I was super excited for the Kindle Fire. I love my Kindle, probably too much, and I also love our Ipad, though not as much. The combination of the two seemed like a great idea. Here's what changed my mind:
Technical:
No way to link a keyboard. I like to be able to treat our ipad like a laptop sometimes by connecting the wireless keyboard and doing some good typing. It doesn't seem like there will be any way to do this on the Kindle Fire.
No microphone, so I couldn't use it to record things instead of typing them. It also doesn't replace a digital recorder for classes like I hoped it would.
Hand in hand with that: No camera, so no way to skype while I am in DC (more on that in another post).
I know that these features are all taken out to get the price to $199. But I realized that without these features, I wouldn't use my Kindle Fire for hardly anything. The screen is a little too small to make it a good replacement for home mobile browsing and no 3g doesn't make it a great mobile solution either. My regular kindle has a very slow but functional wifi web browser that I can use in emergencies. I wouldn't read books on it, because the e-ink kindle is so much nicer than a screen to read on when I am on the go. I have an ipod for music and audiobooks. So really, the only thing I would use the fire for would be occasional web browsing and watching movies and tv shows that I go to the trouble of transferring or streaming, and again, I would rather do that on the bigger Ipad screen. Watching movies on the go isn't something I really want to do anyway, it seems too plugged in if you know what I mean.
Philosophical:
This post from mnmlist pretty much sums it up. I don't need it, so why buy it. The Kindle has simplified and enhanced my life in a meaningful way, I just don't see the Fire doing the same. Sometime, I need to write a post about our meager attempts at Minimalism and how much more I'd like to do of less.
And finally, Financial:
We are poor college students. We don't have $199 to toss around. We did buy a nice mac and an Ipad, but that was after a lot of thought and looking at other options. This just didn't make the cut as useful enough for the cost.
Technical:
No way to link a keyboard. I like to be able to treat our ipad like a laptop sometimes by connecting the wireless keyboard and doing some good typing. It doesn't seem like there will be any way to do this on the Kindle Fire.
No microphone, so I couldn't use it to record things instead of typing them. It also doesn't replace a digital recorder for classes like I hoped it would.
Hand in hand with that: No camera, so no way to skype while I am in DC (more on that in another post).
I know that these features are all taken out to get the price to $199. But I realized that without these features, I wouldn't use my Kindle Fire for hardly anything. The screen is a little too small to make it a good replacement for home mobile browsing and no 3g doesn't make it a great mobile solution either. My regular kindle has a very slow but functional wifi web browser that I can use in emergencies. I wouldn't read books on it, because the e-ink kindle is so much nicer than a screen to read on when I am on the go. I have an ipod for music and audiobooks. So really, the only thing I would use the fire for would be occasional web browsing and watching movies and tv shows that I go to the trouble of transferring or streaming, and again, I would rather do that on the bigger Ipad screen. Watching movies on the go isn't something I really want to do anyway, it seems too plugged in if you know what I mean.
Philosophical:
This post from mnmlist pretty much sums it up. I don't need it, so why buy it. The Kindle has simplified and enhanced my life in a meaningful way, I just don't see the Fire doing the same. Sometime, I need to write a post about our meager attempts at Minimalism and how much more I'd like to do of less.
And finally, Financial:
We are poor college students. We don't have $199 to toss around. We did buy a nice mac and an Ipad, but that was after a lot of thought and looking at other options. This just didn't make the cut as useful enough for the cost.
I was thinking about getting one, so good to know!
ReplyDeleteWell, I should cancel it too, thanks for this blog.........!
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