches is the price you pay for the low sticker cost.
It's not all doom and gloom, though. There are some genuine improvements. Happiest of all is a noticeable reduction in how buggy is the software. This has always been a problem with this tablet and while Amazon hasn't entirely remedied the situation, the reduction of glitches is much welcomed. Also, a thumbs-up for the "carousel" style view finder: it allows you to find apps, movies, books or any other offering with ease and a visual flair. The navigation bar at the bottom of the screen accesses the full assortment of content on the tablet.
And let us not forget what some people might find the coolest feature of all. At the press of a button this Kindle Fire version provides you the Mayday service, in which you are immediately hooked up with a live service representative. The rep appears in a corner of your tablet's screen and addresses any problems or concerns you have. And your little corner friend, who you'll know on a first name bases, can even take control of your Kindle Fire, should that prove the most efficient manner of resolving your issue. There's no question this is a cool feature and the commitment to customer service makes a statement
Yet, for all that, there's a kind of paradox, here. After all, one of the main selling features of these tablets is their intuitive qualities. They're supposed to be very high on the user friendliness scale. So all the effort and expense put into this live rep feature almost leaves me wondering if the poignant "Mayday" is meant less to evoke the user calling out to the rep than Amazon calling out Mayday to the market. They surrender: as in, okay, this is the best we can do, here's the workaround our inability to come up with a tablet that actually fulfilled the promise of intuitive function. Sorry. I know, I'm a cynical old dog.
At the end of the day, I'll say the same thing about this newest version Kindle Fire as I have about its forerunners. If you're into big time, long term loyalty to Amazon and its products -- and nothing is wrong with that -- you'll find some appreciated improvements in the newer version. If your priority, however, is a good budget tablet, you can do better .
Now T'is the season for flashy flourishes and the Kindle Fire hasn't disappointed on that account. With a slightly redesigned operating system, based on Android, and a free Mayday feature - single button press access to a service rep - they're certainly going for the flash factor. The 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX hit the market on October 18 followed by the larger 8.9-inch screen version on November 7.
Hopes for dramatic improvements in the Kindle Fire's functions and capacity, though, will be sadly letdown. The improvements are minimal in the third-generation model. Actually, some might even think the situation worse than that. Though the system is based on the Google Android the new owners of the Kindle Fire find themselves lacking in all the great Google apps and services that the standard Android user enjoys.
Rather, these new Kindle Fire owners have to download any apps from Amazon. (This all reminiscence, by the way, of the whole mess around activating the Flash Player , which does not come activated, to the perturbation of many new owners.) And it's not just a convenience problem, but also a selection one: compared to nearly a million apps for the Android, Kindle Fire only has around 85,000 available. Nor is it merely numbers; many of the most popular Android apps, such as Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube, are not on offer.
Sorry to seem to be piling on, but another unhappy aspect of the Kindle Fire HDX follows in the wake of this paltry assortment of apps. As with the earlier versions, you are constantly being up-sold. Holding the mouse over any product or service brings your friendly Amazon salesman leaping into action, drawing your attention to some similar Amazon good you might like to buy.
Admittedly this might be a matter of taste. Some people might quite like this relentless sales pitch. Especially given how skimpy the come-with goods are. For me, it's just too annoying. The catch here of course is that the marketing model is much like commercial television; this onslaught of sales pitches is the price you pay for the low sticker cost.
It's not all doom and gloom, though. There are some genuine improvements. Happiest of all is a noticeable reduction in how buggy is the software. This has always been a problem with this tablet and while Amazon hasn't entirely remedied the situation, the reduction of glitches is much welcomed. Also, a thumbs-up for the "carousel" style view finder: it allows you to find apps, movies, books or any other offering with ease and a visual flair. The navigation bar at the bottom of the screen accesses the full assortment of content on the tablet.
And let us not forget what some people might find the coolest feature of all. At the press of a button this Kindle Fire version provides you the Mayday service, in which you are immediately hooked up with a live service representative. The rep appears in a corner of your tablet's screen and addresses any problems or concerns you have. And your little corner friend, who you'll know on a first name bases, can even take control of your Kindle Fire, should that prove the most efficient manner of resolving your issue. There's no question this is a cool feature and the commitment to customer service makes a statement
Yet, for all that, there's a kind of paradox, here. After all, one of the main selling features of these tablets is their intuitive qualities. They're supposed to be very high on the user friendliness scale. So all the effort and expense put into this live rep feature almost leaves me wondering if the poignant "Mayday" is meant less to evoke the user calling out to the rep than Amazon calling out Mayday to the market. They surrender: as in, okay, this is the best we can do, here's the workaround our inability to come up with a tablet that actually fulfilled the promise of intuitive function. Sorry. I know, I'm a cynical old dog.
At the end of the day, I'll say the same thing about this newest version Kindle Fire as I have about its forerunners. If you're into big time, long term loyalty to Amazon and its products -- and nothing is wrong with that -- you'll find some appreciated improvements in the newer version. If your priority, however, is a good budget tablet, you can do better .
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To keep up on all the Kindle Fire updates, watch for Mishu Hull's valuable posts .
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